We all know Scouts are a MUST in the early game. They're essential for discovering new hexes, finding Tribal Villages, and meeting new Civs in the early game.
I understand this. What I don't understand, is why I would ever spend the huge amount of gold to upgrade my Scout to a Skirmisher or a Skirmisher to a Ranger when the upgraded version is comparably weak to contemporary units and has no improved movement or vision. I might as well use a religious unit or a Horseman to explore.
In other words, there's no purpose an upgraded Scout serves that a normal Scout can't serve itself (until the end-game Spec Ops).
With the exception being Warak'aqs (one of the best units in the game for its era).
This is a long way of stating that Civ 6 has too much unit bloat within the Scout upgrade path. I do want more units is Civ 7, but they already got Scouts right in Civ 5 - no need to fix what's not broken.
My solution? Think of the Giant Death Robots (GDRs) at the end of the Tech Tree. Similar to how GDRs are researched with no upgrades to begin with, the player slowing researches techs that upgrade the GDR. Scouts could work the same way. Making them viable as the game progresses, instead of introducing new units that require gold to upgrade or your valuable strategic resources.
Using this method, Scouts could unlock their 1-tile ranged attack after researching Archery or Machinery for example. Then perhaps +1 movement from Military Science, etc.
This keeps Scouts relevant without dumping money and strategic resources into upgrading them.
I hoping to see some changes like these to Civ 7's Scout units, but more on that later if Civ 7 is revealed this year! Rant about Scouts over. Let me know what you think below!
Civilization 6 is available on PC/MAC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Android/iOS/Linux now.
I heard CIV7 was put on hold indefinitely. Which I read as canceled. WTH is up with that?