Pre-gun unit rebalance

[Yakk]

I'm working on this. I currently have it up at a google spreadsheet:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pSpC6_e9hgWtzJFE9yXjdYw

I'm using Combat^1.5 as an approximation of unit power: a single strength 12 uit can kill more than 2 strength 6 units in Civ4.

I then divide by the unit cost to generate an efficiency of power per unit cost.

This is the core of the rebalance. Next, I work out a trump system for each era and in-era wave of units.

Swordsmen upgrade Axemen in my model.

The ancient/classical era standard RPS is:
(Horse|Chariot) > (Axe|Sword) > Spearman > ...
The middle ages standard RPS is:
(Knight) > (Mace) > (Pike) > ...

Crossbowmen are city defenders.

Longbowmen are weaker anti-melee units that are not melee themselves.

For the gunpowder age and later, most of my changes have to do with making sure that cavalry charges against machine guns or modern infantry are wasteful.

I also generated a ramping up amount of first strikes based off of range and rate of fire. While it does clutter up the stats of higher level units, two units about the same level will end up roughly canceling out.

Any errors in my table? Concerns about the balance?

I am worried that when you cross into a new era, the new unit might trump the old units too much.

 

[ripple01]

I noticed the Chariot is missing... ?

Good job, I'll check this out when I have a bit more time to spare...

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[Yakk]

Fixed the chariot.

I'm trying to prevent the "first to the middle ages wipes out everyone" problem, without making the early middle ages the "king of defense". (the longbow problem (tm)).

I had to stick in an extra unit -- the Spearthrower, at Hunting without having Copper or Iron.

I'm a bit worried about the unit costs around that era. There is no longer much of an efficiency upswing (at ^1.5 to combat) from the ancient to the middle ages.

But at least units within an era are less of a "duh, unit X wins" style.