Anyone use Explorers?

[Demerzel]

they're pretty useless indeed when they finally appear in the later game. so never used them.

[Cruddy]

Rarely. I usually don't pillage enemy tiles because I just having to improve them again after conquest (although I might do a quick pillage to keep an ally happy).

[Menlas]

Same for me...i never use them.

Could be interesting if 95% of the map wasn't discovered at the time you can build them...

[Kuciwalker]

Exploration needs to be cut back.

Perhaps making map trading wait until Navigation or even later?

[Spiffor]

Skywalker :
In my mod, map trading waits for navigation, and communication trading even later (radio). But it doesn't make the explorer any more useful :
- when navigation arrives, nobody resists the urge to trade maps before any single explorer is done.
- Almost all terrain has been settled and is under someone's authority anyway, so it is impossible to explore it without hostility.

[Kuciwalker]

A few ideas to fix that:

Settlers could cost three, even FOUR pop.
Settlers could cost sixty or seventy shields.
Make the Lighthouse come with Navigation - historically inaccurate, but necessary.

All of this would seriously limit expansion. At Navigation, suddenly there would be a huge burst of exploration of other continents and such, because it would be impossible until then.

[Spiffor]

If you rise the population needed to build a settler, you give an oustanding advantage to the human, at least with the current AI. The AI doesn't take into account the time when the town will reach enough population when it decides to build a settler. It results in the AI often waiting for the population to rise with a full production box. The more costly in pop. the settler, the longer the AI remains idle.

[Kuciwalker]

Okay then... just increase shields. A LOT.

[player1]

Or just play a very big maps with small number of players.

[MyOlde]

I've never used explorers but after reading this thread I'm going to give them a try! It never occurred to me that they could pillage and I like the idea of them getting in 5 or 6 tiles deep. Depends of course on how cheap they are to build, and I gather they're cheaper than, say, horsemen or cavalry.

Thanks

[Spiffor]

30 shields IIRC. As expensive as horsemen. But much, much faster on enemy territory thanks to the wonderful "treat all terrain as roads" trait.

[Panag]

Originally posted by MyOlde
I've never used explorers but after reading this thread I'm going to give them a try! It never occurred to me that they could pillage and I like the idea of them getting in 5 or 6 tiles deep. Depends of course on how cheap they are to build, and I gather they're cheaper than, say, horsemen or cavalry.

Thanks

hi ,

they are also great to be disbanded in a far away city or to block the movements of the AI

just give them an attack of one , they are so good in using that sword they have

have a nice day

[Demerzel]

seems a shame that the best thing we can do with the unit is something it was never intended to do

[Nym]

Rarely.

[Alex]

I use them as pillagers, but nothing else. I'll occasionally use them as advanced recon units, allowing me to know what's happening into the AI's territory, but this is rare, because, as others have pointed out, they are usually bound to cause some international incident.