Quote Originally Posted by gollum View Post
Well this is a space restriction - it affects the time the castle will fall indirectly : by letting you put less men inside the castle while it counts the horses for food/space. In this way half the amount of men the castle can take are allowed in if they are say all cavalry (and so make the garrison more vulnerable to asssaults) while they starve at the same rate as a full footmen garisson.
Yes, but that's what I'm saying: the game doesn't seem to distinguish between a whole company of heavy cavalry or a single kensai. That is certainly the impression I get from what I'm told on the campaign map. I had a citadel which "would not fall without a direct assault" when a full unit of yari samurai was garrisoned there. I added a cavalry unit, and then it "could mean years of waiting". I then placed a unit of battlefield ninja in the citadel, as lone garrison. "Would not fall without a direct assault". Then I added a kensai. "Could mean years of waiting". I'm not sure how it actually works, but the prognosis given me on the campaign map certainly does not count anything but units, and doesn't care how many men are within that unit, nor what kind of unit it is. I've tried a number of combinations.



Precisely, so just count how many units are made redundant in this way in MTW and how many in STW. You'll find that there are tens of MTW that you can do without but only one in STW the yari ashigaru.

In MTW you actually get units that are a better version of the same statistically, which makes the previous obsolete - in addition as i mentioned, its well known that all you need is really swords/heavy cavalry(knights preferably)/arbalesters (after 1204). Such an army has huge advantages over any other MTW army composition unfortunately in all departments (firepower/melee strength/moblity/impact), unless you fight in desert terrain that makes less than 10% of MTW maps in vanilla. This was clear in MTW multiplayer were such armies dominated the field. Only aout 15 units were cost effective enough to be used in tournaments and regular mp in arid/lush/temperate maps.
Yes, but I like the flavour. When you play civilization, knights eventually replace chariots, too. And tanks replace knights. Without units becoming obsolete or at least old fashioned, there is no sense of technological progress. This is why I like militia sergeants replacing town militia; feudal sergeants replacing spearmen; feudal knights replacing mounted sergeants and so on. But the transitions are very gradual: just because I have just built a spearmaker's workshop and can now produce feudal sergeants, for example, I will still keep training spearmen until I have workshops in sufficient numbers that I can produce the new units at an appreciable rate.

Though in some cases, such as the mounted sergeant and the hobilar, the former replaces the latter almost immediately as it has either equal or slightly better stats, and the cost difference is negligible. In such cases I have tweaked the stats a bit. In this particular case I added spearmaker as a requirement for mounted sergeants, and gave the hobilar a slight defence advantage over the mounted sergeant, while the mounted sergeant retains the charge advantage. This way the hobilar is not useless to those who can train them. I have made similar tweaks to several units.



Yari ashigaru can still play a part in battles all the way to teh end of the campaign because their combat statistics are not as differen from high tech units as in MTW (compare early and late era infantry say). Their anticavalry role makes sure that they remain relevant in making up stacks up to the last years of teh campaign.
I find ashigaru much more vulnerable to missiles, and of course they turn and run much quicker. I definitely make different calculations on the battlefield depending on whether the spears are ashigaru or samurai. I think that is as it should be, though. I never use ashigaru for anything other than garrison, and after the first couple of years I never train them anymore, either. I still wouldn't want them gone from the game.



As for the gun units, they are infact so powerful that certain players avoid to use them in STW SP, because the AI is unable to use them properly ie in a continuous wall, since he is using them in with skirmish on. If you turn skirmish off, put them in hold formation/hold position and deploy them in three ranks deep that enables them to use revolving ranks (and thus fire every 7seconds iirc instead of 21secs of reload), make a 3 or 4 gun units front and support them properly with melee units behind, spears at the flanks and cavalry behind at the ready to chase demoralised retreating enemies, they are devastating in attack and defence.

Particularly the musketeers in MI/WE are overly dominant and can oblitarate anything since they can also fire in the rain (although with a misfire penalty) and their missile stats were increased from the original game.
They can fire in rain? I'll have to have a closer look at them, then.



Notice that i used the word swords with " ", since it was used in the context of gameplay categories and not of what the weapons are in reality. I dont think that the polearms need an anticavalry bonus in STW because as mentioned they already fare well against cavalry due to the good stats of Naginata/WMonks that yield them.
Ever since I first bought STW when it was brand new, I always hesitated using cavalry on naginata except in flanking/support, precisely because the naginata would be a good weapon against cavalry. And when I saw that they did indeed do well against cavalry, I assumed they were programmed with such bonuses.


Yes Naginata cavalry is overpowered and cheap for its stats. Its also making the Heavy Cavalry obsolete - however i play STW v1.12 - without the MI - that does not have it (it also lacks the kensai and the battlefield ninjas), so it isnt a problem in my games.

I never relied much on heavy cavalry in the first place, tell you the truth. The unit description gives you the sense that these are veritable tanks and can steamroll just about anyone, but after the initial charge they soon lose momentum and need to be supported by other units, just like everyone else. And because I never found their strengths to sufficiently offset their slowness, I always stuck on yari cavalry.


I might go back to playing STW sans MI myself, actually. My first reaction to MI was singularly positive, as I noticed construction times had been cut in half. It was really tedious to spend two years to build border forts in a province. But in retrospect, STW draws it out just nicely. With MI I feel like I've maxed out the buildings in a province in no time at all, whereas in vanilla STW I really looked forward to being able to train naginata or no-dachi.