Transitioning to Long Swordsman is still a struggle, even with Supplies I think. Goths and Slavs have a smooth transition into Long Swordsman. But for every other civ Supplies is just yet another upgrade you must get before Long Swordsman becomes any kind of viable. Therefore one critical buff is definitely free Supplies for at least all Infantry civs. I don’t know what Slavs should get to compensate for this.
Other than that, I agree with some sort of way to streamline Militia line upgrades.
And if all that wouldn’t be enough, then also give a small attack bonus against Calvary and a small speed boost against Archers to hopefully make the Militia line less reliant on mixing in counter units. Because Milita + counter units costs more resources for arguably less effect than straight Knights or Crossbows. Alternatively, make the Militia line cheap enough so mixing in counter units costs about the same as straight Knights or Crossbows. But Goths would need even cheaper infantry then from Feudal onwards, of course.
Fun fact: all Militia line units have a 0 attack bonus vs the cavalry armor class, which allows them to deal bonus damage against units with negative cavalry armor (Armor class: Cavalry | Age of Empires Series Wiki | Fandom) I have no idea tho why the devs decided that they need to deal bonus damage to Ballista elephants… Anyway, wouldn’t the anti-cav bonus make the Viking infantry less attractive?
I think the long swordsmen is the only point in the militia line that is weak. M@a plays a role often enough in pro games. The imperial versions are great as trash-killers, which becomes interesting in the late game when gold runs low or when you are a slow civ like Britons that like to use them directly in imperial age.
In the castle age, crossbowmen or knights are meta on land maps and long swordsmen gets killed by both. Knights are strong and mobile, archers can make a deathball and have more options due to being ranged. The long swordsmen combines both’s weaknesses, being both melee and slow. Their bonus against buildings isn’t that relevant in castle age when TCs and castles are strong enough to defend and the bonus against eagles is usually not relevant because eagles usually appear en masse in imperial age or they just avoid the fight in castle age.
This being said, buffs to the whole swords line seems wrong, so making the unit cheaper to produce is a bad idea. Having more melee armor is not helpful since they are killed mostly by archers or by knights that have high damage output such that melee armor is neglicible. To really overcome their weaknesses they would have to have higher speed and/or more pierce armor, but it would be strange to then lower the speed and armor when upgrading them further in imperial age. Since the unit plays a decent role in all ages except castle age, I think we have to just accept this as it is.
Some ideas from my side to encourage the use of the swordsmen line:
Long swordsmen upgrade cheaper is a decent idea I think.
Faster unit upgrades for the swords line to make the transition easier.
Buff siege towers to promote using them, and make siege towers faster with infantry inside (is this already the case or not like with rams?). Siege towers could be much cheaper.
Rams gain +1 melee armor per 2 swordsmen (or infantry) garrisoned (-3 armor is default, this then gets up to 0 for a filled siege ram).
Here is another crazy whacky idea of mine… Make the sword line units cost rise with each upgrade and make the cheaper units still available even after the upgrade. This way it becomes easy to mass cheap infantry units and still throw in a few champions into the mix. So basically a post imp barracks would let you make militia, maa, long swords, 2hs, and champions all at once but for different costs.
I think giving a speed boost then reducing it in Imperial might actually kinda make sense if you think about it as wearing a plate armour and carrying a big ■■■■■■■ 2handed sword would actually slow you down irl. It would also allow for a decision to be made by the player, to switch speed for armour by upgrading or to remain as long swordsman but be fast.
What possible use would anyone ever have for a militia at post imperial? Or even longswords? Persians have longswords and no one ever ever ever… ever uses them, not even to fight trash. Trash are better. Having all these options in your barracks ui just clutters it up for no reason at all. Unit upgrades are supposed to make the earlier versions completely redundant and meaningless.
You are trading a longsword and a shield to a 2 handed sword. I don’t know how you think it’s easier to be with 2 items in your hands than just 1 although a heavier one. I’d say they are about the same sothe speed nerf on upgrade makes no sense.
the viking bonus would stack, makign vikings even better cav killers
edit: i see now infantry do have an attack bonus of 0 vs cav but it isnt listed in their own pages, only on the generic cav page… thats odd as ■■■■… yet another reason to add expanded info tooltips to the game…
Long Swordsman line doesn’t really shine until you upgrade them to Champions. Champions are the only one to have extra melee armor. They’ll still die but will survive longer atleast. Speed and Armor is something they really needed. Malay Two Handed Swordsman doesn’t handle Hussar well tbh. Hussar dies still but trade off isn’t that good…
Well trying to walk while holding a two handed sword in front of you the way the unit is is a lot more contrictive than carrying two items one on each hand. Trust me IRL it would slow you down, you should try it seriously. There is also the armor, the later units clearly are wearing heavier armour, which would also restrict your movement.
Yea not sure really… I am just riffing here… maybe the older units could also take reduced pop? like 1/4 pop for militia 1/3 pop for maa 1/2 pop for long sowrds and 1 pop for 2h sword and champion. Obviously it wouldn’t make the bulk of your army but if you needed some meat shields and throw away units it could actually be an interesting idea.
Well all units in the game have this magical 100% stamina all the time, no one needs to rest their weapons ever. The way champions keep their swords is just cause it looks cool. Nothing deeper. I’d rather argue since the dude is an upgrade, he is better trained than those below him and just has the muscle and stamina to do things the inferiors could never hope of. I mean. His name is champion
There was a game casted by T90 where a finish player (I think it was Villese) switched to persians longs swords, and won. Quite situational, yes. Useless, no
Sorry man, don’t really remember much info about that game. I don’t want to be the “trust me dude” guy, but didn’t found it in youtube (and IDK how to old videos in twich) you should be able to found it in T90’s chanel I guess
