Problematic Russian Changes

[Josh1Axel]

Hehe, a pleasure

I also believe that historical games can collect fantasy game mechanics and that’s because fantasy games often collect inspiration from real history. There are even popular fantasy games that were inspired as a satire/critique of the story.

And taking advantage of the topic, I also want to emphasize that the Partisan, Spontoon and Halberd are a much more powerful and complicated weapon than the Pike. Taking as an example the Partisan is a shorter weapon than the Pike and at the same time requires much more training from the wielder, as an example is the use of the Partisan in Assasin’s Creed.

Assassin's Creed Unity - Intense Combat & Brutal Ceremonial Partisan Rampage - PC RTX 2080 Ti

Perhaps some people consider the mastery of the Partisan in this example as something exaggerated, but it must be recognized that weapons like the Halberd (shorter than the Pike) was much more powerful than the spear capable of piercing plate, flesh and bone. A nice mechanic that I recognize in AoE 3 is that the pikeman is a simpler unit than the halberdier, with the pikeman being primarily used as an anti-cavalry unit (as in the real story). Without underestimating specialized units such as the Spanish Tercios or the Swiss Pikemen, the use of the pike was easier (and cheaper) than that of the halberd, which made it easier to group large masses of pikemen.

Learn the Art of Combat - Pike techniques #1: Pike vs shorter weapons

Of course, it must also be recognized that the effectiveness of a weapon depends on the talent of the soldier, but if we look at it from a macro perspective it is to be expected that the soldiers with the best training and talent carry the most complex weapons.

Jet Li vs Spanish & Harry Fraud & Belgian Lancer | Fearless (2006) | Best Fight Scene

But well, returning to the specific Russian topic, I remind you that in battles like Waterloo only 10% of the soldiers died from musket balls (or at least that’s what I read somewhere); Bladed weapons continued to be one of the main causes of death in the AoE 3 timeframe. But going back to the “Poruchik” theme, renaming it to “OFITSER” would open up a better range of abilities, such as increasing the HP or the attack of the nearby allied infantry, but hey, I don’t want to complicate myself too much so I will try to avoid thinking too much about this issue

[M00Z1LLA]

With Poland on the horizon, there is a very good possibility of seeing a Ukrainian/Cossack revolution added with them that would also be available to Russia. One of the preferred tactics of the Cossacks was to use Tabor war wagons as mobile fortifications, so it’s likely we’ll see War Wagons in their roster similar to South Africa.

Russia also had their own version of this tactic known as a Gulyay-Gorod. This is actually more extensive than just war wagons and included other elements like mantlets and artillery, but the simplest way to implement it would be as a card or tech that sends and War Wagons and improves them (maybe adds deflection ability?).

This Gulyay-Gorod tech to send War Wagons could be a perfect replacement for the made up “Counter Dragoons” from the church tech. It would be functionally similar in sending a strong light cavalry but not have the drawback of being a fictional unit and it could synergize with a Cossack revolution. The Finland revolution could be compensated by reworking the Grand Duchy of Finland card to enable different units or they could get additional cards to replace it. For example a Greater Wrath card that grants resources whenever you lose a building.