The Shield Problem(s)

[Slug For A Butt]

Great work guys, really good bug-spotting :) The reason that we don't usually comment is that - to be brutally frank - there just isn't much to say about these things. We try hard to prioritise core gameplay bugs, but it's a huge piece of software with many people working on it, and obviously a few things have slipped the net that shouldn't have.

Rest assured that we do read these forums, both here in the UK and in Australia, and that these things do get discussed internally and passed on for investigation to the folks in Oz who are dealing with the patches.

Sounds a little trite, but hey... I'm one of the TW series biggest fans so I hope it's true.

[Ulstan]

Lastly, I really don't like this fix mainly because it strengthens units that -should- be weak, namely spear milita and town milita. Spear milita should die like flys from Enfilade/rear fire, because Spear Milita are just peasants with spears.

Spear militia are currently too weak. They get dashed aside by cavalry as though they aren't there. They definitely need boosting, though more in their ability to stand against cav charges, not necessarily in their ability to absorb arrows from the rear.

A schiltron though, would be a fairly effective anti-archer formation in that suddenly, there isn't an exposed flank/rear to shoot at. Not quite as good as a testudo, but then, a schiltron isn't completely inept at melee combat either.

Also, don't just dismiss them as 'peasants with spears'. We have a separate unit of peasants to be the peasants. ;) That would be like calling longbowmen 'peasants with bows', as the french knights were happy to do until they got massacred :D

[Musashi]

My point on schiltroms is that it doesn't work that way in the game. The arrow trajectories in the game mean that half or more of your arrows are going over the guys facing you and striking the guys facing the other direction in the rear or sides...

[Blademun]

Thats not a fair comparison at all! We all know that longbowmen are professional soldiers, not milita. Militia ARE peasants..they are farmers that work part time as soldiers to make extra money.

I'm sure you just forgot to qoute the rest of my paragraph, where I went on to say that I felt spear milita should cause MAD against light cavalry..maybe. No more, however, because they lack the training and displine to properly brace themselfs for attacks by heavier forms of cavalry. Notice they don't plant their spear in the ground, and they only hold them WITH ONE HAND. That is why I feel they should largely get busted by heavy cav.

Take a charging knight on a spear militaman. The spearman may be smart and go for the horse, or attempt to strike the armoured knight. However, since hes only holding his spear by one hand, that means upon contact...that spear is 99% most likely to get ripped out of his hand, painfully. It will either wound the horse, or either break or bounce off the knights armour. Since mounted units can't dismount and fight after their mounts been killed...I would like to see this count as a "healed casualty" after battle. I feel spear milita should have only a small(30-40%) chance of scoring a fatal kill and a much higher chance of causing a healable casualty(50-60%).

I know it doesn't mean much for multiplayer where a 'kill' is a kill. Perhaps a few years down the road we can see our knights get up from their dead horses and keep fighting...

[Musashi]

Actually a lot of times militia weren't even paid... Just expected to train in order to not get killed when the enemy warlord decides to invade and the actual army is three towns away...