Troop movement

[Lennon]

I feel that the movement of armies should be a bit more varied and flexible. I'm not so impressed with the fact that for instance infantry moves at the same speed as swordsmen or medieval infantry. These ancient units had heavy, encumbering and uncomfortable equipment that indicates their ability to march efficiently should be reduced. Modern infantry obviously carries a lot of equipment, but wears lighter and more comfortable clothing and generally wear much of their equipment on their backs. They have boots for the purpose of marching and should probably have a movement rate of two. Then there could also be the introduction of motorized infantry, with a movement rate of three and possibly even slightly higher combat values, due to being better rested.

This is also down to the fact that when attacking another civ with infantry, you will always give your enemy the initiative, even if you're the superior power going on the attack. You can't really surprise an enemy or take a strategic position before your assault. Other, faster units should of course have their movement increased too, to compensate.

This is obviously an easy thing to fix in the editor, if these are your preferences, and it will probably be in the Civ 4 editor too, but I like the idea of a greater variety of movement ability, instead of just "all foot units move 1".

 

[jst666]

Are you suggesting that some foot units would move 1½? If the movements would always be integers, then let's say infantry movement=3, and swordman=2. Cavalry then would have 6-9, which is way too much.

 

[Lennon]

This could be an example:

Med. Inf moves 1
Inf moves 2
Knights/tanks move 3
MA/Cav moves 4

Of course this may force a limitation on blitz capacity for tanks etc, but generally I feel that infantry moving just one tile per turn feels overly crippled. I always play huge worlds, btw, but that doesn't really make a difference, since moving infantry to the front is usually done with RR anyway, and your march to the gates of a city will be the same regardless of map size.

 

[ybbor]

well.. i know in terms of gameplay this doesn't happen, but in the early stages of the game turns take longer, and hence the earlier units move slower

 

[geishapunk]

Well, we should not forget that Modern Inf. mostly has wheeled Transportations or the forced march capability (They train on that).

Inf. Movement should be increased.

 

[Fromage10x]

well.. i know in terms of gameplay this doesn't happen, but in the early stages of the game turns take longer, and hence the earlier units move slower

This is the real crux of the issue to me...I mentioned this elsewhere, in fact.

Unit movement rates should be based on years, rather than on turns. A troop of warriors should be able to walk from Athens to Sparta in less than a thousand years.

 

[rcoutme]

Thus the reason to have a movement base on road movement instead grass movement. Read the sticky.

 

[Dreadnought]

Maybe you can have an action called "Forced March" where the infantry move three times instead of one per turn (maybe more but I'm just giving an example). But after you use it you can't use it for, say, five turns after.

 

[dh_epic]

The problem with this is that modern warfare is already meaningless enough. With railroads all over the place, the ability to bring death to your neighbours doorstep in one turn is already too easy!

 

[Lennon]

The problem with this is that modern warfare is already meaningless enough. With railroads all over the place, the ability to bring death to your neighbours doorstep in one turn is already too easy!

Yeah, but this way at least you would have some variety. And it is also good for pre-tank eras. I think most of us dislike endless rail movement and I agree that it must go for Civ 4. I was actually surprised to find out it wasn't fixed for Civ 3, since it causes real inbalance.

 

[Dreadnought]

Agreed!

Maybe in Civ4 you can make an APC unit or something...