[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Idea/suggestion: Different heights

["Per I. Mathisen" <Per.Inge.Mathisen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

[debate moved to freeciv-data, please direct all follow-ups there]

On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Raahul Kumar wrote:
> No responce to the elephant climbing mountain feat,eh ;-)?

Hannibal did, sort of, cross the Alps with overweight elephants.

> I'd like to see
> anyone get so much as an overgrown rat over any himalayan range. Mind you,
> living in Oz, we don't have a single decent mountain.

It might make sense to make mountains totally impassable to all land
torops except those a special kind (F_MOUNTAIN?), like Alpine, Explorer
and Partisans. This would introduce a rather interesting tactical element,
I think.

> But, in real life, those howitzers could blow away any attacking units long
> before they even got in range.

Not really. Cannons usually don't obliterate the enemy, but break them,
demoralise them, scatter them and weaken them up before the usual infantry
charge. That is why most war games I know use artillery as a kind of
special unit that temporarily weakens enemy units instead of destroying
them. There is no concept in freeciv of weakened units, but if there was,
that would be a quite neat, IMHO, way to reduce to power of artillery,
aircraft and shore bombardment.

I wouldn't take it too far, though, since freeciv isn't a war game...

> When you are strong, feign weakness. When you are weak, feign strenght. Make
> your enemy believe you far when close, and close when you are far away. Yes,
> I've read him.
>
> It's all a bit impossible to apply in the Freeciv situation. The only possible
> targets for me to attack are cities.

Most cities are usually poorly defended, and with fog of war, easily prey
to a surprise landing.

> I'm saying there's no unexpected twists.
> You won't suddenly have to start building pikemen/with catapaults to deal with
> my marauding knights. There are a few boring winning strategies that work 
> every
> single time.

Alas. That is why I play Starcraft still - it is wonderfully balanced, the
three "nations" are quite different, and every unit is useful. I wish
freeciv could be like that. I am willing to help coding what is needed to
get there, but first we'll need to agre on what must be done to make a
better (alternative) ruleset.

> strategy cannot be countered. Your only option is to do it better. An example
>
> The ultimate strategy in endgame
>
> 5-6 mech inf
> As many howitzers as can be built

So how should you be able to counter this strategy?

> There are others for the ancient era and the industrial age. I don't even have
> to mention them, no doubt you already know it.

Please do mentioned them for completeness.

Yours,
Per

"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men,
for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of
us all." -- John Maynard Keynes