Minutement Can't Use Roads

[pdxsean]

I'm playing as the USA and I've discovered gunpowder. I was excited to build my first unit so he could cross the continent and get involved in my war. However, I was astonished to see that Minutemen don't use roads. They move two tiles per turn, regardless of what the terrain is, including whether or not the terrain has roads!

This is a pretty unfortunate bug, although my war is going well so at least it won't be too costly.

[binTravkin]

Lol, really?
A game company that is based in U.S. never tested their own civ?
Ironic..

[Dinner]

Wow, how did that bug get through the beta testing period?

[binTravkin]

Apparently no one did play America through the eras..

[Sir Og]

Isn't the minutemen special ability the same as the scout special ability? If so, are scout taking advantage of roads? I can't remember if I have ever moved scouts via roads.
I guess this will turn out to be a "feature"

[Stuie]

Isn't the minutemen special ability the same as the scout special ability? If so, are scout taking advantage of roads? I can't remember if I have ever moved scouts via roads.
I guess this will turn out to be a "feature"

If it's a feature, then that American UU goes from "meh" to "just plain bad" relative to other UUs. I got America playing random Civ in my current game, and I'd rather have Longswordsmen than Minutemen since I have the iron available. I'm also skipping the rest of that branch of the tech tree, so getting Gunpowder wasn't a huge priority in the first place.

[LagMasterSam]

If it's a feature, then that American UU goes from "meh" to "just plain bad" relative to other UUs. I got America playing random Civ in my current game, and I'd rather have Longswordsmen than Minutemen since I have the iron available. I'm also skipping the rest of that branch of the tech tree, so getting Gunpowder wasn't a huge priority in the first place.

While long swordsmen have slightly more combat strength than Minutemen, the Minutemen require less turns to produce. When I had the choice in one of my games, I chose the Minutemen because I could produce them so much faster.

One good thing about minutemen is that if you eventually upgrade them to mechanized infantry, they can move across an entire continent in one turn. I accidentally discovered this when I was trying to figure out why some of my mechanized infantry were moving so much faster than the others.

If it is a bug, it's yet another of the many I've encountered. I think this might be the buggiest games I've ever played.

[Stuie]

While long swordsmen have slightly more combat strength than Minutemen, the Minutemen require less turns to produce. When I had the choice in one of my games, I chose the Minutemen because I could produce them so much faster.

One good thing about minutemen is that if you eventually upgrade them to mechanized infantry, they can move across an entire continent in one turn. I accidentally discovered this when I was trying to figure out why some of my mechanized infantry were moving so much faster than the others.

Woah - I hadn't thought of that! So just like Scouts, they retain that ability when they upgrade. Ok, I might re-evaluate them in that light.

If it is a bug, it's yet another of the many I've encountered. I think this might be the buggiest games I've ever played.

The upgrade thing is probably not a bug since Scouts fuction the same way. Pop a hut and get upgraded to Spearmen (for example), and the Spearmen retain the Scouts' movement ability. Pretty sure that's intentional.

As for the "buggiest game" you've ever played, you must not get out much. Of course I came to this by way of Elemental so....

[dregor]

So that's why the damned fools kept pathing off the roads when I set them to go somewhere in my empire. Thanks!

[SandMonkey]

I ran into this "bug" in my game as well. I agree that it devalues the American UU as by the time you can build Minutemen you should have roads connecting your empire. Once I managed to get them to the front their movement ability proved to be very useful, especially when you can cross a forest/river tile and keep moving.

Does it really make sense that the movement advantage should upgrade with the unit? Other unit-specific abilities don't upgrade with other units, right?

[dregor]

They actually do upgrade with the unit now. Each of the UU abilities show up as a promotion ability on the units info window, and they carry over. So it's beneficial for most UUs to build a bunch of them when you get them for the purpose of upgrading and maintaining their bonuses.

[Sir Og]

Speaking of upgrades. It seems that all "ranged" promotions suddenly become useless when you upgrade crossbow to infantry.

[binTravkin]

Haha that's nice catch with those UU upgrades and too bad with that crossbow->infantry thing.

[Sabre2th]

Haha that's nice catch with those UU upgrades and too bad with that crossbow->infantry thing.

Yeah, I've actually stopped upgrading archery units until I move up in difficulty level. My archers rarely take damage, so I'll just take the extra turns to bombard, rather than waste my experience points.

[dregor]

Yeah, I found it odd how ranged troops seem to diminish in higher difficulties. Maybe a mortar team or something that crossbows could upgrade to.