What do you think about changing basic class of Skirmisher Units from “Archery” to “Recon”?

[Yngwie]

Want to discuss it here, since as proposal it would be vetoed with a huge possibility.
Why move Skirmishers to Recon line could be good for the game:

We have certain nishes for our Unit lines:
2 strong and fat melee options: melee/gunpowder Units without resource requirements (except swordsman and longswordsman) and mounted/armored Units with resource requirements.
2 really ranged options: archery-on-foot Units which are resource-free and siege Units which cost resources starting from Cannon.
2 fast&furious harass/hit’n’run options: Recon Units (resource-free) and Skirmisher Units (consume resources).

More than that:
Current Skirmishers belong to Archery class, though they are not really “ranged” in terms of distance and need to come close to attack.
They also don't have access to "Range" promotion that support the idea about non-ranged identity.
Historically light cavalry were used for reconnaissance and fast attacks – that suits the identity of recon line, especially with recent changes to AI.
Some skirmisher UUs already utilize traits that identify them with Recon line: Comanche Riders, Berber Cavalry, Hussars, Hashemite Riders, etc.

Notes:
Beam Axle should activate its effect after Ignore terrain promotions to stay relevant
Initial movement speed should be reduced from 5 to 4 because recon promotions provide huge Movement bonuses

What do you think about it?

 

[hokath]

I believe it's a little hard technically to change them away from Archery because there's a lot of hardcoded stuff (in order to count as Archery and Mounted at the same time)

Practically, having access to promotions that ignore terrain cost would make these units very strong -- you can try the Garamantes custom civ where they have a Skirmisher with Ignores Terrain Costs and you can see how powerful it is to always be able to attack from 2 tiles away.
This is one of those changes you would need a modmod first to understand the implications.

 

[Tekamthi]

(in order to count as Archery and Mounted at the same time)

I was under the impression most of this was done in DB, albeit via columns that aren't typically used for most lines

Functionally, being designated as recon just gives them access to the recon promo tree, and counts for certain maluses or bonuses -- the next few Congress rounds will almost certainly bring recon promo tree changes so it seems kinda premature to consider such a change now.

They don't need to be recon units per se if we just want them to have certain recon-esque abilities

 

[Lystrin]

no. aslong as recon units have xp from revealing tiles it would be inherently impossible to balance both having the same promo tree.