are you saying that one of the best tactical counter to archers in both history and in game is irrelevant in the discussion of whether archers are over powered because the AI is not programmed to use it in an early release game yet? because it sure seems like that's what you are saying.Completely irrelevant. The AI cannot utilize shieldwall formation.
the whole discussion on whether something is OP OR NOT does not lie in whether it can be effective when utilized correctly in favorable conditions but whether or not it has counters and weaknesses. and currently there is a clear hard counters to ranged weapons in this game and it's the shield. whether you like it or not. and soft counters such as ammo. which is exploited in the little durability lost when taking ranged attacks with a shield compared to melee. and line of sight, which is exploited by fighting on flatland or in forests.
Cavalry is not the hard counters to archers, at least not historically. since archers were used in ambushes, with high ground advantage or volleying behind infantry, they almost never face cavalry in direct combat. when they did, it was more of a tactical mistake/outplay rather than troop counter. in fact archers and crossbowmen have always been the counter to cavalry, since aside from charging your cavs at your opponent's for an even fight, you will always be at a disadvantage when meleeing against people charging fast at you with huge momentum and mass, so the only other way is to attack from range. (when the French favored heavy cavalry, the English answered with their Longbowmen) Pike lines are there to discourage a cavalry charge, and they used LOOOOOOOOOOOONG pikes, not 2.5 meter ones in this game. Cavalry is most effective against light infantry without long weapons. due to the horses ability to break the formation of even the most disciplined troops and trample them. in addition Cavalry has a crazy mobility advantage (this makes them situational counters to everything) that's more apparent over large areas, but the game's battle fields aren't nearly big enough to truly showcase that at all, in fact collision size and tight areas are the major weakness of the cavalry class in this game currently.As stated in my other posts, I believe the cause lies in the massive ineffectiveness of the hard counter to archers (cavalry)
there are many reasons for this:People are complaining that PLAYER CONTROLLED pure archer armies (or armies with a large amount of archers, like >50%) are way too powerful currently and outperform every other composition under pretty much every circumstance to a ridiculous degree
-the primary one is the AI's inability to use shields properly. not even talking about shieldwall, they literally drop their shields every so often to give free shots. there's the realistic shield mod for that before the devs learn to program that into the game.
-the AI armies have lots of infantry which should naturally counter an ranged heavy composition, but because they cycle their troops frequently (losing battles and donating to garrison) and don't fight nearly as much as the player (no upgrades for troops) they end up with tons of shieldless recruits that get butchered by archers.
-AI "stupidity", currently the AI has 2 modes in field battles: attack or defend. they either advance at you at the beginning or wait for you to attack them, of course they'll abandon their defensive plans if you harass them enough from range anyways. so either way you can get them to attack your defensive position. and under the same circumstances the person attacking has the disadvantage. if you happen to occupy high ground and have lots of archers, that disadvantage is maximized to the point that any composition is getting crushed. high ground is really OP, and counters cavalry and infantry alike. but more so cavalry since they rely more on mobility and have a high penalty when climbing (as far as i know, the only things capable of countering high ground are planes and artillery)
-player cheese, i mean obviously players will always find the most cost effective way to fight against an pre programmed ai that's not adapting. it doesn't matter what patch it is or what troops are op. players will mass that and dominate.
if you think this game is too easy using "Meta" strats such as a heavy archer focused line up, or horse archers (the actual OP class). DONT. go around with an all cav small army (small since you can't find enough recruitment) and complain in treads such as "are cavalry underpowered in this game" about them not being strong enough. or you can ONLY fight AIs with bigger armies(in terms of both number and power level), you'll soon realize that the problem becomes archers not having enough arrows to continue shooting and have to be sent in to melee and have severe weaknesses under the best conditions. when the enemy mobs you with 400 infantry it doesn't matter how many archers you have lol.
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