What does guardsman actually do right now?

[Monkeyfinger]

I understand it as a promo with a long history of changes and rebalances which I haven't been able to really keep up with. When I first started playing FfH guardsman made units defend their stack no matter what, including vs. assassins. After that it's all hazy.

I also hear that the FF version is different from the current FfH one, and that Orbis uses the FF version. What does it do in those mods?

 

[PPQ_Purple]

In FF, guradsmen only protects against asasins. But always does so, I think it even goes down when the unit is the weekest in the stack, wounded and duying it will still protect against asasins.

 

[Skyre Noktis]

It's not just assassins. Any other unit with the marksman promotion will be intercepted (such as Marksmen themselves).

 

[xienwolf]

FfH:

If a unit in the stack has Guardsman, any attacker with Marksman essentially ignores the fact that he has Marksman.

-----BUT!-----

Any unit with Guardsman is more likely than normal to defend the stack against ANY attacker.


Pro: Pretty easy to figure out who will defend, because it will essentially always be the Guardsman.

Con: If you get Guardsman on a REALLY weak unit, and defend with REALLY beefy units, then nobody can hit the Guardsman. Also, if you do not defend yourself like that, your opponent can attack with non-Marksmen units, take out the Guardsman, then come in with his Marksman and wipe up your mages.


-----------------------------------------------------------
FF:

If an attacker has Marksmen, he will ONLY see units in the stack who have Guardsman, and pick the best defender from that group alone. So if you have a single Guardsman at 0.1 in a stack of 50 units with 20 , Marksman picks off the Guardsman. But if you have multiple Guardsmen, they work to guard each other.

If of course the stack doesn't have Guardsmen, the Marksman attacks the least likely defender as usual. And if the attacker doesn't have Marksman, the Guardsmen defend against normal units normally, the Guardsmen promotion doesn't effect anything (well, unless they are in a city of course, where it enhances the defense for everyone)


Pro: Guardsmen aren't sitting ducks against rank & File, and won't be COMPLETELY suicidal if you have multiple Guardsmen. Also, the Marksmen MUST deal with the Guards themselves, or you have to completely dominate the stack (or be lucky enough to have the Guards be the strongest in the stack, letting rank & file troops attack them)

Con: It might be somewhat tricky to figure out precisely who will defend for you against your opponent (I personally don't think so though, but this is as close as I could think for a con), but you do always know that if they use Marksmen, you'll defend with a Guardsman, and if they don't, you'll defend normally.

 

[Fafnir13]

I have two problems with guardsmen. The first is that it requires combat IV. Maybe I'm not playing the game right or something, but I don't find myself owning so many combat IV units that I am inclined to put them in suicidal situations. IIRC, the Bannor get by this with a training yard that gives a free guardsmen to all their melee units. I'm checking the Civilopedia right now, but can't find a mention of it. Perhaps that was an older version.
Anyways, I find myself wanting a way to mass produce guardsmen the same way that assassins can be. The promotion does not grant any actual bonuses, existing only as a counter. If it gave a % bonus vs assassins, I think its current set-up would be fine. As is, I don't feel like wasting my combat IV units.

 

[Valkrionn]

Guardsman is now granted by a Bannor Civilization Trait.