You can add the choice for ALL of the above and LS would be probably still meta-irrelevant, except for few civs.
The question can be rephrased to ‘Which unit should LS resemble, Woad Raider or Serjeant?’
I would keep it as a unique civ bonus instead. Rather prefer a legit solution as in either survivality or Vikings treatment. Even though Vikings swordsman and Berserkers arent really strong.
Serjeant and Ghulams are the only infantries that are versatile to use with actual utility. Others are simply odd cases.
Now back to the topic, +1 PA should be universal applied from Castle Age onwards. Excluding that I would pick speed and HP
Woad Raider still feels mid to play. Think I’ll go Serjeant with -1/-1 armor and more speed. Speed should be slightly faster than Xbows in Castle Age onwards. Just to survive arrow hits.
I don’t think Gambeson should be the prioritized eliminated barrack tech. Arson should be prioritised instead. Keep +1 PA for gambeson.
Then, add hobnail boots as you said. Hobnail boots give firmer stance for militia line. It helped them fight in difficult terrain historically but terrain effect cant be done in current mechanics. So +0.1 speed for militia and +0.1 additional speed for rams with any militia garrison inside. Militia with squires has 1.1 speed while full rams have 1 speed
Gambeson is applied only for Swordsman line and not even UUs. Also +1 should’ve been the default state of Swordsman. If not 2/23/3 armor in Castle Age. That is if M@A is designed to become general purpose Swordsman unit if we assume Ensemble designed in such way.
Even though what they did in AOM was much better as a soft counter. Technically Eagle Warrior is a soft counter but we can make Swordsman doing a better job. Its still very rare already with Vikings Swordsman/Berserk to see its place on meta despite high HP and soft counter to Cavalry. I still vote for pushing the boundary as much as possible until we start giving the nerf. We have been buffing since HD Edition but still bad to this day.
Now that I think about it, its actually a good unit after removing the gimmick. But still need some form of anti-cav option still.
However in Obuch’s case, its armor tear what makes it quite good to play with. Wonder how strong it can be if there was no armor tear.
On aggression, you can keep Xbows and Mangonels, Knights and Mangonels and even Pikes and Mangonels. But same cant be said for Swordsman still. Since Archer can pick it off one by one and Knights obviously can kill it even faster. Obviously pikes will feel weak but even Skirms + Mangonel can counter this.
But good option still. Perhaps Eagle Warrior like small anti-cav could be universal across infantry from now on instead.
But 2HS and Champ is a problem yet to be solved. Need a way to distinct them to remove obstacles in upgrading unit.
Berserkers are great, they were always seen in the competitive scene. Also, I recently asked Viper, as a joke, if they should be buffed even more. I received a flat no.
You are probably using infantry in the wrong way.
The only infantry unique units currently problematic are the Samurai and Jaguar Warrior. Sure, something could be done about the Condottiero too, or to better fix the cost of the Teutonic Knight, or what the Woad Raider is (but that is for another discussion on the Celts), but there are many infantry UUs in a good state.
I still feel having units as team bonus or team unique tech should be scrapped. Think probably the worst way to design UUs. It should be handled like Chronicles to have mercenary UUs trained at Castle. Perhaps make them relevant to map generation simply and you train it to some limited number.
Berbers Genitour should be regional unit to Iberian-Middle Eastern civs.
Cant say for others but I never felt doing a grave mistake when I picked Serjeants or Ghulams.Serjeant and perhaps due to its Donjon Rush nature felt comfortable to use. Ghulam for its mobility to avoid arrows or siege.
Cant say much about Obuch as I didnt owned the DLC at that time. Not it maybe time to check as it is free for everyone who owned previously. I never felt comfortable with others. Condotierro felt like just a good solution to skip M@A upgrades only. Teutonic Knight is fine but yet again due to its nature it’ll probably be forever niche use. Atleast its actually good to mix it with Siege. That’s why I think its fine. Others are just meh.
I totally disagree. 1 less attack for +20 HP and +1 MA is more than worth it. This stat will be totally OP for LS even if they cost 50 food instead of 45.
Yeah, Arson is a joke of a tech to spend resources.
That’s new. I thought they are awesome. Are you talking about Castle Age? Because in Imperial Age, Elite WR is probably the strongest unit for Celts.
They already are after researching Squires.
If I recall correctly, @DemiserofD asked to bring Tracking back instead of a new tech. The effect will be same - 10% speed.
Yep. I always think both Supplies and Gambeson needs to go and LS should get the +1 PA for free. The extra 15 food cost is compensated enough from saving 175 food + 175 gold. From my Castle Age eco calculation 175 gold = 135 food. So you will save 310 equivalent food. That means after 21 units, you will be paying more than current one.
Want it stacked on top of Squires. That is if its decided to make it more like anti-pierce unit instead of soft counter to cavalry. I think being faster is still good. Many civs like Celts proves it.
