I put together some ideas so that we can start trying to clear up the Mounted units. Right now, they are still a hodge-podge of abilities from different sources. There are two lines I am looking to clear up: the
Light Mounted line (Chariot, Horse Archer, Heavy Cavalry, Lancer, and Light Cavalry) and the
Heavy Mounted line (Horseman, Heavy Horseman, Mailed Knight, Cuirassier, Cavalry). The Knight exists in a grey "medium" area. I'm lumping it in with the Heavy Mounted units for now.
All units in these two categories have the following in common:
- Requires Horse
- Speed 2 (exactly)
- Doesn't Receive Defensive Bonuses
- Immune to First Strikes
- Terrain adjustments: -25% city attack and forest/jungle/peat bog attack, +25% grassland/plains/desert attack
What I found in looking at the units are the things that change from unit to unit:
- Tech and resource requirements
- Cost
- Strength
- Withdrawal chance
- Units flanked
- Combat bonuses vs. types
- Some offbeat bonuses
This is the light mounted line:
Light Mounted Chariot Horse Archer Heavy Cavalry Lancer Light Cavalry
Era Ancient Classical Medieval Renaissance Industrial
Strength 4 7 10 18 24
Cost 25 60 100 160 240
Withdraw 25% 20% 10% 20% 40%
Flanks Cat/Treb Archery Cat/Treb/Bomb/Cannon Cat/Treb/Bomb/Cannon
Combat Bonus +100% atk vs. Axeman +50% atk vs. Cat/Treb +25% vs. melee +50% vs. melee, animal +50% vs. melee, animal, Cannon
Other Nonstandard terrain 1-2 first strikes
Ranged Atk (60%)
Chariot has a nonstandard terrain bonus: instead of the regular mounted unit package, it gets -25% forest attack and -50% jungle attack, with no penalties to bog attack or city attack.
This is the heavy mounted line (including the Knight):
Heavy Mounted Horseman Heavy Horseman Knight Mailed Knight Cuirassier Cavalry
Era Ancient Classical Medieval Medieval Renaissance Industrial
Resources Copper/Iron/Obsidian Iron Iron Iron
Strength 5 8 11 14 18-21 27
Cost 40 65 90 130 180 270
Withdraw 25% 25% 0% 0% 15% 30%
Flanks Cat/Treb Archery Cat/Treb Cat/Treb/Bombard Cat/Treb/Bombard/Cannon Cat/Treb/Bomb/Cannon
Combat Bonus +25% vs. Archery, Cat/Treb +25% vs. Archery/Melee +50% vs. melee, animal +50% vs. melee, animal, Cannon
Other 0-1 first strikes
I think the cost and strength curves are good, but what we need to establish are:
- Withdrawal curve. It should definitely be higher for light mounted units than heavy, but the questions are:
- Should Heavy Mounted units even get a withdrawal chance? Knight and Mailed Knight currently have no withdrawal.
- Should we do a standard withdrawal chance for each unit in a line, or increase it as the eras increase? We should probably top out at 30% (I currently have Light Cavalry at 40%, but that was because Cavalry was 30%. I'd probably top Cavalry at 25% if we give Heavy Mounted any withdrawal).
- Standardized flanking. We've got some siege flanking and some archery flanking, and it's on units in different lines. I think Heavy Mounted units should only flank Siege units. Do you think Light Mounted units should be restricted to flanking Siege units, or flank Archery/Gunpowder as well? If we do Archery flanking, then we should probably do Gunpowder for consistency's sake.
- Standardized bonuses vs. enemy types. I think we can remove all of the bonuses against Animal units (the highest Animal strength is 4, so these units don't need a bonus against that). Gunpowder mounted units get a bonus against melee to cancel spears and pikes' bonus against Mounted. After that, I think bonuses should probably be limited to the flanked units, and maybe we don't even need that.
- Knight, Mailed Knight, and Cuirassier get no bonuses against the units they flank.
- Cavalry gets +50% attack vs. Cannon, but probably doesn't need it. In BTS, Cavalry is strength 15 and Cannon is 12. In AND, Cannon is raised to 16 but Cavalry is raised all the way to 27 - a bigger bonus in the Cavalry's favor.
- Chariot thought #1: We should probably standardize this unit on the same terrain package as the other mounted units.
- Chariot thought #2: What if we swapped the stats of Chariot and Horseman, making Chariot more expensive but stronger in the field and Horseman cheaper and weaker? I feel that Chariots have absolutely no lifespan and would like to see them get a little extra use.
- First strikes. The only ones that currently have first strikes are the Horseman and the Horse Archer. I don't think these units really need it, if only the interest of consistency.
Let me know how all this sounds.