Humankind, the historical 4X strategy from Amplitude Studios, launched for PC and Stadia this week. Inevitable comparisons have been drawn between Humankind and the Civilization series, but the new title also takes a lot of influence from Amplitude's Endless games. In Humankind players guide a single nation from the Neolithic era to the modern day, helping it spread and develop.
The randomly-generated maps of Humankind are divided into many continents and islands, separated by lakes, seas, and oceans. In order to cross these stretches of water players will need to build ships, or embark their land units on transports. This isn't something that can be done at the start of the game, and it takes some work to get to the point where units can embark in Humankind.
Embarking Technologies in Humankind
The journey to being able to embark in Humankind begins in the Ancient Era, with the founding of a new city. All players start Humankind as a wandering tribe, and cannot conduct research until they've established their first city. Once this is done, players will need to work their way to the correct technology before they can embark. The route to follow is:
- Carpentry: Gives access to archers, and is first step on the way to embarking.
- Fishing: Allows players to construct a harbor, which is necessary for building naval units.
- Sailing: Unlocks the Pentekonter, the earliest naval unit in Humankind.
- Trade Expeditions: Unlocks the Transport Galley, giving all land units the ability to embark.
Once players have completed Trade Expeditions, a Classical Era technology, they'll be able to embark their land units by moving them into the sea. This is the same system that's used in the Civilization series.
Embarking Mechanics in Humankind
Unlike dedicated naval units, Transport Galleys are built automatically whenever a unit moves into the sea in Humankind. This generally uses all of the land unit's movement points for the turn. In addition, transport vessels generally have a much slower speed over water than naval units, making them vulnerable to attack.
The Transport Galley, the first embarkation vessel, is also limited by being a Coastal Ship. This means that it will be instantly destroyed if it spends more than a single turn in deep water. Players who want to send their units across deep water will need to research the Three-Masted Ship technology in the Early Modern Era. Doing so will upgrade all Transport Galleys to Caravels. However, the Norse Culture's unique Langskip unit replaces the Caravel, and is available at the Medieval Era Seafaring Mastery technology. Humankind will have mod support, so players can expect to see more unique ships in the future.
The final embarkation unit in Humankind at launch is the Landing Craft, which is unlocked from the Amphibious Warfare technology in the Contemporary Era. This is the fastest and strongest embarkation unit, and allows land units to instantly embark or disembark, as well as attack after disembarking.
Humankind is available now for PC and Stadia.