New unit: warbird

[Yekaterina]

Introducing a new unit: the warbird. It flies quickly through enemy territory, gathering information and harassing enemy workers. This unit could be made available to Romans and Iberians, as they used eagles for reconaissance and communication. Features:

1. Very fast speed (20m/s)

2. Some decent vision range

3. Can fly across any terrain, including water and extreme hills. 

4. Very low health and attack

5. Trained at CCs.

6. Cheap price: 30 food, 5 metal. 

Defence towers and ranged infantry would be natural counters to this warbird; even women can punch them to death quite easily. Therefore, it cannot be used in any skirmishes / rushes and so would not tip the balance of the game too much, while adding a bit of extra fun to Roman and Iberian civs.

[Yekaterina]

 

A short video demonstration: 6 warbirds were used. 

[Yekaterina]

warbird.zip

Here is the mod. Only Iber and Rome have access to it for now. 

[Loki1950]

Falconry has been around for a very long time one of those medieval books was a translation from Arabic that was written in the 12th century with lots of stuff from earlier works in Farsi and Urdu a few of the Mongol clans still use eagles do a search on YouTube

Enjoy the Choice  

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

From the title, I thought it would be this:

Spoiler

 

[Yekaterina]

8 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

From the title, I thought it would be this:

  Hide contents

 

Yes that is exactly what I was thinking! I almost named the unit 'D'derridex' 

Romulans are my favourite civ

[Lopess]

I really like the idea, I believe they fit well as a Xiongnu unit, by the way there was already a debate about it. However I remember that there came the idea of putting a human unit using the bird, I believe this makes it a little more "realistic" instead of a super intelligent bird.

  

On 11/10/2018 at 7:06 AM, Sundiata said:

That sounds pretty cool... Daco-Thracians, mmmm....

 

Considering eagle hunting is most prevalent in Mongolia today, the Xiongnu should definitely have this ability if implementable (Chinese sources mention the practice), and there seems to be evidence for Scythians practicing it as well, making it a perfect general Nomadic civ trait, to help mitigate their lack of farming.

 

 

Seems to be another thing women excelled at. Female Eagle Huntresses:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Eagle Huntress: Ancient Traditions and New Generations

By Adrienne Mayor mayor@stanford.edu May 1, 2016

https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/EagleHuntress2016long.pdf

 

 

I don't see why? They weren't 100% horseback all the time. But when they campaign, it was all horses, so I think that created the impression they literally all ride horses all the time. In very general terms: even when migrating, there would have been a lot of walking involved as well. They have slow moving animals like sheep, goats and cattle and their carts don't usually travel at light speed either (and would need regular pushing, and pulling). Don't forget the old folk, pregnant women, and babies. Families and clans would usually have a highly mobile component of riders and a less mobile component: the household and the rest of the family. Everybody also forgets that they ruled over sedentary populations as well (Northern China, Tarim Basin, Sogdiana, Black Sea Coast etc). Especially at their height (Huns, Scythians and Xiongnu), the wealthier families/clans/tribes, whatever, had access to a lovely array of slaves whom I doubt would be given horses. 

Cavalry having a building ability reminds me of the Maurya elephant being able to build by itself. How did that ever pass the review? We were arguing about elephants' "siege" capabilities, meanwhile some of our elephants are freakin' architects, engineers and construction workers all in one, as well as being a mobile drop-site on top of that... Of course, for the Nomadic civs, I'd change my mind if dismounting units ever becomes a thing. 

 

[alre]

lol. if you want to take this from imperivm, you should have a special ability of priests that can turn themselves into birds for some limited time.

[Yekaterina]

6 hours ago, Lopess said:

I really like the idea, I believe they fit well as a Xiongnu unit, by the way there was already a debate about it. However I remember that there came the idea of putting a human unit using the bird, I believe this makes it a little more "realistic" instead of a super intelligent bird.

Please elaborate your idea a bit more: do you mean a unit doing the eagle's job (swiftly traversing enemy territory and flying over water) or someone who carries the eagle close and let the eagle to the reconnaissance? 

 

[Lopess]

33 minutes ago, Yekaterina said:

someone who carries the eagle close and let the eagle to the reconnaissance? 

 

 

That would be the idea (In my view dogs must have something like this too).

[Yekaterina]

1 minute ago, Lopess said:

That would be the idea (In my view dogs must have something like this too).

Let me think. So we have an eagle holder and the eagle can be released.

That is still two units, if you would like to control the eagle. 

Another solution is we give the eagle holder a lot of vision range to simulate the eagle doing reconnaissance for her, however this might be OP. 

[alre]

that is op? not the eagle?

[Yekaterina]

Just the eagle itself is not OP because it has almost no attack and can be shot down easily. A unit carrying it, however, means more protection and so it is OP. 

[Dasaavawar]

I think this unit could be very OP at least when it comes to map exploration. They should be somehow limited whether by a maximum number or by a resource cost.

But I'm still excited to see Eagles, Falcons, Pigeons (maybe these could find a purpose in markets) and other species of birds as special units!

(As far as I know, even Norse could benefit from exploration birds in the form of Ravens).

Now, I think those birds use to fly higher and are hard to kill despite of being weak (they should move faster and just have a chance to be killed by archers and javelineers). (They still would require more animations).

And probably they should have at least one human unit that would command them.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Dasaavawar

[Lion.Kanzen]

there is a similar idea in the Praetorians game.

 

Is a scout unit with a bird.

[AIEND]

Wait, I can't understand, how are birds going to scout the battlefield?
Can they transmit the information they see to the breeder in human language?
If not, then even if they fly over the entire battlefield, they will not be able to tell humans anything.
We have no way of knowing what they saw, where they went, birds were used in ancient times, either pigeons were used to carry letters, or eagles were used to capture prey like dogs, but reconnaissance? It can't be done.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

4 minutes ago, AIEND said:

Wait, I can't understand, how are birds going to scout the battlefield?
Can they transmit the information they see to the breeder in human language?
If not, then even if they fly over the entire battlefield, they will not be able to tell humans anything.
We have no way of knowing what they saw, where they went, birds were used in ancient times, either pigeons were used to carry letters, or eagles were used to capture prey like dogs, but reconnaissance? It can't be done.

It's mostly a joke idea.

Though, I could see giving a falcon actor circling over a Scythian or Xiongnu scout unit to symbolize their hunting prowess. 

[AIEND]

2 分钟前，wowgetoffyourcellphone 说：

这主要是一个玩笑的想法。

不过，我可以看到猎鹰演员在斯基泰或匈奴侦察部队上空盘旋，以象征他们的狩猎能力。 

Will the falcons increase the damage of these cavalry to the beasts?

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 minute ago, AIEND said:

Will the falcons increase the damage of these cavalry to the beasts?

Right. I would think it would only apply to a special unit: "Scythian Hunter" or "Xiongnu Scout" or something like this.

[Silier]

23 minutes ago, AIEND said:

Wait, I can't understand, how are birds going to scout the battlefield?

To be fair there is dog scouting battlefield already in game. It can even fight. 

[AIEND]

59 分钟前，西里尔说：

公平地说，游戏中已经有狗侦察战场。 它甚至可以战斗。 

You are right, but dogs can indeed transmit messages like humans through various body language. In reality, there are many stories of dogs asking passers-by for help to save their owners from accidents.

[AIEND]

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

正确的。 我认为它只适用于特殊单位：“Scythian Hunter”或“Xiongnu Scout”或类似的东西。

I think this is very good, a dedicated hunting unit.