the minieball for all its greatness wasn’t really ever going to replace line infantry, simply because the reload speed didn’t improve that much. what the minieball does is increase accuracy and effective range, but it is a different step from breechloading riffles whos main advantage is the pure increase in firepower.
there is a reason why not everyone adopted breechloading riffles and it mostly comes down to a theory that range > volume of fire, but as groups shrank and fighting became more decentralized this was just not true anymore, being able to shoot from cover 3-4 times faster was way more important than a theoretical advantage at shooting at targets over 200 meters away. the other reason was obviously cost, if you had just adopted minieriffles then it isn’t going to be so easy to accept that it is basically already obsolete as you get it.
oh it gets worse than that: we have lakota who have repeating riffles.
I really liked effort and search put into this, I definitly agree prussia and austria needs to be represented in the game but seperately. Although prussia never colonised during the game’s time period neither did ottomans so in that regard it can be overlooked.
I thought about it for a long time and came to the conclusion that the German civilization should use the mechanics that the developer wanted to add in the original AoE 3 - for Italians:
“The Italians had this crazy design where you picked a subclass: Genoa, Venezia, Milano etc. with its own unique units and bonuses to reflect the city-state vibe.”
There would be 5-6 subclasses to choose from: Prussians, Austrians, Saxons, Bavarians, Westfalen and Swiss.
I believe that this is the best alternative to the new German civilizations. There are already quite a few German units in the mercenary game, they could be used for this.
Interesting, I wonder how far along in developement the Italians were before they got shelved. IF they got far enough with them I don’t think its a long stretch to eventually see them in the DE.
Such a new mechanic should be saved for a new civ I think. People are allready up in arms over the small changes to the Germans I suggested, a complete overhaul will not persuade them I think
If the Prussians are to be a new civ, the only way I can think of that will not anger to many people is to rework the German civ in appearance only. AKA new leader, renamed home city, rename the Needle Gunner and a new model and name for the Uhlan. A more archaic late rennaisance knight. It would be more work than the original idea I suggested but the end result is a reworked HRE style Germany and a new Prussian civ.
I thought it was a good idea. Germans and Italians have a lot in common - they formed the HRE together, united in the second half of the 19th century, etc. Besides, it would be the best option in the absence of new German civilizations.
Its hard to say, we don’t know the exact details of how the Italians were supposed to work or why the idea was eventually dropped. Untill more information about that is revealed (or an Italian civ announced :P) I can’t really comment about the design of it. It sounds cool, but it’s one sentence.