Well, i don't think this idea has been suggested before, but if it has let me know. My idea has to do with a new approach to the way troops are obtained and upgraded. First, all troop types should be hireable...yes, even knights, although very expensive. Lower tier units should still upgrade like normal, although a bit faster. But once a unit as reached its final tier (generally ranged, footman, or mounted type) it then has the option to make upgrades to equipment setups within that tier. Or perhaps every tier has its own specialization options...either way. So lets say you just upgraded a unit to a sergeant (top tier footmen type). Now, that sergeant is given a value of "basic", which means it has a default set of equipment which is usually fairly weak for that tier. Once enough experience has been acquired, you can upgrade it to several different classes within the tier (think of it as them making enough money from their share of the loot to purchase better/different types of equipment). And the classes could go something like this.
Basic - Relatively poor equipment for a sergeant (rusty coat of plates, chipped longsword, battered kite shield, etc.).
Assault - Good armor (maybe standard plate), and a good 2hander (balanced great sword or standard SoW). Good against infantry.
Pikeman - Average armor and a pike. Good against cavalry.
Defender - Average armor, a good shield and good 1hander. Good against ranged units.
Keep in mind these classes would NOT be permanent, as you could change their setup before or after battle. Each tier would of course have its own types of specialization. For instance, cavalry could upgrade to horse archers, lancers, heavy knights wielding massive 2handers, etc. Ranged units would have choices between using a bow, crossbow, or being a skirmisher type using javelins/jarids, etc.
So lets say you had sergeants with both the Assault and Defender abilities and you're about to fight a group of swadiad deserters (ranged units). You could tell most of your sergeants to use the Defender class so you would be good against their crossbows. Likewise, if fighting a group of dark knights, you would probably want to tell most of your troops to use the Pikeman setup. Only one setup can be used in a battle of course, no mid battle switching, but not all units would have to use the same class (if i had 10 sergeants, 5 could be assault, and 5 could be pikemen). However, the real strategy would come into play when fighting armies of mixed units. Obviously being able to assign each type of unit to a group and move them individually on the field would enhance this idea, but it isn't essential.
This would give you the freedom to experiment with many different army equipment setups as well as add alot of tactical decision making to the game. While this idea isn't exactly the most realistic, its probably more realistic than the system currently in place, not to mention it being alot more fun and adding greatly to the replayablity of the game IMO.
Basic - Relatively poor equipment for a sergeant (rusty coat of plates, chipped longsword, battered kite shield, etc.).
Assault - Good armor (maybe standard plate), and a good 2hander (balanced great sword or standard SoW). Good against infantry.
Pikeman - Average armor and a pike. Good against cavalry.
Defender - Average armor, a good shield and good 1hander. Good against ranged units.
Keep in mind these classes would NOT be permanent, as you could change their setup before or after battle. Each tier would of course have its own types of specialization. For instance, cavalry could upgrade to horse archers, lancers, heavy knights wielding massive 2handers, etc. Ranged units would have choices between using a bow, crossbow, or being a skirmisher type using javelins/jarids, etc.
So lets say you had sergeants with both the Assault and Defender abilities and you're about to fight a group of swadiad deserters (ranged units). You could tell most of your sergeants to use the Defender class so you would be good against their crossbows. Likewise, if fighting a group of dark knights, you would probably want to tell most of your troops to use the Pikeman setup. Only one setup can be used in a battle of course, no mid battle switching, but not all units would have to use the same class (if i had 10 sergeants, 5 could be assault, and 5 could be pikemen). However, the real strategy would come into play when fighting armies of mixed units. Obviously being able to assign each type of unit to a group and move them individually on the field would enhance this idea, but it isn't essential.
This would give you the freedom to experiment with many different army equipment setups as well as add alot of tactical decision making to the game. While this idea isn't exactly the most realistic, its probably more realistic than the system currently in place, not to mention it being alot more fun and adding greatly to the replayablity of the game IMO.
