Why are the airships available before flight?

[a_civilian]

Yes I agree... I don't quite understand why these units were introduced since they are around basically at the same time as Cavalry. The same tech allows them, but one of them gets gunpowder and the other doesn't or something like that, but they are still overlapping in the time spam too much. If anyone has thoughts on the reasons I would be interested to know.

Cuirassier requires gunpowder while cavalry requires rifling, so the difference between cuirassier and cavalry is as far (in tech terms) as the difference between musketmen and riflemen.

 

[Brancaleone]

You mean Santos Dumont, right?

Ive seen so many flamewars on this subject, please, lets not go there.

(it was Dumont btw )

I think Airships are a nice addition. I NEVER built air units before BTS, now i always leave a city building nothing but them. And Carriers, the coolest unit in Civ.