Sometime ago I wrote about a potential overhaul , where Spearman and Skirmisher are moved to the Dark Ages, and the Militia unit is removed (so the swordsman line starts in the Feudal Age). I think it might be appropriate to re-share it here, as I think adding Spearman and Skirmisher could liven-up the Dark Age meta.
2. Radical Solution
Remove the militia unit and have the Swordsman line start with M@A; Swordsman line unit stats and costs are redone. : A big issue with swordsman balancing is that people worry about making Militia-to-M@A transition overpowered. Removing the Militia unit solves this problem.Make Spearman and Skirmisher (and Range) available in Age 1; Skirmisher bonus attack vs Spearman reduced to 1 (from 3); Pikeman attack vs Villager increased by 1. : Note that the change to bonuses only applies to the base Skirm and Spears, not Eskirms and Pikes/Halbs.
The idea here is to rework Swordsman line into a more powerful unit type (more HP and Armour). Removing the Militia unit simplifies this process (i.e. M@A with 60 HP 1/1 armor is probably not OP if they have to be created from scratch in Feudal). Instead, Spears and Skirms are made available for Drushing. This makes for more dynamic, but not outright decisive, Drush strategies. Specifically:
Skirms are technically better at harrassing due to range, but are weaker (as they cannot build up a critical mass against Spears in the Dark Age)
Spears are the more powerful unit (beating the Scout and Skirmishers), but are worse at raiding due to having melee attack.
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