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A lot of different threads are currently talking about the merits/detriments of 1UPT. I would like to see a focused discussion on why some love it, why some hate it, and how this new concept can be properly applied to the Civilization series.
I've been playing this series since ~1997 when I started playing CivII at a friend's house. I was hooked from the start and put several hundred hours into what I still consider to be one of my favorite games of all time. In CivII a stack was very vulnerable - the death of the defender meant the death of every unit in the square. Because of this issue we saw rule changes that introduced collateral damage and the death of just one unit at a time in a stack. In turn this led to the the Stack of Death (SoD), an enormous group of units piled into one coherent army that could steamroll its way across an opponent's empire. Because of this issue the developers of Civ V introduced One Unit Per Tile (1UPT), an attempt to fix once and for all the ubiquitous SoD.
So after that brief (and unnecessary) history lesson, let's talk about some of the pros and cons of 1UPT:
Pros
Cons
So there are just a few of the pros and cons of 1UPT, and more are welcome.
At least one of the "fixes" proposed that I have seen is a return to CivII style rules wherein the "active" unit defends the stack, and if it is killed the entire stack dies. Others have requested that 1UPT be disabled entirely.
Do you like 1UPT as it is? If not, how would you change it?
Personally, I like 1UPT. I think it adds a dimension of tactics to warfare that was missing from prior Civ games. I don't think the problem in Civ V is 1UPT, but rather the fact that the AI has no frickin clue how to handle it. If the programmers can "teach" the AI how to effectively wage war this divisive issue is greatly minimized.
And finally, I read in the PC Gamer article that there is a mod (Legions) that removes the 1UPT restrictions. Does this suffice for those of you who dislike the one unit restriction?
I've been playing this series since ~1997 when I started playing CivII at a friend's house. I was hooked from the start and put several hundred hours into what I still consider to be one of my favorite games of all time. In CivII a stack was very vulnerable - the death of the defender meant the death of every unit in the square. Because of this issue we saw rule changes that introduced collateral damage and the death of just one unit at a time in a stack. In turn this led to the the Stack of Death (SoD), an enormous group of units piled into one coherent army that could steamroll its way across an opponent's empire. Because of this issue the developers of Civ V introduced One Unit Per Tile (1UPT), an attempt to fix once and for all the ubiquitous SoD.
So after that brief (and unnecessary) history lesson, let's talk about some of the pros and cons of 1UPT:
Pros
- Fixes SoD
- Coupled with ranged units, introduces actual tactics to warfare.
- Allows for true "chokepoints" wherein one unit can theoretically hold back an entire army (think "300").
- Can mimic how a real battlefield is arranged (You can't have multiple tank, artillery and infantry divisions all occupying the same space at the same time.)
Cons
- Leads to traffic jams along roads. This is especially frustrating when an AI opponent with one unit (usually a scout) blocks the road leading to a different opponent you are at war with.
- Micromanagement of units when moving them across the map.
- Unnecessary mouse clicking. When purchasing a unit, why do I need to move my current defender out of the city, buy the new unit, move them out, and then move the original defender back?
- Contrary to the Pro listed above, on the scale of the Civilization series this does NOT mimic a real world battlefield in the least. Units are conceivably spread across a front hundreds or thousands of miles wide.
So there are just a few of the pros and cons of 1UPT, and more are welcome.
At least one of the "fixes" proposed that I have seen is a return to CivII style rules wherein the "active" unit defends the stack, and if it is killed the entire stack dies. Others have requested that 1UPT be disabled entirely.
Do you like 1UPT as it is? If not, how would you change it?
Personally, I like 1UPT. I think it adds a dimension of tactics to warfare that was missing from prior Civ games. I don't think the problem in Civ V is 1UPT, but rather the fact that the AI has no frickin clue how to handle it. If the programmers can "teach" the AI how to effectively wage war this divisive issue is greatly minimized.
And finally, I read in the PC Gamer article that there is a mod (Legions) that removes the 1UPT restrictions. Does this suffice for those of you who dislike the one unit restriction?
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