Not only that, my pathfinders are still of use and throw. It's much easier to let them die and produce scouts once I'm able to do it. Not that I want them to die, but it happens. The first one was trapped between two archer barbs, mountains and sea at the sides. I picked the extra bonus for goody huts and regreted it (many bonuses don't add anything). Next one, with survivalist II, survived a couple of barb camps, but then he met his first horseman barb. Tried to escape after first hit, but the horseman just saw him and killed my pathfinder in next turn. A third one was trapped behind closed borders, so I just disbanded him. Short story, they still cannot be on their own.

The scout is slightly better for he starts with +1 sight and I now how to embark already, but there isn't much to explore then. At this point, it's better as a recon unit (I was playing peacefully, so he just sat in a border to watch it). The explorer is good for scouting again since he can travel ocean, I didn't test it facing renaissance barbs, though.

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