Damage vs. Flight should be considered a terrain bonus

[FatsXL]

with respect to Unicorn anti-terrain

[KGB]

That makes sense to me.

It might overpower the Unicorn a bit considering it's already a great unit. But if the Negate skill is changed in the next version from a fixed 10 to a percentage (say 50%) then it would be good.

KGB

[Moonknight]

I like this as well, but only with using Negate as a % like KGB suggests.

There are so many anti-air items available that it's not just Rangers that can control the skies.

With the Negate % approach, hopefully it will help balance flight units from being too weak or too strong, as they seem to go back and forth between different balancing updates.

[tabanli]

It may overpower unicorn a bit, but with the latest Devil being +5 fear -5 negate, increased to 3 hit and reduced to 4 turn, I now consider Devils as equally good choice and maybe better. Devil is such a great solo expander, it is as good as a Green Dragon with stack bonus. So If you make unicorn reducing 50% than I will pretty much never bother with a unicorn ever again and go with devil all the time when I have gold. Be cause 50% negate is usually 5 points terrain bonus which I get from devil's fear anyway. So let's give unicorn -10 anti-air cancelling to to compensate his value against newly improved devil.

Now also Red Dragon and Elephants get's more valuable. Devil used to negate 8 and now it negates 5 so that should increase value of high moral.

[KGB]

You forget that the Unicorn also negates 3 bonus from fear/morale in addition to negating the terrain. NO WAY is a Devil more valuable than a Unicorn. Lets do a little comparison:

Devil: 1900 cost, 4 turns: You get a 35/3, move 16 unit with Negate 5 (morale/fear) + 5 Fear.
Unicorn: 1100 cost, 3 turns: You get a 30/2, move 17 unit with Negate 3 (morale/fear) + Negate 10 (terrain).

In a head-2-head stack battle with Unicorn vs Devil, the Devil gives -2 Fear and has 2 more Negate but could potentially give up +10 in combat depending on terrain (a Lt Calv/Unicorn stack would smoke a Lt Calv/Devil stack in the open for example. Even a Unicorn/Elephant/6 Hv Calv vs Devil/Elephant/6 Hv Calv in the open favors the Unicorn with 37 Str Hv Calv vs 34 Str Hv Calv)! All for 800 more cost (the equivalent of a Spider production city) and 1 turn longer wait! The slight combat advantage isn't that big a deal (except for solo expansion). The Devil is nice but not 800 gold nicer. It's only worthwhile when it comes free (hero offer or ruin). Otherwise I'd take a Unicorn every time.

That's why letting it also negate 10 AA would over power it as it would cancel out every units AA but the Wizard and most of what a Ranger can get on her own (she starts at 5 and is capped at +15). The Terrain negate needs to become 50% instead of an absolute amount if AA is added to what also gets negated.

Note 1: The RD/Elephant is only more valuable when they are accompanied by a Devil/Medusa. Otherwise the Devil cancels out exactly the same as it did before vs a RD/Elephant.

Note 2: As an expander, the Green Dragon moves 24 with +2 stack bonus (26) vs 16 for the Devil. Plus it flies vs struggling on terrain! Only on a road is it close (13 squares vs 16). The Green is probably 2x as good an expander as the Devil thanks to the extra movement and flight.

KGB

[Igor]

Unicorn with +5 negation of terrain bonuses (50% of usual 10) will look too weak comparing as it is, even if to add anti-air to terrain bonuses.
There is a unit which has probably been bought by nobody, it's crusader. Should be he is in use only when he is already in city production. May be he could become more useful if to set him +10 negation of anti-air without adding anti-air to terrain bonuses.

[KGB]

It won't be 5 Negation of terrain bonus. It will be 50% of what the unit has. So Spiders/Gryphons will lose 10 (Same as they do now) but other units like say Sea Serpents in Water will only lose 5, a Lt Calv in the open would only lose 4, a Wizard would lose 7 AA vs a flier.

Right now the Unicorn is almost overpowering as it is. It's only a 3 turn unit and very cheap to buy. Its not a 4 or 5 turn unit like the Devil/Grand Archon that cost a lot to buy. Yet it easily removes as much value as they do and can be used in a lot more places. The 10 negate of terrain just totally wrecks every terrain bonus except the Spider/Gryphon which is too much for a 3 turn unit. Then on top of that it removes 3 fear/morale too! So it can potentially Negate 16 bonus.

Compare that to the Lesser Archon (Blue). It costs 300 more and only Negates 6 Leadership/Chaos which isn't anywhere near as much and it's hard to use since there aren't that many heroes in the game with those bonus's. Or compare to the Medusa/Pegasi both of which cost more money and give less value. When's the last time you ever bought a Lesser Archon or a Medusa or a Pegasi? I don't recall ever buying those units yet the Unicorn is pretty much the 1st (and often ONLY) bonus unit I buy in many games.

Here are some more examples like the one I mentioned to Tabanli

1) On a water based map what are you going to buy? A Devil or a Unicorn? The Unicorn removes 10 from the Sea Serpents while the Devil only removes 2 (Unicorn negates Devils fear) so Unicorn stack is better by +7. If Krakens are in play you get the same results since Kraken/Devil/Serpent (15 str Serpents) vs Kraken/Unicorn/Serpent (23 str)
2) On an open map what are you going to buy? Elephant or Unicorn? Unicorn removes 10 from Hv Calv (expected units) while Elephant adds 9 (negated 3 morale). So 35 Str Hv Calv in Unicorn stack vs 34 in Elephant stack. If Elephant tries to bring Spiders to a City the Unicorn removes 10 from the Spiders attack value if they manage to reach there (in the open the 35 str Hv Calv kill the 29 str spiders).

Basically just about any scenario you can imagine a Unicorn has great value. Other 3 turn or even 4 and 5 turn units don't have anything like that kind of value in every situation. It's definitely the most valuable bonus unit in the game.

Changing it to Negate 50% of bonus and adding AA to it's powers would be a good adjustment. That would still let units with terrain bonus have some value because right now almost none of them do except for the Spider/Gryphon.

What's wrong with the Crusader? I use him. His 60% warding is very very handy against Ambush stacks (Assassin or Ghost). With a Ranger in his stack he can get 100% immunity (which will change to 90% but still be very good) letting him walk right though Assassin/Ghost stacks with no fear of dying. His 25 strength and 2 turns is no different than Giants/Hv Calv and is better than Wolfriders/Yeti. Given how Unicorns negate every terrain bonus these days there is no real combat difference between him and those units and that includes the Minotaur too thanks to that negated terrain. He even has +1 UL if needed.

KGB