Unicorn and its terrain based bonus

[ChickenChaser]

I never see a unicorn in play, so I've been trying to find a use for the unicorn. The forest bonus has been removed, I'm ok with that, but I was disappointed to find out that its negate terrain bonus does not work against terrain based morale bonuses. It would be a sweet unit if it could negate elephants, krakens, sand worms, wolf riders, and mammoths. Maybe that would be too powerful, but I don't think so. As is the three hit points help and the negate terrain of 15 is a plus, and at three turns I use them a bit more. Maybe if terrain based morale bonuses were negated with the unicorn, devils would be less valuable. I don't claim to have the answers, just sharing some thoughts.

[KGB]

ChickenChaser,

I've never seen any either.

On the Michiquan map they at least appear in neutrals and so might get made but most players tended in Beta5 to pillage them for gold for Dragons.

Maybe in Beta6 it will be different with the cost lowered (so less money to pillage them) and the 3 hits and only 3 turns to build. To be honest, they are hard to use since in most cases the enemy stack doesn't contain 8 units that all have a terrain bonus (ie you rarely see 8 elves in a forest or 8 dwarves in hills, it's usually 2-3 elves and some other units with them). So in reality what they bring is way less valuable than a morale/fear/negate bonus that's always in play for all units. Their skill isn't even as good as a siege bonus since at least when using siege against a city you are lowering the wall bonus for all defenders.

So what you propose does have some merit. However they can't be negating a full 15 points of stack terrain bonus morale/fear as that would be a bit too much. Negating 5 points of stack terrain bonus would reasonable in addition to their individual unit bonus reduction.

KGB

[strach]

Unicorns definetely should negate stack terrain bonuses too. On the other hand 3 hit points is just plain nosense for a unicorn - rather a vulnerable creature. 4 turns, 2 hit points, negate all terain bonuses, strength of 6 - that's my proposition

[KGB]

The issue with negating all stack terrain bonus's is that the game considers those bonus's to be Morale/Fear and not actual terrain bonus's. This is why a WolfRiders +5 in the Woods/Swamp doesn't stack with a Pegasi for a +11. So those bonus's are in the realm of the Devil (whose skill is still over powered) and why I suggested that the Unicorn could negate 5 points worth of such bonus's but not more than that since it's technically outside the terrain realm.

The other option is to simply make the Unicorn a 2 turn unit with 30 strength that just negates individual terrain bonus's, has the woods move bonus, and +5 combat in the woods for around 700 gold.

KGB

[magian]

I think it will take most players a bit of time to adjust to the units changes. Spiders and Griffons have really large city bonuses now, and if they become more commonplace, the unicorn would become more valuable.

3 wounds does seem out of character for a unicorn. Since they already have some sort of power over terrains, I think it would make sense for them to have a pathfinding ability (like the scout's but better).

Or (getting a little wacky now) instead of negating terrain bonuses, any battle the unicorn takes part in could be considered to take place in forest (cities would still get a wall bonus). Then the unicorn would have a natural synergy with elves. This power would make more sense for an ent (tree singing), but it isn't too far off for the unicorn.

[ezras]

Or (getting a little wacky now) instead of negating terrain bonuses, any battle the unicorn takes part in could be considered to take place in forest (cities would still get a wall bonus). Then the unicorn would have a natural synergy with elves. This power would make more sense for an ent (tree singing), but it isn't too far off for the unicorn.

I think the unicorn shouldn't be a forest terrain but instead on a rainbow terrain. All battles are fought on the rainbow when a unicorn is present.

[magian]

I think the unicorn shouldn't be a forest terrain but instead on a rainbow terrain. All battles are fought on the rainbow when a unicorn is present.

Yes!

[Igor]

Unicorn could be more useful having negative terrain bonus 20, good against spiders and griffons

[LPhillips]

Unicorn could be more useful having negative terrain bonus 20, good against spiders and griffons

That's not too bad, full individual terrain negate. That makes them a useful part of a healthy, balanced stack. As long as they don't gain the ability to negate +10 terrain stack bonuses.