A lot of people have been asking for more troop types. All fine and dandy, but I think you should change the setup a bit first.
An example: Hired blades, Swadian knights and sword sisters are three final-tier cavalry units. It's nice enough having them, but when you think about it, they're basically the same thing. All of them wear either coat of plates or plate armor, and although sword sisters sometimes use stuff like scimitars, their weapon choices are pretty much the same. The only real distinguishing feature is that hired blades ride chargers and warhorses, Swadian knights ride warhorses and hunters, and sword sisters ride coursers. This means that sword sisters are inferior and hired blades are the best.
I'd like it to be a bit more varied than that, and here's my simple little idea how (Seems obvious, but I don't think it's been suggested before): specific weapons for unit types. I know there are differences already, but you still basically have random weapon types among units, only the weapon quality varies a lot.
I think it should be something like this: for the swadian and vaegir armies, the peasants, militias (Footmen for Vaegirs) and footmen (Veterans for Vaegirs) should have mixed weaponry and a small chance for horses with the third-tier units, just as it is now. After that, though, I think it should branch out drastically. There should be three classes: class number one with pikes and spear/shield combos, class number two with a one-hander/shield combo and class number three with a two-handed weapon. Can't come up with any names right now, but I'm sure you or some of the other forum fiends can come up with something.
Armor for all of them should be the same as fourth-tier units now, chain mail and the like. For the final tier, the weapon types remain unchanged, but the quality moves up a notch. Class number one is equipped with awlpikes and ashwood pikes, with an emphasis on awlpikes, and is renamed "pikeneer". Class number two gets stuff like longswords and scimitars, maybe with a few nomad sabres and broadswords thrown in, and heather/heraldric shields. Class number three get great swords and great axes. The armor types, again, correspond to the current fifth-tier armors, plate mail and coat of plates.
For cavalry, on the other hand, the split comes after man-at-arms/horseman, when moving onto the final tier. You choose between something like "knight" and "lancer", with knights equipped with two-handers and shield/one-hander combos and lancers equipped with lances and shields. For vaegirs you could be able to choose earlier between horseman and horse archer. Horseman advances as explained, whereas horse archers have bows and one-handers, but no shields. Fifth-tier horse archers just get better weapons and armor.
For ranged infantry, I just think you should be able to choose between crossbow and bow for swadians after the third "skirmisher" tier, with no crossbow for vaegirs. Swadian elite archers would get war bows/strong bows, elite crossbowmen would get sniper crossbows/heavy crossbows. All ranged infantry has a random one-handed weapon as a backup, but no shield.
Armaments for all mélee troops beneath tier four would be completely randomized with restrictions only on quality. The weapon types of bandits and the mercenary, sword sister and manhunter paths would also be random, except that manhunter units only get weapons that deal blunt damage (Like now), with warhammers and military hammer/shield combos at the top tier. This would make sense due to the lack of organization with bandits and lower-level troops and the fact that manhunters, sword sisters and mercenaries are freelancers who supply their own gear. I'm aware that in real life, there were mercenary units with uniform equipment, but since all the mercenaries in M&B are private citizens from Zendar, that would make little sense in the game.
This just feels like a good idea to me, it'd make armies more customizeable and I can't imagine it'd take much work (Correct me if I'm wrong).
An example: Hired blades, Swadian knights and sword sisters are three final-tier cavalry units. It's nice enough having them, but when you think about it, they're basically the same thing. All of them wear either coat of plates or plate armor, and although sword sisters sometimes use stuff like scimitars, their weapon choices are pretty much the same. The only real distinguishing feature is that hired blades ride chargers and warhorses, Swadian knights ride warhorses and hunters, and sword sisters ride coursers. This means that sword sisters are inferior and hired blades are the best.
I'd like it to be a bit more varied than that, and here's my simple little idea how (Seems obvious, but I don't think it's been suggested before): specific weapons for unit types. I know there are differences already, but you still basically have random weapon types among units, only the weapon quality varies a lot.
I think it should be something like this: for the swadian and vaegir armies, the peasants, militias (Footmen for Vaegirs) and footmen (Veterans for Vaegirs) should have mixed weaponry and a small chance for horses with the third-tier units, just as it is now. After that, though, I think it should branch out drastically. There should be three classes: class number one with pikes and spear/shield combos, class number two with a one-hander/shield combo and class number three with a two-handed weapon. Can't come up with any names right now, but I'm sure you or some of the other forum fiends can come up with something.
Armor for all of them should be the same as fourth-tier units now, chain mail and the like. For the final tier, the weapon types remain unchanged, but the quality moves up a notch. Class number one is equipped with awlpikes and ashwood pikes, with an emphasis on awlpikes, and is renamed "pikeneer". Class number two gets stuff like longswords and scimitars, maybe with a few nomad sabres and broadswords thrown in, and heather/heraldric shields. Class number three get great swords and great axes. The armor types, again, correspond to the current fifth-tier armors, plate mail and coat of plates.
For cavalry, on the other hand, the split comes after man-at-arms/horseman, when moving onto the final tier. You choose between something like "knight" and "lancer", with knights equipped with two-handers and shield/one-hander combos and lancers equipped with lances and shields. For vaegirs you could be able to choose earlier between horseman and horse archer. Horseman advances as explained, whereas horse archers have bows and one-handers, but no shields. Fifth-tier horse archers just get better weapons and armor.
For ranged infantry, I just think you should be able to choose between crossbow and bow for swadians after the third "skirmisher" tier, with no crossbow for vaegirs. Swadian elite archers would get war bows/strong bows, elite crossbowmen would get sniper crossbows/heavy crossbows. All ranged infantry has a random one-handed weapon as a backup, but no shield.
Armaments for all mélee troops beneath tier four would be completely randomized with restrictions only on quality. The weapon types of bandits and the mercenary, sword sister and manhunter paths would also be random, except that manhunter units only get weapons that deal blunt damage (Like now), with warhammers and military hammer/shield combos at the top tier. This would make sense due to the lack of organization with bandits and lower-level troops and the fact that manhunters, sword sisters and mercenaries are freelancers who supply their own gear. I'm aware that in real life, there were mercenary units with uniform equipment, but since all the mercenaries in M&B are private citizens from Zendar, that would make little sense in the game.
This just feels like a good idea to me, it'd make armies more customizeable and I can't imagine it'd take much work (Correct me if I'm wrong).
