Should all generic Royal Guard units be re-skinned?

[Jamesagraham5]

I’ve seen this comment come up a lot whilst reading through various posts. I think they should add unique skins for the following Royal Guard units…

British musketeers - Redcoat
British hussar - King’s Life Guard

Dutch halberdier - Stadswatcht

French skirmisher - Voligeur

German skirmisher - Needle Gunner

Portuguese musketeer - Legionario
Portuguese dragoon - Legion

Russian grenadier - Pavlov
Russian cavalry archer - Tartar Loyalist

Spanish pikeman - Tercio

Swedish pikeman - Dalkarl

Italian culverin - Spingrade
Italian mortar - Galilean

Maltese crossbowman - Arbalester
Maltese culverin - Basilisk

I’ve purposely missed out all the unique units that have Royal Guard upgrades and stuck only to the generic ones.

I think this will help make the civs feel more individualistic and make the playing experience more authentic to the nation you are playing as.

@Skadidesu

Give all Royal Guard units a unique skin. This wouldn’t affect gameplay but it would make Royal Guards feel more meaningful.

I’d recommend reading through the entire comment I’ve quoted above. It suggests that some of the vanilla civs might become more popular again if they were made to feel more unique.

[SirBarnzy1]

I’m all for new skins for Royal Guard units. As long as the model/silhouette is the same for recognisability, then unique skins would be great.

[ArrivedLeader22]

They should also be given some additional functions beyond a boring +10% (not even worth the cost)

There has already been 10 reskinned revolutionaries with slight color/hat differences and they cause no problem.

[Jamesagraham5]

I’ve been playing with a mod recently by DeathAndHell485 called 5.8 - UNIQUE HISTORICAL ARMY SKINS - S.XVII-XIX - Multiplayer compatible! - Mods - Age of Empires and have really enjoyed the new uniforms introduces to the existing European units. I thought we could start here, as a point of inspiration for what the new Royal Guard skins could look like…

( the skins you’d love to see introduced into the game)

P.s. the screen shots i’ve taken of this mod are purely for the purpose of inspiration. I’ not suggesting the devs just straight copy the hard work of the wonderful community that made this.

[Jamesagraham5]

British Redcoat Musketeer

British Imperial Redcoat

[Jamesagraham5]

British King’s Life Guard Hussar (forgot to click off the unit )

British Imperial Life Guard

[Jamesagraham5]

Dutch Stadswatcht Halberdier (not a lot of change here)

[Jamesagraham5]

French Voligeur Skirmisher

French Imperial Voligeur

[Jamesagraham5]

German Needle Gunner Skirmisher (lime green probably not the best colour to show this uniform off )

German Imperial Needle Gunner

[Jamesagraham5]

Portuguese Legionario Musketeer

Portuguese Imperial Legionario

[Jamesagraham5]

Portuguese Legion Dragoon

Portuguese Imperial Legion

[Jamesagraham5]

Russian Pavlov Grenadier

Russian Imperial Pavlov

[Jamesagraham5]

Russian Tartar Loyalist Cavalry Archer

Russian Imperial Tartar Loyalist

[Jamesagraham5]

Spanish Tercio Pikeman

Spanish Imperial Tercio

[OperaticShip743]

@Jamesagraham5

British musketeers - Redcoat
British hussar - King’s Life Guard

In my opinion the red coat should be the most powerful musketeer in the entire game. It should have something special that characterizes them. I personally would improve his range to 14 and his cadence.

-“But that would be broken.”
-But that’s how they are in the film ‘The Patriot’.

[SirBarnzy1]

@OperaticShip743

-“But that would be broken.”
-But that’s how they are in the film ‘The Patriot’.

Let’s not use The Patriot for historical accuracy!

Redcoats don’t need anything to characterize them - they are already good and have plenty of shipments to bolster them.

Having their native House’s drummers more readily available (such as a shipment to enable them via barracks) would be more useful.

[Jamesagraham5]

I’m personal not against this idea. A range increase to redcoats would be amazing but I doubt it will be added as a standard stat with the royal guard upgrade as this will make the unique feature of Regulars obsolete. Maybe it could be introduced as an additional upgrade through the “Baker Rifles” HC card (although I’m aware this is not historically correct). I agree though that it does feel weird that the Portuguese have the ability to have musketeers with 13 range attack but British Redcoats don’t.

Alternately a way to buff Redcoats late game could be an introduction of a “strength-in-numbers” ability where the greater the mass of Redcoats increases all their individual hp. Or maybe gives them a range resistance. It could work like;

10+ Redcoats = 5% Range Resistance
20+ Redcoats = 10% Range Resistance
30+ Redcoats = 15% Range Resistance
40+ Redcoats = 20% Range Resistance
50+ Redcoats = 25% Range Resistance (limit)

This would work well for the new type of British late-game strategy, by having a load of beefy Redcoats acting as a meat-shield for the paper-thin Rangers behind them.

[OperaticShip743]

@SirBarnzy1

Let’s not use The Patriot for historical accuracy!

Well, I don’t use it as an exact historical reference, just as a representation. It’s the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the term ‘redcoat’.

[SirBarnzy1]

@OperaticShip743

Well, I don’t use it as an exact historical reference, just as a representation. It’s the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the term ‘redcoat’.

That’s fair enough.

I think if there’s an ability that could be added (only available from the Fortress or maybe Industrial Age), it could be British Musketry - a special ability with a long cooldown that allows a faster rate of fire for a small period of time. The British perfected sustained Platoon firing during the late 1700s and early 1800s and individually were capable of up to 4 shots a minute - British musketry was even mentioned by Napoleon who stated he would have won Waterloo if had the British Infantrys’ musket-fire.

[Deadlyint]

WOW you guys are really weird talking about stats when its just visuals this dude wants to talk about haha. Personally i like what the last image on Spanish tercio is. But would prefer that the breastplate appear more prominent.