I think a neat addition (and I know this has been discussed) is a classic samurai sword unit to the game, two-sword style fighting. (Which would increase defense as two sword samurai fighting uses the shorter sword to parry with). This unit should go head to head with monks and beat them in an all-factors-even battle, beat yari and archer foot samurai in hand to hand, but be more susceptible to cavalry charges (even from front). Making this unit an equal for monks and able to beat yari might seem to make the game "unbalanced" but making them weaker to cavalry attacks would increase the importance of hand to hand cavalry units in multiplayer, which right now seems nil to marginal. Maybe even to make a better balance between monks and no-dachi, make it so the monks can't beat this unit, but the no-dachi can because of their longer and heavier swords.
I think this would actually add more balance in the big picture as well as increase the importance of two units (definitely cavalry and to a lesser degree nodachi) which are of diminished importance (depending on game koku) in multiplayer.


What do you guys think?


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Goshi of Koga