Units- Unique or all the same?

[Sarge_Scot]

I loved MTW, it was fun, challenging, and made you loose tons of sleep (who needs sleep anyway?), but what I hated was that there was almost no unique units. All you had was spearmen, archers, hobilars, steppe cavalry, swordsmen, etc, etc... In Rome, there was a lot more that was unique, and although culture groups shared basic units, each faction had many special units to build. I hope this will be the case in M2TW. I for one don't want my army to be facing an enemy army of exactly the same troops. M2TW should be even more unique like that than RTW.

What do you all think? Are you for or against unique units?

[therussian]

For. Definately.

[Kscott]

Well, I prefer regional units when at all possibly.. But, somtimes generic units work fine, if its indeed acurrate.

[Fabolous]

Well, there were alot of similar armies in the medival period, but whever possible I love unique units.

[Sarge_Scot]

Good point Kscott, I forgot about regional units. Those were a plus in MTW and in RTW, so they should include those as well, and have them be very region specific. Like Welsh Bowmen, Scottish Highlanders, Flemish pikemen, Swiss guards, and other such units.

[Sarge_Scot]

Fabolous: I know what you mean. All the units are inevitably going to be armed with the same weapons, but what I want is diferent kinds of spearmen and swordsmen and etc. Like in RTW, where there were Triarii Spearman, Bronze Shield Spearmen, Germanic Spearmen, Nubian Spearmen... See what I mean?

[Ragss]

I think they will still be fairly similar...mods for MTW like MedMod and XL have shown that there are many unique historical units out there to be implemented. None the less, the mainstay of most western european armies of the time were very similar, no? I just hope there are subtle differences...like a French MAA has slightly different stats and costs as compared to an English MAA.

[Fabolous]

Fabolous: I know what you mean. All the units are inevitably going to be armed with the same weapons, but what I want is diferent kinds of spearmen and swordsmen and etc. Like in RTW, where there were Triarii Spearman, Bronze Shield Spearmen, Germanic Spearmen, Nubian Spearmen... See what I mean?

Of course, one of the things I didn't like in MTW 1 was that the different armies had the same exact unit, much like the RTW warband. But while the Western Catholic armies in MTW 1 were practically entirely the same, in RTW the warband was the exception.

[Sarge_Scot]

Ragss: I guess all I'm really trying to say is that, for example, an English spearmen unit should have a pretty different skin, a different name, and slightly different stats, and even a different description, than say a French spearman unit. Instead of just spearmen, spearmen, spearmen, for every faction.

[Blood Claw Warrior]

Ya, I agree with what Sarge said. The units need different skins, names, etc. so that even if 2 factions have the same unit type it will be very different.

[Skyhigh]

well i liked the "blandness" of MTW b/c things were evenly matched
i think the completely different approach in RTW, while being more historically accurate, was a main reason why it was grossly unbalanced, b/c the roman units on any level were better than any unit of the same tech level, and usually better than a foreign unit of one level above it
i would enjoy more similarity in units (regionally of course). all western european infantry would be heavily armored and sword or spear wielding, while arab forces fought on horses or had light infantry, etc. i think that each faction having completely different units like in RTW would leave MTW2 just as unbalanced as the RTW, with the romans being replaced by knights and men at arms.
i would be for LESS unit variety

[Sarge_Scot]

Skyhigh: Good point. I agree that units were often unbalanced in RTW, but there has to be a way to have more variety without having things unbalanced, hasn't there? I didn't have that hard a time conquering Rome as the Gauls, though. But I think that variety can be achieved in M2TW without sacrificing the balancing of gameplay. In Roman times, the armies historically were vastly different, which is why Rome was able to conquer so much. But in Medieval times, armies were all equipped with the same basic weapons, but were still different armies. What I mean is, in medieval times, a French spearmen against a English spearmen is different than a Gaulish Warband against Triarii or Hastatii. Do you understand what I mean?

[italiano]

Generic units = easier to balance, so I'd be for mainly generic armies with some unique units thrown in.

[The Dane]

I think that the basic unit should be somewhat similar, so a french spearmen and a english spearmen would both work the same way but have different stat, kind of like in RTW where a greek phalanx and a macedonian phalanx work the same way but have different stats.

Then there should be some unique unit for every faction, like in BI where Sassanids are the only one with war elephants.

So yeah I agree with you Sarge

[Chuffy]

I would like to see as many unique units as possible.

Sure, the English and the French may both be able to get Men-at-Arms, but I want these to look different physically instead of being coloured differently.

[Zenith Darksea]

While the units will undoubtedly be pretty similar, I'd at least like to see regional names and styles reflected. So instead of having the Byzantines train a generic 'horse archer' unit, I'd prefer it if they gave it a Byzantine name and a vaguely unique look. I think the ideal is to have a mix of regional and factional units, rather in the vein of RTR and EB.

[smoke]

Well, there were alot of similar armies in the medival period, but whever possible I love unique units.

Indeed. There wasn't a whole lot between them. Most would be mercs anyway. I'm more than happy that CA seems to have managed to give each figure in a unit an almost unique appearance. Just look at those knights in the screens.

[Savage_Swede]

I would like to see as many unique units as possible.

Sure, the English and the French may both be able to get Men-at-Arms, but I want these to look different physically instead of being coloured differently.

Right on! I dont mind several factions having men-at-arms, because everyone actualy had
men-at-arms. But they can atleast give them different skins, not only a different color.

[The Dane]

In the IGN preview you can read:

New Unit Abilities
A legion of more than 250 new and unique units split over 21 factions, each with their own new special abilities that open up a wealth of intuitive battlefield tactics

Later on it goes:

The final lineup of playable factions is still to be decided, however there will be a rich variety of factions to play, each with their own unique units and abilities that add a great deal of variation to the grand campaign experience.

So from the information in that preview it seems like we are going to have unique units for each faction in the game:original:

[Bwaho]

I guess all I'm really trying to say is that, for example, an English spearmen unit should have a pretty different skin, a different name, and slightly different stats, and even a different description, than say a French spearman unit. Instead of just spearmen, spearmen, spearmen, for every faction.

Yeah I agree with that. I think different factions should have to focus on different strategies: like the english has good cavalry but bad swordsmen and the french got good pikemen but bad cavalry. Not just identical units with different factions colors.