Feedback on BI

[Puzz3D]

Maybe is just me, but I assume that in BI you are able to win this with nice balanced army (you just move units a bit differently then in mtw/vi) which was not possible in RTW.

It's not about just moving units differently. In MTW, overlapped units fought at half effectiveness, there was a 20% cost increase for each unit over 4 of the same type and the RPS in melee was stronger. Even with the improved performance of spears vs cav in RTW, the spears may still be too expensive relative to the cav they can stop. A spear unit shouldn't cost more than half as much as the cav it can beat. Right now with large units in RTW v1.3, a silver shield pikeman at 760 denari can beat a cataphract costing 940 denari frontally, but it's not 1/2 the cost.

The thing to find out is how many spears you need in a more or less balanced army to beat an all cav army. In STW, you could do it with 6 yari samurai infantry, but there cav couldn't disengage and the anti-cav bonus was 400%. In MTW, you need 8 spears (50% of your army) to beat all cav, you have to withstand multiple charges, and the anti-cav bonus is 300%. In RTW, the anti-cav bonus is weaker (only 60% in RTW v1.2 and I don't know if that has changed), and it's easier to disengage than it was in MTW. In RTW v1.3, the anti-cav performance during the charge is much better than it was in RTW v1.2. You probably need at least 10 spears to have a chance against an all cav army in RTW v1.3.

Another approach to this problem is to play at low enough money so that you can't afford all cav. However, for that to be viable the morale of non-upgraded units has to be high enough for them to be useful. Total War games have always had low morale without upgrades, and most people don't want to play their battles at such low morale.

In Samurai Wars for MTW/VI, a combination of these approaches is used to make balanced armies not only viable but desireable. The anti-cav bonus is 600%, the money is kept low enough that you can't afford all cav and the morale is high enough that you don't need upgrades. What this does is allow 4 spears to be a sufficient number to bring to any battle, and this in turn increases the maneuver tactics because you have fewer spears vs fewer cav, so you have to use them well and get them to where they can counter the enemy's cav threats.