So I'm 2 years into a game on 1.1.0, so far its been running great and I appreciate all the changes that Taleworlds has done, but something I noticed is how easy battles have become.
Many of my battles ends up with the enemy closing the gap but then breaking and running away even before they reach my shield wall. My archers get way more kills proportionally than anyone else, even though I have only around 20 out of an army of 100. Most of the soldiers I fight tend to be recruits, and their lack of shields makes them so vulnerable to ranged units. Even if they do manage to close the gap (or I tell my infantry to charge) they get completely mowed down within seconds too, being attacked by multiple people in different directions and only being able to block in one direction with their swords or spears.
I think giving all recruits shields would mitigate these issues. Shields would both make recruits less vulnerable to ranged units and also last a bit longer in melee fights. It also would make a lot more sense, I would imagine most lords would issue their levies cheap shields because the advantages shields give far outweigh the cost of a few planks of wood.
First of all it's good that this problem has attention, but.
The idea itself is both debatable and not bad.
Why it may be a very bad idea -
archers may become useless and
every soldier without a shield is vulnerable to arrows. More detailed below. ? ? ?
Also from the start I can add that partly maybe the main idea of the thread makes sense. But it needs to be fit in the whole system.
Also why only shields? Recruits have bad everything, armor, weapon, skills. They are the worst starting troop. And they are also
vulnerable not only for
archers, but
for everyone. Personally I
disagree on solving it
by just giving every recruit a shield and maybe giving them anything at all. Yes, there is a problem, but it's more complex and needs a chain of fixes.
And these are main reasons why, which should be fixed first to avoid such problems. ?
Recruitment system, AI lords, archer's skills.
1. Recruit in Bannerlord is literally a medieval villager, who may have never ever even seen army ammunition and heard of battles only from their father's tales. Yes, it's
unrealistic, but that's the idea of the
game's recruits.
So the
recruitment system itself may also be changed. At least in the most simple way. You can recruit villagers, but they need to train mostly in castles. If you want, you may risk losing potential nice soldiers by taking them in the fight without armor and skills, but it's better to wait until their training is over. And still it won't be realistic enough as most recruits shouldn't be villagers at all.
But, while I prefer it to be closer to realism, well, it's not our history, it's an alternative reality in a game, so maybe no need to be so sceptic about what we have now overall, including "naked" recruits and that they upgrade too fast. If it would be changed for more realism, than I'm happy, if not, this system is not too bad and it should be simple for AI.
2. But
AI lords are dumb, that's the main problem and need to use it better. If nothing will be changed in this aspect, than there was no sense in all this simplification from the very start. Again, right now dumb AI is the main problem, not archers or shields.
3. But also
archer's skills in general may need to be
nerfed as it was done with AI's close combat skills. It's
too easy to hit being an archer in the game even for the worst ones and actually for human player, even without starting
skills. So it's better to rework/nerf them at least a little. A bow was always a very dangerous weapon, but only in the hands of a trained man. And in the game we have almost professional dead eye archers after a few fights with looters. It's ridiculous. Practically the same with the sword. Of course you gain experience in fights, but only after training basics inside the castle walls.
I understand that these are just the mechanics of the game. They can't be done too realistic and there's no complaining about it. But it needs balancing.
?Again about shields and why it may be a bad idea, minding everything written above.
Every type of troop have it's use and value.
There are other
types and
tiers of troops
without shields.
Every soldier without a shield can be very
vulnerable to arrows, not only recruits.
So than any troop of any faction needs a shield to be able to defend against archers? Every horseman, archer himself, skirmisher, etc? Especially during sieges.
Then every troop needs to become a hybrid between infantry, archers and horsemen, not to be vulnerable to anyone or anything. Everyone would become ultimate soldiers. But then
pure archers will become useless too. ?
Also don't get me wrong, all written above is just an example and my opinion, I can be wrong about something.