Quote Originally Posted by DisruptorX View Post
It is very bizarre that European line infantry are the superior melee warriors, while most non European factions can match them in ranged combat.

For example, my chain mail clad Bhargir infantry can put up a great show at range, and most likely defeat European regiments since I will probably have researched better drills. Get them into melee, however, and they will lose.
To be fair, though, heavier armor doesn't always mean a win in the melee. In fact, chain mail probably wouldn't do much good against a solid bayonet thrust, and getting smacked with a musket butt...well...

That was a lesson the Ottomans learned the hard way in the Napoleonic era, when they were still fielding what were essentially medieval heavy cavalry.

Really, in this time period a breastplate is probably about as heavy as is wise to go. Everything else is just baggage, and making it heavy enough to stop pistol shot would be impractical...and since most cavalry carried at least a couple of pistols...well...

It's kinda like that scene in Indiana Jones.


For the native units, I was also quite dissapointed at the representation of Georgia and Dagistan. Both are probably the heaviest competition any Eastern player is going to get (Ottomans or Russians, they always seem to attack and produce massive armies (by early game standards) to do so.)

However, both of them field European line regiments. Dagistan gets some Eastern-style militia (Islamic Swordsmen, I think) but no other unique types of units.

And, you'll pardon me for saying so, but the idea of a central-asian khannate fielding European-style line regiments in 1700 is just about as silly as inuit lancers. Especially European-style regiments who dress exactly the same as everybody elses.

It kind of detracts from the pleasure of fighting in the area. You don't feel like you're up against a central asian state. You feel like you're fighting one of the other clone-armies of Europe.

The same goes for Georgia. While they were probably a bit better off than Dagistan, they couldn't defend themselves against PERSIA later on (although that is partially the fault of the Russians, who were supposed to defend them, but didn't) and ended up getting annexed by Russia with minimal effort.

Really, CA's presentation of most of the non-European factions is quite lazy, even in comparison to the rather lazy treatment of the Europeans themselves. The only ones which are really satisfying in their development are the Ottomans and Marathas. I'd say the Mughals, but from what I've seen they're essentially just green Maratha clones.