Janissaries, can someone explain them to me?

[Deathwing]

Can someone explain why a 12/10 AP unit costs over 800 gold while other heavy infantry, like Dismounted English Knights, cost just over 600 gold and have much better stats(21/13)? Is "Very Good Morale" worth that much?

Also, why when I face aforementioned units off in a custom battle, are the Janissaries able to inflict heavy losses on my knights, almost to a 1:1 ratio? This is medium difficulty.

Last question, a bit unrelated. If a heavy infantry has a shield, like Varangian Guard, should I assume that their stats while meleeing is actually 20/12?

Thanks

[Iavorios]

Well, by some strange reason Janissaries were THE BEST heavy infantry in the game. Nothing on foot could beat them, ever. But after 1.02 they are just a good heavy infantry, probably as good as DFK. In 1.02 the lack of shield means your unit is much weaker no mather wat the stats say. The Varyags do no have a shield, they have one only before the melee beguines, for arrow protection. As for the janissaries-they must be expensive. They come out of town. I personally sacked Europe whith stacks of 6 of them, 7 spearmen and 6 sipahis. All coming out of large city. So I was instopable. Only Milan is easy, but they need huge citys. Although weekend janissaries are still priceless.

[Miracle]

Yup, JHI were balanced in a 1.0 environment when the shield bug was still in effect. This allowed them to beat DFK's even with inferior stats. Now that the bug is fixed in 1.02, JHI's stats aren't good enough anymore. They may have good availability but that's not the point. JHI are suppose to fight at least equally with the best European swordsmen.

Against short polearm units like D[N/P/E]K's however, JHI's still perform satisfactorily due to the absurdly slow attack speed of said units. I guess you can say it's two wrongs making it right.

Bob the Insane ran some tests regarding the VG's shield. It turns out it has zero effect on missile defense. We don't know about it's effect in melee though. Here's the thread for reference:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=83562

[Deathwing]

Shield bug sounds familiar, can someone explain it to me?

As for coming from a city for the higher expense, aren't Varangians built in a Huge City? I think they are cheaper than both too.

I didn't know there was an attack rate for melees. I understood for missle units, that's what makes high-end longbows equal or better than high-end crossbows. Is there a good data resource for melee attack speeds. And since they are both polearm units, why would DEK attack slower?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

The shield bug had as effect that the defense value of the shield was subtracted of the total defense value.

JHI still are very good infantry. Expensive yes, but very reliable in mêlée. If you have something that can stop a cavalry charge and you attack with JHIs: WOW (and I don't mean World of warcraft). I have beaten every heavy infantry (except Varangians which I have never met) with my JHIs.

Edit: If you can manage to get a swordsmith guild (difficult but possible) your JHIs will rock.

[WhiskeyGhost]

I honestly think this helps balance the JHI a little. I was getting sick of sending 4 units of JHI against 10 DFK's and coming out with only 10% losses at most