How i would introduce cultural units

[Jiben]

Now i will admit i have been on the fence on this topic for a long while and havent really seen the need to differ roman legionaries from greek hoplites in Heavy infantry. That said the idea has slowly grown on me even if im unsure how to best implement them.

My idea is inspired by the ck3 cultural men at arms.

Cultural units would be a sub unit of a existing unit template like roman legionaries would behave like heavy infantry and get buffs/debuffs for heavy infantry. Specific modifiers for cultural units could exist too but they would be affected by buffs for the base unit.

Other units would regard cultural units as the base unit in regards to matchups to keep it simple so archers would do +10% damage to all cultural variations of heavy infantry althought the cultural units matchup damage towards archers could vary. This could be seen as boring but if we bloat the units too much it could quickly become a mess with matchups between dozens of units.

Every culture group would have atleast one cultural unit even if im okay with there being some overlap like i dont see an issue with brittanic and gaelic units sharing a unit between them.

Cultural units would have something that differ them from the "normal" template wherever that is a slightly different matchup spread or higher/lower mobility, less/more food consumption, more/less damage /morale damage done/taken or a different cost (for legions).

Some cultural units could have nieche mechanics for example: Greek phalangites could get a 20% damage boost if the phalanx tactic is used it would be strong but it would also make it easy to counter unless the greek player is doing mindgames. Roman legionaries could behave like engineers in regards to forts and crossing rivers/straights.

These cultural units could start in the levies for the right cultures either at gamestart or be unlocked through a military traditions. For the itallics for example it would make little sense to have them start with legionaries so i would have a military tradition that transforms heavy infantry for itallic cultures in your country into legionaries and unlocks them for legions.

Legions of cultural units would only be allowed for cultures of that culture. I dont want rome running around with a phalangite legion. Military traditions that change/increase cultural units in levies would only affect the right cultures since again i dont want phalangite levies for rome in the late game suddenly.

Thoughts?

 

[IsaacCAT]

This unit differentiation has been lurking around for some time. Your implementation looks neat. I think is a matter of time and priorities that they do it one way or another.

For me it is not a high priority but I like it.

 

[DukeLeto42]

These cultural units could start in the levies for the right cultures either at gamestart or be unlocked through a military traditions. For the itallics for example it would make little sense to have them start with legionaries so i would have a military tradition that transforms heavy infantry for itallic cultures in your country into legionaries and unlocks them for legions.

These cultural units could start in the levies for the right cultures either at gamestart or be unlocked through a military traditions. For the itallics for example it would make little sense to have them start with legionaries so i would have a military tradition that transforms heavy infantry for itallic cultures in your country into legionaries and unlocks them for legions.

Legions of cultural units would only be allowed for cultures of that culture. I dont want rome running around with a phalangite legion. Military traditions that change/increase cultural units in levies would only affect the right cultures since again i dont want phalangite levies for rome in the late game suddenly.

The new system of cultures, traditions, and levies means culture-specific units should reasonably appear alongside their "regular" counterparts (instead of just being a linear upgrade). I was about to go "why not just make them modifiers on base units instead of making separate ones," as I believe I've said to similar suggestions in the past, but at last there are mechanics that would make them meaningful.

Why not, rather than making the special unit locked behind a tradition, have the special unit unlocked once the respective tradition tree is (Italics get legions from the get-go, etc.), but make the initial buff small? Then, many military traditions would focus on making the culture-specific units more powerful instead of giving general buffs. You could even do a minor rework of tradition trees so that at least one buff in each tree always improves the primary culture unit (this would reflect how expansive empires incorporated other military traditions into their own, like the Roman adoption of the Celtiberian design for their gladii). That way, you could allow other cultural units to be recruited into legions, but they should still feel like ancillaries, albeit good ones. It would also encourage you to integrate selectively - sure, Rome could get access to phalangites, but your big buffs already are going to your own HI unit, and maybe it's better to pick up a cultural unit that performs a different combat role.