Champions are quite powerful. Currently all champion cavalry and chariots are trainable at the stable and requiring the city phase. However, champion infantry trainable at the barracks requires a special technology, which costs 700 metal, and civs that can't train champion infantry at the barracks need to build separate structures with varying costs.
There are several options to address this:
- do nothing and leave it for A25 to figure out an elegant solution;
- simply deprecate the “unlock champions” technology, removing the requirement for champion infantry, but perhaps raise the cost of the city phase;
- make the existing “unlock champions” technology a requirement for champion cavalry too;
- introduce a separate “unlock champion cavalry” technology (as requested by @borg-);
- introduce a separate unlock technology for each champion unit (which would mean dozens of files, but offers more flexibility for civs).
This patch introduces a new “unlock champion cavalry” technology and makes it a requirement for all champion cavalry. However, chariots are specifically excluded (and keep a city phase requirement), giving a bit of a civ bonus to Britons, Mauryas, and Persians.
The proposed cost is 600 food, because:
- the city phase costs 750 stone and 750 metal
- food is easiest to obtain when metal mines run out in the late game, and a metal cost would be harder for players who are confined to a small area
- champion cavalry costs more food than wood or metal, so having a food cost for their requirement means delaying massed champion cavalry a bit longer
It can be changed, of course.
[EDIT] Further changes:
- introduces an equivalent “unlock champion chariots” technology for Britons, Mauryas, and Persians
- lower cost to 600 food
- also changes barracks' “unlock champion units” technology cost, from 700 metal and 90 s to 600 food and 60 s