Thanks for the replies!
Yes, the main issue I have with the combat is the speed with which it happens. The fact that all units are so vulnerable leads to a total irrelevance of tactics and maneuvers once the melee has started. I mean... The only viable strategy (short of horse archers and overwhelming arrow fire) available is to make sure you do enough morale damage that the enemy breaks and runs as soon as the lines clash. With enough arrow damage and a simultaneous cavalry charge, low tier units run from the battle around when the infantry clashes and it leaves your infantry able to swamp and kill the remaining enemy high tier units. But let's be honest... The only way you're getting through a battle without losing a large chunk of your troops is by completely overwhelming the enemy in both numbers and quality of soldiers, leaving little room for tactics and strategy short of the aforementioned arrow rain of death.
Did they acknowledge anywhere that they like the current armor mechanics such that it doesn't make that much difference?
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I still think killing fully armored units with heavy weapons should be possible with speed bonus of a mount or hitting from head even if the attacker is unmounted.
I also suspect currently there is some hidden calculations when fighting enemy lords.
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I sure hope they're not happy yet with where armor and weapons are, because for the moment, they're all over the place.
Killing armored units from horseback should be possible, as well as smacking them really hard on the head, as both things make sense. But a peasant with a dull axe shouldn't be an issue for a fully armored soldier.
The problem with this is balancing it so it's both fun and somewhat realistic.
The mod I mentioned in my initial post is really in depth with regards to the effects of armor (and unit tactics and fighting skill, but that's beyond the point of the current post).
First off, they gave armor purpose. Chopping away with a sword at a fully armored legionaire gets you between 5-7 dmg. Because armor absorbs a large amount of cutting damage. Stabbing him with the sword gives a more reliable 10-15 dmg, to simulate the fact that you're stabbing at exposed bits in the armor. The list goes on.
This was done by giving every weapon damage in cutting, piercing and blunt. Cutting with a sword deals cut and blunt damage. The cut part is severely affected by armor, the blunt part not so much. Leads to very little damage against armor and a lot of dmg vs no armor. Maces are effective vs all types of armor, but do less damage than swords VS no armor (ok, not realistic, but it's there for balance purposes, otherwise maces would rule supreme... Though to be fair, throughout history most actual weapons were spears and polearms, with swords usually a sidearm... Unless we're talking about ancient Romans).
The problem with the mod I mentioned is the fact that by going for maximum realism, it draws fight out quite a bit, sometimes making them feel a bit too long. I tweaked some of the values to reach a point that I enjoyed but that still kept armor relevant. The end result was that while the infantry lines were fighting I had time to order my archers in a better position, take my cavalry and go murder their archers and lord and then come back and help my infantry clean up by sniping high value enemy units (menavliaton, legionaires, etc).
Lastly, cavalry charges were made so that charges break formations of infantry. Your cav doesn't stop at the first looter they run into. They run him over (for 10-20 dmg) and keep riding. Hitting unarmored units with cav leads to lots of murder. Hitting armored units with cav leads to disrupted formations and the occasional kill when couched lances connect with faces.
I mean... Honestly, the only thing I don't like with the mod was the fact that in order to get ranged weapons to a point where high tier bows and piercing arrows are good against armor while low tier bows and cutting arrows are good against unarmored opponents led to some hilarious results of making low tier enemies fly off like you shot'em with a ballista when delivering high damage headshots from a high power bow. But other than that, the changes were spot-on.
Now... I realize that this might not be TW's vision for the game, in which case... Long live the modding community... But the state weapons and armor are currently in is disappointing to say the least.
* with regard to lords... From horseback they go down in 1 shot in vanilla if you have good speed and a polearm. With a good bow you take them down in 3 shots-4 shots or 2 headshots. (one if it's a noble woman who doesn't want the helmet messing up her hair... Yes, there are plenty of those in the game and I think they need a helmet, especially since their tactics-less ass is charging straight into my lines). At most they could've had the damage reduction the player can get added on top, but I haven't really noticed it.
#MakeArmorGreatAgain ? or at least useful.
Oh, and Ffs, they really need to check out the pricing algorithm for armors. 500k for a piece of armor means that the only way you're going to afford it is to either grind away at battles for a few decades or... Abuse smithing. Armor prices should be in the max 100k price range for average quality top-of-the-line chest pieces and can go higher for "masterwork" or whatever pieces. Btw, you guys still haven't fixed the bug where pressing "reset" on the party screen after doing any type of change will reset the modifiers on equipment in the inventory. For the moment, all it does is remove the "rusty, charred, frayed, etc" negative modifiers from loot. But if it will also remove "fine, masterwork, lordly" modifiers from armor and weapons... It's a problem.