Shield Wall Tech for the Militia-line

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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To finally break the archers and knights meta.

Nearby Militia-line units gain plus 1 pierce armor for every 5 Militia units, to a max of 4 pierce armor when 20 are grouped together. Be like the Georgians’ Monaspa but pierce armor instead for the Militia-line. Research cost: 75 food, and 50 gold. It’s a separate technology from supplies. Is the tech too cheap? Should it be changed in some way? Lower the pierce armor bonus?

What if 10 militia gain plus 1 pierce armor, and 20 militia gain plus 2 pierce armor? Could more civs gain Shield Wall with this change?

Should it be every 7 Militia? So you will need 28 Militia to gain plus 4 pierce armor? 7 plus 1, 14 plus 2, 21 plus 3, 28 plus 4. As the Militia take casualties in battle, they will lose the extra pierce armor as the Shield Wall becomes weaker.

How strong would this make militia vs archers? Note, not every civ gets Shield Wall, this tech is available in the feudal age. This will allow all in Man At Arms to a degree. It will allow for more aggressive infantry pushes. Since the extra pierce armor will make them stronger vs towers and town centers as well.

Even in the Imperial Age this will allow the militia-line to be quite aggressive against defences and tanky vs archers. The following civs get Shield Wall. Celts (faster Militia) Vikings(Militia more HP/chieftans) Bulgarians (Free Militia upgrades/Bagains) Teutons (Militia extra melee armor). Franks and Britons, no special bonus.

I think giving this tech to some civs would make it too strong. But some others, not so much. There might need to be some balance changes to counter the new stronger militia.

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7

TBH i would like to just get a “Shieldman”. It was very common in the early middle ages.

The issue with giving extra armor to a line like this is that it will at some point just complelty overwhealm archer civs. We already see with Gambesons, that some Champion lines are really hard to fare against with them in late Imp. Whilst CA and Cavalry civs wiht Hand Cannons have no issue whatsoever. Partly ofc because of the lower gold cost of the militia, but it’s for me already telling, that especially Archer civs now have problems with the standard militia line in late imp - as Archers were the inteded counters.

This can’t happen when it’s a distinct unit, specialised to be the frontline against archers - as the archers can be microed to hit the other units behind - and you could add a holding frontline to stop the engaging opponent force. Which would be hard against the militia line, as it has a very high base damage output and would just shred an added frontline.

In general I see too much attempt here to make the militia line bascially uncounterable. Which is a really bad idea. I would much more prefer to see ideas to better cover their weaknesses with other units (Compositional Synergy).

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