RTW: pilums removing shields?

[econ21]

I always thought the Total War engine was made for Roman warfare and now that CA are close to perfecting it, I am glad it is next.

I just had a thought - wouldn't it be fun if they modelled the effect of Roman javelins (pilum?) on enemy shields? As I understand it, the purpose of the javelin was not so much to kill the enemy as weigh down their shields, making them useless and causing them to be discarded. It strikes me that this would be very easy to model in TW, since the engine keeps track of each soldier AND his equipment (eg if some have upgraded armour etc). Against shield born enemy, the pilum would have a chance to destroy the shield - against unshielded enemy it would be like the MTW javelins.

This would not only be a nice piece of historical fluff, it would look rather cool if modelled graphically.

My other reaction to the PC Gamer article was the comment from CA that they will be emphasising each factions unique elites, eg elephants or Praetorians. I am rather less keen on this and would not like a game that encouraged you to have an army dependent on elites. Instead, I hope they model the primacy of the basic legion, at least against barbarian foot (I would not mind Kataphractoi, horse archers and late period Goth heavy cavalry giving them a hard time). I hope Gallowglass type infantry are toned down a little against spears in RTW, as I think the legionnaire was almost optimised for taking on such troops. One way of making the barbarians more challenging, apart from numbers, might be to introduce ambush style battles, where your legions are set up in exposed positions, effectively bushwhacked.

[Husar]

I think CA will make the elite troops more expensive than other troops so I don´t worry about them to get too strong.
In MTW there are also elite troops like Gothic Knights but they aren´t really too hard.
And I think that, like in MTW, not all unit types will have the same amount of troops in one groop.

[econ21]

Maybe you are right - making the unit expensive might do it. However, I can't think of any "upgraded" unit in STW or MTW (as Catholic) that I have not made a bee-line to tech up for and then paid for. I am not sure the economics are sufficiently tight in the SP game for this to matter much (unlike multiplayer, where point and unit number limits are important). I would just dislike it if we are induced to field an army of Praetorians.
Actually - I can think of one such upgraded unit I don't buy: Royal Knights. You can get them early but I don't buy them because of the cost and unit size as you say, plus you get a decent number "free". Keeping Praetorians as a similar bodyguard style unit would make the most sense, but I am not sure CA is going to do that. Fingers crossed.

[solypsist]

try posting this in the wishlists and ideas thread for RTW