We all hate it when Hussars start running around our economy. Towers can only do so much, you can’t put Castles everywhere, and Hussars can basically shrug off TC fire with Plate Barding Armor. For some civs, it’s a nightmare to handle them because of said civ’s lack of mobility.
One thought I had was that maybe the Arrowslits tech could be used to add some bonus damage versus cavalry. It wouldn’t be available to all civs, but for those that have it, this would make it a bit easier for them to fend off cavalry raids as long as they’ve put down some towers.
You honestly don’t see Arrowslits researched that much since it’s an Imperial Age tech that requires you to make Keeps for it to be any good, but making it better at fending off Hussars and maybe even Paladins would make it more useful.
IDK why a tech named arrowslits would grant a bonus vs only cavalry but I see the gameplay logic.
It’d also be nice to have towers (at least ones with arrowslits) have a different use case than castles. Castles are to hold hills, anchor pushes, be a defensive generalist. Towers are a weaker but are cheaper and better able to protect your eco if they had a cavalry atk bonus.
I think in general Towers could have Bonus against Cavalry.
This would open a new strat to counter cavalry for mostly raiding purposes.In general we have to less strats that work against that, so I think adding one new one would be interesting and refreshing.
I never understood why Arrowslits gives more attack to Keeps then to other Towers, that makes no sense.
No other technology works like that, every technology gives equal amount of bonus to previous units/buildings in a line.
This makes the technology practically useless for civs without Keep instead of compensating for the missing technology.
It should just be a flat +3 for all towers maybe even buffed to +4. It used to be +6 at some point even.
I like this idea. AoM has a technology called “Crenellations” in the 2nd Age that gives Towers +25% damage vs. Cavalry and +2 range
It used to be +100% + ballistics before retold but without the improved range.
This new technology should probably also give Towers Ballistics too so they can track cavalry better before you have a University and can research it there.
I’m all in for buffing walls, Guard Tower and Keep defensive play. And I also asked +1 attack bonus vs cavalry for Guard Tower and Keep before April 2023. But since then, most of the weak low mobility civs became okay to strong. So I stopped suggesting it.
I agree that small anti-cav bonus can help defensive abilities. But I wonder the reason for not giving it. Currently, Guard Towers stop mangonel push and keep away from xbow and most infantry. Maybe Guard towers become too all rounded in Castle age. But I think giving it in Imperial should be ok.
I tested in the past and found 4 keeps (no garrison if I remember) with arrowslits are good againse hussar. They has 11+4 attack and dissolve 5 hussars steady. That’s because mass? 4 keeps cost 140 wood and 500 stone, but can be made around farms because a tower need only 1 space.
watch tower attack: 5+1
guard tower attack: 7+2
guard tower with arrowslits attack: 9+4
keep with arrowslits attack: 11+4
I think it’s probably generally also a good idea to increase the garrison space of towers with that bonus aswell. I would even increase it to 10 teuton style.
If necessary the amount of additional arrows added can remain capped, the important part is the garrison space for the villagers. 5 garrisoon space for a defensive building that costs that much and is also built comparably slow is a very low count to use for protection. How many towers you need to have enough space for all your vills?
Seems like a fine idea. Wouldn’t affect siege elephants or cataphracts as they have anti-cav armor, but that’s fine. I did do some calculations for how much of an impact +3 anti-cav damage would have on FU keeps against FU cavalry units. For reference, keeps normally do 8+7=15 damage
FU Cavalry archers takes 9 damage from FU keeps currently and dies in 9 shots. +3 vs cavalry makes HCA dies in 7 shots. I don’t think the impact is going to kill HCA play.
(a tiny detail: “Murder Holes” should be renamed to “Machiculations”. Murder holes were inside the Gate House (enemies were trapped by two portculises), Machiculations additions to the curtain walls outside the walls of fortifications. Both for arrows, oil, stones etc. Yes… Excrements as well .)
