It is pretty weird, pure 16th and 17th century units are implemented for some reason (winged hussars) while infamous late medieval units like great bombards aren’t. But then again, Ensemble Studios had very very poor understanding of european history.
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The Franks faction is used to represent everything from the Frankish Merovingian Kgdom to the early XVI century Capetian house of Valois. That is why Franks get Throwing Axemen as a UU and good cavalry (especially Knights) as bonuses.
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You are talking sbout two diferent dev teams though and a game that hss evolved a lot. Back then they just chose Jsnnisary over Great Bombards
Yes of course. What I meant in the end is the big picture, fantasy units (throwing axemen) are implemented in place of real units for several civs.
except throwing axemen aren’t fantasy units.
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They were fantasy units. Nobody walked into a battle with a couple of axes to be thrown. Swordsmen, cavalry, everyone used throwing weapons.
" The Byzantine historian (c. 500–565) described the Franks and their use of throwing axes:
…each man carried a sword, a shield and an axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides whil the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at one signal in the first charge and thus shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men"
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Lol yeah, read that sentence again. What was they doing after throwing the axes? Melee. Just like romans used javelins in before a charge. There were no dedicated “throwing axemen” unlike (throwing) javelinmen.
If there were only two ballista elephants in the story of Camboya, would that stop the devs from adding those? The answer is no
Its just having some fun
Frankish Paladins were designed for Franks UU in the beginning, more accurate but their position is covered by regular paladins so an infantry unit is a smart choice actually.
If you wanna make Axemen more real, perhaps they could melee in 0 range after throwing, then waiting the charge bar full and throwing again, similar to Coustilliers.
But it is almost impossible to be implemented, sadly.
Yup, they should’ve done exactly that when they designed the engine.
The very designation of “Paladin” as the ultimate cav unit in a medieval game (that’s supposed to be based on history) is saying a lot too but I digress…