Only khuzait, empire, and sturgia get shields for their tier 2 infantry. Aserai tribesmen, vlandian footmen, and battanian clan warriors lack shields until tier 3. Something simple like a horseman's kite shield for vlandian footmen, southern round shield/desert oval shield for tribesmen, and a heater shield for the clan warriors can make the balance much better between factions. Archers are extremely strong currently, so having to deal with infantry that lack shields until tier 3 is a huge drawback.
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Please give shields to every faction's tier 2 infantry
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+1
Exactly. Aserai tier 2s are just cannon fodder
Clan warriors sometimes don't have shields but more often than not they do. I use them to build up my shield wall when I'm playing vlandians.
I do agree though, shields need to be ubiquitous for infantry, especially low tiers. Going into battle with no armour and no shield was suicide.
I do agree though, shields need to be ubiquitous for infantry, especially low tiers. Going into battle with no armour and no shield was suicide.
I can understand devs' desire to make units be more diverse by giving them obviously different kits, but the balance issue is real. Maybe they could have better armor instead?
My understanding is that what we think of as "low-tier" armor is surprisingly strong IRL, and that arrows and bolts in this game are significantly more penetrant than they were IRL (among other things, there is no dropoff for distance). This blog post by a military historian discusses the issue a lot, especially dealing with how video games make us misunderstand archery historically : https://acoup.blog/2019/07/04/collections-archery-distance-and-kiting/
That's not really helpful in the early game is it?
IF you're talking about heavy infantry, quite honestly this didn't actually happen very often. The only units that didn't regularly carry a shield into battle were archers. Even heavy pikemen such as Greek phalanx despite the massive size of their weapon used a shield hooked onto their left elbow. Other fighters using heavy 2h equipment such as Billmen often carried a shield until the fighting started and then discarded it to grip their weapons with both hands once the battle closed.
The standard rule of thumb is, if you could use your weapon with a shield in ancient and medieval battlefields, you had a shield. If you could carry your weapon while also carrying a shield until the fighting started, you probably also had a shield.
2h weapons were usually ceremonial and not intended to carry the fighting until the advent of firearms made shields pointless. There were of course exceptions to this but to be perfectly honest 2h weapons were usually absurdly impractical on a european battlefield. Even those exceptions usually countered their weakness by using the heaviest armor they had access to.
MBeagleguy
Regular
Great anime, gets too much criticism IMO
Claymores were very much a ceremonial weapon. Ordinary soldiers even in the Scottish clan wars usually carried a spear or pike. It was the nobles that used claymores, and to be perfectly honest they mostly used them to direct the battle from the rear.
So you want an easy early game and easy late game? Sounds pretty boring
How does giving shields to tier 2 infantry who lack it make the game easy? And how does having decent archers make giving T2 infantry a shield impossible? Empire and khuzait have tier 2 infantry with shields yet they have amazing archers.
The AI will also have shields on their T2 infantry, and most armies are comprised of T1-T3 troops rather than tier 4-5 troops so having a tier 2 without any survability from missile fire is a huge setback for a faction.
really, I was taught that the claymore was held two-handed at the hilt for an initial powerful strike, then wielded by the ricasso and hilt for follow up fighting. But I am by no means an expert.
I guess the only other example of two handed weapons I can think of are Zweihanders, which were definitely used in combat, but probably by guys in plate armour and not as vulnerable to arrows.
Theres probably some two handed weapons used on horseback too, but that's kind of a different situation, especially when getting into the heavy cavalry era where heavy bludgeoning weapons became more necessary.
MHLViking
Recruit
Maybe they use my Bannerlord strattegy... I stand with a shield along side my troops in the shield wall, then when they or we charge then I remove the shield and take out my 2 handed axe.
bearmans
Recruit
In general, any infantry without a shield is pretty much worthless in field battles, this is as true for T2 infantry as it is for T5... I swear, the only interesting characteristic of Vlandian pikemen and Battanian falxmen is their near-supernatural ability to be the first thing that dies in any battle
paladinx333
Sergeant at Arms
The tier two Vlandian infantry (footmen) wear pajamas and carry a pointy stick. They are hard to level up as they die easily and have trouble killing anything. Giving them one of those cheap wooden shields with 167 hit points would go a long way towards keeping the alive long enough to level up.
