Hi, first of all thanks for this great mod; it's absolutely brilliant and has gotten me interested in antiquity and antiquity-period fantasy again.
I'm looking at playing a Saba campaign, and I've noticed what looks like to me as a severe pricing discrepancy.
Ethiopian Axemen (Zabatat) vs South Arabian Tribal Highlanders (Fayah Alatin).
The cost is 550/103 vs 850/160 but the Ethiopians seem to be far superior. They:
- Are faster
- Have higher attack (7+4 vs 5+3)
- Have far better shields (5 vs 2)
- Have no heat penalty (0 vs 2) and better terrain modifiers
- Come with an officer. (ok this is minor especially with Huge units, which I use).
The Tribal Highlanders' advantages, as far as I can see, are:
- Better availability, which is not really an issue since if I don't want them I can use a combination of Ethiopians, Citizen Militias, Skirmishers and the truckloads of melee-capable archers Saba has.
- Slightly larger unit mass (1.1 vs 1.05), I imagine this makes them better at shoving the enemy around in melee?
- Trained vs untrained, so they're better at holding formations - not really an issue - and the mountain tribesmen have a very loose formation anyway.
Everything else seems to be the same, except that the Ethiopians are classed as heavy infantry and the mountain tribesmen as light, don't rightly know what that does for combat power if anything, but if there is an effect I doubt it favours the mountain tribesmen. Also different charge distance, for what that's worth.
Do the Arabs have better axes? Are they overcosted at all, or am I underestimating the difference in unit mass and training (both units have no javelins)?
I've just tested them, head to head charging into each other with no upgrades or attempts at tactics on either my side or the AI's, on flat grass, and the Ethiopians flattened the Arabs: 114 remaining, with only 22 Arabs escaping.
So, should I just not use them, unless I want to roleplay that much, with having every unit in the roster in use? Not that even Sabaen finances can afford that, at least in the early game when I'm still counting cost?