Useless Praetorians

[Kurgan]

I always thought that in CIV IV the roman UU was too weak. As Firaxis try to add a historical flavor to these units according to their historical abilities, I thought that maybe they will fix the roman UU adding maybe the skill of building roads, or an extra movement point. The case is that now in BTS this unit is not something near to what the legions were, it is useless against almost all other units. I will not have any problem with that if thart was what happened in history, but it was the other way, no other army was a macht to the roman legions as long as they were kept "roman" and "legions", the legions that were defeated by the barbarians were as legions as I am a good singer. So I htink any of these ideas will balance BTS for praetorians:

- To give them a special ability such as extra movement, or roadbuilding

or

- Roman UU does not suffer penalty against other melee units

or

- They are given 10 points of strenght (then the cost of building them shoul be pushed up 50 % or 100%)

 

[Random Oracle]

I agree, the best unique unit is not quite overpowered enough!

 

[RedRalph]

I dont know, I think theyre strong enough as it is

 

[eric_]

Useless? You can take like 15 cities with like 10 - 12 of them!

 

[futurehermit]

Either this thread is a joke, or it is a joke.

 

[DangerousMonkey]

Praetorians are way better now in a relative sense. They still have a marginal advantage over Axemen, but they arn't vulnerable to the new Axemen killing chariots we have now. So really, their advantage over Axemen has grown big time.

 

[Tristan daCunha]

To give them a special ability such as extra movement

As if Praets aren't enough of a headache already, let's make them nightmarish by giving them a movement of two!

or
Roman UU does not suffer penalty against other melee units

Sure, lets make sure they can't be countered. Invulnerability is a good thing.

or
They are given 10 points of strenght (then the cost of building them shoul be pushed up 50 % or 100%)

Why increase the cost, wouldn't that weaken them more than they are already?

 

[r_rolo1]

Well, I never thought that I would see this ... : pretorians underpowered...
Pretorians are the more Overpowered unit in the game

 

[Bongo-Bongo]

Either this thread is a joke, or it is a joke.

I'm pretty sure this is a joke. Surely nobody in there right mind could see the most overpowered unit there is as being too weak?

 

[Agent Cooper]

Either you are not using praetorians right, or you are building them too late in your games. Those bastards can take cities without the support from catapults - that includes cities defended by longbowmen.

 

[Lord_Azazel]

IBTL
5678910 characters

 

[Drakan]

I always thought that in CIV IV the roman UU was too weak.

Errm all my deity victories in huge worlds were thanks to this UU.

In my book it was the most overpowered and unbalanced unit for that timeline (chopping forests for hammers to rush-build them etc...). Back in civIV vanilla you could literally steamroll the AI with a pret rush not sure if that has changed much with warlords or BTS though.

Kurgan, no los estás empleando correctamente. Léete esta thread a partir del post número 11 (el mío):

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158637&highlight=pretorianos

 

[Hellspark]

Try turning on "Unrestricted Leaders" and lead Rome as Boudica - way too much mayhem er- fun.

 

[BlackJAC]

The OP has to be taking the piss?

Hell, I'm still running about with level 6 Prets well into the industrial age. Apart from Civ2 when garrisoned muskets were invincible, Prets are the best units for their time (and beyond) in any Civ game.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Try turning on "Unrestricted Leaders" and lead Rome as Boudica - way too much mayhem er- fun.

. .. .. .. . that's historically ironic and game-wise overpowering!

 

[Hellspark]

. .. .. .. . that's historically ironic and game-wise overpowering!

So true, and I will be doing it again.

Kubli Khan in change of China also looks like fun.

 

[frob2900]

The idea that praetorians are useless is probably the strangest Civ IV related thing I've ever heard.

They are one of the best UU's in the game. They are as good as macemen when attacking archers in cities, and you can realistically field stacks of them at 1000 BC. How is that useless?

Improving them would be absurd.

 

[gettingfat]

I agree with the OP. Praets need at least a movement of 2. Now they can't even catch the Indian fast workers.

 

[Spearthrower]

To balance them, I'd suggest adding these small tweaks...

Ability to build roads
Ability to build improvements.
Ability to build forts.
Ability to build cities.
Ability to walk on mountains.
Ability to act as a Great Engineer and Great Military Instructor in one.
All Praetorians should start as if they are an attached Great Leader
Ability to walk on water.
Ability to click next button for you.
Ability to guarantee Iron resource near any Roman settlement
Ability to make you coffee in the morning.

With these slight adjustments, we can finally enjoy a balanced game.

 

[Huxley Hobbes]

I will not have any problem with that if thart was what happened in history, but it was the other way, no other army was a macht to the roman legions...

Uh, it IS like that in the game. Praetorians can go up against Medieval units and walk away the winners. It would not surprise me if properly-promoted Praets could in fact take on Musketmen.