Would TW work with modular unit design?
This is pretty much a copy of what I wrote over at a totalwar.com, but I'd like to hear what people have to say about it here.
I'm mostly an Medieval II player, so most of my examples come from that, but I think it's applicable to most TW games.
I'd be interested in seeing an alteration of the current system of pre-defined units for something modular where you design units. For instance (thinking if Medieval II terms), rather than a "mamluk archer," you design a mounted unit with a composite bow and a mace for weapons, moderately armored, which is well-trained in archery, and moderately trained in melee.
Or you don't. Maybe you swap out the bow for few javelins, creating a kind of jinete. Maybe swap its mace for a sword. There would be a "military advisor" type who will design the old familiar troops for you, but you could also try your own hand: see what happens when you give your heavily armored dismounted feudal knights an arquebus.
Most custom-designed units that veer too far from the historical would probably be poor units (in cost-benefit terms), which is why they historically weren't used, but hey, maybe a clever player could figure out something neat that works well but wasn't ever used historically, but would have been viable. (After all, people of the past may not have been idiots, but they didn't get everything right.)
Different factions and areas would have different resources. For instance, England, with no possessions in the middle east or North Africa, isn't going to have an easy time making a corps of camel cavalry. There would also be different customary effects. For instance, maybe the English start with certain level of proficiency with bows, making competent archers cheaper and easier to train, while the Hungarians start with a certain level of proficiency at riding horses. Maybe some cultures tend to be better with tight, orderly formations (e.g., Macedonians), whereas others are more individualistic (e.g., Celts). So, nations, factions, etc, would still matter, but it might be in the form of different competencies at varying styles of unit, rather than a rigid pre-defined unit list.
Different buildings would be required for each component (training, mount, armor, weapons) of the unit, rather than having a single recruitment building. Stables for mounts, smiths for metal stuff, bowyers for bows, etc. If you have a town that has the stuff necessary to train legionaries, manufacture pila and gladii, but the best armor you can make is hardened leather rather than lorica segmentata or the like, then you can basically make legionaries, but they'll wear leather armor.
Thoughts? Do you think this would work?
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Originally Posted by ♘Top Hat Zebra
