Would like to see it as regional units like steppe lancer or eagles. But a fast unit with similar stats to longswordsman seems outclaas militia line completely. Infantry having high mobility is actually like semi-cavalry without trash counter.
Instead of ignoreing armor, it may be better to give bonus vs siege and buildings.
Old samurai actually have two types of attack, ranged and melee. Imo, the design is really cool but it turned out that samurai cant switch weapon correctly. Dont know how to make this mechanism work. Limit ranged attack to archers and non-siege unit with 2 or more range(i.e. exclude kamayuk but include throwing axeman) ? Engage in melee when vs siege, infantry and melee cavalry?
I’d like a fast, high damage melee axeman that loses against the militia line. Aditionally more heavy infantry units would be great: heavy pikemen like the swiss ones, or the spanish tercios; macemen, or infantry equipped w/ hammers, or any other blunt weaponry, something like the landsknecht, etc.
Melee infantry was the most important body in the middle-age armies! but it’s so underwhelming and lacking of variety in this game
I’d like to see a mounted pikeman / halberdier unlocked in Castle Age (upgraded to halb in imp) which looks a bit like a lancer, has a low gold cost and is a much harder counter to cavalry like Knights, Hussar etc. But unlike the Camel, it has the same weaknesses as pikemen, so it dies harder to ranged units, especially Cav Archers who will have an extra attack bonus against them. This would encourage more Cav Archer play, especially from civs who typically never use Cav Archers.
Maybe mounted halberdiers could be affected by pikemen blacksmith armour upgrades instead of cavalry armour, as well as the typical husbandry and bloodlines. And maybe it could turn into ordinary infantry trash pike / halb when the horse loses enough HP similar to the dismounted Konnik mechanic.
Would just be for one civ or a select few civs only, same as camels and elephants.
I really like this idea.
Feel like the barracks could be fleshed out a lot more, feels kind of lacking compared to arch and stables in a way. Could really help make infantry more viable too.
Maybe a higher dps but less armoured infantry unit as suggested before, an axeman would fit this role. Unsure if even possible, or how to manage the mechanic, but it may be interesting to give it a charge attack. Not in the same way as coustillier, but an actual speed increase over perhaps X amount of tiles to close the gap on units, especially when fleeing. They could even have an additional mechanic that means units they attack cannot disengage as easily, preventing archers kiting to some degree. I suppose the unit would operate a little like a slower shotel warrior but with a charge attack. This change may encourage a more balanced army comp using cav or militia line to protect archers and avoid getting tied up when unprotected out of your base. Civ wise, prominent infantry civs would have them, as could more barbarian civs such as celts etc.
Whilst on the other hand, the militia line could be reworked to reflect better infantry organisation in later ages, they could have shields at a certain unit stage or after a tech, and whilst still specialising in melee could have a mechanic to move in tight formation, with shields raised providing buffs to pierce armour and melee defence against cavalry, but conversely a mobility reduction and a clear vulnerability to area of effect siege weapons.
Once again prominent infantry civs could have this unit type too offering a greater unit/tactic variation, and civs that aren’t top infantry civs but historically were known for regimented infantry styles such as byzantines etc could have this but not the axemen.
Not sure if any of that is at all viable, or even wanted! As personally I love the current balance, and it’s still very much the same game I was playing 20 odd years ago but it would be really great if infantry could finally feel as important/useful as cav or arch.
but it would be really great if infantry could finally feel as important/useful as cav or arch.