The King looks great aside from the Zweihander, on horseback, with a shield.
That’s just dumb please change it to a spear, arming sword, or similar one handed weapon.
The Winguard Footmen shouldn’t really have axes as big as they are with a shield, either smaller axe or lose the shield
Agreed. Zweihanders are… well, Zweihanders. Meaning two handed weapons.
The footmen were using the two-handed axes from HRE.
The B a r # i c h e (censored?) that Rus’ Militia gets is also maybe a tad bit oversized, but it does look dope.
Overall I feel like this is mostly a design patch and that they didn’t actually have an art budget for it, so they put it all together with the assets they had available.
Is the Update already out? SO FAST!
If it wasn’t for the fact that I have to work, and my Japanese model FINALLY finished it, I’d be playing Age4 all day to try it out.
Ok, if it’s because of the Zweihander, they’re probably considering the concept of GreatSwords, in any case the English according to the wikipedia article I read (sorry, was a fast check) the English were “terrible” at classifying their own swords, since unlike other countries that do classify their own weapons well (Japanese differentiate the Tachi from the Katana and the Nodachi), the English… did not.
According to the article, the best classification that I think the English use for their own ancient weapons use “modern” concepts in code classifications, one of them is the “Oakeshott typology”, which in effect says that the English “did use swords of 1.20 meters” several times, but they defined them only as long swords, or simply as swords. Thankfully, the English Crown have a collection of many of those swords, so there is real comparative testimony.
https://www.albion-swords.com/articles/oakeshott-typology.htm
UPDATE: I just found out that the preview is only for people who install the test patch. Does anyone have any idea how to install it?
I think they just tried to give him a big cool looking sword.
devs didnt made a new model so they used the existing one they have choose easy way on this(they used the HRE man at arms upgraded weapon)
They look cool imo , axes look cool
That king do has a lance but only use it when charging.
And, the Zweihander LOL, damn he’s waving a two-handed weapon with single arm.
All in all, it is not surprising that relic committed careless problems in weapons issue, like lance of muslim cavalry, spear of French and Chinese spearman.
I don’t know when they will fix these problem. What’s more, most players are not very care about this.
What a pity.
I think overall the game has a skin variety problem. All the animals look exactly the same for each biome. Winguard Footmen are just Castle Men at Arms with axe. And Royal Sultan Elephant looks too similar to Tower Elephant for me. I think they should prioritize skin variety more at this point. The Great Sword looks epic. I know it is a two handed sword. Maybe they can take his shield away. You expect the king to have a killer suit of armor anyway.
I don’t know what the dev team looks like, but hiring a new modeler might be nice.
Looking at the data, it seems that the footmen have more “anti-projectile” defense than melee armor. That and his shield is bigger than the normal Men-at-arm. On the other hand is the Danish axe. Historically speaking, what do you think the new Winguard units are based on? Because the Landmark is practically the palace of Henry VIII, who ruled after the “war of the roses”, so the concept of the palace to represent that a “national army” was being assembled like those of AoE3, seems pretty good to me. . I have a theory that they represent the “Yeomen”, an English special body:
Source:
According to the book, the Yeomen archers of the early 16th century wore green, and the footmen used halberds. I think that since this is a preview, they used the “Danish axes” to show us a model, but in practice I think that as many already imagine, they are going to change it to “halberds”, and put a suit more in line with that time, or with the heavy unit they want to represent.
Two handed axe with shield…
Two handed sword with shield…(and on horseback)
There is a poleaxe skeleton. Why not just apply it?
Not any shield, a ‘kite shield’ used between 1000-1100s. Which would be more appropriate for the feudal age men at arms.
It feels like the wynguard footman is loosely based on anglo-saxon huscarls/housecarls.
For something that large I guess it would be more practical to carry the shield on the back, not holding both the axe and the shield at the same time.
Indeed!
The preference is understandable using two handed axes. Without the shield however you’d be more vulnerable to archers! Then when cavalry or infantry approaches they sling the shield on the back and bring forth the axe.
From what I understand the unit also tries to recreate the concept of Patisiere… I mean, “Pavisere” or Pavisier, a type of unit that had a big shield to defend the archers, and that melee had either a spear or a halberd, apart from being a Yeomen of the guard, a “defensive” unit that had to guard palaces.
I understand that’s why it’s the shield. Now, about the “type of shield”, that is debatable, as I understand each kingdom of that time bought its own pavises and decorated them with different ornaments.
Imagenes: Paveseros italianos, de Milicias italianas de Osprey (Osprey Military, Warrior volume 25, David Nicolle, Christa Hook, Italian Militiaman 1260-1392-Osprey Publishing, 1999)
Aquí una representación de paveses Españoles, con forma de escudo romano, y al parecer al igual que el Guerrillero de elite del Age of Empires 2, podían usar su lanza anti-caballeria como jabalina, aunque eso es algo más español y arabe en la edad media (les encantaba lanzar jabalinas y lanzas).
Regarding the English pavise… sorry, but I have no idea. I have not found images of them, not even in medieval representations. What if there is enough and in excess is the fact that the English longshot archers used stakes to stop cavalry, and they even always had some on their straps for the occasion. In theory they used pavise, but apparently they did not give them as much artistic importance as they glorified the bow and the armor of their knights and men-at-arms.
On the other hand, most paveses are made of wood and the survivors have generally been the most expensive that were kept by noble families and then by museums. If somebody have a better shield representation of english pavise, please put in the box of commentaries. Bye.
That’s crazy, I was just waiting to get back home to write a suggestion over the new units’ weapons of choice by the devs.
I thought that it was going to be a silly suggestion, but it may turn out to have some support here:
I was looking at gameplay and stats from the new English footman unit in this most recent PUP and since I saw that they are a quick infantry unit that deals a slight bonus damage against cavalry (+5), I thought that a short spear would look better along their shields, instead of a huge axe – the latter of which looks and feels kinda out of place --; I’ve even seen other players say that the new footman unit acts like a stronger spearman unit.
I believe that axes should be especially introduced and implemented through an axeman unit in future civs – perhaps a Norse/Scandinavian civ with a huscarl unique unit? – because I believe that any infantry unit that carries an axe (be it one-handed or two-handed) should specifically have bonus damage against armored/heavy units, not against cavalry.
As for the English new king unit, yeah, that german Zweihander looks totally out of place and wrong, they could have just and should change it for a more regular sword.
Sure, in fact Yeomen is a unique castle upgrade for the british in aoe 2 and a british card in aoe 3 that improve the range of longbowmans…
The King unit should “upgrade” his appearance for each age. Like the scout & peasants do. Also it looks really strange having a “norman” knight looking fellow on a steel barded horse…
