The Role of Gatling Guns

[Bulldog Bats]

The issue is not making them. The issue is that unless you totally turtle, you make the bulk of your army from archers/xbows, and suddenly, they are either totally underpowered or range-nerfed. I remember my first game when I saw that as a nasty surprise.

 

[ToothedBomb]

I understand it is for game balance, but I always found it weird that ancient era archers can shoot two tiles away with their primitive equipment, but a relatively advanced gatling gun can only reach an adjacent tile.

I just use them for defense. Not much else you can do with them unless they have some heavy upgrades.

 

[4N4C0ND4]

And why not mentionning the fact that they are so costly to upgrade from xbows!
Seems like one of the biggest upgrade cost for a meh unit don't help them either.

 

[Memoryjar]

It depends. Upgrade to Bazooka is cheap.

 

[Gustavus Rex]

The gatling gun is why i don't want to spam an upgrade more then 6-8 arshers.

The low range doesn't make sense. But worst part is the upgrade cost. It's just silly!


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[Sharples]

You're supposed to place them in your city for defense...

Unless the enemy has 4-5 artillery in a 3 tile radius. You've lost.

Artillary will just basically crush anything in its path, they're safe and sound. And in Single-Player on Emperor, you can wipe anyone off the map assuming you have around 5 artillery.

Gatling Guns, to me are not designed to be ranged units unless the enemy is one tile to the Gatling Gun, defeats the purpose of RANGED COMBAT. :/

They can be good for defense if your enemy still has Crossbow going around, but even then a stack of them two tiles from your Gatling? It is dead.

I barely build them for this purpose, instead of go to the horse-artillery route. Get a horse in the from line, and use the artillery to smack on the Gatling guns.

But imho, Artillary will always win in Single-Player, maybe MultiPlayer assuming the other guy doesn't have artillary too or is too weak with incompatible tech. Gatling's Guns just... completely useless in combat, and their purpose is for defense, but even then they are very bad.

 

[GIO888]

Yeah, play as England you'll get 6-8 longbowmen, useful in their own era, but the advantage stays when you ug to Gats and then any city is wide open as long as you've got riflemen as well.

Otherwise I tend not to get them.......

 

[Bulldog Bats]

So England gets expanded range with upgradaded Ggs but not China? That sucks

 

[Browd]

Assuming you are actually using them in combat, China's double-shot Chu-Ko-Nus should get range pretty quickly, so their upgraded GGs should have range and still retain their double-shot promotion.

 

[Bulldog Bats]

Most of the time I get a couple of promotions, but it tends to be the extra damage and range protection(s). Extended firing range is one of the last promotions offered, so I usually do not get to it. I would take extended range in a heartbeat first if offered.

 

[Sharples]

Even at two range, they still aren't sucsessful unless your opponent doesn't have Dynomite, because Artillery will out-range them.

If I need to protect Artillery, Riflemen would be an obvious choice, four extra strength, despite it not having the one range, which why would you need for close combat in this era, I do not know.

I'm struggling to find a use for them... they can probably clean up old barb camps across the map on a two hex island maybe?

Plus, their upgrade cost.... WTH?!

I would pay that much to upgrade my Gatling if it was heavily promoted from the start of the game, has range, double attack and other such promotions. I would love for the Gatling to have its strength and range strength both downgraded to around 23-25, but it retains its two ranged strength.

I mean come on, even the basic archer can shoot farther than the Gatling Gun, it is like technology is slowly dwindling.

 

[Bulldog Bats]

Obviously silly that an archer can out-range a GG, but if you did not give an archer that range, there would be no way to get a city in the early ages, especially now that they have given cities so much independent strength (unlike before, where the only defense a city had was the unit in the city).