Return of the river pirates

[The Wandering Knight]

We already have the old river pirates, in the form of Looters, taking on the "walking fodder" role.  I would like to propose that river pirates make a return as a halfway go-between for looters and sea raiders in the northern parts. 

Looters and Deserters are everywhere, Forest and Mountain Bandits are most common in the middle third of the map, and steppe bandits are only in the bottom third of the map.  For the northern most third, you only have the lesser units and sea raiders, which sort of leaves it a bit lacking in the "mid ranged" tier.  I'd like to ask that river pirates be back, but as units similar to Sea Raiders, with worse armor and weapons (no chain, mostly leather and padded, etc).

Hope it makes sense as I'm drowsy and uncomfortably warm at the moment :/

 

[Shik]

My question is why? Looters are fine.

If river pirates are to return, I'd want them to be sailing on canoes raiding the riverside... That is if Native ever sees naval combat. (The code is already in place, been there since .903)

 

[The Wandering Knight]

Yeah these would be stuck to the river areas to simulate that -- perhaps they'll actually raid villages?

 

[Triosta]

Have you seen any rivers deep enough to accomodate boats in villages? They'd change from River Pirates to Canoe-Dragging Pirates.

They'd probably have to get out of their boats in order to raid a village, making them turn into Looters.

 

[Sulibres]

You could always make an enemy unit called "landless farmers" representing farmers forced into a life of banditry and theft in order to survive. I suppose they could be slightly more well armed and armoured than Looters and also travel in much larger groups (Say mobs of 10-40?).

I suspect they'd more or less resemble Forest Bandits except lacking bows and preferring the use of polearms and axes.

 

[The Wandering Knight]

Have you seen any rivers deep enough to accomodate boats in villages? They'd change from River Pirates to Canoe-Dragging Pirates.

They'd probably have to get out of their boats in order to raid a village, making them turn into Looters.

Obviously I meant that they would shore the boats along the river to raid villages.

 

[DamienZharkoff]

You could always make an enemy unit called "landless farmers" representing farmers forced into a life of banditry and theft in order to survive. I suppose they could be slightly more well armed and armoured than Looters and also travel in much larger groups (Say mobs of 10-40?).

I suspect they'd more or less resemble Forest Bandits except lacking bows and preferring the use of polearms and axes.

I'm for that!

 

[Erwin]

Actually, Sea Raiders are the mid-range now. They used to be dangerous because every single one of them who wasn't hacking away at you was throwing axes or shooting a longbow. I don't know what changed, but now barely two or three out of two dozen have ranged weapons. For a horse archer, this makes soloing even large groups a complete breeze.

 

[Trashmaster]

Why can't there just be a place with no pirates? =P do they really need to return?

I think it's enough with those bandits already existing :p

 

[Sulibres]

Actually, Sea Raiders are the mid-range now. They used to be dangerous because every single one of them who wasn't hacking away at you was throwing axes or shooting a longbow. I don't know what changed, but now barely two or three out of two dozen have ranged weapons. For a horse archer, this makes soloing even large groups a complete breeze.

I think the nerf was due to the fact that there are cases of large groups of high tier deserters. I do believe I did encounter a deserter mob packing 50 Swadian Men at Arms.l