'Specialized' Barracks

[Lennon]

I have this thought that different types of units could have differnt types of barracks (and I'm not thinking about harbors and airports), possibly called 'XX Academies'. This would mean that if you built an 'Artillery Academy' in, say New York, then New York would produce artillery much faster and become your primary artillery factory. Chicago might have a 'Cavalry Academy', which could also cost less shields to build if you had horses in its city radius. This is how it works in real life, where certain cities often produce more military units of a certain kind than others.

This would be introduced at a certain stage of course (like 'Cavalry Academy' being available when you discover Military Tradition), in the beginning your barracks would be the same for all types of units. Later on your barracks would effectively become 'Infantry Academies', since those would be the only troops still eligible to benefit from normal barracks. This is to reflect that normal infantry is often trained basically any-/everywhere. Artillery, tanks, cavalry, bombers, marines, paratroopers etc would need special locations specialized at training them to produce them faster and with veteran status (artillery obviously don't get that status, unless that was to be introduced, but that's a different issue). Then for instance MA would benefit from the same academy as tanks, since they are essentially just an improvement of the same unit.

These 'Academies' could be Small Wonders, but not necessarily. All units could obviously be built anywhere, they would only require an 'Academy' instead of barracks or airport for veteran status and they would also mean they produced that unit more efficiently. For naval units there could be something similar. This could, if anything, make for very interesting strategic targets. Knocking out your enemy's main tank factory could be a tempting move.

 

[Dreadnought]

Lennon, your idea is great, however the catagories such as "Infantry Acadamy" should be narrowed down to "Swordsmen Acadamy" "Cavalry Acadamy" (including knights, horsemen, calvary, chariots, etc) "Archer Acadamy" "Gunmen Acadamy" and so on.

 

[Mewtarthio]

That's a little too specific. You should keep everything to general "families" of units. Also, there should be an Espionage option to search for a specialized Military Academy. If successful, your spy would reveal the Academy of your choosing by telling you the city it is in (and revealing the city on the map if you have not already done so yourself).

 

[Dreadnought]

Good point. I like the Espionage thing, too. Could help alot in a hard war. Strike them hard at their main Acadamy.

 

[Sobassis]

But then what would you do if you found their main Academy and it was in say their heavily defended capital that you would have no hope of getting to without being completely anhialated??

Just wondering

 

[Yuri2356]

The same thing you do whenever you discover that your enemy is hiding something in their heavily defended capital that you would have no hope of getting to without being completely anhialated:
Carpet bomb it to the 9th Sphere of Hell!

If they choose to guard their academies well, that's just strategy. Players will devise new ways to guard theirs, and destroy their enemies'.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Well, I think it would be better to have unit production based on infrastructure than training facilities. Military training bases can be set up fairly easily, it's the people that matter, not the infrastructure so much there. If Parris Island or Fort Benning got hit by nuclear strikes, it wouldn't take too long to set up new recruit training facilities elsewhere. However, take out an enemy's automobile plant, and he can't build tanks. Knock out his Boeing plant, and he can't build planes. It might be neat to have a small wonder that increases unit hit points if you park the unit there for say 10 turns and give it the "training" order.

 

[rhialto]

I like this idea. I see separate training academies for:

Warrior Academy - melee infantry and early missile infantry
Rifleman Academy - for gun infantry
Elite Infantry Academy - For marines, paras, heavy weapons infantry
Cavalry Academy - for all horse/camel/elephant mounted units, and chariots
Armour Academy - for mech infantry, tanks
Seige Academy - for all seige engine units
Artillery Academy - for all artillery units from gunpowder bombards and up
Naval Academy - for all ships
Air academy - for all aircraft

Some of these could be renamed. I'd say the benefit should be to increase all shield production by 50% when building a favoured unit. They should be set up as small wonders.

 

[Bluetooth]

I like the idea of separate training academies but I also think it would be nice to build separate training camps outside the cities. If it had been possible to train soldiers in separate training camps you could build these close to the front line when you are at war. That could also mean less micro management.