But not would be more easy if the Longbowman could have a “pike mode” (the unit remain as now but have the Pikeman animations, stats and counters-the Longbowman changing from light to heavy infantry in the “pike mode”, have less speed but can counter heavy cavalry)…
Yes, but this did not expand the timeline of the game in general.
In the game they seem to use rifles. It is assumed that at that time the most advanced was the harquebus. Furthermore, this does not extend the timeline of AOE-3 either. Under that argument, we could say that the Aztecs also extend the timeline, since their units perhaps had tens or hundreds of years of existence before America was discovered.
Furthermore, the Germans now allow war wagons to be replaced by Chevau-léger.
If you haven’t checked it out, I would highly recommend watching my videos on defining the AOE3 timeframe. Since this is on the start date, I’ll link the two relevant parts
Part 1 goes over relevant evidence for the start date and lists possible options.
Part 3 summarizes everything and then establishes the evidenced-based dates
If you want to jump straight into the summary, go to about 1/3rd of the way through the last video.
But, in short, yes there is sufficient evidence to place the start date before 1421. My conclusion is that the start date is 1419, and even ignoring the Chinese campaign cannot be placed later than 1453.
Of course, but it marks where the game begins, which is in the explorations of the 15th century (remember that Henry the Navigator and Isabella the Catholic appear as leaders)…
Yes, I just watched the videos and while I agree that the game mostly ends in 1901 as you say, I would add that the Finnish Revolution (and the end of the Russian empire itself) occurs in 1917 with the Russian Revolution (I hope the devs add it as a nod to a future AoE 5 in the 20th century playing with the USSR xd)…another detail would be that the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (which are antagonists in the campaigns of Act I: Blood and Act III: India respectively) ends in 1922; so the game per se would end in 1922 (although obviously it does not include the First World War and the Russian Civil War)…In addition, the devs can still continue adding expansions, civs, revolutions, units and cards that refer to technologies and events between 1901 and 1922… such as the Spanish campaigns over Morocco between 1893 and 1926, the Moroccan crisis of 1905, the Italo-Turkish war of 1911, the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and much more…
Well, since there is no official statement of the periods that the game covers, it could be almost anything. In any case, what is intended to be represented is clear (Discovery of America until the American Civil War), despite the fact that the game is stretched in some aspects.
Returning to the original topic:
I think the Chinese should start replacing practically their entire army with more modern units.
Why do you need Longbowman take a pike and act a heavy infantry when there is Pikeman?
“Entire army” is no way. This is equivalent to developing another civilization.
To reflect the Chinese military modernization with Western assistance, I’ve always suggested to introduced New Army Regular and New Army Rifleman, and to let them make up the Ever Victorious Army card instead. I just doubt that even with only two units like this, the dev might disagree.
Why not give the Longbowman a similar ability to the one they have in [Age of Empires 4] where they can deploy stakes to deter cavalry? Found this information of something called the “Archer’s stake” which were used by them.
And if the Longbowmen are going to have the ability to switch to a melee weapon, a maul would probably be a better weapon since they were apparently known to use mauls as improvised weapons at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) and they saw continued use as weapons as late as 1562 by Tudor archers.
Maybe the stakes could function as a structure that units can phase through, and whenever enemies pass through it they will take DoT damage.
If anyone else has any other ideas as to how the Longbowman could have the ability to deploy stakes that will damage enemy units I would like to hear it.
Yeah, that why i said for the “pike mode” for the Longbowman, because is more easy to implement into the game (it’s a simple stance and stats/counters change) that the Longbowmen “pikes defense” of AoE 4…
Wait, are you seriously advocating that longbows, whose only good counter in the early to mid-game is cavalry, gets a pike melee attack so that they now counter cav?
Absolutely not. That’s so game breaking. Do you think Azaps are a problem? This would be an order of magnitude worse. If this were implemented, why would Brits ever make a musketeer again, when you have bow/ pike in one unit. Making it a pike with aoe would be even worse.
If you want historical references, you could request that their melee attack animation shows a spear instead of a sword.
longbows in aoe3 are already the best DPS light infantry in the game in a stand and shoot situation. the only way to fight them IS to force them to move, usually via hand cav to reduce their animation and RoF vs your army. this would simply make them uncounterable without a significant rework. They can snipe falcs en masse, beat goons light infantry and heavy infantry. countering cav would remove the last actual counterplay to them.
While brits arent OP, this would demolish team and probably even 1v1 balance. i like stephins idea of spear in melee, a la ashigaru or sentinels
