Come on people, is there nothing to discuss? Anyway I guess I can post latest changes to my game in hope of sparking some dialogue.
Ancient era:
-Spear is mainline unit with 5
and 50% vs heavy cav This is because splitting cav line weakened utility of bonus and because higher base
makes it more universal. Low
high bonus units are pure defence ones and in civ 4 combat engine that's losing proposition.
-Light sword is removed as unit. In my many games I never found use for this unit, additionally new spear made it redundant.
-Chariot bonus gets increased to 50%, this of course necessitate to increase it price to 35
. I must say that I'm great fan of terrain based bonuses, they are much more useful that unit based ones thanks to potential in being used in offence.
-Archer becomes dual purpose counter unit with 3
1FS and +50% vs melee and light cavalry, 25
, spear needs city defence AI so some of them will stay in cities.
Classical era:
-Sword gets +10% city attack. Made more difference in comparison to horseman as far as assaulting cites.
-That's because I removed -25% city
penalty from horseman and raised price to 55
. Since you are attacking cities with siege weapons this penalty was pure illusion for heavy cav line anyway.
-Reducing catapult base
to 3 was good idea, unfortunately staying at 50% bonus was not. I increased this bonus to 100% and decreased collateral to 30%. Catapults are currently excellent at assaulting cites with large amount of defenders but suffers with lesser numbers. Considering they price tag they should be more effective at they role.
-War elephant becomes simply 8
unit with 60
price tag. No bonuses or penalties. This actually worked pretty well and thanks to bit lower price point you have some encouragement to use them even it late classical/early medieval era when heavy sword comes online.
-Javelinman, well ideally it should be 4
, 1FS, ignores enemy terrain defence bonuses, +50% difficult terrain attack bonus, 40
price, 50% retreat, collateral damage 3 units/max 25%. This would make it more useful outside hill attack situation.
-Horse archer 1 first strike just for fluff reasons.
-Heavy spear 8
and 50% bonus, 70
. Available at steel, I swapped places of heavy spear and sword. This is for same reason as spear, more universal usage.
Medieval:
-Lancer: as with other heavy cav line I removed city attack penalty, for the same reason. I was also toying with higher price 100
?
-Heavy sword/ Footman 9
and +10% city attack bonus, 80
. More expensive elite heavy infantry.
-Longbowman 6
, 1FS, ignores enemy defence bonus, +50% difficult terrain attack, 70
, 50% retreat chance, collateral damage 3 units/max 30%. For same reasons as skirmisher, more usage outside hills attack situation.
-Crossbowman 6
, 1FS, +50% vs melee and light horse. Same reasoning as archer, now it's cheap counter unit for 50
. That also needs changes to spear/heavy spear unit AI, some of them need to defend city from cavalry.
-Pikeman: 9
, +50% vs heavy cav and melee units, 90
. Fusion of heavy sword and heavy spear.
Renaissance:
- Arquebus 11
, 90
. Reasoning is simple, if it isn't better than lancer then why I will build it? AI is not human it cannot properly leverage counter units. Besides firearms were monumental change in warfare and it feels wrong than I cannot play as gunpowder empire.
-Pistolier 8
+50% open terrain
, 1FS, 20% retreat, 90
so cheaper than lancer .Light and heavy cav differentiation is serious problem so I tried but honestly I think there is place only for single line of mounted units.
-Cuirassier 12
, 110
. No city attack penalty. This is simply better lancer, in theory it should be countered by pike. But how to do that?
-Musketman 14
110
. To properly combat curassier it needs such
. Remember that cuirassier is 14,4
while musket is 15,4
. Considering that cavalry option is earlier in tech tree and has greater mobility I view this OK trade-off.
-Cannon: Since
of some units is increased it can return to 10
.
-New unit: some kind of light infantry successor to longbow at measurement? Skirmisher 10
, 1FS, ignores enemy terrain defence bonuses, +50% difficult terrain attack, 50% retreat chance, collateral damage 3 units/max 35%, 100
.
Industrial:
-Dragoon 14
, 130
, no city penalty for previously stated reasons.
-Hussar 10
+50% open terrain
, 1FS, 30% retreat, 110
. Ugh open terrain bonus is strange, on one hand it needs be high enough to incentivise you to build light horse. On the other hand if it's high enough then light cav will defeat heavy one witch is nonsensical from fluff point of view. I repeat my conclusion that there isn't enough place for two cavalry types.
-Rifleman 18
130
. Increase in
because of other units. Still mainstay unit of this era.
-Cavalry 16
, 150
, 1FS, 30% retreat. Last of cavalry line. I think that it should count as light cav, but at this point it's mostly fluff.
-Machine gun, 18
, mod increased to 50% because gunpowder units are bit stronger.
-Artillery 14
because everything is somewhat better.
-No grenadier: Honestly I always use siege weapons when taking cities, and from historical POV this unit doesn't make sense at this point of tech tree.
Global:
-Infantry 22
, basic unit for global era. Higher
, because well everything gone up a bit.
-Tank 28
, bit weaker due to increase of
for other units but that's OK, tanks were to strong anyway.
-Howitzer 18
, for same reason as rest.
-Mobile artillery 22
, also for same reason.
-Paratrooper/Marine/AT Infantry: Removed, ambush, amphibious and new promotion paradrop are all available at their techs without any other promotion prerequisition.
-SAM infantry bonus increased to 100%, really helicopters units are rare enough that if you build this unit you should get something for that. And it's still 18
while normal infantry gone up.
-Guided missile may stay as it is, I will note however that this is one of the most tedious unit to use. Only single shoot, you need to produce and rebase them... give me mobile artillery every time.
-Commando at globalism, skirmish unit (recon), 16
, 2
, 1FS, +50% difficult terrain attack bonus, ignores enemy terrain defence bonus, 50% retreat chance, collateral damage 3units/max 40%, 130
.
Digital:
-Mechanised infantry 32
, 2
, march, 200
, 20% interception. So no changes.
-MBT 40
, 2
, blitz, 240
. 1FS can be removed for consistency sake, after all tank doesn't get it.
-Mobile SAM, 22
, 2
, 50% interception, +100% vs helicopter units, 220
. Made cheaper and with better bonus, this is marginal unit after all so it should be better at what it is doing.
-Gunship, as it was before.
-Special forces at satellites, recon unit 22
, 2
, 180
, +50% difficult terrain attack bonus, ignores enemy terrain defence bonus, 50% retreat chance, collateral damage 3 units/max 45%
Naval units:
Transport ships - main thing here its that each next unit should have better cargo capacity and movement that previous versions. You will not risk loaded transport anyway so higher
it's bit pointless. All units obsolete previous version. No withdrawal chance, they are transport not combat ships.
1)Galley - 3
, 3
, 2 cargo, 40
.
2)Cog - 5
, 4
, 3 cargo, 60
. Loses withdrawal but gains
and cargo space. This IMHO makes it better at it intended role of transport.
3)Galleon - 8
, 6
, 4 cargo, 80
.
4)Steamship - 12
, 7
, 5 cargo, 100
. New transport unit at thermodynamics or metallurgy. Requires coal. To patch up hole between sail age galleon and transport.
5)Transport - 16
, 8
, 6 cargo, 120
.
Raider ships - At beginning hidden nationality ships, in later stages resourceless coast boats and submarines. All units have 50% retreat chance.
1)Pirate - 3
, 3
, +50% vs transport ships, start with sentry and prize crew promotions (gold for destroying enemy ships), 40
. Requires contract and shipbuilding. Hidden nationality.
2)Corsair - 5
, 4
, +50% vs transport ships, start with sentry and prize crew promotions, 60
. Compass and shipbuilding. Hidden nationality. Obsoletes Pirate.
3)Privateer - 9
, 6
, +50% vs transport ships, start with sentry and prize crew promotions, 90
. Hidden nationality. Slightly less
but better at hunting enemy galleons. Obsoletes Corsair.
4)Caravel - 6
, 6
, 60
. Upgrades to torpedo boat.
5)Torpedo boat - 14
, 5
, 1FS, +50% coast attack, 120
. Made faster because 3
was way to slow, it also should be resourceless to give civs without access to coal or oil ability to build something. Obsoletes Privateer.
6)Submarine - 18
, 8
, 50% retreat, +50% attack vs transport and capital ships, flanking against transport type, 160
. Reduced retreat chance and
somewhat because of other bonuses.
7)Missile boat - 20
, 6
, 1FS, +50% coast attack, 160
. At rocketry. Successor to torpedo boat, should also be resourceless. Obsoletes torpedo boat.
8)Attack submarine - 26
, 10
, 50% retreat, +50% attack vs transport and capital ships, flanking against transport type, 220
. Obsoletes submarine. Requires oil or uranium. This units got renamed to represent modern subs both nuclear and diesel.
Escort ships/Light ships - Initially main combat ships in later game transition to anti raider anti aircraft ships. All units have 25% retreat chance.
1)War galley - 4
, 3
, 40
.
2)Heavy galley - 6
, 4
, 60
.
3)Galleass - 8
, 4
, 80
.
First three ships are basically just stronger versions of one another, galleass lost coast bonus but gained
. No point of this bonus for unit that cannot enter ocean.
4)Frigate - 10
, 6
, +50% vs raider ships, 100
. Made weaker but with bonus against raiders, to often it was winning against SoL. This way it can be useful in it's own niche.
5)Destroyer - 16
, 8
, +50% vs raider ships, 20% interception, 160
. At ballistics. Detects invisible units, and shots down biplanes. Because currently there no way to do it until electronics. Obsoletes frigate. New graphics will be needed, something akin to WWI era destroyer.
6)Escort destroyer - 20
, 10
, +50% vs raider ships, 30% interception, 200
. Replaced and improved anti submarine/torpedo boat bonus. Obsoletes destroyer.
7)Stealth destroyer/Modern destroyer - 26
, 12
, +50% vs raider ships, 40% interception, invisible, 2FS, 230
. Gain interception to make it better escort. Obsoletes escort destroyer.
Capital ships - You main sea combatant, high
, lower
than escorts/light ships, cause collateral damage.
1)Ship of the Line - 12
, 5
, 120
. Somewhat slower to differentiate it from frigate.
2)Cruiser - 20
, 6
, 200
. Engine, collateral as ironclad. Ironclad by itself was removed to not crowd SoL.
3)Battleship - 30
, 8
, 240
. Weaker to not needlessly inflate other ships
.
4)Missile cruiser - 40
, 10
, 300
. Relatively stronger to beat battleship easier.
5)Carrier - 18
, 8
, 3 cargo(fighters), 200
.
6)Super carrier - 22
, 10
, 4 cargo(fighters), 240
. Available at aerodynamics.
