Another Sheild Problem~:(

[Carl]

Thought I’d give this it's own thread as the current shield bug one is a bit long.

Just did some tests with Yeoman Archers vs. Sword and Buckler men. In both tests I gave them 0/1/20 for their armour stats. The difference was that in one tests the Archers had AP on, in the other they had it off.

With AP

15
13
11
9
10

Without AP

2
3
2
3
3

Pretty dismal. The list of issues with shields alone is now 5 items long:(.

1. They don't work correctly against missile fire, their defence being less than that provided by Armour of the same value

2. They ARE effected by AP despite the fact that they shouldn't be.

3. They provide no defence in melee that we can tell.

4. They actually apply some sort of penalty in melee too.

5. If a unit has a shield stat greater than 0 they won't brace for a charge properly. this hurts the ability of all Shield units to receive a charge, but especially Spearmen vs. cav.

EDIT: @Musashi: Looks like you where right, congratz.

[Musashi]

Actually I'd be bitching if shields weren't affected by AP missiles. AP means "goes through big plates of metal". That certainly applies to shields.

[Carl]

YES, but the diagram and notes I the EDU file says it SHOULDN'T effect them. Plus it only makes sense for muskets really. Lets not even get into if it was a 2-hander vs. working melee sheilds as sheilds defintly could stop those kind of attacks...

[Ulstan]

Good test, Carl. Clarification question: unit sizes give you those numbers?

Also, I tend to agree with Musashi that AP arrows should help punch through shields, but that's obviously not the way the CA designers have set up/designed the game, so bug it is, even if it's a bug that creates more historical accuracy ;)

[Carl]

Small, I could have run them on bigger, but If i want to run seiges with full stack armies on both sides I need them on small. My comp starts getting jumpy, (littrially~:p), at above 3500 men even with everything but resolution dialed right down as low as it will go. So I run everything at the small unuit size as it's my defualt.

[Musashi]

Carl: Actually, historically a lot of your heavy armor piecing weapons (Axes, flanged maces, etc) were at least partially designed specifically for destroying shields. A well placed mace strike to a shield will ruin it easily (And break the arm of the guy holding the shield, in most cases).