Infantry mass

[BobTheTerrible]

From what I understand, mass is pretty much the "pushing power" that a man/unit on a whole will have. I recall it having to do with calculations for cavalry charges too? I remember Red Harvest suggesting increasing phalangites' mass to make them more pike-like. Could increasing all infantry unit masses reduce the power of a cavalry charge, if only to lower the amount of men sent flying and to reduce the "cutting power" cavalry has to slice through formations? Does anyone know what the effects of this could be?

[Kraxis]

Cavalry has about 4-5 mass which makes it quite strong. If you increase infantry mass the increadible charges made by such cavalry as Militia Cavalry or Horse Archers will be significantly decreased and other cavalry will be halted after killing a number of men. You don't want to cahrge heavy mass infantry, but the cavalry will still be powerful.

[Stlaind]

Wouldn't it be better to decrease some of the cav's mass (such as militia cav, horse archers, Cav auxilia) and increase only "heavy" infantry's and phalanxes' mass? perhaps even increase "shock cav" like the Companions' mass a little so they remain usefull for penetrating lines/masses if the mass change proves to be to much?

[BobTheTerrible]

Wouldn't it be better to decrease some of the cav's mass (such as militia cav, horse archers, Cav auxilia) and increase only "heavy" infantry's and phalanxes' mass?

I was thinking of decreasing cav mass, but I think infantry have too little "mass" as it is. I would be, of course, increasing heavy infantry mass by more.

As for cav I guess lowering the charge value would have to do. Along with increasing the mass of infantry, this should make cav decent but not overpowered.

[Aetius the Last Roman]

Will changing the pike infantry mass actually grant a pike-push effect?

[Kraxis]

Yes to a degree, but its most important factor is that cavalry won't be able to trample your high end phalanxes so easily.

The push will happen, but the game kills too fast so you will seldomly notice. Personally I have seen a unit push another seriously back only a few times.