I have two thoughts on Naval units to share.
1. I don't think having the Siege Quinquireme is that great of an idea. It offers a capability (ranged sea bombardment) that then goes away and does not reappear until the Sloop and Brigantine in the Renaissance. Does anyone really use this ship?
2. I think the Caravel should be moved to Compass. Optics has a current trick count of 6.5 (Caravel; Glassblowers Guild; Marco Polo's Embassy; Whaling Boats; +1 sight for Water units; and 3 minor tricks in the Brigantine and Sloop, which are Renaissance Era units, and the Sentry I promotion). Compass only has 3.5 tricks (Adventurer; Seaport; +1 speed for Water units; and the minor trick of +1 food from Fishing Boats). The Caravel is the first ocean-going ship, but I think it would be more appropriate to have it at the end of the Medieval rather than in the middle.
I have two thoughts on Naval units to share.
1. I don't think having the Siege Quinquireme is that great of an idea. It offers a capability (ranged sea bombardment) that then goes away and does not reappear until the Sloop and Brigantine in the Renaissance. Does anyone really use this ship?
2. I think the Caravel should be moved to Compass. Optics has a current trick count of 6.5 (Caravel; Glassblowers Guild; Marco Polo's Embassy; Whaling Boats; +1 sight for Water units; and 3 minor tricks in the Brigantine and Sloop, which are Renaissance Era units, and the Sentry I promotion). Compass only has 3.5 tricks (Adventurer; Seaport; +1 speed for Water units; and the minor trick of +1 food from Fishing Boats). The Caravel is the first ocean-going ship, but I think it would be more appropriate to have it at the end of the Medieval rather than in the middle.
There are only so many roles that naval units can fill. "Transport ship" and "warship" are about the only two roles that I can see being really important, with a small sub-role for "exploration ship". I went back looking at the ships we have, and I'm happy with the early ships and the late ships. By the end of the Industrial Era, the main ship roles of Transport, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship, Carrier, and Submarine are set. The early ships are also solid, being restricted to Galley/War Galley/Trireme in the Ancient/Classical Era, upgrading to Cog/Galleass at Rudder.
It's the early Renaissance that I think has a problem. Fluyt and Galleon are very close together -- almost but not quite breaking the "one-third" rule -- and the same goes for Caravel/Sloop/Brigantine. I am thinking that we don't really need Naval Cannon as a separate tech, and that Galleon, Frigate, and Sloop should should be pushed off to Naval Tactics. Brigantine would stop being a Caravel upgrade and start being a Galleass upgrade (no explore rival territory ability).
This would give you the Cog/Galleass pair upgrading to Fluyt/Brigantine in the early Renaissance. Brigantine would be the warship, Fluyt the transport ship, and Caravel tagging along as the exploration ship. In the mid-Renaissance, Fluyt upgrades to Galleon, Brigantine upgrades to Frigate, and Caravel upgrades to Sloop. Then in the Industrial Era, you start upgrading to Steamer, Iron Frigate, and Ironclad Battleship. Man-O-War starts a new "heavy warship" line that eventually becomes the Battleships. The cruiser line doesn't begin until the Battlecruiser in the mid-Industrial. I could actually buy Man-O-War starting the cruiser line with an "armored cruiser" unit between Man-O-War and Battlecruiser, but it isn't that necessary.
So Sloop would be able to explore rival territory, and be buildable after you have frigates? That would be a big improvement in my opinion, as you currently lose this ability when you get frigates.
Speaking of ships... I don't understand why the Cruiser hangs around so long when Fast Battleships (ugh, that name!) are available. The Cruisers are pretty much entirely useless. Missile Destroyers have the ability to see submarines, so they're OK.
Also, would it be sensible to just give Battleships more strength at the tech' which currently allows "Fast Battleships", rather than making that second unit separate? They're not substantially different in any other way are they? And at that stage I have never found the upgrade costs a problem; perhaps I don't build as many naval units as others...
Cheers, A.
Does Grenadier need a defense bonus vs. Early Tank? I noticed this and it seems strange. There's a full era of distance between Grenadiers (Flintlock + Absolutism) and Early Tanks (Automobile). By the time you get to Early Tanks, Gatling Guns are available and Machine Guns/Modern Grenadiers aren't that far away. I can see giving Modern Grenadiers a bonus vs. Early Tank to have a unit that can counter said Early Tanks until Bazooka appears at Mechanized Warfare, but I don't think it's very likely that Grenadiers would be on the same battlefield as an Early Tank.
I used to see it fairly often to be honest, which I thought was pretty annoying to the extent I almost never used Early Tanks. The AI would field Grenadiers in large numbers and would often render said tanks nearly useless.
Not sure if things have changed now, but I've been behind in the tech race for a long, long time in this game so I figure it'd be the other way around for once: I'm the one using grenadiers against early tanks
I'm going to say though that no, I don't think they need that bonus.
May I suggest increasing the unit cost by 100% and doubling the maintenance? Currently it is very easy to spam units no stop and it destroys strategic decisions when I can build 5 archers on one turn on one city on epic. If price is increased, preparation will become more important. Also it would reduce the current problem with ridiculous SoD, for both player and ai