Trait: Dislikes Gunpowder

[PBI]

I had an immediate negative reaction to the game announcement for the same reason. It's not so much the use of gunpowder per se, but the way gunpowder armies lack the diversity of units that we had in the earlier periods. Vastly different ways of outfitting soldiers with melee weapons, armor, and minimal ranged weapons in close-range combat means more possible tactics, more interesting ways to play the game, compared to the "level field" of gunpowder combat. I know that armies in this period had some degree of diversity in the units. But unless CA is going into the a-historical fantasy zone, they're going to be less diverse in style of combat than we had in the pre-gunpowder era. As a strategy gamer, that's just less attractive to me.

To be fair, Shogun also had only a relatively small number of distinct unit types, but that was sufficient to make for fantastic battles thanks to the good AI. If Empire goes down a similar route I actually think it would be a good thing; ETW is in some ways a proof-of-concept both for the new naval engine and to show that CA can still make good battle AI, so perhaps it is best if they don't overcomplicate things.

Regarding those who fear gunpowder combat will be nothing but "stand and shoot"; if you think about it you could equally well argue that melee combat is nothing more than "stand and chop". On some level it's true, but the whole point of tactics is trying to engineer it so that when it comes time to do the chopping, it's your guys who are left standing afterwards.