TROM3 MINI PREVIEW - Improved Ashigaru Progression

[Yarkis de Bodemloze]

TROM3 Mini Preview - Improved Ashigaru Progression

TROM3 tries to mimick the historical development of ashigaru from part time farmer-soldiers or peasants to trained professionals which eventually formed the lower tier of the samurai caste. In the beginning of the game you only have access to untrained and ill-equipped yari (spear) and yumi (bow) ashigaru that are no match for samurai units. While yari ashigaru may have some success in their specialized role as anti cavalry troops, overall they can not hope to beat a samurai force and should be used mainly against other ashigaru, for garrison duties and as flanking forces. Yumi ashigaru will have a hard time piercing the superior samurai armor (especially at long range) and several yumi ashigaru will have to concentrate their fire on a single samurai unit to achive noticable results. Therefore, in the beginning of the game, battles are an affair of samurai against samurai with ashigaru in a supporting role only. However, this will change gradually over the course of the game. While all troops profit from tech and building developments, ashigaru can profit more so then samurai or warrior monks. Higher level castles provide newly recruited ashigaru with better armor and a melee bonus. In addition TROM3 has it's own military tech branch for ashigaru with bonuses for ashigaru only. These techs also allow the recruitment of advanced ashigaru units like the matchlock (teppo) ashigaru, the nagae-yari (pike) ashigaru and the kazuyumi (long bow) ashigaru.


Ashigaru Techs

NOTE: Tech effects are still WIP and may change until release.

• Ashigarushira (ashigaru sergants) - Giving ashigaru a better command structure improves moral (+2 moral for all ashigaru).
• Yoroi doshi - Better weapon training improves overall effectiveness (+1 starting xp for all ashigaru; -5% farming income; allows Nagae-yari Ashigaru and Kazuyumi Ashigaru).
• Collective Farming - Marks the transition from part time soldiers to professionals. Farming income will get hurt somewhat because of the lack of workers, but ashigaru become cheaper in upkeep and therefore you can field more of them (-15% upkeep for all ashigaru; +2% unit replenishment; -10% farming income).
• Upward Mobility - Ashigaru become fully professional soldiers and form the lowest level of the samurai caste (+1 moral; +1 starting xp; -5% upkeep; allows Ashigaru Sharpshooters, Pike & Shot Ashigaru and Ashigaru Cavalry Scouts)

Additional Building Bonuses

• Fortress - Adds +1 armor for all ashigaru recruited in the province.
• Castles/Citadels - Adds +2 armor and +1 melee for all ashigaru recruited in the province.

Ashigaru units

Early Ashigaru
Yari Ashigaru - Basic spear troops; good against cavalry and yumi ashigaru; capped to 8 units
Yumi Ashigaru - Basic bow troops; good against other ashigaru; capped to 8 units
Imported Teppo Ashigaru - Matchlock equiped early professionals; less men then standard teppo ashigaru; need a nanban trade port; capped to 5 units

Mid-game Ashigaru
Nagae-yari Ashigaru - Ashigaru with pikes; bigger unit size; better against cavalry and in holding a defensive line then yari ashigaru; need yoroi-doshi tech; no unit cap
Kazuyumi Ashigaru - Higher range, better accuracy and higher rate of fire then yumi ashigaru; need yoroi-doshi tech; no unit cap
Teppo Ashigaru - More men and cheaper then imported teppo ashigaru; need matchlock tech; no unit cap

Late Ashigaru
Ashigaru Sharpshooters - Small band of the best teppo ashigaru with very high accuracy; can hide everywhere on the battlefield; need upward mobility tech; capped to 2 units
Pike & Shot Ashigaru - Nagae-yari ashigaru with matchlocks in the front line; need upward mobility tech; versatile in offense and defence
Ashigaru Cavalry Scouts - Light yari equipped cavalry that can be deployed everywhere on the battlefield; need upward mobility tech; capped to 4 units
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[Primogenitus]

That's just awesome! I like the initial unit cap on ashigaru to represent them more as a supporting unit early on and then evolving into a main battle line unit mid/late game. Now I'm even less patient It's just a shame the nagae-yari use their swords instead of their pikes in melee but I suppose there's nothing to do about that...

[Kurisu Paifuaa]

This looks great. The present system was already one of the most interesting aspects of TROM. Including an archery line and fleshing out the arts tree a bit more is definitely welcome. I really like the historically relevant impact to farming, though maybe that could be a little greater than 5% initially and improve as the 'professional army' develops and society adjusts. I mention this because presently any economic perk or drawback that's relatively small (say 5-10%) and doesn't have the possibility of becoming cumulative seems pretty easy to ignore given the huge benefit yielded by adding a single province. Making it more of a dilemma might give players some pause before going down that line if the economy can't handle the hit. I'd have to look more closely at farm income next game to know whether or not that's actually a good suggestion, but that's my initial impression. Great idea either way... we need more counterweights and reasons to not go down all available paths every game.

Also, it sounds like you're moving the deployment advantage for light cav to later in the game. I currently murder AI archers and mangonel with this tactic from the get go. It's fun, but perhaps somewhat exploitive, so maybe it's better to have to work towards it through bushido.

I may have mentioned it before, but Hedge Knight's original unit variety mod (the mildly bugged one -- 2.05?) works great with TROM's ashigaru diversity. Since it only touches the vanilla units, you get early units looking very much less professional than the mid and late game Nagae and Pike and Shot units. There's a small issue with jingasa ocasionally lacking texture (at sea) and possibly the no hands bug (seems to have disappeared for me though) but it's a small trade-off for the distinct visual difference you get to go along with class progression. Maybe in the future this could be fixed up and included as imho it really accentuates this facet of TROM.

Really looking forward to next release. As always, thanks for all the thought you guys put into this

[Pachinko]

looks good! Cant wait

[Yarkis de Bodemloze]

This looks great. The present system was already one of the most interesting aspects of TROM. Including an archery line and fleshing out the arts tree a bit more is definitely welcome. I really like the historically relevant impact to farming, though maybe that could be a little greater than 5% initially and improve as the 'professional army' develops and society adjusts. I mention this because presently any economic perk or drawback that's relatively small (say 5-10%) and doesn't have the possibility of becoming cumulative seems pretty easy to ignore given the huge benefit yielded by adding a single province. Making it more of a dilemma might give players some pause before going down that line if the economy can't handle the hit. I'd have to look more closely at farm income next game to know whether or not that's actually a good suggestion, but that's my initial impression. Great idea either way... we need more counterweights and reasons to not go down all available paths every game.

I will think about that and maybe increasae it to -10% and add another -5% farming income to the yoroi doshi tech (the nagae-yari and the kazuyumi ashigaru will get tied to that tech, so it makes sense).

[Feldspar]

2 things!

1, I understand that you are attempting to improve the ashigaru for later game purposes as well as making them the "backbone" of all armies, due to Samurai Caps. so I ask, How to samurai stack up in late game, are they still substantially superior to ashigaru? I'm juts reminding you that even late game samurai should trump ashigaru to a degree to ensure they are worth the effort and cost to train.

second. GIVE ME MOAR TROM3! NAO!

[Yarkis de Bodemloze]

2 things!

1, I understand that you are attempting to improve the ashigaru for later game purposes as well as making them the "backbone" of all armies, due to Samurai Caps. so I ask, How to samurai stack up in late game, are they still substantially superior to ashigaru? I'm juts reminding you that even late game samurai should trump ashigaru to a degree to ensure they are worth the effort and cost to train.

second. GIVE ME MOAR TROM3! NAO!

Even with all exp and other bonuses the late game ashigaru will only narrow the gap but samurai will still be better.

[OTZ]

Should the sharpshooters be able to hide anywhere? They are basically walking smoke signals once they fire...

[[G-Shock]]

can't wait for the new release.
Be advised, the chi tech tree has the line extending from todofuken OVER the new upgrade (-5% construction costs) instead of below it. Tackling the hard level which is easier than expected while very hard is near to impossible. I think a rework of the Realm Divide should be in... simultaenously at war with everyone is not good. There are several options... even the no realm divide but I'd prefer a weaker penalty of the realm divide.