Light infantry.

[John the Mad]

Has there been any thought on giving them a bigger bonus in fighting in woods?

I used to play DBA and their bonuses versus penalties of heavy infantry fighting in woods or rough ground made sense.I know the game cant differentiate hills but it understands woods.

Is there any chance that lights get a better terrain bonus and heavies get more of negative one in bad terrain?

[Skullheadhq]

That would be nice indeed

[antisocialmunky]

I dunno, heavies wouldn't nessesarily have more problems in the woods unless it was an absolute thicket.

[Cute Wolf]

And what about Aedui, Avernii, and Lusotann Heavies... they are much accustomed to ambush and wilderness warfare...

[A Very Super Market]

Well, hoplites would have trouble in woods with their big sheilds, but I can think of no other example that would feasibly encounter them.

[Watchman]

*shrug* In EB1 I pretty much standardised the modifiers based on general area of origin and culture (ie. how familiar the troopers could be assumed to be with difficult terrain and bad footing), weight of armour (heavier armed men aren't as nimble as the light guys, and the extra mass of the gear on top of the body weight makes for more problems on soft, slippery etc. ground), and density of formation (closer ranks are distrupted more by trees, rocks, crevices and whatever, and warriors used to fighting in closed ranks will probably be feeling somewhat isolated in the more open formations required). Used a roughly similar approach with the snow modifiers; people haven't been complaining, from what I've seen, so it seems to have worked out well enough.

[DaciaJC]

*shrug* In EB1 I pretty much standardised the modifiers based on general area of origin and culture...

Hmm? You worked as a team member, or you did this independently?

[Watchman]

Former. I was - and still am, I guess - a sort of auditor for the EB1 EDU.

[Skullheadhq]

OK, but I think it would be harder for Romaioi/Achaioi haevy infantry to move through forests then it would be for thei light infantry.

[Watchman]

I'm under the impression that at least in RTW the terrain modifiers also have some effect on movement speed, or so I recall reading somewhere. Anyway, lighter armed troops are on faster-moving animations than the heavies in any case - wearing twenty kilos of iron or bronze kinda slows people down, after all.

[John the Mad]

Thanks for the answer Watchmen.

I haven't really noticed lights doing well though in wooded terrain.Lights versus cavalry,yes.

The heavies seem to have an initial disadvantage then just brush aside any light infantry.

I hate to bring up DBA again,but since it was the first game i played using ancients i may have become used to their reasoning of troop types and terrain,I had an Ilyrian(i know i messed up the spelling)army that could just own about any heavy infantry army that tried to take them on in the woods or on hills.

Horse archers and skirmishing cavalry seem to really hit the mark when fighting heavy infantry armies on terrain that favors them.Lights seem ..meh.

Anyways,you must have put alot of work into EB if you worked out the light infantry,and i wasn't trying to be critical,just hoping they could be beefed up a bit more in bad terrain.

As for the speed of light infantry...lets just say i'm not a fan of the way RTW or MTW2 treats unit speeds.Every unit is too fast..turning most battles into a double right click fest.

[Belisarius II]

True, a lot of units move too fast and hopefully the EB team can make the marching a tad slower, but it is mostly hard coded. Anywho, light infantry aren't made to do a frontal assault on heavy inf anyway. You have to remember that light inf are made to ambush the enemy and hit their flanks. For example, they would hide in the woods, and when the moment was right, charge from their hiding spot and move on the enemies flank or rear. They didn't fight in the woods, they charged from the woods. Now if they were intercepting an enemy unit trying to flank your army by going into the woods, then I would see where you'd expect a bonus, but again in real life these men would simply try to hold the enemy until the heavier troops and/or cavalry came to assist them. So light inf would be made to flank the enemy which in turn would disrupt the enemy flanks just long enough for your heavy inf to charge into the disorganized flanks.

[Cyclops]

...I haven't really noticed lights doing well though in wooded terrain.Lights versus cavalry,yes....

I took a Carthi army (FM, L-P spears, citizen cav and a balearic slinger or two) and an allied greek army (regional hoplites, allied general and akontistai) into Italy, ran into a Roman stack (hastati, principes, one triarii and a merc or two) on a wooded hillside in Bruttium and was cut to shreds. Its a battle I would ordinarily have won and I put it down to the terrain bonuses.

edit: the merc or two were gallic IIRC. They carved me up good.

[mlc82]

What's DBA?

[Ibrahim]

What's DBA?

IIRC, de bellis antiquitatis.

its basically a code, and series of accompanying armies, dealing with the ancient worls for the most part. (for wargaming)

[John the Mad]

What's DBA?

Tabletop wargame on ancient warfare.

Expensive,but fun,once you bought the armies,paint,geo-hex mat and terrain.

Pretty simple to learn.

Sword>Spear,Spear>horse,light infantry or light horse really wasn't better than anything unless they were in terrain that favored them.

You had combat bonuses based on unit type and terrain aand flanking then rolled the dice to find out an outcome of unit on unit combat.

Though using a ruler to figure each units movement was a bummer.

Thats why i started playing TW games..all the fun and half the thinking.

Not to mention i never have trouble finding an opponent.

[Ibrahim]

Tabletop wargame on ancient warfare.

Expensive,but fun,once you bought the armies,paint,geo-hex mat and terrain.

Pretty simple to learn.

Sword>Spear,Spear>horse,light infantry or light horse really wasn't better than anything unless they were in terrain that favored them.

You had combat bonuses based on unit type and terrain aand flanking then rolled the dice to find out an outcome of unit on unit combat.

Though using a ruler to figure each units movement was a bummer.

Thats why i started playing TW games..all the fun and half the thinking.

Not to mention i never have trouble finding an opponent.

yeah, that's the same way I got started on ancient warfare-I always wanted to make ancient battles com alive in front of me. didn't know about RTW until after my highschool was up.