I know, it would deviate too much from AoE2 but hey, it’s better for this game to have its own identity and its own meta.
For starters, this change would kill some typical moves like dropping a castle inside the enemy base or defending yourself by making a castle in the middle of an attack. I just don’t think it’s realistic and we will have AoE2 to keep doing it anyway.
However, I have a second reason from this: why would you put archers on the wall instead of building defensive structures? In AoE2 we were always able to defend our perimeter with castles and towers, and switching to archers on walls doesn’t seem attractive. Defensive structures don’t take population space, plus the archers on top of walls are vulnerable to projectiles.
We need don’t need for archer on walls and defensive structures to be one better than the other. We need them to have different roles in defense, so they both are equally attractive in their own way. So, my idea for towers and castles is:
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They should be expensive enough that you can’t cover your perimeter with them. Archers on walls should compensate the vulnerability by having the advantage of mobility.
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They shouldn’t be able to fire arrow by themselves, so they are not more population efficient than archers, plus eliminating the whole “building a castle that just starts attacking”
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Obviously 1 and 2 are nerfs, so they need a buff to make them attractive. In AoE2, a garrisoned archer deals the same damage per second than an ungarrisoned one. Then, I propose that garrisoned units have extra attack and possibly range, as some sort of altitude bonus.
I am hoping walls will not give enemy LOS past them like tree lines stop LOS
And that archers will not really be able to fire over walls. So that to defend you will have to put archers up on walls. (foot soldiers too to defend from siege tower unit drops) This is where the incentive to not only use towers comes in, because you would have all this wasted army in base
It should also give archers extra range and LOS who are on walls, so that enemy archers have a disadvantage and requires more siege options to efficiently take on a castle/ walls.
One thing that concerns me is that Daut in an interview seemed to think garrisoning on walls was only for the campaign… Not a whole lot of depth went into that part but he has reported to have played the game. So maybe we are in for a big disappointment… If true my interest in the game would drop off considerably.
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nili said that archer on walls won’t be seen as much in competitive play, which makes me believe there will be archer on walls in mp games, and also he said he thinks it’s campaign mechanic only so this makes me believe he haven’t mess around with this, even theviper (if i remember correctly) that he played 30 games of aoe4 but he haven’t messed around with the ambush mechanic, so i believe dauts didn’t even mess with walls mechanic or he messed with it but in campaign (kinda unsure if the CC were allowed to play campaign but let’s make guess they did.)
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Lets hope this becomes part of meta, balancing should be done now to highlight it…
I hope this does not mean archers are just being used in the regular way to shoot over (lol through) walls… arrows were expensive and no one would shoot over a wall without seeing a target.
I did hear the possibility archers will shoot either directly, or in a large arc, so maybe some can shoot over walls but should do so at a great accuracy debuffer, while walled archers shoot much better accuracy than normal with a better range too… I really hope no archer can shoot over a wall honestly.
The forest hiding seems like it would be great for villager ambushes. It may need some work to make it worth while, but its cool as an option… that may be a little more for the campaign and MOD maps.
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there is so much potential for drama on walls, that to make exciting cast for EA sports as to who can control the high ground on a wall, because once the enemy can take it, they would get the advantage
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Isnt it better to wait till the game releases rather than go on these speculations.
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I really hope the will make archers on walls vailiable in multiplayer, although I can’t imagine how.
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AS i was reminded, the Preview showed PvP skirmish, and Walls with Units were there 
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In some games there is huge penalty when you are trying to hit someone who is on the top of the wall, since its battlement give protection to units behind them. This kind of thing can be seen in Stronghold, Lords of the Realm 2 and in Total War series.
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it is pretty punishing if the enemy uses siege units to destroy walls were archers are standing. Upon collapse or destruction of the wall, the units on top will fall and die. On the other hand, it is pretty good at the early game or to support units outside the wall as I think archers will get bonus range, visibility and protection (arrows might hit the wall).
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I THINK ARCHERS WILL BE ON THE WALLS IN PVP OR PVE,AND I LOVE THIS !.
I don’t like this one. defensive buildings as well as archers on walls should be able to auto attack. I think this is their whole purpose to begin with. Imagine having to look at the mini map at all times while remembering the places you put your towers as well as their ranges in order to move there asap and micro your tower against a possible scout or soldier that passed from there for the fraction of a second.
Just the thought of it makes me want to shut the game off.
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I think they meant Towers need archers to fire. But i also dislike that, Takes too much popspace to def
ah you mean like having to garrison troops in towers or castles in order of them to fire? That wasn’t very clear.
although interesting as an idea, it would create pop issues indeed. Unless the pop cap is significantly increased for that exact purpose.
Then the question arises, will you be able to attack the garrisoned troops separately from the building? That’s a similar discussion with having siege engine crews.
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Daut is drunk as ■■■■ , in fan preview in the gameplay video we can see some skirmish gameplay with archers in the walls.
In minimap we can see is a 1 vs 1 and there are archers in walls
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You all should be really careful about canonizing any specific information said only by council members. There seems to be a lot of contradictory information floating around. Let the developers announce and describe the features.
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I think he meant that feature won’t be used much in competitive pvp.
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This. We can’t assume how a feature works yet.
There are a lot of question marks for us atm and things, especially things that were never announced, are subject to change.
- Can Archers shoot from behind walls or only from on top of walls?
- Do Archers receive less or even now ranged damage when on top of walls?
- Can Archers even be stationed in wall towers?
- Do Archers get more range/damage/LOS on top of walls?
- How do Archers get on top of walls?
- Will it be so good that dropping a piece of wall infront of the enemy base to use as an Archer platform will be a viable strategy?
There is also still balance to be done and that’s what the Beta will be for.
(Also balance can still be done after release)
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that could be a cheese thing to see just a section or 2 of walls used as high ground platforms. So will be interesting to see how this is handled. It could be okay… and better than towers… in a way the enemy could use them too if your not careful and lose control of it.
When i look at pics of walls it seems like the add on towers are how units get into them. so wouldn’t be as simple as just spamming walls… but will enemy units be able to breach those doors and get in if surrounded? or require destruction or siege tower…
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There is only a door visible behind the wall towers so maybe you need to build wall towers for the archers to be able to get on top of walls but who know.
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