Ok. I see exactly what you are trying to do with the balance. I’ll tell you why this philosophy doesn’t work for every faction as well as it should.Yes Heavy infantry can not catch them right away, but they don't get kited as well as long as they chase. There are 3 other infantry classes that can catch and kill archers. Heavy Inf can not be the answer to everything.
Firstly, what you are trying to do works perfectly fine for Sturgia, Battania, and Aserai. It works because all 3 of these factions have access to a light infantry who can pick a shield and spear at the same time. The infantry needs the spear because you can’t chase an archer while cav is harassing you, and it needs the shield to actually get close to the archer you are trying to chase. This design philosophy really hurts Vlandia, Khuzait and Empire infantry players. None of these factions have access to a light infantry class (aka one faster than an archer) who can deal with a kiting strategy.
In order for a heavy inf speed decrease to work for these factions, the perks of their light inf need to be slightly reworked. For Vlandia, the peasant needs to have access to a shield and spear perk on opposite sides of their perk tree so that both can be equipped at the same time. Same for the Rabble and Recruit. The alternative solution is giving the twohander inf small shields for these factions, but I don’t think you all are very keen on doing that yet.
Edit: I’ll add that this isn’t nearly as game breaking as some of the other things that you have already said you are addressing. As long as kicks, javs, and cav are definitely being reworked it won’t be the end of the world to roll out the changes you want to see for heavy inf this patch and see how it goes. If it doesn’t have the result you want, things can just be changed later. That’s the beauty of early access.
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