Many of the royal house units lack any connection to royalty or basis in history. Many are just modelled after a random uniform and given the name “Royal ____”. In a previous post on a Royal House Rework, I suggested some fairly extensive changes of swapping and replacing many of these units. After some further research, I think a more limited approach of mainly name changes could fix the bulk or the issues. With all the great changes to unit skins it’s clear that the devs are passionate about the details and it would be great if the royal houses reflected that high level of quality.
Oldenburg
Royal Huntsman/Hunter → Royal Warden
Although not a specifically Danish or Russian thing, hunting was ubiquitous amongst European nobility, so the problem with this unit is more the function and not the theme.
One issue with the current unit is that its utility is limited to only hunting. The other big problem is the transition from “Huntsmen” to “Hunter” makes no sense. The League of Armed Neutrality tech that changes them was about a naval alliance, and has nothing to do with hunters. Additionally, the switch makes them another boring skirm instead of a unique economic unit. The name is also confusing since many other units are called “hunter” in different languages (Caçadore, Jaeger, etc).
Changing the unit from only being a hunter, to being a Royal Warden could justify a broader role of forest management that includes hunting, woodcutting, and multipliers against guardians to help them gather treasures. Royal hunts were also dangerous affairs, and hunting “accidents” claimed the lives of many rulers. To symbolize these “accidents”, Royal Wardens could have a multiplier against heroes. With this expanded utility, transitioning into a combat unit would no longer be necessary, and League of Armed Neutrality could be given a more appropriate function that affects ships.
Northern Musketeer → Opolcheniye → Rynda
“Northern Musketeers’’ are very clearly based on Opolcheniye, but for some unknown reason the devs decided to obscure this history and give them a terrible generic name. A simple name change would be sufficient to fix the royal house.
However, now the latest Russian rework has introduced the change of Ruskets being renamed to Rekruts. Rekrut is extremely generic and not specifically Russian, while Opolcheniye were historically cheap militia units that would be a perfect fit for the role. The unit model even looks extremely similar when upgraded.
Opolcheniye should be the name of Russia’s musketeer unit and the Oldenburg unit could instead be covered by a new Rynda unit. Rynda were soldiers and bodyguards of the tsars which makes them a perfect fit for a royal house. They could function as an axe wielding heavy infantry unit.
Vasa
Royal Arquebusier → Sissi
The rationale for giving Vasa an arquebusier unit is based on the innovations of Gustavus Adolphus. But Arquebusiers would be much better suited as a generic European unit instead of just another unit with the boring name of “Royal ____”.
Fortunately, there is another unique light infantry unit that hails from Swedish domains; the Sissi. Sissi are Finnish guerrilla troops that fought off the many Russian incursions into their country. Their function and depiction could be similar to the current Royal Arquebusier but with the addition of the stealth ability to symbolize their guerrilla tactics.
Winged Hussar → Petyhorzec
Winged Hussars are perfectly fine as a Vasa unit. However, if Poland is ever added, it would be one of their unique units, and Petyhorzec could take its place at the House of Vasa.
Habsburg
Mounted Infantry → Grenzer
Mounted Infantry are by far the worst themed unit in the game. They are modelled off a random dragoon unit. They have no Habsburg connection and only exist as a way to poorly shoehorn in the dismounting feature.
Instead of this nonsense unit, Habsburgs should have Grenzers. Grenzers were Slavic frontier troops that defended the border between Habsburg and Ottoman domains. The Austrians considered Grenzers to be something between light infantry and line infantry, so their depiction could be as a generalist light infantry that functions very similarly to the Landwehr. There is currently a unit called Grenzer in the Hungarian Revolution, but since Grenzers weren’t actually Hungarian, this unit would work better with the name Honved.
Line Infantry → Whitecoat
Line Infantry is an entire class of infantry, not a specific unit. It’s akin to calling a unit “light cavalryman”. It should be the name of the class of units currently called “musket infantry” since half of the units classed as such don’t have a musket and are instead armed with javelins, pistols, and tomahawks. The Habsburg troops that served as line infantry were known as Whitecoats because of their distinctive uniforms. “Landwehr” would also be a valid name for this unit, but that would require a bit of a rework to the new German unit that uses the name.
In addition to having a poor name, it has some really abnormal attack speeds and half baked stat changes with different stances that don’t really add anything to the unit and mostly just make it confusing.
Bourbon
Royal Dragoon → Missionary Dragoon
Royal Dragoons are based on the events of the Dragonnades where dragoons were sent out into Huguenot households to oppress them. Rather than going with the “Royal ____” naming convention, they should be called Missionary Dragoons as that was the nickname they earned for their religious oppression.
The design of the unit is also rather poor. Again it has a non-standard rate of fire for no reason. Even more problematic is that it follows the trend of light cavalry with disproportionate melee damage so it can cut through Skirmishers with ease.
Instead of random tweaks to stats, Missionary Dragoons could be made unique by giving them the dismounting feature. Early dragoons fought as mobile infantry, and this would be a great way to showcase that history without going as far as changing the standard Dragoon unit. Their dismounted version could be a relatively weak musket infantry with decent siege and a multiplier against Villagers to represent their depredations against the Huguenots and differentiate them from Royal Musketeers.
Royal Musketeer
The name and theme of this unit is fine as is, but the function could be improved. Instead of a charged pistol attack, it should have a charged rapier attack. It already has a musket, so firing off a pistol is silly and redundant.
Jagiellon
Shock Rider → Rascian
Rascian is an archaic name for Serbs and it would be a much better name than the very generic “Shock Rider”.
