desert battles

**gunslinger** · 09-04-2006, 22:20

Has anyone heard whether units will be able to remove armor before a battle to avoid stamina penalties when fighting in the desert? Using stacks of militia sergeants (who should have been at home protecting their own cities) to take out the whole of Northern Aftrica and the Middle East was always a bit annoying in MTW.

Also, has anyone seen any good screenies of a big European Army fighting a big Muslim Army in the desert? If so, please post a link.

**poo_for_brains** · 09-04-2006, 22:33

just go to gamespot pics, or most of the other screenshot pages - they all have pictures of crusade armies fighting in the desert. I don't hav the link, but it's in the screesnshot and video sticky.

**Ibn Munqidh** · 09-04-2006, 22:50

I doubt it alot. Anyway, you can always hire mercenary units whom are capable of fighting in desert with relative ease.

**Crusader Invasion** · 09-05-2006, 02:27

I don't even think there are desert penalties.

**Darth Nihilus** · 09-05-2006, 02:35

I certianly hope there are penalties like the original. Brings back memories of me playing as the Byzantines and having the Kataphracts in the desert tire in like 1 minute because of their massive armour.

**Vladimir** · 09-05-2006, 03:00

Not having heat effects in the game would be a game breaker. I'm not sure how it was in R:TW but if the Islamic factions have to contend with unhindered Catholics in the desert they'll be devestated.

**Peasant Phill** · 09-05-2006, 09:47

I fear there won't be heat penalties. I can't prove it or anything, just a suspicion. I've seen fire arrows, cannons and muskets being used in the pouring rain so I fear that weather will have little to no effect on the battles.

I hope I'm wrong and that the video with the muskets, fire arrows and cannons in the rain was just for promotion or in an arcade setting. Those complexities were what made the battles fun and diverse.

**The Lord of Dance** · 09-05-2006, 11:03

In MTW1 you couldnt use cannons while it was raining... they wouldnt change that.

Secondly, if it is light enough rain a flaming arrow will not go out... its going too fast.

**Leet Eriksson** · 09-07-2006, 01:23

Originally Posted by Vladimir

Not having heat effects in the game would be a game breaker. I'm not sure how it was in R:TW but if the Islamic factions have to contend with unhindered Catholics in the desert they'll be devestated.

Islamic factions will get more balanced this time around(increased unit count, which probably means more unit variety, and probably buffed statistics for islamic units), much like the desert factions in RTW.

**Ulstan** · 09-07-2006, 21:04

"I'm no historian, but I'm pretty sure I've heard that heat and lack of knowledge about the desert was the only thing that held the crusaders back"

I think the heat effect (and the awkwardness of european armor in general) is usually vastly overestimated. While I'm sure the picture of a knight who falls off his horse and can't even move a limb or stand up is terribly amusing, a few moments of reflection should tell us obviously this has to be an exaggeration. The European warriors were not fools and phased out armor quickly enough when firearms took over.

I'm sure we're all used to movies showing armor being more of a hindrance than a help, slowing one down but never ever stopping an arrow or turning a blade, but soldiers tend to be amongst the most practicable of people, because their life is on the line.

I think the biggest things that held the europeans back was poor knowledge of the area, atrociously bad logistics, being massively outnumbered, and the ridiculous infighting and bickering that their multinational groups engaged in at any opportunity.

Their heavily armored knights were an asset, and would routinely smash vastly larger arab formations if the latter would stand still like obliging fellows and let themselves get charged.