Unit Special Abilities

[MrMerisi]

Hi,

Can you give a quick list of unit special abilities you are thinking about for EBI?

To get the ball rolling...

Infantry

• Guard mode (what will this do other than the usual "don't chase routers"?)
• Phalanx?
• Shield wall?
• Testudo
• Push? (as in "pike push" - that would be cool!) Right now I rt-click beyond the enemy unit I am engaged in but the effect isn't that good.

Missile

• Skirmish
• Flaming arrows
• What can you add for the "sharpened stakes" feature in M2TW?

Cavalry

• Skirmish
• Guard
• Wedge
• Cantabrian Circle
• (Kill Elephant)
• Suggestion: "gallop" instead of Guard mode for horse cav. If possible create 3 speeds for horses: walk, canter and gallop!

Thanks!

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I don't think special abilities can be added, so we have to deal with what is in M2TW. It seems that all the old RTW are still in the engine, though unused. The list would be the same as RTW+M2TW vanilla, whatever they all are.

[Ludens]

Guard mode orders a unit to maintain position and facing. In my experience it decreases combat performance because individual soldiers are unwilling to attack anyone that does not stand in front of them or is actively attacking them. If a unit in guard mode is engaged from the back the soldiers in the rear rank will defend themselves, but unless they are directly engaged the soldiers will maintain facing, resulting in extra casualties because the attacking unit gets many opportunities to stab the guarding unit in the back. Paradoxically, units in guard mode will occasionally change facing when engaged from the front, resulting in the same situation. I am not sure what causes this. The only solution is to switch off guard-mode and order them to attack their attackers.

[Duplicarius]

So, guard mode is unpolished up.
I have totally resigned from this on my campaign.

[Space Voyager]

So, guard mode is unpolished up.
I have totally resigned from this on my campaign.

If we are talking about the usual guard mode (the shield icon) I never had any problems with it. Actually I found it VERY usefull in certain situations. Especially when you simply want a unit to stall the situation. True, it will fare worse in the end but it will last longer.

One of the most common uses I have for it is when I want to releave a unit from a fight because it is close to breaking. I put it into guard mode so that it takes less casualties (in a short time period) and give a fresh unit a move order through the unit in guard mode.
The unit in guard has adopts wider spacing so the fresh one can advance through easier. When the fresh one takes the grunt the depleted one can be given a move command that will take it into the back.

This way the line was not broken and the unit was changed without turning it's back to the enemy while fighting (which would end VERY badly).

So I consider the guard mode a very usefull stance.

[MCDS2]

ASk Ornamentum crew they manage make the war cry work on medieval 2 for their mod. the on of the units that had war cry was the huscarls and could proably help you with other special abilities for units!

[MrMerisi]

Thanks for the replies.

I have read somewhere that Guard mode can influence the behavior of hoplite units. Is this the case?

What do you plan on doing with the Sharpened Stakes special ability?