Ok, so this goes back all the way to PUP launch when I saw the janissary or the first time - I immedeately though of the landsknecht. The cost was the same. The base damage was the same. Speed same. FU stats; damage, hp, armor, speed, cost - same. Jan unique tech is the same as if they got blacksmith techs, and Elite army tactics closes the hp gap for lands. Lands multiplied there damage with splash, jans focused it via range. It was like I was looking at the inverse of each unit in the other. I’m seriously committed to the idea that this was intentional - that the devs meant for the janissary to be a unit of a similar overall power to the landsnake, even if it was for a totally different role. It’s my pet theory, this.
All that said, please look through this lens while I go through the major differences - the bonus damage vs cav and 50% range damage taken. So the root - I believe - of all this is that two units that were intended to indirectly comparable had completely different armor classes. Lands - light melee infantry class, takes bonus from archers (and some light ranged cav). Jans - counter-ranged infantry class, takes bonus damage from horsemen and mangonels (javelins now too). The simplest, most tunnel visioned way to sorta bridge this gap is to add some anti cav damage and amplify the damage from archers. In the end, the janissary can kill the horsemen faster than it gets killed, and the +50% isnt that bad - actual light melee infantry take +100%. “It’ll be fine”, is what all devs in the studio thought the night before launch.
The whole lot of them forgot that xbows are a generic unit and benefit more than archers from this. They forgot that there are ranged cav units with very high base damage and dps that benefit much more than archers. Then, there are basic handcannoneers - the thing they tried to replace, that literally 2 shot a janissary at all stages of the game. Landsnakes beat xbows and even threaten handcannons in equal res - the latter win with micro/stagger, but its bad if you dont have that. Jans…have springalds in their list of counters.
Yea, the thesis is that I think this whole +50% from all ranged damage is a brainfart of epic proportion and is prolly a temporary thing. I call upon the community to ready derpish memes to unleash upon the possibly overworked devs when the time is right. For now, lets all just chill and pretend ribauldequins were the true janissary aaaall along.
