Quote Originally Posted by Asai Nagamasa View Post
This is why STW simply worked because it had that pure simplicity that is important in such a game. Every faction had the same units and none had an advantage over the other. Also there were few duplicate units as with MTW where you can train several types of javelins, spears and swords at once.
Sadly, I didn't get to play Shogun that much back in the day. I'm thinking of installing the SW mod someday though.

However, paradoxically, I do like the variety present in MTW in contrast to Shogun. Having exactly the same units available to all factions is a bit hardcore for my taste. I prefer to have a sort of "handicap" approach to the game design whereupon the factions have different strengths and weaknesses without having access to several different versions of units.

The problem with this approach is that the AI is not programmed for different strategies. If a specific faction has, for example, a unit roster heavy on missiles and cavalry the AI can't adapt to this limitation.
I enjoy having to make do with what I got, but still that is easily exploitable...

I can get around this somewhat by playing with a set of personal rules, but this isn't the optimal solution.

Quote Originally Posted by Asai Nagamasa View Post
This array of unit choice confuses the AI and allows the play to exploit this. VI only made this problem worse. The English for example have Fyrdmen, Spearmen and Feudal Sergeants. This is pointless.
One solution for this that is in the MedMod is placing restrictions on the trainable units per era, and I'm guessing that this is either in the Pocket Mod or was considered a long time ago. It's the best way I can think of to have a line of three spears/swords/cav with only one per era. Although with the spear line of units, I imagine that the way the game handles them puts an obstacle on this. As far as I know, in Shogun, the spears functioned like halbs in that they actively killed cavalry. Unlike in MTW, where they stand around in a block hoping that something runs into their pointy sticks...

Maybe removing the whole spear line and replacing them with faction specific halbs would work?