Unless I'm missing something, shouldn't logic dictate that a flying unit to be able to cross normally impassable terrain like mountains and water and be immune to attacks from units like infantry and other units that have no ranged attacks, except in retaliation attacks?

I used to think of it this way in the past. But recently, I realized that flying units are not always flying. They only fly while moving. When they stop moving they land themselves on the ground, and they attack on the ground.



In other games like Age Of Wonder 3 (and previous releases) and Tactics Ogre (from SNES ), there are FLOATING units. Unlike flying units, floating units can not only pass over impassable terrain, but they can hover over it as well and attack while floating without being affected by it. They don't necessarily have wings though...



I think the logical thing would be that floating units behave exactly as you just described (can't be attacked by melee), while flying units are only capable of MOVEMENT over impassable terrain, not staying over it and they CAN be attacked by melee cuz they land on the ground eventually.



tbh, I haven't fully tested them in EL yet...

Game balance trumps "logic."

I agree that flying units landing at the end of their movement is just fine. If melee units could only retaliate against them, they would be too powerful. Being able to end their movement on top of impassable terrain would makes them invaluable scouts, as they'd be difficult to dispose of.

However, I admit that I was quiet disappointed when I found that flying units can not cross water (at least not on the strategic map), even if their movement would end on an ordinary land tile.