Worth wasting 95 gold to?

[noto2]

You know, I've never used the explorer. I've been playing Civ 4 since warlords came out. What's that, 7 years? I must have played...so, so, so many games, in fact I'm almost embarrassed to guess how many. Is it over a thousand? Could be, don't know...and I've NEVER USED AN EXPLORER. NOT ONCE LOL. I even play terra maps quite often, it's one of my favourite map types. Okay, next time I play a terra game I will try to use an explorer, just to see if it adds anything to the game, but I have to be honest, it probably won't. The new world is full of longbows and macemen by the time you get to it, so an explorer would likely get killed very quickly. I just don't see the use.

 

[vicawoo]

Scouts are the cheapest way to explore large spaces of enemy territory, not useless if you need to find them to open traderoutes.

 

[ben-jammin]

The only reason I ever build a scout or explorer is to make it into a supermedic. They should survive indefinitely if you're careful because they'll never be selected as the strongest defender in a stack...unless you're getting totally crushed.

 

[The Oz-Man]

I didn't even know Explorers existed until I saw them in somebody's game on here.

 

[vicawoo]

You must not play enough isolated starts

 

[noto2]

??? Even with an isolated start, you'll have everything mapped out long before explorers are available. I've also never built a scout (well...aside from some games when I was new, perhaps). It's never worthwhile because they die too quickly to barbs and animals. Warriors die quickly too, but if you can get your warrior to a forest and/or hill and fortify him, at least he can fogbust and probably survive.

 

[The Oz-Man]

Yeah, I was gonna say, I'd almost always rather either buy maps or use spies/caravels in that scenario.

 

[vicawoo]

You want to map other continents as fast as possible for the circumnavigation bonus and to find all the AI so you don't get into a bad diplomatic situation.

 

[Mylene]

Nothing wrong with building a scout or 2 when cities have time, and you have not met all AIs..
and if you have a neighbor you dun trust, having one sitting on his stack of units can be useful ~~
Oh your question was explorers, well yep they are rare