Cavalry to Tank?

[SK138]

In my mod I have been trying to decide whether calvary should upgrade to a tank or not. I have always played so they don't upgrade. Many people think a calvary can't upgrade to a tank. However, many calvary divisions of the past are now tank divisions. So what do you think?

[Robber Baron]

I'll vote no. I know it's a popular concept -- and in fact one that would be historically accurate. But it would unbalance the game further against the AIs (who never upgrade comprehensively or effectively).
I've grown to like the strategic dilemma of having to retread my military (literally and figuratively). A potential upgrade would come just when the human player tends to begin pulling away with the game anyway.

[CerberusIV]

I would say yes but...

Upgrading cavalry to tanks is OK if tanks are made more expensive. I pushed the cost up to 140 shields so it costs a noticeable amount of money to upgrade from 80 shield cavalry (actually I made cavalry 90 shields).

Without adjusting costs I would say no because it would be too easy to get a large tank force instantly and virtually for nothing.

[jdd2007]

why not? its historically accurate and good for gameplay...

i find upgrading large numbers of units expensive enough, cerb.

[FNBrown]

Upgrades should be allowed (they are in all my mods).

However, the AI does need to be tuned further to take advantage of this - otherwise, it does unbalance the game a bit.

In multiplayer mode, this isn't much of an issue.

[zulu9812]

How about upgrading cavalry to paratroopers? Wouldn't that make more sense?

[FNBrown]

Originally posted by zulu9812
How about upgrading cavalry to paratroopers? Wouldn't that make more sense?

Well, with regards to Robber Baron's earlier post, the Cavalry-Tank upgrade is indeed the most historically accurate. The US Army also now has Cavalry divisions comprised of helicopters... but I don't think ANYONE would want to upgrade Cavalry to Civ3 Helicopters.

The paratrooper option is an interesting idea - it would certainly encourage more players to use paratroopers, although I still don't think they'd be very popular.

I mod my paratroopers to make them more effective in the modern age with an added movement point, amphibious ability, and increased offensive firepower.

[Dis]

yes

but with a hefty gold price of course (if that is possible to change the gold amount for upgrade).

[FNBrown]

Originally posted by Dissident
yes

but with a hefty gold price of course (if that is possible to change the gold amount for upgrade).

I don't know if it is or not... I think it's merely a factor of the cost of the new unit versus the cost of the old unit.

[alva]

Nope, I think it's good to have some cut of points.
Gives you more of a strategical choice IMO.

Do I spend money on them now, while they only still have short life-span, or do I invest in somehing else and wait for the next (more powerfumm) unit to arrive.

I they(all) upgrade throughout the ages, then it does become abit of a no-brainer IMVHO

[Spiffor]

In my old mod, I made cavalry upgradable to tank, simply because I don't like having tons of obsolete units in my building list. I recently discovered there is a way to tag units as obsolete once another is available, without this unit being necessarily able to upgrade.

Now, in my mod, cavalries are obsolete when Tanks are around, but don't upgrade to them though.

[War4ever]

i would vote no as well...

[Carver]

Originally posted by alva
Nope, I think it's good to have some cut of points.
Gives you more of a strategical choice IMO.

Do I spend money on them now, while they only still have short life-span, or do I invest in somehing else and wait for the next (more powerfumm) unit to arrive.

I they(all) upgrade throughout the ages, then it does become abit of a no-brainer IMVHO

Yeah, if you can upgrade straight through it's just too easy. Start with tons of horsemen, upgade and build more of the latest unit. I like having the choice in the early/mid industrial era of more cavalry or other infastructure.

[zulu9812]

I actually renamed the civ3 cavalry unit to Dragoon and used Dark Sheer's Bandit unit as an Industrial-age upgrade; available with The Corporation and stats of 8/4/3, cost 90, blitz.

[Der PH]

Originally posted by FNBrown
The US Army also now has Cavalry divisions comprised of helicopters... but I don't think ANYONE would want to upgrade Cavalry to Civ3 Helicopters.

I included some Attack helicopter units. The UH-1D at the end of the industrial age and more sophisticated ones (Apache, ...) in the modern age.
I'd like to make them non-immobile air-units, but since the AI doesn't use these properly, I made them offensive ground units with 2-movement, all terrain as roads and very low defense values.
That's what I made cavalry upgrade to. Since not many of my cavalries survive the infantry-tank-period, there are not very many upgrades to those attack helis, but the cavalry vanishes from the build list.