Changing troops

[InstantBlade]

Well, instead of the troop progression being unrealistic, like:
peasant
militia
foot soldier
horseman
man at arms
knight
uber knight

why not have it differently and more spiced up?

As in, if you are low level in tactics or charisma, or whatever the devs would like you would only be able to reruit what is now considered low tier units, like peasants, militia, skirmishersm and foot soldiers, and their progression would be something like (for every unit):

raw (or recruit)
trained
experienced
veteran
Elite

Because that's what experience does to you, makes you more able, not able to ride a horse and suddenly have an amazing ride and armor and weapon from day to night.

and if you even wanted to make it even spicier, you could have in between ranks, like for instance a horseman:

recruit
trained
experienced
veteran
(!) knight
experienced
veteran
elite

Or any such thing.

It would even give different uses for tactics or training or some other attribute, as you would need to buff it up to get better types of troops and not just a bigger army (as charisma a leadership do now)

...
well, just an idea. But I guess it's worth to mention...

 

[Tatari_okan]

I love this suggestion, and want to add some idea. I think tactic skill must effect on troops strategy, training must effect on skills, charisma must affect on items. It will be like this; when our leadership is higher than 5 our all of troops will wear best armor in his tupple, when leadership is higher than 7 they will use best weapon and armor in his tupple. The same system can add for adjectives(experienced, trained, veteran...). If our tactic skill is higher than 5, our %20 troops don't listen us, or make a mistake, if our leader ship is higher than 7 our %5 troops make a mistake... Of coursely, if we have high tactic skill, our troops will move, fight and guard togheter, not theirself. And they can use sensible tactics(No need to explain yet).

I hope you like it.

 

[InstantBlade]

I like it.
Seems not to hard to implement, and it or a variation of it would greatly spice up the game.

Cheers!

 

[The Wandering Knight]

Someone already posted a thread on changing up the troop trees to be more unique AND realistic.

 

[Bismarck]

That's exactly the system I prefer. A peasant can't become a knight, at least not in the middle ages.
You should be able to hire a recruit unit "recruit crossbowman" and the more experience your men gain, the better they perform on the battlefield. It could work like this:

Recruit Crossbowman->Crossbowman->Trained Crossbowman->Elite Crossbowman

Upgrading units increases wages, but they get better equipment and better stats. With this system, weaker equipped but battle hardened units could stand a chance against stronger, but inexperienced units.

Knights should have another troop tree beginning as squire and ending as a full knight. There were also nobles who couldn't afford knighthood (because of low income or a greater brother who already became a knight) thus becoming "noble servants" (In German: Edelknechte) who could be used as a heavy infantry or a light/medium cavalry.

 

[The Wandering Knight]

I am very tired right now but when I get back on this evening I might present a 3-part upgrade tree for Swadia.