(I will be mostly focusing on this from a captain mode perspective, but this could be also apply for skirmish and other modes aswell)
Throwing weapons have never felt quite right. The skirmisher class (not only aserai skirmisher, but the similar troops like recruit and wildling) feels like a regular infantry class with worse armor and weapons. I think it's mainly because their whole point is supposed to be using throwing weapons to damage enemies (and maybe be mediocre at best in melee). The problem here comes from the ineffectiveness of throwing weapons. They do literally no damage except for maybe pilas and throwing spears.
Why would someone ever pick a skirmisher class (especially in Captain mode) over light or heavy infantry? Those classes sometimes even get throwing weapons too, and are way better at melee! I feel like the skirmisher class is built on these low damage pokey sticks that are supposed to be for regular infantry to annoy enemies, but it's all skirmishers have.
The way I would go about things is to have skirmisher be fast, with very low to now armor and low-tier 1-handed weapons like shortswords, BUT they should get more powerful throwing weapons which actually kill.
I would have them be this very short ranged high firepower flanking class with pretty low ammo (maybe about 6 javelins) opposed to archers being long ranged, having high amounts of ammo and wearing the enemy down and harrassing them.
Maybe give throwing weapons a *bonus against shields* so the volleys of throwing weapons could also break some shields in shield walls to make the enemy more vulnerable (historically accurate)
The new playstyle for the skirmisher would be something like this:
You run towards the enemy's advancing infantry, you stop pretty close to them and just sling a few volleys of spears into their faces which would break some shields and kill some of them. After that they would be more vulnerable to allied archers. Alternatively you could use your fast movement speed to run around the bigger fights or to good places to ambush enemies and flank them. Of course the massively increased damage of the throwing weapons would be deadly if the enemy caught themselves flanked by enemy skirmishers.
The regular infantry classes who have throwing weapons like javelins would be given some weaker option (which would be about the same as now) maybe called "darts" like the ones we had in Warband. A few exceptions could be made with for example the legionary could still have the pila (but only one unlike the skirmishers) to get one good punch into the enemy infantry before the melee engagement. This would add much more flavor.
So pretty much to cap the new skirmisher class up:
Pros:
+ Very high "bursty" ranged damage
+ Anti heavy infantry (bonus against shields)
+ Fast movement speed
Cons:
- Low range
- Low ammo compared to archers and crossbowmen
- Very low armor
- Low-tier melee weapons like shortswords
- Very vulnerable to cav, especially if caught unable to throw spears into the charge
- Vulnerable to archers due to being far outranged and having low armor and very small shields or no shields
Throwing weapons have never felt quite right. The skirmisher class (not only aserai skirmisher, but the similar troops like recruit and wildling) feels like a regular infantry class with worse armor and weapons. I think it's mainly because their whole point is supposed to be using throwing weapons to damage enemies (and maybe be mediocre at best in melee). The problem here comes from the ineffectiveness of throwing weapons. They do literally no damage except for maybe pilas and throwing spears.
Why would someone ever pick a skirmisher class (especially in Captain mode) over light or heavy infantry? Those classes sometimes even get throwing weapons too, and are way better at melee! I feel like the skirmisher class is built on these low damage pokey sticks that are supposed to be for regular infantry to annoy enemies, but it's all skirmishers have.
The way I would go about things is to have skirmisher be fast, with very low to now armor and low-tier 1-handed weapons like shortswords, BUT they should get more powerful throwing weapons which actually kill.
I would have them be this very short ranged high firepower flanking class with pretty low ammo (maybe about 6 javelins) opposed to archers being long ranged, having high amounts of ammo and wearing the enemy down and harrassing them.
Maybe give throwing weapons a *bonus against shields* so the volleys of throwing weapons could also break some shields in shield walls to make the enemy more vulnerable (historically accurate)
The new playstyle for the skirmisher would be something like this:
You run towards the enemy's advancing infantry, you stop pretty close to them and just sling a few volleys of spears into their faces which would break some shields and kill some of them. After that they would be more vulnerable to allied archers. Alternatively you could use your fast movement speed to run around the bigger fights or to good places to ambush enemies and flank them. Of course the massively increased damage of the throwing weapons would be deadly if the enemy caught themselves flanked by enemy skirmishers.
The regular infantry classes who have throwing weapons like javelins would be given some weaker option (which would be about the same as now) maybe called "darts" like the ones we had in Warband. A few exceptions could be made with for example the legionary could still have the pila (but only one unlike the skirmishers) to get one good punch into the enemy infantry before the melee engagement. This would add much more flavor.
So pretty much to cap the new skirmisher class up:
Pros:
+ Very high "bursty" ranged damage
+ Anti heavy infantry (bonus against shields)
+ Fast movement speed
Cons:
- Low range
- Low ammo compared to archers and crossbowmen
- Very low armor
- Low-tier melee weapons like shortswords
- Very vulnerable to cav, especially if caught unable to throw spears into the charge
- Vulnerable to archers due to being far outranged and having low armor and very small shields or no shields
