Unit Class Overview

[Prodigal Son]

Introduction

This is a general guideline on unit availability and roles as the game progresses. Some civilizations have variations in unit strengths, attributes and might miss some unit classes but this topic aims to give an average overview on how the game works.This is a work in progress and many of it's parts might change.

Village Phase

Players might choose to skip Village Phase military and go straight for the Town Phase, relying on palisade defenses or withdrawing to the Civ Center for protection if attacked.

- Spearmen (50 15 1 ) are the only military unit available in the Village Phase, reflecting the dominance of Hoplite-style (and generally melee) tactics early in the game's timeframe. This also makes balancing easier than having civs start with different combinations of unit types. Spearmen can be used defensively or to rush the opponent. Later on they are still usefull as average line infantry and a cavalry counter.

Town Phase

A variety of possible units and strategies starts to become available at this point.

- Skirmishers (30 40 1 ) become available, as an easy to mass ranged support unit and a threat to Spearman-only armies, as the introduction of Peltasts and other light troops brought the end of Hoplite dominance. They also counter other melee infantry units and War Elephants later in the game.

- Archers (30 20 1 ) fill a better all around ranged support role compared to skirmishers due to their superior range, but take much longer to train and are very weak if caught in melee, especially vs cavalry. Upgraded with fire arrows they become a semi-siege weapon in the late game.

- Pikemen (50 20 2 ) are a slow hard-hitting anti-melee unit, exceptionally strong against cavalry. They will easily overcome Spearman, Melee Cavalry and often Swordsman armies, but are in need of support against more varied forces. Out of the three melee infantry types, they are the most vulnerable to missile fire.

- Light Cavalry (100 3 ) present a viable option for raiding and countering ranged (and later siege) units. A good farming economy will be needed to mass them, so they will probably come in small numbers till later in the game. Other melee units and especially Spearmen and Pikemen will easily defeat them if they reach them.

- Cavalry Skirmishers (60 40 3 ) are effective in hit and run tactics, especially vs support units like Villagers and Traders, but are vulnerable to Light Cavalry and melee infantry if they get caught.

- Defense Towers become available as an early form of defense.

- Additional Civil Centres can be constructed, allowing expansion.

- Light Warships become available, kickstarting naval warfare.

City Phase

Most of the tech tree is unlocked at this point.

- Swordsmen (40 40 2 ) are unlocked as a general purpose infantry unit with high base attack.

- Slingers (30 30 1 ) provide excellent ranged support and counter other ranged units but are helpless if caught in melee, especially vs cavalry. They have the longest train time among ranged infantry types.

- Heavy Cavalry (70 80 3 ) are tough and expensive general purpose melee units, almost only threatened by anti-Cavalry units.

- Camel Riders (60 40 2 ) are a great counter to cavalry but generally weaker against infantry compared to horse cavalry .

- Cavalry Archers (60 50 3 ) are very effective in hit and run tactics, but are vulnerable to Cavalry and melee infantry if they get caught.

- War Elephants (200 75 5 ) are costly beasts with a good siege ability and devastating against most melee units, but relatively weak against massed skirmishers and anti-cavalry units.

- Chariot Archers are ranged anti-melee units, weak to other ranged units.

- Rams, the first Siege Units become available.

- Fortresses become available as an advanced form of defense.

- Medium Warships become available.

- Most Unique Units and Mercenaries are unlocked.

Imperial Phase

The entire tech-tree is unlocked at this point.

- Some Unique Units and Mercenaries are unlocked.

- Advanced Siege Units become available.

- Heavy Warships become available.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Prodigal Son

[tau]

Played your mod a little bit vs Petra, got an impression that decrease of units cost and train times, combined with A17 powerful resource techs, allows to spam troops even easier than in current alpha. Is this intentional?

[Prodigal Son]

When did you play it? Currently I'm halfway through rebalancing many things, with civs and units at different/inbalanced states. However, more units got an increase on train times than a decrease, and maybe the opposite on resource costs. The goal is having some units spammy and weak, some non-spammy and strong, and some in-between. It's among the things aimed at further unit differentiation, certainly not ready yet though. Early units, especially ranged, tend to be more weak and spammy in general.

Btw I found a function for your beloved tavern:). Not far from it's original one but it gets a new meaning with houses unable to train workers now. I'm still thinking on if I should let this as a celtic bonus or look for equivalents for other civs as well. The thought is having mini CC-like structures, buildable in owned territory and limited to one, with their limit going up by building extra CCs. It should fit with booming strategies, while the limit, cost and their inability to attack will balance it.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Prodigal Son

[tau]

I downloaded it on Nov 17 and didn't update since then. Was indeed unsure if it is time to discuss balance stuff already.

Thanks that you care about the tavern However i googled for taverns, only to find that they were originally Roman buildings, and dk now why Gauls faction got them. But this will belong to Celts thread.

[Prodigal Son]

Yeah, it's pretty much still messy, and will be so for a couple of days more until i finish some work on it.

One idea is to have it represent villages or noble houses/estates (with some tech buffs for elite units as well) if it's shared and not Celt only.

[shieldwolf23]

Hi Prodigal!

I want to playtest. Also, if you have a sort of master link on the mod (with instructions), as well as an Excel sheet for the attributes, that would be very helpful, since it will mean a quick reference comparison on the values.

[Prodigal Son]

Great:) Check this for now. I'll update and improve the documentation with a storm of changes pretty soon and after that it will be the right time for some major playtesting.