Gendarmes Lack Lances - Vanilla, XL, and Redux

[Imperiumiv]

I've found that Gendarmes are inherently useless due to their lack of lances. They get clobbered by Sipahis of the Porte,which should NOT be happening.

[drone]

Gendarmes are armed with swords, so they only have a charge of 4. Sipahis of the Porte are armed the same, but have a higher defense and morale, cost significantly more in recruitment and upkeep, and are the Late Turk bodyguard unit, so they should win against Gendarmes. Gendarmes don't have the same shock value as Knights, they are better used in flank attacks or against missile units, a straight up charge into a decent melee unit will be costly. I wouldn't say they are useless, they just replace the less expensive light cav like Mounted Sergeants in Late.

[Imperiumiv]

Gendarmes are not supposed to be light cavalry. They are the heaviest of cavalry of all. They are the final evolution in Knights. Is there a simple way to give them a lance and change their stats?

[drone]

The key is to look at their cost and build requirements. 375/70, requires Master Swordsmith and County Militia (hence their low morale and relative sucktitude). They aren't supposed to be the end-all-be-all of mounted units. That role is taken by Lancers (850/85, requires Master Horse Breeder, Master Spearmaker, Master Armourer).

It sounds as though you are arguing from a historical standpoint, which is understandable. But if you want to make them uber-knights, you will need to do more than just buff their stats. They will need higher recruitment/upkeep costs and higher build requirements for balance (maybe change their body type as well). This can all be done by editing the Gendarme line in the unit_prod file for the campaign/mod you are playing, this would be crusaders_unit_prod11.txt for vanilla.

[Imperiumiv]

Right but changing the stats doesn't add a lance. i want to see them wielding a lance. So Chivalric knights pretty much take the place of Gerdames in Mtw?

[Stazi]

Open ..\Textures\Men\PlateCav\Gendarmes_W.txt. Change 1 to 3. I don't know if weapon position and animation fits but you'll surely see the lance.

[Imperiumiv]

Thanks man.

[Axalon]

I've found that Gendarmes are inherently useless due to their lack of lances. They get clobbered by Sipahis of the Porte,which should NOT be happening.

How Redux ended up in this thread is a mystery to me, considering the plain fact that Redux don't have any Gendarmes - at all. This problem, if it is a problem, is restricted to XL and raw MTW...

- A