Havnt seen any Arbs yet...

[Callahan9119]

no arbs? havnt seen any in the unit rosters, bummer

me + arbs = :knuddel:

[Furious Mental]

I'm pretty sure arbs are in.

[Pius]

Whats an arb?

Arab?

[DisruptorX]

Arbalest? Don't see why they wouldn't return. Crossbows just aren't all that exciting compared to standard bows and guns, probably why they haven't shown any.

[econ21]

I am not sure there is a hard and fast distinction between a crossbow and an arbalest. At least, when I was looking into the realism of MTW, I never found one. Over time, crossbows became heavier, with metal components, levers etc. It was a gradual progression.

The absence of arbalests in the Sicily faction preview is also suggestive - there's no reason why that faction should be excluded from arbalests. Now it could be the previews are not comprehensive but right now I doubt that. So maybe arbalests are not in the game? CA could model the improvement in the crossbow through the weapon upgrades, just as it is apparently modelling the introduction of plate and Gothic armour through armour upgrades.

However, if you look at the screenshot of the Portugese custom battle unit selection, you will see two almost identical crossbow units - one of which has a slightly heavier crossbow. It may be that one is a militia and one a regular crossbow unit. Alternatively, maybe arbalests are in, but Sicily does not get them? But then again Portugal seems to gets only one pavise crossbow unit, when if arbalests are in, you would expect two. So at the moment I'm sticking with the arbalests are out theory.

To be honest, I never liked arbalests too much in MTW. They were just too powerful in the hands of the player and came an era too early in the SP game. (I suspect their range was longer than the AIs reaction radius, so you could just shoot a defending army to death.)

[Callahan9119]

well, i agree...in sp they were a lil much for the retarded ai to handle, but they pretty much made the mp battles....was the best skirmish i'v played in any game, especially when you had 4 or 6 good players in a team battle...i think they prevented the cheese playstyle u see in rtw as they would chew through uber units like lesser units, preventing nubs from relying on god units to win it for them

the only thing that will console me is if crossbows can be shot over your lines head or the gunpowder units are improved.

in mtw i could shoot a volley of guns point blank at a unit and i'd be lucky if 2 fell down