Combat in EB?

[ywingpilot]

A question; how is combat going to be split in EB. Classic Total war games had it; sword inf beat spear inf, ranged inf beat sword inf, cal beat ranged inf, spear inf beat cal, cal beat sword inf. Thats were I think the main problem is RTW they have split combat very badly. Light Cal way too powerful in especially in the charge. In RTW there is also no real medium cal/inf were they should be.

[The Stranger]

it's more like this

sword inf beat spear inf
ranged beat inf
cav beat ranged
cav vs sword inf is a tie
cav loses vs spear inf
and HA beats all hahahahaha

[ywingpilot]

My question is how will it work in EB? Will you use the old TW system?

[Benny Moore]

Since when has sword infantry (apart from legionaries and the like, which are more like big shield infantry than sword infrantry) been able to consistantly beat spear infantry? The spear is the superior weapon, and the sword is supposed to be for backup.

Indeed, in a duel with equally skilled fighters, one with sword and the other with spear, the spearman will win more often.

It seems to me that there should be no "sword infantry;" I can't think of many times when soldiers were equipped with swords as their primary weapon. Again, I make an exception for legionaries, because while their swords are arguably their primary weapons, it is their shields that makes the soldiers so effective and are almost really their primary weapons, if not offensive ones. In fact, if I were to be placed into a battle and was given the choice of either a scutum or a gladius, I'd take the shield!

[DemonArchangel]

The shield was the prirmary Legionary weapon. The boss was thick, hard, heavy and created alot of blunt force trauma, even through armor.

[Boon]

there are numerous cases of infantry armed mainly with swords.

the celts were famous for it, at the time of hannibal many of them still fought naked with nothing but shield and sword.

some iberians also fought with shield and sword only.

some landsnechkts (sp) regiments also used troops with very large swords to break through the pikes of the enemy.

the main thing is that a spear is much cheaper, so they were used extensively in the dark ages as all the european economies collapsed.

that said the shield of the legionary was used in an offensive manner to knock his opponent over, before dispatching him.