Mettle Blades and Skill **BETA ver 005 12tpy RELEASED 30May**

[Hazbones]

Here are a few pics of the Peasants of Sagami...

Introducing: Peasants

NOTE: I gave some love to our female TW players by mixing all peasant units with female soldiers. The other variants I tried to make look old, balding and poorly dressed to simulate their status.

Peasants with bows

These poor people were just doing their normal chores when suddenly they were plucked from the fields and handed a bow. NOTE: peasants will all have light infantry behavior since any sane person with no military training and scared out of their minds would look for cover rather then stand their and take an arrow.

Peasants with spears

The other units look the same except with their respective weapon. NOTE: do not expect these peasants to stand alone on the line. Some OS's require you to keep your generals close to provide enough morale boost to hold and fight.

Ji Samurai

No respectable samurai would be caught dead leading a unit of peasants into battle. This would have been the position reserved for the lower ranked or newly minted samurai. Maybe if they could fight well in this position they might work their way up the ladder. NOTE: I tried to make the Ji Samurai reflect his low rank along with his post leading peasants. Can you see the Ji Samurai in this pic?

Peasants in Action

With proper support, these peasants can be useful. NOTE: Can you see the peasant dealing the death blow to the enemy general in this pic?

This is not a complete roster, just a sneak-peak.
Of course with each province having their own unit roster, the peasants can all look different from region to region. I won't do that in my initial release of MBS but it will happen!

[weeeee659]

So judging by you pictures, peasants have the ability to place stakes? And what is that ability next to the wooden stakes?

[Hazbones]

So judging by you pictures, peasants have the ability to place stakes? And what is that ability next to the wooden stakes?

I have not finished all the abilities of the units yet but the Peasants will have all of the engineering abilities like: placing stakes, bamboo wall, pavisse, etc. This is to give them purpose after you get above level 2 in the building chain. Most of the other units will not have engineering abilities. This will force the player to keep recruiting peasants as the game goes on.

On top of that they will have light infantry behavior (the little horn you saw in the pic) and be able to hide in most terrain (but not while moving). This is to simulate them trying to hide instead of valiantly standing up in formation to be shot at.

[Loger]

Those look great! Can't wait to see the rest.

[weirdoascensor]

Im...not so keen about fighting peasant women...especially the ones that have Muscular Man Hands and Hairy Man Legs...

How do you fix the wooden stakes texture problem?

[Hazbones]

Im...not so keen about fighting peasant women...especially the ones that have Muscular Man Hands and Hairy Man Legs...

How do you fix the wooden stakes texture problem?

I left the long pants on them just for you. Yeah, those wako legs were just TOO scary for me too.
As for the hands... well, you just gonna have to get man-handled.

I haven't gotten to the stakes texture issue yet. It probably won't be fixed in the Alpha release either. Just don't want to spend alot of time on that right now but I will add it to the "Known Issues" list.

[Hazbones]

I am working on the unit stats now and you know, I am having a hard time figuring out what CA was thinking when they created these unit stats...

I mean, how does a bonus vs cavalry drop from a 25 (spear) to a 15 (naginata) when the same unit type (samurai) is holding the weapon?

Both weapons are in the same weapon class (short spear)...
Both weapons are the same length (approx)...
Both weapons have piercing capability...

but...

Historically, the naginata was considered a DEFENSIVE weapon vs cavalry. It was used to grapple and disable riders with its curved blade.
The short spear (or mochi yari) could have been used as a pike stuck into the ground to defend against cavalry charges but it was not very thick or long (like the nagae yari) so protection would have been minimal.
Also, the straight blade of the short spear was not suited to dismounting an adversary or long enough really to even wave in a riders face to spook the horse into bucking.

So how is it that there is such a huge disparity between the short spear and naginata?
This is just one issue I am finding in these stats.

I think I will just stick to historical references. Just don't be disappointed when your short spears don't protect you from cavalry charges like before. The unit stats in MBS I think will definitely veer away from vanilla in a big way.

[MagicCuboid]

I've thought the same thing, Hazbones. There's lots of writing about the naginata users stepping aside from a charge and raking the rider off of the horse. A short spear, on the other hand, would simply be shorter than the opposing rider's lance and it couldn't be braced... Sure you may stab the horse, but the horse's momentum is also going to kill or wound the spear-carrier.

[Hazbones]

Ok, I got all the unit cards in place but I cannot figure out why the icon that shows in the unit que is not working (recruitment_small table under UI I think)?
Maybe I will just put that on my "Known Issues" list and keep trucking along.

I need to create a monk officer for a couple of my custom units I made with the editor and then the Peasant Unit Roster will be fully functional! Yay Me!

Peasants did not exist in the game so I had to build them from scratch in the editor which took a long time.
The other rosters are larger than the Peasant one but their models already exist so it should not take me so long with them I hope.

And now, what do you guys think of this...

I made the peasant bow unit fight with gardening tools!

Hoe vs Sword

The (cinematic) hoe is the secondary weapon of the Peasant bow unit as you can see. It has slightly lower fighting stats than a short spear and a very tiny anti-cav bonus.

I think it looks cool! The animations for the yari fit the hoe well and you can see how they move and use it in combat...

Hoe vs Cavalry

You can see they use it properly and I've seen them swiping with it as well as chopping. Doesn't look too bad either stabbing which looks more like grappling...

Death by Hoe

Please let me know what you think. I was trying to figure out a way to avoid giving the katana to peasants. I think this might do? Thoughts?

[Castiel]

though on hoes-armed peasants? Super nice!
Can they have axes and small sickles as well?

[Hazbones]

Unfortunately I only saw the hoe that could be used though it would have been cool if CA did include other tools as well.

Even though using a hoe would seem silly, I have seen woodprints of all sorts of tools used in battle so it would not be far fetched.

[weeeee659]

though on hoes-armed peasants? Super nice!
Can they have axes and small sickles as well?

Although having people fighting with kama's would be awesome, there aren't really any fighting animations that would fit well with something that small.

[Hazbones]

Actually, there is a (cinematic) kama weapon in warscape. I could see if I can find the animation for it and maybe give it to the fire bomb throwers and mangonel crews! That would be cool if I can get it to work in-game.

[weeeee659]

PLEASE prove me wrong!

[Hazbones]

Well, I tested the kama and it does work in-game but as you mentioned, I could not find an animation to use it properly. My only choices were sword, spear, sabre and unarmed. None looked good unless someone can point me to another animation I missed.

[Castiel]

Awwwn, such a pity
How about bamboo spears for peasants then? Spears made out of single bamboo with one shaperned end
P.s: Or ... a comically large kama such as ones seen in L5R, ?
http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Yoritomo

[Hazbones]

I don't have a program to create new weapon models so I have to use what is already in the game tables, same goes for the animations.
Oh well, maybe if CA puts out another DLC we might get some new weapons to play with.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Im...not so keen about fighting peasant women...especially the ones that have Muscular Man Hands and Hairy Man Legs...

Maybe that's why the Daimyo put them on the battlefield, and their husbands didn't care to protest.

[Castiel]

Hehe I didn't know much about modding so I'm sorry about those outrage suggestions ^^
But this mod is still gonna be great!

[GnaReffotsirk]

I've been waiting this long as well, ever since the first incarnation of this mod. Now, it seems to have grown 10x better.