AfterShafter
Deity
Being someone who enjoys playing the French, I suppose I have more occasion to think upon the use of the Musketman class unit that you get with gunpowder, but I'm wondering - am I the only one who thinks this is an inherently weak unit design which has a very small time-window to boot?
1 movement, 9 power, no special abilities. My guess is this is supposed to be the next Longbowman, but unlike the longbowman, it has no inherent defensive benefits. It has no particular strenghts VS other unit types, no movement benefits, no anything. Its one benefit over older densive type units is that it has a higher power, but not hugely so, and it actually has less power than the similar time period knight class unit which you'll see rolling around. It only has one more power than macemen with no substantive benefit VS melee units. It is a passable mobile defender (particularly the fast French musketeer) but really nothing special, and I find myself hard pressed to find a reason or the time to build more than a few of them.
Add tot his that, once you get the tech required for these guys, if you have engineering (I have almost never had a game where I haven't at this point) you can start researching Grenadiers right away. Grenadiers which cost 125% as much to make but are true knight busters (12 attack power) with the same movement as musketmen, the same potential upgrades, and an attack bonus VS rifleman which gives them *way* more longevity than the musketmen.
So, I'm asking - does anyone else think this is just a poorly designed unit that fills no overwhelming role with the tech to replace it coming directly after the tech that allows you to build them? Don't get me wrong, I do like them, musketeers in particular, but they don't pack enough oomph and don't last long enough to match up to many other UU's out there - let alone the regular musketmen. I get the feeling that the idea behind the musketman is that it's supposed to be the next longbowman, but it really fails in this role, but is quickly replaced so its failure doesn't stick out too much.
1 movement, 9 power, no special abilities. My guess is this is supposed to be the next Longbowman, but unlike the longbowman, it has no inherent defensive benefits. It has no particular strenghts VS other unit types, no movement benefits, no anything. Its one benefit over older densive type units is that it has a higher power, but not hugely so, and it actually has less power than the similar time period knight class unit which you'll see rolling around. It only has one more power than macemen with no substantive benefit VS melee units. It is a passable mobile defender (particularly the fast French musketeer) but really nothing special, and I find myself hard pressed to find a reason or the time to build more than a few of them.
Add tot his that, once you get the tech required for these guys, if you have engineering (I have almost never had a game where I haven't at this point) you can start researching Grenadiers right away. Grenadiers which cost 125% as much to make but are true knight busters (12 attack power) with the same movement as musketmen, the same potential upgrades, and an attack bonus VS rifleman which gives them *way* more longevity than the musketmen.
So, I'm asking - does anyone else think this is just a poorly designed unit that fills no overwhelming role with the tech to replace it coming directly after the tech that allows you to build them? Don't get me wrong, I do like them, musketeers in particular, but they don't pack enough oomph and don't last long enough to match up to many other UU's out there - let alone the regular musketmen. I get the feeling that the idea behind the musketman is that it's supposed to be the next longbowman, but it really fails in this role, but is quickly replaced so its failure doesn't stick out too much.