Ideas about ETW (AI, city ancillaries, universities, parallel building, civic virtue)

[Noncommunist]

Perhaps have armies very likely to splinter and disappear if without a good General, say depending on how good a General is the further you can take an Army away from your lands or capital, the unrest in the army should grow. In this way your captains will be good for police actions within your own lines but cant leave your borders. Whilst your 10 star general can go all the way to India.

Vaguely like crusades in a way? Except that poor leadership rather than slow speed would be the reason for desertion.

[Sheogorath]

What I think would be particularly interesting would be a units seniority reflected in the quality of their equipment and style of dress. Rather than actually recruiting grenadiers and other elite units, they would be formed on the basis of combat experience. For instance, units with no chevrons would simply be generic linesmen, or even a step lower than that. As they gained experience, they would get nicer equipment, fancier uniforms, better artillery and so on. This could also include combat merits, such as flags, banners and various other honors.
Of course, you could also give those units those things yourself, but they would need to be paid for, rather than (perhaps) given for free or at a discount (reflecting officers purchasing the items themselves, rather than the state doing so).

Just a random idea.

One feature I would love to have would be the ability to customize uniforms. There was, historically, a great deal of variation between uniforms, even up to Napoleonic times. While most states generally maintained an overall 'theme' (Red for the British, green for the Russians, black/dark grey for Prussia), most units had distinctive colors. Pants with red stripes, different styles of headgear (The Pavlovsk Grenadiers, as I so often love to mention, where the only unit in the Russian army to retain their miter caps past the Napoleonic Wars. Some of them survived right up to the Revolution, seeing service in World War II, complete with holes from musketballs at Austerlitz)
This was especially reflected in cavalry uniforms, who quite often didn't follow the 'state' theme at all. The Russian Cossack Lifeguard, for instance, wore bright red jackets. Other units (in all armies) tended to wear distinct colors, I suppose in the spirit of chivalry and to make them more noticeable on the field.

This could even be extended to affect morale, as armies tended to adopt a style similar to whoever won the last war. Again, as an example, Prussian-style uniforms were popular prior to the Napoleonic Wars, whereas afterwards almost everybody in Europe except the Brits adopted a Russian style, most notably, the Prussians

The British seem to have been an exception to this. I guess they just like their big hats. And, of course, for whatever reason, the British have a long history of Russophobia. They never did seem to like the Russians after Ivan IV hit on Queen Elizabeth.

On the note of Cossacks, I do hope Russia doesn't get a generic 'Cossack' unit. There was far too much variation between the various hosts, Don Cossacks, the largest and generally most organized, went so far as to organize foot units (generally light infantry) and had their own artillery and (sort of) uniforms. More Easterly cossacks dressed in styles of Central Asia, and the Caucasian Cossacks wore Turkish styles, complete with pointy shoes and scimitars. Naturally, some of these would be available to the Ottoman faction as well.

[Zoring]

Neocommist, thats about it, kind of a system like that, with your units having a 'morale/supply' rating, which is affected primarily by the Generals star rating, but also having positives and negatives, if you are in swampy areas troops will get sick and desert/perish if you are in the middle of Russia in the Winter you get a huge hit. Furhter you get from your capital the worse it gets, visit cities with brothels/pubs you get a bonus, say you have to encamp your troops over the winter in hostile areas. But it has to have an element of randomness otehrwise people can mathematically calculate how far you can go etc which is never fun.

Also Sheo, thats a pretty good idea, you have your line infantry serving up to say 1 silver, you can march them back to town and upgrade them to veterens. Some units should be recruited as they are, units like Cavalry, Grenadiers (being selected from the best and strongest men in a regiment) having to be trained for longer or needing more resoruces/horses.

Also in regards to colours of nations, i woulden't mind unified uniforms as long as the colours are NOT fluro. Ick. No more Byzantium fluro purple please.

[Sheogorath]

Also Sheo, thats a pretty good idea, you have your line infantry serving up to say 1 silver, you can march them back to town and upgrade them to veterens. Some units should be recruited as they are, units like Cavalry, Grenadiers (being selected from the best and strongest men in a regiment) having to be trained for longer or needing more resoruces/horses.

More or less. However, many grenadier companies were created for exemplary duty (in the 18th century, when they stopped being a distinct unit and essentially became elite infantry), well performing regiments got the best men and equipment, along with fancy titles and hats :P

Also in regards to colours of nations, i woulden't mind unified uniforms as long as the colours are NOT fluro. Ick. No more Byzantium fluro purple please.

Sadly, some nations DID have fluorescent colored uniforms. Or close to it

[Polemists]

Militarily

I'd like to see lockable gates on Forts.

I always thought it was silly in RTW (Forget if MTW2 did this) where you'd hold off a army outside your gates, then suddenly 5-10 guys are retreating, gates open and enemy follows them in.

Locking your men outside the fort..cruel? Maybe...Valid tactic? Absoutely.

I suppose with canons and ranged weapons this becomes a non exsistent issue. Still just a thought.





I'd like to see the general not wave a sword on a horse...to late I know. I just mean i'd be nice to see him look over a battle map or just point or something. I know he still does the wave sword charge thing judging by videos.


Civicly:

I would like to see printing presses. It is that time. I don't just mean Printing Press +2 to your people's idealism. I mean actual presses, it dosn't have to have a article each season but i'd be nice if you could use them for maybe mass publicity, elections, or smearing another faction.

For instance, if your people get war weary you can bribe the press to to show nation A had it coming, etc, etc