Leaving melee troops a side, when we order fire at will for the ranged troops, they generally shoot at the target which are closer to them. Especially when the enemy cavalry is close they distract them towards themselves. Even though this distraction can be a piece of tactics, archers do not shoot the dense infantry formations but instead they go for hard to hit fast cavalry units. If we were able to choose which formation we want our ranged units to shoot at, that would add a layer (concentration of firepower) into the battle gameplay. We also should be able to allow them to choose targets freely, so it should be toggleable.
The step up, we could also deliberately choose which formation we want our melee (they also have a ranged mode with their throwing weapons too, but arranging it similar to ranged troops as above might over complicate things) to charge at instead of letting them charge the closest target. Other than those maybe infantry could charge "slowly" in a marching attitude into the enemy by conserving the formation (as if they are in testudo formation).
Another thought is that maybe units in the troop trees could be classified more complicated as heavy-light-horse archer for cavalry, long-short distance for archers, heavy-light-shock for inftantry. So for example cataphracts would be heavy cavalry and could be put into a heavy cavalry battalion. In this system we do not choose I-II-III for the units but their battalions. So again continuing the example, Vlandian Champions would be also in heavy cavalry battalion but we should be able to create more than one battalions so that there wont be only just one huge infantry battalion. Because this severely simplifies the fighting.
So why would we do that? Can't you just remember which number you decided to be heavy cavalry? Not preferable, because i am going to combine to suggestions. So now we have ranged battalion types, for those battalions we could choose their target but we can not order them to charge in formation. But for heavy infantry we would be able to charge them with formation without being able to choose their ranged targets (those are exemplary, but could be thought as "perks").
Another layer would be unlocking those ideas (choosing targets, formation charging/marching, ) with charachter perks, reading books and varying those tactical abilities for the factions (although, player should be able to unlock them anyway, for example if they serve Empire and use formation march now they should be able to use it while they serve for Battania which didn't have formation marching.). Empire could have a hidden horse archer units which is not viable until they fight with Khuzait for Aserai and reach a certain contact treshold (so maybe other than fighting, with trading and allying). So an so...
The battle perks (for example that ability to choose targets for archers) could be hard to fit into battle UI, so maybe we should have a battle menu, which could be turned off/on like in warband, with buttons. Because even now i have to gaze trough all the options to give the right order, or study shortcuts if i didn't play for a while.
I know those requires maybe new mechanics, may be hard to balance or difficult to implement to the AI (which can't already climb ladders, so expecting management of multiple battle groups in the field with complicated orders could be a little bit excessive), i feel like those could create a huge difference in the gameplay, i would like to see them as mods (a shoutout to the modders) or patch in the following time sequence.
The step up, we could also deliberately choose which formation we want our melee (they also have a ranged mode with their throwing weapons too, but arranging it similar to ranged troops as above might over complicate things) to charge at instead of letting them charge the closest target. Other than those maybe infantry could charge "slowly" in a marching attitude into the enemy by conserving the formation (as if they are in testudo formation).
Another thought is that maybe units in the troop trees could be classified more complicated as heavy-light-horse archer for cavalry, long-short distance for archers, heavy-light-shock for inftantry. So for example cataphracts would be heavy cavalry and could be put into a heavy cavalry battalion. In this system we do not choose I-II-III for the units but their battalions. So again continuing the example, Vlandian Champions would be also in heavy cavalry battalion but we should be able to create more than one battalions so that there wont be only just one huge infantry battalion. Because this severely simplifies the fighting.
So why would we do that? Can't you just remember which number you decided to be heavy cavalry? Not preferable, because i am going to combine to suggestions. So now we have ranged battalion types, for those battalions we could choose their target but we can not order them to charge in formation. But for heavy infantry we would be able to charge them with formation without being able to choose their ranged targets (those are exemplary, but could be thought as "perks").
Another layer would be unlocking those ideas (choosing targets, formation charging/marching, ) with charachter perks, reading books and varying those tactical abilities for the factions (although, player should be able to unlock them anyway, for example if they serve Empire and use formation march now they should be able to use it while they serve for Battania which didn't have formation marching.). Empire could have a hidden horse archer units which is not viable until they fight with Khuzait for Aserai and reach a certain contact treshold (so maybe other than fighting, with trading and allying). So an so...
The battle perks (for example that ability to choose targets for archers) could be hard to fit into battle UI, so maybe we should have a battle menu, which could be turned off/on like in warband, with buttons. Because even now i have to gaze trough all the options to give the right order, or study shortcuts if i didn't play for a while.
I know those requires maybe new mechanics, may be hard to balance or difficult to implement to the AI (which can't already climb ladders, so expecting management of multiple battle groups in the field with complicated orders could be a little bit excessive), i feel like those could create a huge difference in the gameplay, i would like to see them as mods (a shoutout to the modders) or patch in the following time sequence.
.
