Petards

[Caliburn]

I wonder why they didn't include petards, those explosive devices used to demolish gates and weak points of the wall. I don't think it would've been a balance issue, because random "hoisting by your own petard" as well as fire arrows would've balanced things out. Maybe you could get the use of them by an ancillary from academies or something, so battering rams would still be viable if artillery wasn't available.

I can see a few exploits, though: arming a peasant unit with a petard and sending them to take out some heavy infantry or cavalry even.

[pike master]

uh peasants can already take down heavy infantry.

[Chosun]

Especially if the peasants are defending walls during a siege. They pwn just about everything in this situation.

[Xehh II]

Peasants are useless.

[Chosun]

Peasants are useless.

He says as a peasant kicks him off the ladder during a siege!

For whatever reason, intended or unintended, peasants are stronger in MTW2 than in RTW and MTW IMO.

[vonsch]

Shield bug. Use a fix to tone back peasants.

[pike master]

dismounted foot knight.........................................peasant
..............................................................

[TevashSzat]

Peasants are hardly useless. With the shield bug and their crazy fast attack animation, they can own almost every unit if the two units are equal in cost, ie one feudal knight vs. 3 units of peasants

[Foz]

As Vonsch pointed out, peasants are not intended to be this powerful. It's a result of the shield bug primarily, which pits them against a bunch of units really operating at -12 to their AC from their 6 point shields. So, enjoy your uber peasants while you can (probably about a week yet), they'll be gone in 1.2, thankfully.

[pike master]

i hope they allow you to upgrade them to half plate and upgrade ther pitchfork to a partisan.

[_Aetius_]

I guess this explains my a unit of peasants I considered to be cannon fodder cut 2 units of spear militia to pieces earlier on.

[pike master]

artillery units are overpowered as well. since they have the artillery dread factor incorporated, same overpowering probs of peasants, and a morale of 3 over the peasants 1.

and the artillery pieces disrupt a cav charge.

[TevashSzat]

But they are artillery units....Most of the times they are busy hauling an artillery piece around and don't really attack you except with artillery. If you actually do charge them, chances are they aren't exactly braced for the attack and considering their low unit numbers, will die very quickly

[Caliburn]

Well, actually, if you're running a General's bodyguard unit behind the enemy lines and charge them against a unit of ballista operators and end up with 70 % losses (and using the rest four knights to wipe out a unit of dismounted knights engaged with Italian militia...) I'd say it does have an effect on a gameplay to have the engineers strike down horse and man.

[TevashSzat]

Well, if you charged the ballista head on and the ballista fired head on into your general, and then the artillery machines broke up the charge, I wouldn't be surprised at high casualties at all. You need to wisely choose your approach to artillery in order to minimize as much casualties as possible while getting to the unit. Once you get to the unit and has a good charge, finishing them off shouldnt be a major problem, but it is the approach that does the most damage

[Caliburn]

You're at least partially right. They lost 4 knights earlier when a flaming pot crashed on them (from a catapult), that's why I ran them around the formations in the first place. After that they had 16 heroes left, and after circling they reformed into a double line, aligning perfectly. For some reason the siege didn't respond (no ballista fire), but the charge was bogged down by the siege equipment, and their retreat failed due to another (already destroyed) piece of artillery. It was unlucky, and for someone used to chase artillery off the fields with Steppe Cavalry, a shock as well.

Lost the battle, even though the last four knights did marvellous deeds of arms, that there was none did so well as them that day. And king Marino was wonderly wroth, and sent a host led by sir Balsamo Saunce Pité to meet the treacherous Polish...

[TevashSzat]

Unless you have an onverwhelming superior force, it is recommended to charge into an artillery unit on one of its flanks so the artillery machine won't break up your charge and to reduce the chance of an artillery shot of hitting you

[pike master]

im not saying they are a uber unit im just saying they are awfully tough for guys with short swords and daggers.

[Tiberius maximus]

im familiar with petards! they not only destroyed weak pionts on walls but fanatics carried barrels of gunpowder into fights and BOOM! i forgat where i read this but i thought it would make a killer unit like 5-10 in a unit

[pike master]

sounds like a retard to me. to go and blow yourself up to kill other people.

wait, maybe thats what those guys overseas are in iraq. Petards.

[sapi]

And this thread has gone far enough