Ign Reviews Civilization Iv - 9.4/10

[Solver]

The Spearman vs. Tank thing is more of a gameplay issue, not a realism issue.

In the Modern Age, many players, myself included, would consider the Spearman unit to represent not guys with crude metal armor and actual spears, but instead a poorly armed rebel group. Still, it's not good for gameplay if you lose units like that too often.

In the real life, technology makes even more difference. There's not just "Tanks", "Infantry" and such stuff. An Abrams or a Merkava are far superior to a Churchill or a Panther, just like a F-16 is far superior to a Fokker. In the game, the difference between these units isn't as huge. If you compare the poorest armies in the world with the best ones, you'll find that the tech gap is less than what it can conceivably be in Civ.

[Harrier UK]

Originally posted by Arsonide
The point is a spearman in a fortified city MAY get enough of a bonus to take out that helicopter. This is due to many things, walls, citizens helping out the spearman (Culture adds to his strength, which I imagine is that), etc. I can definately imagine an entire city of people taking out a helicopter, especially a wounded one.

I seem to remember watching a film that was based on a real life experience.

I think it was called "BlackHawk Down".

So as Solver just posted - we can consider the spearmen to be a poorly armed rebel group - that just happens to have shoulder based fire power (bazooka.s).

[SpencerH]

As has been said many times, there were two problems
1) it occured too often
2) spearman 'representing' partisans (for example) in combat with a tank unit is not visually good enough. IIRC, we fixed (at least) part of that problem though with mods.

[sophist]

Originally posted by hanZ

a helicopter trying to seek and destroy this knight squad cant fly 10000 ft high and try to figure out in which cave they may hide. they have to go down to the canyons and search. its quite possible for the knights (yeah, they are ancient but not inevitably stupid) to build up some kind of ambush. imagine: your are sitting in a gunship, killed hundreds of enemy "forces" which are wearing ancient armor and weapons - you are bored, arrogant and careless. and as far as i can see, in civ4 no spearmen will destroy entire tank battalions.

Not to mention that flying through those canyons greatly raises the chances of the helicopter just slamming into a cliff without the knights doing anything. Well, actually, the knights did do something; they went into the canyons to hide and had to be flushed out. Without that, the helicopter would never have had to enter that area and thus wouldn't have risked the crash. Like how deaths from disease in war were far more frequent than from disease. The enemy didn't kill those soldiers, but the existence of the enemy caused those soldiers to be in a situation where disease would get them.

[Freddz]

I hope we are talking about a SEVERELY damaged/reduced squad of choppers when we discuss these choppers falling down into the trees and crashing into cliffs. This is begginning to sound like McGyver. LOL!

[Verenti]

What if in a canyon a chopter was chasing some knights while other Knights at a narrow point pushed a boulder onto the router when it passed below?

Besides, if you were in a Helicopter chasing some horsemen who don't even have projectile weapons, wouldn't you get a little cocky?

[Freddz]

Man.... *s* ....I will not disturb your theories from now on (unless you all attack me)....

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Verenti
What if in a canyon a chopter was chasing some knights while other Knights at a narrow point pushed a boulder onto the router when it passed below?

or sylvester stallone threw a rock at it ......

[Lul Thyme]

BTW, I didn't read the whole thread but about the tank vs spearman.
To increase realism without impacting too much gameplay, they could easily have something like
if a unit is fighting a unit at least 2 age older , the newer unit gets +100% or whatever.
or maybe 3 ages or whatever depending how long they are.

[Mahdimael]

You folks are forgetting the one weapon that the knights have that the helicopter could never defend itself against: The Holy Hand Grenade!