An intriguing idea, but I'm really not sure the AI understand one. Don't forget it's limited by the NS of the programmer.
It's a simple experiment. Put two Civs at opposite ends of a map. Arrange it so that the AI Civ can get a very powerful unit if it can camp on a resource on the opposite side of the map. I'd bet the AI will make a beeline to it even if it's a tundra resource. That's
already in the AI's programming, bless its little pointed head....
Also, this means that you don't really have such flavour units as I'd like.
Not so. You could, for example:
give what I have for horse units (since many flavour are available), but make camel units available to any civ, as a kind of bonus "mercenary" bedouin?
Yes, and you could still also have plenty of UU units.
More even - that's my idea: the unit (Bedoin) is what the civ builds (rather than a Viking)
because the resource (Oasis) is
within its city limits. But if that Civ
also has Middle Eastern culture, it might build a more powerful Desert Raider. If that Civ is
also Arab, it could build an even more powerful Bedouin Raider. Now conversely, if a Civ has a Tundra resource within its city limits it would build Northern Units - heavy boats and fur-clad warriors. If that Civ
also has American culture, it would build North American Indian warriors and canoes. If that Civ is
also Iroquois, it could build Grizzly Warriors. But if that Civ is Swedes, it would instead build Vikings and Longboats. And so on. This would only apply, of course, to cultures in extreme climates, where seeing fur-clad warriors in the jungle, or bedouins on the Tundra would ring false.
You might also require Grapes to build Roman and Greek power units, for fair measure, to keep them in the temperate zone. Mayans and Africans might get a unit-boost from jungle resources, and so on.
Just in the earliest part of the game, of course. Later, Civs started to put their militaries in uniforms that had little to do with terrain and
everything to do with culture. That actually happened: the Moors wore Turbans in Spain, the Byzantines built minarets on the Russian Steppes, the Crusaders invaded the western Mediterranean wearing chain mail & wool undergarments, etc...
It's one way, anyway, to solve your random map terrain vs Civ problem.....