mixed unit idea

[pike master]

i know it probably isnt able to be done but i just thought how interesting it would be if one could create units with several types of weapons mixed together.

for example:
musketeers with pikemen
pikemen and halberdiers
pikemen,halberdiers and greatswords

what say ye?

[cavenaghi9]

i know it probably isnt able to be done but i just thought how interesting it would be if one could create units with several types of weapons mixed together.

for example:
musketeers with pikemen
pikemen and halberdiers
pikemen,halberdiers and greatswords

what say ye?

The Spanish Tercios (the real ones, anyways) had Pikemen and Arcabusiers and Musqueteers... It's not that wild of an idea...

[cavenaghi9]

Why cant I edit my own posts? That's just stupid.

Anyways... As I was going to say... Imagine my surprise when I tried to combine gunpowder units and they started shooting down my on tercio pikemen or refusing to shoot, heh...

[zstajerski]

You will be able to edit your post once you have member status...
it takes some posts :)

[SMZ]

i think it's a great idea and I imagine if we don't see it in the next total war (which i'm sure the second dev team is already working on) we'll probably see something like that in the total war after that

they make a new engine with every other game... so yup - and the way things are going now with soldiers gaining experience individually and having their uniform individually, i don't think it'll be too much longer before we start recruiting soldiers as individuals instead of as units

ie: for instance, if we call Hobilars low, Mailed Knights average, Feudal Knights high and English Knights elite and Province X can produce 80 low or 40 average or 20 high or 10 elite per turn... then maybe on turn 1 I'd recruit 8 English Knights and 16 Hobilars, and on turn 2 I'd recruit 10 Feudal Knights and 20 Mailed Knights... so then I've got 54 soldiers altogether, and I click a button and say to lump those men together into a Unit, the game suggests I call them "Knights" since they fall into that class, but I can choose to name the Unit whatever I wish... I can add more men in later, or take some out and recombine them

I can see a lot of interesting strategic and tactical choices created by such a mechanism - like, one player might create a unit of all archers for as many arrows as possible, while another might mix in some spearmen to turn the tables on any charging light cavalry - while still another might mix crossbows and archers together to combine both speed with firepower, etc, etc, etc

you might create a unit of only 6 men, taking the most experienced and battle-hardened soldiers you can find from your other units, then designate those men as a suicide general killer unit.... in the confusion of battle, the other player likely wouldn't notice a small band such as that slipping around their flank

to kinda balance this somewhat the game could restrict formations to certain percentages.... ie: if you want to use the phalanx formation your unit must be at least 95% pikemen - formations could be in two categories, Standard Formations which require a unit comprised of mostly one type of soldier, and Faction-Specific Formations which would allow combined arms of a sort representative of that faction.... you could still combine however you wanted, just your men would be arrayed in a disorderly mob if you didn't

[Lorenzo_H]

I have often thought that having Tercio formations with "sleeves of shot" wouldn't be such a bad idea. It was a hugely successful formation in history. I guess you can improvise by positioning Tercios behind Musketeers - that works.

[Temujin]

The Spanish Tercios (the real ones, anyways) had Pikemen and Arcabusiers and Musqueteers... It's not that wild of an idea...

Also the, sadly absent, Byzantine Skutatoi combined spearmen and archers in a sandwich formation.

The later Danish armies used combined halberd and crossbow units.

Naffatun were often integrated directly into units of spearmen in Egyptian armies. Likewise for javelinmen and archers in the Moorish spearlines.

I'm sure there are many other examples, this is just what immediately came to mind.

many strategy games, which don't feature the sheer scale of the TW series, do things on a individual basis... ie: something like ages of empire - very popular game, and if you played it, I doubt you found it confusing....

Not confusing, but extremely aggravating. If I'm supposed to play the general, I want to command lower ranking officers, not individual soldiers. Finding out which shed or bush private jones is goofing off behind, or messing around trying to get your troops into formation is not a general's work and has sod-all to do with strategy. That's what sergeants and captains are for, and their absence from AoE (and it's numerous clones) is precisely what made me ditch those games.

Group selection and hotkeys are no substitute for a proper military command structure, not even in games. Micro-managing individual soldiers is anti-fun to me.