Ok guys, here is a concept:
Cannons in Citadel bombarding Enemies outside City
In TAC there is a building called "Citadel", which can be built if you have a "Fortress" in that city.
(Currently it would only give further 30% Defensive Bonus.)
If you have that building in your city, your
Cannon-Type Units will be able to bombard enemies outside a city.
1.) At the end of a turn, every city (with Citadel) will be allowed to do exactly 1 Bombardment-Attack.
2.) The Bombardment-Attack could have enemy unit on land or enemy ship as target.
3.) Exactly 1 cannon-type unit in your city will do that attack.
(The strongest one is chosen.)
The unit must be
fortified in the city for more than 1 round.
(So if you already attacked with that unit, it cannot do a bombarding-attack in the same round.)
So it will not make any difference if you have 1 or more cannon-type units in your city.
The maximum damage would be the same.
(Explanation: Only one of them really is placed in the "Citadel".)
4.) The damage will be calculated by "Bombardment"-Damage.
(Normal Cannons will also get some Bombardment-Damage.)
There is some random in there of course.
5.) Usually you will not directly destroy a stronger enemy unit but only damage it.
Which is ok, because you are bombarding a far away target.
6.) Enemies cannot fight back on such an attack.
7.) Of course, AI will also use this feature when having Citadels and Cannons in City.
(Otherwise no special strategies are taught to AI. Which is not necessary because the feature really is limited in power.)
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Thus this feature will:
A) Be limited in power.
You cannot sit in your cities with 10 cannons each and simply blow away all enemies approaching.
Since only one cannon will participate the possible damage is limited.
B) Since it is at the end of a turn, the enemy will still have the chances to do the following:
* Conquer the city before a city starts bombarding (with fast Cavalry for example).
* Ships (of King for example) could still land their troops before being sunk.
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Summary:
This feature will add a little atmosphere.
Enemies cannot simply stand around cities anymore without being attacked.
Bombardment is of no risk for the Bombarding / Defending Unit inside the city.
Mostly bombarding will weaken your enemies so that you might totally destroy them with counter attacks.
These bombarding attacks will not be strong enough to totally bring the game out of balance.
Yes, the feature will add a
small advantage for the defending side.
(Also a littel advantage for Europeans, because Natives don't have cannons.)
However, you will need a Citadel and you will also need to have cannon-type units.
(Cannon-type units will be "more expensive" in Religion and Revolution, than in TAC,
because they will be professions and will also need gun-powder to be equipped.)
Comment:
I believe that with this concept we would get 3 things:
1. A little more atmosphere.
2. Make defending a little easier but not endangering balance.
3. A concept that AI can generally handle without teaching it special new strategies.
I have explicitly not made a concept with "Firing when Enemy moves by a city" because then I would have to check every time a unit moves.
-> Much less performant than simply checking cities at end of turn.
By the way:
I could probably have this feature done in a few hours.
(Effort would be relatively low because no new complex AI-strategies to be created.)
Feedback ? 
... Work !
)
