Loading cranequin crossbow while holding it against the belly.
5:28 Reloading with one hand while other hand holding stock.
It is actually possible to reload a cranequin crossbow on horseback though much more cubersome than a bow.
For its role, let it to have bigger anti-spear bonus to synergize with knight but reload slower. Get beaten by Knight, crossbow, skirmishers and cavalry archers. Fall off quickly and become niche in imperial age. With knight, strong in Castle Age without fletching-line upgrades.
Castle Age
Imperial Age
Mounted Crossbowman
Mounted Cranequinier
Cost
30W/70G
30W/70G
Training time
35s
35s
HP
40
40
Attack
9 Pierce
10 Pierce
Attack bonus
+5 vs spearman
+6 vs infantry
Reload time
2.5(2.25 after TR)
2.5(2.25 after TR)
Attack delay
0.5
0.5
Range
4
4
Accuracy
100%
100%
Armor
0/0
0/0
Speed
1.3
1.3
LOS
Range +3
Range +3
It can kill pikes/ halbs in 4 shots. Even in small number, it will be effective enough against pikes.
For its availability to civilizations, there were actually a lot of kingdoms using it, like Holy Roman Empire, Poland, Swiss, Italians, France, Burgundians, Spanish, Portuguese etc. Maybe give it to Bohemians, Sicilians, Italians(no imp upgrade), Teutons, Lithuanians first.
Edit (1)
I expect mounted xbowmen will be given to certain civs without bracers. 1 more bonus damage will be needed to kill halbs in 4 shots. I changed it from +5 to +6 vs infantry.
I don’t mind adding Celts to access to Cranequiniers. I am not sure whether Celts need it for its knight though Cranequiniers alone can be fairly good raiders.
For historical accuracy all the civis in the western europe building sets should get this unit.I doubt any of them used mounted archers or nomads who excelled at it.
Yep, this should be the cavalry archer replacement for some European civs, especially the ones in western Europe.
On the other hand, I wish the Elephant Archer to be the regional unit for SE Asian civs as well (Burmese, Khmer, and Malay) and replace their cavalry archers. The only exception would be the Vietnamese who historically had a closer tie with East Asia, thus get to keep the cavalry archers.
I prefer to be more conservative when introducing new regional units.
Poles, Burgundians and France also used crossbow on horseback. But their Cavalry is relatively stronger. Poles have very cheap knights in late Castle age. Burgundians have early Cavaliers. Franks have throwing axeman and high hp knight. Spanish have Conquistadors.
Mounted Crossbows were historically often deployed against cavalry so I think that would be a more interesting role.
The bonus damage should be lower then the one of the Genuese Crossbowman so probably just like somewhere +2 or +4.
I suggest compared to (Elite) Cavalry Archer:
+1 Melee armour
+2 (+4) vs. Cavalry instead of Spearman
-0.05 speed (same as a Knight)
None of the civilisation get Parthian Tactics
Would make them kinda nice at countering normal Cavalry Archers but Cavalry Archer are still a little faster so they can avoid the fight.
The civs with Mounted Crossbowman still need to rely on Hand Cannons, Elite Skirmishers or Arbalests against Spearman.
Hand Cannons are pretty common for Western European civs so I don’t think they really need another anti Infantry unit.
Mounted Crossbowman inherently have high base damage, which is better than other archers against armored knight-line. I suppose that they are fine against cavalry when there are meatshields in front.
Compared to Parthian tactics heavy CA, mounted Cranequinier anti-spear looks meh in imp age. So anti-infantry replace anti-spear to keep a bit viability. Besides, with mounted Cranequinier, their knights formation have higher mobility.
The only way to see that working without affective the balance of the CA in game, is to make them as regional reskins for western European/some Asian civs.
That would solve much of the demand for regional units.
Indeed, as the xbow and arba are already an upgrade of the archer instead of being more specialised against heavily armoured units (one thing AOE4 got very right), the difference wouldn’t be that large.
Maybe add a new tech for civs that have mounted xbow skins (in practice mutually exclusive with parthian tactics) : cranequin crossbows : increase the attack by 1 or 2, making their horse archers more specialised for static fire support while civs with horse archers and parthian tactics will be more suited for hit and run tactics.
Agree with Huns Steppe Lancers. Was there any place that also deployed Paladins outside Europe? Arquebus will be then replaced by another UT while Portuguese suddenly get it for free. Personally, I don’t wanna see Portuguese change in near future yet.
It is debatable that which civs should have mounted crossbowman. I mentioned that Franks should not have it as there is already throwing axeman.
