I really enjoy Spain and a strategy that revolves around the Archaic Infantry. With the right cards they are strong, quickly produced, and I am not scrambling to replace units in my army with Musketeers and Skirmishers but adding to my Iberian Horde. So here are my questions.
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I’ve wondered why the Rodeleros get the buffs from the associated Archaic Infantry cards but do not get the reduced build time from the Age 1 Team Archaic Infantry quick build card. Is this intentional or an oversight? It’s not a huge deal but it’s stuck out and I’ve never seen a good answer.
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When doing the Age 3 to Age 4 card to get cheaper Archaic Infantry upgrades this doesn’t reduce the cost of Rodeleros but does for Crossbowman and Pikes. I thought maybe it was because the Rodeleros are a specialty unit, 1000/1000 wood and gold respectively but the Pikes are too, Tercios, and they get reduced to 300/300 if I’m remembering correctly. Rodeleros don’t need to be that cheap but maybe reducing to 500/500 or 600/600 would provide more incentive for people to play this card and give this strategy more appeal.
Anyway thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any answers.
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In general, there isn’t a tag for archaic infantry. This was just used in cards to define groups of units. Kind of how other civs have infantry combat that only effects muskets, or cav combat that only effects hussar.
Rodeleros are closer to halberdiers than pikemen. Historically, they were a new tactic to defeat pikemen, so not completely archaic.
Historically, they were used during the push of pike/pike and shot era of warfare. The idea was that they could get around the pikes with their shield and attack them. This resulted in middling results.
Rodeleros not getting the upgrades is most likely very intentional.
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That makes sense historically. However per the cards Rodeleros get buffs the same as the rest of the archaic infantry with combat and hit points. The Papal Guard for Portugal, Age 3 to Age 4, is the same as the Spanish in that it reduces cost and allows the guard option for Pikes, that are free, and specialty Crossbows, Bestiaros (?) which are 300/300 instead of 1000/1000. Halberdiers get a reduced upgrade cost from 600/600 to 300/300 for Portugal as well with that age up card. So Portugal with the same age up card gets more to encourage an Archaic Army route than Spain.
You’re probably right that it is intentional though. But just doesn’t make sense to me is all. As that dude from Poldark said, t’isn’t right, t’isn’t fair, t’isn’t proper.
Appreciate the response.
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Apologies I didn’t reply in full to what you said. I can understand not having the speed to building them as historically they aren’t Archaic despite the cards. However as hand infantry they should have the reduced upgrade cost in Age 4 with the Papal Guard Age Up card because they are indeed hand infantry just like Halberdiers who get a reduced cost with Portugal. Or the Dopplesonder that gets a reduced cost with Germany. The cards certainly seem to try and encourage an Archaic Infantry build for Spain but stop short. That is I guess my main quibble.
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