Thalassicus
Bytes and Nibblers
Goals
My warfare goals are:
The Vanguard unit class is the common footsolder counterpart to strong iron units. Vanguards better sight and speed than other unit classes, letting it fill the Detection role very well. We can specialize vanguards into three powerful and useful secondary roles:
Background
In military forces the vanguard is the leading part of an advancing formation, deploying first or in front of the main army. The roles of a vanguard are to seek out the enemy and secure ground. The word "vanguard" is from the original division of European armies into three wards: the Van, Main, and Rear. Avant-garde means "front guard" in French.
In the Communitas Expansion Pack armies are designed to combine a few expensive and powerful units (often requiring strategic resources), supported by a larger quantity of cheaper light infantry. In VEM the Vanguard Units are the forefront of these light infantry, sent to the front lines closest to threats like cities and armies. Fog of war and the potential for enemies to purchase things in cities creates unknown threats. The vanguard therefore has a high likelihood of injury or death from unexpected attacks, so they need to be:
No existing unit adequately met these criteria in the early game. Mounted units are fast, but expensive and valuable Strategic Resource units, painful to lose. Swords are slow, expensive, and valuable. Specialists like anti-mounted units are less expensive and require no resources, but are slow, and building many of these makes mounted units less viable.
The Communitas expansion pack features a fully formed Vanguard Class:
Scouts
Recon 1: +1 sight, ignores terrain cost.
Recon 2: +1
, withdraws from combat.
Medics
Medic: Heals nearby units.
Defense
Trenches 1: +15% defense on Open Terrain, +1 sight
Trenches 2: +15% defense on Open Terrain, +1
Trenches 3: +20% defense on Open Terrain, +1 sight
Guerrilla 1: +15% defense on Rough Terrain, +1 sight
Guerrilla 2: +15% defense on Rough Terrain, +1
Guerrilla 3: +20% defense on Rough Terrain, +1 sight
Most vanguards specialize their role with the basic promotions above, while the following utility promotions are available for other purposes:
The lightly armed Vanguard units are now the only ones with the Medic promotion available. It fits their "first responder" role. Recon combat withdrawal is useful for wartime scouts, but on the front lines, breaking ranks makes units behind the Vanguard vulnerable. This could be a liability when protecting high-value land targets like Catapults. Survivalism is useful in the pillage-frenzy tactic outlined by GoodRevrnd in the strategy forum.
The melee promotions are similar to military rank insignia used by most armed forces, so I searched for similar iconography. Another common theme is horizontal stripes like South Korea:
A flat line made sense for the flat-land Trenches promotions, and following the pattern of Shock/Drill, I added a small rounded hill on the top for Guerrilla. Shock and Drill have an angled chevron symbolizing the attack bonuses they have. Trenches and Guerrilla have no chevron, indicating their lack of an attack bonus.
Ingame I found a simple flat line looked too similar to equals or minus signs. I therefore added small points to the top symbolizing the crenelations of a guard tower, or borders of a trench. As we advance in ranks it resembles increasingly tall towers - one with an open roof, the other with a covered roof. I also added a slightly wider gap between the bars of the second rank to make it easily distinguishable at a glance.
The towers represent the defense and detection roles of the vanguard.
My warfare goals are:
- Combat roles
Each unit has primary and secondary roles. The primary role is something the unit is better at than any other unit. Secondary roles are other things the unit is decent at. Primary roles should be very obvious and powerful, since units without a strong primary role are seldom built (like vanilla Lancers). - Reward combined arms
Mixing units with different roles is more challenging and fun than winning with 1 type of unit. - Common and Strong units
Common units are the majority of our troops. They are less expensive than Strong units, which are the rare and powerful core of the army. Strong units usually require strategic resources.
The Vanguard unit class is the common footsolder counterpart to strong iron units. Vanguards better sight and speed than other unit classes, letting it fill the Detection role very well. We can specialize vanguards into three powerful and useful secondary roles:
- Scouts
- Medics
- Defense
Background
In military forces the vanguard is the leading part of an advancing formation, deploying first or in front of the main army. The roles of a vanguard are to seek out the enemy and secure ground. The word "vanguard" is from the original division of European armies into three wards: the Van, Main, and Rear. Avant-garde means "front guard" in French.
In the Communitas Expansion Pack armies are designed to combine a few expensive and powerful units (often requiring strategic resources), supported by a larger quantity of cheaper light infantry. In VEM the Vanguard Units are the forefront of these light infantry, sent to the front lines closest to threats like cities and armies. Fog of war and the potential for enemies to purchase things in cities creates unknown threats. The vanguard therefore has a high likelihood of injury or death from unexpected attacks, so they need to be:
- Fast - to get out in front
- Cheap - in case they die
No existing unit adequately met these criteria in the early game. Mounted units are fast, but expensive and valuable Strategic Resource units, painful to lose. Swords are slow, expensive, and valuable. Specialists like anti-mounted units are less expensive and require no resources, but are slow, and building many of these makes mounted units less viable.
Details
The Communitas expansion pack features a fully formed Vanguard Class:
- Scout
- Levy (Medieval)
- Skirmisher (Renaissance)
- Light Infantry (Industrial)
- Airborne (Modern) (Paratroopers)
Scouts
Recon 1: +1 sight, ignores terrain cost.
Recon 2: +1
, withdraws from combat.Medics
Medic: Heals nearby units.
Defense
Trenches 1: +15% defense on Open Terrain, +1 sight
Trenches 2: +15% defense on Open Terrain, +1
Trenches 3: +20% defense on Open Terrain, +1 sight
Guerrilla 1: +15% defense on Rough Terrain, +1 sight
Guerrilla 2: +15% defense on Rough Terrain, +1
Guerrilla 3: +20% defense on Rough Terrain, +1 sight
Most vanguards specialize their role with the basic promotions above, while the following utility promotions are available for other purposes:
- March
Heals self every turn. - Cover 1, Cover 2
Increases defense against ranged units.. - Survivalist
+1 healing outside friendly territory
No movement cost to pillage.
The lightly armed Vanguard units are now the only ones with the Medic promotion available. It fits their "first responder" role. Recon combat withdrawal is useful for wartime scouts, but on the front lines, breaking ranks makes units behind the Vanguard vulnerable. This could be a liability when protecting high-value land targets like Catapults. Survivalism is useful in the pillage-frenzy tactic outlined by GoodRevrnd in the strategy forum.
Art
The melee promotions are similar to military rank insignia used by most armed forces, so I searched for similar iconography. Another common theme is horizontal stripes like South Korea:
A flat line made sense for the flat-land Trenches promotions, and following the pattern of Shock/Drill, I added a small rounded hill on the top for Guerrilla. Shock and Drill have an angled chevron symbolizing the attack bonuses they have. Trenches and Guerrilla have no chevron, indicating their lack of an attack bonus.
Ingame I found a simple flat line looked too similar to equals or minus signs. I therefore added small points to the top symbolizing the crenelations of a guard tower, or borders of a trench. As we advance in ranks it resembles increasingly tall towers - one with an open roof, the other with a covered roof. I also added a slightly wider gap between the bars of the second rank to make it easily distinguishable at a glance.
The towers represent the defense and detection roles of the vanguard.
lol
