Some interesting unit vs. unit experiments

[Grifman]

Yeah know, I could spend hours in unit vs. unit matchups in the custom battles, but tonight I tried a couple. Everyone has been saying that the Byzants have crappy late units, especially with no anti-cav pikes, halberdiers, etc. Well, maybe it's not as clear as that.

For example, I tried a couple of combats with Varangian Guards, no valor upgrades, no armor upgrades, vs. high era Chivalric Knights, same no upgrades. The Varangians won twice, rather easily after absorbing the charge. They take some losses at initial contact, start off losing badly, but come back strong. Of course it was just a couple of combats . . .

But what really surprised me was next. I tried Byzantine Infantry, no upgrades, against a mix of high and late era Royal Knights. The Byzantines infantry won ALL four times. The entire time the combat description was that they were "losing badly" - and I guess one on one they were. But pure numbers won out. They lost a little over 60 men against the late RKs but won in the end. So here's unit costing only 175 florin taking out over 600 florin RKs. I didn't try CKs but I don't think they'd do well against them, just too many. But they seem to handle 20 RKs fine.

Maybe the Byzants aren't so weak after all . . .

I'd be interested in any other unit comparisons people want to post. Could find some interesting stuff.

Grifman

[Kraxis]

Ok, how many tests did you do per matchup? What level was it on (quite important)? And did you play both sides?

It is very important to play both sides or else the test will be faulty as Normal makes it a little easier for you and Hard makes it a little harder for you, though I find it to be closer to even than Normal.

Varangians are certainly good, and the have been made better by the lowering of their cost by 50 and the Valours costing 70% now.

[Alrowan]

hmm.. well i found that Byz inf in MP are crappy against mounted troops

[Grifman]

Quote[/b] (Kraxis @ Nov. 11 2002,22:58)]Ok, how many tests did you do per matchup? What level was it on (quite important)? And did you play both sides?

It is very important to play both sides or else the test will be faulty as Normal makes it a little easier for you and Hard makes it a little harder for you, though I find it to be closer to even than Normal.

Varangians are certainly good, and the have been made better by the lowering of their cost by 50 and the Valours costing 70% now.
I did the Byzant infantry vs. royal cav four times, two times with me playing each side - and the infantry won all times. I don't remember seeing any difficulty level in the custom combats - I certainly didn't change anything - I must have missed that, so I used whatever the default was.

Grifman

[Kraxis]

Then it would have been in Spring and on Normal.
That's ok since you played as both sides though.

But you have to consider this, the general's unit get +2 Morale to his unit, so the most true test would be two on each side. That is kind of hard as the AI doesn't always do as you want.
But when we talk Byz inf 2 Morale is very important, it makes them almost as tough as Feudal MAA with many more men.