The cost of my skirmishers and oddity

[DeckerdJames]

I was practicing a game yesterday, and I had researched to machinery very early in the game. Basically, I got a library and then walls and then I went up to machinery. I was just trying a strategy on a huge map where I would get crossbows and skirmishers together because they both come with machinery. I was playing, England, with the leader, Victoria. Age of empires.

What I wanted to do was produce skirmishers and settlers and crossbows and go ahead and try to explore and settle on all the continents around the world to get the trade routes. Early crossbows and walls are all that I would need for the defense of my cities. Meanwhile, I could send out skirmisher and a settlers pairs. While I was producing the skirmisher and settlers, I would research up to cartography. Is it a good strategy? I don’t know. I am still working on that strategy. I am looking to build a very strong, London and a few peripheral cities. The rest of my settling and expansion will be around the world as colonies.

I ran into a problem. I was producing four skirmishers. And my capital was not terribly strong yet in terms of production. So it was going to take 12 turns each. And I had just gone into the Renaissance era so that’s about 48 turns that’s the whole era. So I was thinking wow skirmishers are a little bit expensive.

So I finished what I was doing on that turn that I was thinking about that. And on the very next turn, I noticed my skirmishers were being produced much quicker. I looked at the cost both the term before and it was 150 and on the next turn when it was being produced faster, they were only 75. So between turns, the production required was reduced by 1/2. Can anybody tell me why?

I did check that there were no production saving cards inserted that might affect recon units. I didn’t have any cards at all that would reduce the cost of any kind of units. But even Agoge had it been in would not affect recon units as far as I know. As far as I know, there’s not any way to reduce the cost of recon units through the government policies.

Edit it might’ve been the medieval era. I would have to check. I’m actually not at my computer right now. But it should be fairly early in the game so I’m thinking it’s medieval. Renaissance seems a bit late for it to be an early strategy.

Edit: I added pictures and save files

Spoiler Turn 88 - Skirmisher costs 150 :

Spoiler Turn 89 - Skirmisher costs 75 :

I am attaching both saves.

 

[Catalytic]

I suspect the reason for the jump from 12 turns to 48 was that you researched Rifling. This makes the skirmisher obsolete and replaces it with the Industrial era counterpart in the scout line. It is considerably more expensive. As far as I know, there are no cards to reduce their costs either, so the scouts are quite expensive, especially if you've got low production in that city.

 

[DeckerdJames]

I suspect the reason for the jump from 12 turns to 48 was that you researched Rifling. This makes the skirmisher obsolete and replaces it with the Industrial era counterpart in the scout line. It is considerably more expensive. As far as I know, there are no cards to reduce their costs either, so the scouts are quite expensive, especially if you've got low production in that city.

I hadn’t gotten to rifling yet. Rangers were still long ways off. The skirmisher were costing 12 turns each, so for four of them, that would be 48 turns. I don’t know if that means that this strategy is too slow. 48 turns is too long. I can’t tie up my capital for an entire era building skirmishers. But it could just be the way that I executed the strategy. I did not concentrate enough on increasing London’s production capacity. It could be that it was just particular to this game that it was taking so long to produce four skirmishers. It wasn’t a bad start as there were a lot of things to harvest, but I was saving the harvest for later. I was hoping to harvest around the time I was getting my industrial zones.

As far as I knew, there was not any way to change the cost of a unit once the game had begun. Bonuses just increased the amount of production, but they don’t actually decrease the cost of the unit, right? I could easily be wrong about that. But I can’t think of any legitimate reason why the cost of the skirmishers would go from 150 to 75.

I was definitely still building skirmishers. It’s just that when I looked one turn, I had X amount of 150 done, but the very next turn it said, I had X amount out of 75 done.

 

[PiR]

Bonuses just increased the amount of production, but they don’t actually decrease the cost of the unit, right?

Correct. Select a city, hover on the hammers and you'll see the basic hammers and the multipliers. I'm not aware that hammer cost of a military could change (it does for settlers/builders)

I don't explain what you saw either. Maybe a mod is interfering?

 

[UWHabs]

World Congress half price units resolution?

 

[Goodenuf]

World Congress half price units resolution?

This is what I was thinking, but would assume that the OP would be aware of said resolution.

Another path to consider is building up your cash economy to the point of purchasing skirmishers in addition to building them. Trade the luxuries and resources, build harbors and commercial hubs to get Traders etc...