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Knight at Arms
Bannerlord's field battle tactics are currently shallow.
Armour being weak against arrows means the best tactic is obvious: sit your archers on a hill, put a small amount of infantry in front of them, and watch them kill everything. Or, get a party of all horse archers (Khan's Guard are incredibly overpowered), have them follow you, and just circle the enemy. No matter who the enemy is, these tactics will always give the best results, so you never need to change tactics or use your brain. There's no challenge.
Bannerlord doesn't need to be as tactically deep as Total War, but it can be better than this. The pieces are there for tactical gameplay, just a few flaws prevent it from working properly. Here are some changes that can make this game an engaging tactical experience, where the player needs to change their tactics based on the situation, and is rewarded for doing so.
SOFT COUNTERS
Soft counters are common in tactics games, to add a variable for players to think about: choosing troops that are strong against the type of enemy you're facing. Or, if your troops get countered, using other tactics to try and offset the disadvantage.
In this way, soft counters make tactical gameplay important. Here is an example of how soft counters could work in Bannerlord.
Pike Infantry: Uses a two-handed braceable polearm. Is strong against melee cavalry, thanks to their braced pike that can stop and seriously injure a charging horse.
Shock Infantry: Uses a two-handed high damage weapon. Is strong against shield infantry, thanks to their high damage which can shred shields.
Shield Infantry: Uses a large shield and one-handed weapon. Is strong against ranged infantry, as their shield can soak up arrows while closing into melee range.
Ranged Infantry: Uses a bow, crossbow, or javelins. Is strong against ranged cavalry, as being steady on foot allows for more accuracy, faster fire rate, and the use of more powerful ranged weapons.
Ranged Cavalry: Uses a horse and bow or javelins. Is strong against pike infantry, who carry no shield to protect them from arrows, and cannot catch up to the cavalry to fight.
Melee Cavalry: Uses a horse and usually a couchable polearm. Is strong against shock infantry, who have no braced pike or large shield to protect them from a couched lance charge.
Most of this already exists in Bannerlord, except that nothing counters Ranged cavalry. All Ranged units counter all unshielded infantry. Pike units do not actually use their pikes against cavalry when the AI is controlling them. And Khan's Guard is good at everything and can easily beat every other troop in the game with no counter! To create a balanced counter system, the following changes are needed:
MORALE
Bannerlord's morale should have three purposes.
One: Let a skilled player turn the tide of battle, by making an army able to chain-rout when enough troops retreat, as the dev blogs said was intended. Currently, players can intimidate individual troops or formations to flee, but troops from other formations will not realise that their army is massively outnumbered and will stay and fight, so you cannot turn the tide of battle this way.
Two: Let the player end a battle they are obviously going to win, without having to kill every enemy. This often doesn't happen, for the reasons above.
Three: Reward tactical maneuvers. Attacking an enemy from the flank doesn't affect morale much, whereas in real life it would be devastating.
Combine these elements, and this is what Bannerlord's tactical gameplay will look like. (green tick = already in game):
UNIT QUANTITY
More men makes you more likely to win. Simple, but the factors below add complexity.
UNIT QUALITY
Higher tier units can defeat significantly more enemies.
UNIT TYPE/SOFT COUNTERS
Pike infantry, Shock infantry, Shield infantry, Ranged infantry, Ranged cavalry, Melee cavalry: Each troop type is weak and strong against another type.
TERRAIN
Elevation, cover, chokepoints, water: they can affect the speed of cavalry and infantry, stop ranged troops from shooting, or protect the flank of a smaller force against a larger one.
FORMATIONS/MANEUVERS
Flanking: hit an enemy formation from the side or rear to damage its morale.
Line, square, shieldwall, wedge, column, circle, etc.; each formation has different usefulness against different troop types.
MORALE
Individual morale: A unit will break and run if it experiences too many nearby allied deaths or retreats.
Formation morale: A formation will break and run if it suffers too many deaths or retreats.
Banners: Losing a banner bearer will lower the morale or abilities of a formation.
Global morale: If numbers disadvantage becomes too high, or the commander is lost, entire sections of the army below a certain tier can break and run, possibly causing more of the army to rout too.
Armour being weak against arrows means the best tactic is obvious: sit your archers on a hill, put a small amount of infantry in front of them, and watch them kill everything. Or, get a party of all horse archers (Khan's Guard are incredibly overpowered), have them follow you, and just circle the enemy. No matter who the enemy is, these tactics will always give the best results, so you never need to change tactics or use your brain. There's no challenge.
Bannerlord doesn't need to be as tactically deep as Total War, but it can be better than this. The pieces are there for tactical gameplay, just a few flaws prevent it from working properly. Here are some changes that can make this game an engaging tactical experience, where the player needs to change their tactics based on the situation, and is rewarded for doing so.
SOFT COUNTERS
Soft counters are common in tactics games, to add a variable for players to think about: choosing troops that are strong against the type of enemy you're facing. Or, if your troops get countered, using other tactics to try and offset the disadvantage.
In this way, soft counters make tactical gameplay important. Here is an example of how soft counters could work in Bannerlord.
Pike Infantry: Uses a two-handed braceable polearm. Is strong against melee cavalry, thanks to their braced pike that can stop and seriously injure a charging horse.
Shock Infantry: Uses a two-handed high damage weapon. Is strong against shield infantry, thanks to their high damage which can shred shields.
Shield Infantry: Uses a large shield and one-handed weapon. Is strong against ranged infantry, as their shield can soak up arrows while closing into melee range.
Ranged Infantry: Uses a bow, crossbow, or javelins. Is strong against ranged cavalry, as being steady on foot allows for more accuracy, faster fire rate, and the use of more powerful ranged weapons.
Ranged Cavalry: Uses a horse and bow or javelins. Is strong against pike infantry, who carry no shield to protect them from arrows, and cannot catch up to the cavalry to fight.
Melee Cavalry: Uses a horse and usually a couchable polearm. Is strong against shock infantry, who have no braced pike or large shield to protect them from a couched lance charge.
Most of this already exists in Bannerlord, except that nothing counters Ranged cavalry. All Ranged units counter all unshielded infantry. Pike units do not actually use their pikes against cavalry when the AI is controlling them. And Khan's Guard is good at everything and can easily beat every other troop in the game with no counter! To create a balanced counter system, the following changes are needed:
- Make armor work better against ranged attacks, so that archers and horse archers aren't strong against all sorts of melee troops.
- Remove the Glaive from the Khan's Guard, or greatly nerf the weapon.
- Make foot archers able to hit moving horse archers with reasonable accuracy. Currently, foot archers miss every shot because they shoot where a horse is, and do not adjust for the motion of the target.
- Make AI commanders have their pike troops stand still and brace their pikes against an incoming cavalry charge.
- Troop trees need to be reworked, because there are not enough pikemen, too many shielded troops, and different factions feel too similar to fight against. Making factions more unique in what troops they do and don't use means the player will have to change their tactics based on the faction they're facing.
MORALE
Bannerlord's morale should have three purposes.
One: Let a skilled player turn the tide of battle, by making an army able to chain-rout when enough troops retreat, as the dev blogs said was intended. Currently, players can intimidate individual troops or formations to flee, but troops from other formations will not realise that their army is massively outnumbered and will stay and fight, so you cannot turn the tide of battle this way.
Two: Let the player end a battle they are obviously going to win, without having to kill every enemy. This often doesn't happen, for the reasons above.
Three: Reward tactical maneuvers. Attacking an enemy from the flank doesn't affect morale much, whereas in real life it would be devastating.
- Implement Global Morale: When an army is outnumbered past a threshold, all troops below a certain tier flee. For example, if the army is outnumbered by 4x, all Tier 2 troops will flee. The threshold is affected by the army's morale before the battle, the Leadership skill of the commander, and the death of a commander.
- Being attacked from the flank should inflict heavy Formation Morale damage.
- Change the Loyalty and Honor perk to only apply to Tier 4+ troops.
Combine these elements, and this is what Bannerlord's tactical gameplay will look like. (green tick = already in game):
UNIT QUANTITY
More men makes you more likely to win. Simple, but the factors below add complexity.
UNIT QUALITY
Higher tier units can defeat significantly more enemies.
UNIT TYPE/SOFT COUNTERS
Pike infantry, Shock infantry, Shield infantry, Ranged infantry, Ranged cavalry, Melee cavalry: Each troop type is weak and strong against another type.
TERRAIN
Elevation, cover, chokepoints, water: they can affect the speed of cavalry and infantry, stop ranged troops from shooting, or protect the flank of a smaller force against a larger one.
FORMATIONS/MANEUVERS
Flanking: hit an enemy formation from the side or rear to damage its morale.
Line, square, shieldwall, wedge, column, circle, etc.; each formation has different usefulness against different troop types.
MORALE
Individual morale: A unit will break and run if it experiences too many nearby allied deaths or retreats.
Formation morale: A formation will break and run if it suffers too many deaths or retreats.
Banners: Losing a banner bearer will lower the morale or abilities of a formation.
Global morale: If numbers disadvantage becomes too high, or the commander is lost, entire sections of the army below a certain tier can break and run, possibly causing more of the army to rout too.
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