donsig
Low level intermediary
Good point. I thought about this on the drive home from work since my last post. A group of spear guys killing a bunch of tanks 10 or 20 per cent of the time is un-realistic. While it is true that pikemen are a defensive unit they were deisgned to defend against horses by impaling the horse or the rider on the pike. Their added defensive capabilty disappears against tanks. (Imagine a pikeman impaling a tank and you get the picture.) Even against a guy on a horse a pikeman is at a disadvantage if the rider has a bow or (god-forbid) a gun. This thread has mostly been about pikemen versus tanks but look at pikemen versus calvary (which I assume have guns)!
The whole defense/attack factor thing in a turn based game leads to other un-realistic battle outcomes as well. Consider tanks against tanks in the desert. If the tanks all have the same attack and defence factors I would think the battle would be evenly matched no matter which ones attack. The only advantage the attackers could really gain here is through surprise. Merely attacking does not guarantee surprise. If the battling units are equally matched and there is no surprise factor then luck - or superiour numbers - should determine the outcome.
One more scenario to consider: archers against pikemen. If the pikemen are going to stay in their defensive posture the bowmen can just stay back and shoot them full of arrows to their hearts content without taking any hits at all. For the pikemen to do any damage at all they have to run after the archers and in doing so don't they become the attackers?
Well, I don't have the game yet so I'm not sure how combat works and we must keep in mind that some level of reality must be sacrificed for playability.
There's an easy solution to this problem anyway. Just save those old catapults for a rainy day. If your tanks come across any cities defended by elite pikemen or hoplites you can clear out the pesky things with your trusty catapults then when the city is undefended roll your tanks in. Don't forget to have the tv crews standing by for that!
The whole defense/attack factor thing in a turn based game leads to other un-realistic battle outcomes as well. Consider tanks against tanks in the desert. If the tanks all have the same attack and defence factors I would think the battle would be evenly matched no matter which ones attack. The only advantage the attackers could really gain here is through surprise. Merely attacking does not guarantee surprise. If the battling units are equally matched and there is no surprise factor then luck - or superiour numbers - should determine the outcome.
One more scenario to consider: archers against pikemen. If the pikemen are going to stay in their defensive posture the bowmen can just stay back and shoot them full of arrows to their hearts content without taking any hits at all. For the pikemen to do any damage at all they have to run after the archers and in doing so don't they become the attackers?
Well, I don't have the game yet so I'm not sure how combat works and we must keep in mind that some level of reality must be sacrificed for playability.
There's an easy solution to this problem anyway. Just save those old catapults for a rainy day. If your tanks come across any cities defended by elite pikemen or hoplites you can clear out the pesky things with your trusty catapults then when the city is undefended roll your tanks in. Don't forget to have the tv crews standing by for that!
