Muketeers & Late Musketeers

[oxxid]

Looking in EDU, it seems that every evident stats are in favor of the Musketeers (Damage, Range, Protection, Mental...), except the fact that they cost more than the late ones.
Maybe I'm missing something (rate of fire ? accuracy ?).

In gameplay (not historical accuracy), what is the point of using the late ones instead of the "older" ones ?

[bɑne]

Afaik rate of fire and accuracy should be different, best pitch them against each other in a custom battle or see this topic: Musketeers

[NinjaWJ]

Well ive been playing around with them in custom battles and i feel that they are kinda similiar. I don't see any differences. However i still feel that musketeers still have some advantage over the late musketeers. Their rate of fire is slower by about 5 seconds but i think they make it up with more damage. However that could offshoot the balancing compared to late musketeers

[Ichon]

I get the idea behind the various handgun units and there did exist wide historical variation which I think it might be able to be displayed better in SS. Probably the early handguns should have morale shock but not be as widely available as currently where its quite easy to recruit multiple units soon after the event. Also the early handguns were widely varying in accuracy and strength so probably should not be AP.

By the time more advanced guns come along though guns would be fairly well known and wouldn't be more scary than a heavy cavalry charge or boiling oil poured during a siege assault so the morale shock of guns would be removed.

Later guns are more advanced and have decent range so 2nd era of guns could be called arquebus and have AP. Arquebus would be relatively accurate but fire slowly and be quite heavy so units would move more slowly(carrying tripods etc to hold the heavy guns up when aiming). Muskets could be the 3rd tier and have a much higher rate of fire retaining AP but have lower range and less accuracy while also being somewhat less powerful but the muskets are much lighter and the units would move relatively fast. With higher rate of fire but less accuracy later muskets would be designed more to shoot at unarmored pikemen and such units while being slightly less effective against heavily armored units having to fire at closer range and while retaining AP would be firing less powerful shots.

The first handguns would probably fire something like 1/4 slower than militia crossbows while arquebus would fire 50% slower while the last handguns could fire 1/5 faster than crossbow.

All handguns would be less accurate than bows and crossbows with arquebus coming the closest. Range of arquebus would be less than longbow and recurve but more than most other bows. Muskets would be accurate to slightly less range than current militia crossbows but have greater attack, AP, and faster rate of fire. Also lower upkeep cost and recruitment cost compared to crossbows. The first 2 kinds of handguns would be more expensive than crossbows while I think most crossbowmen should actually have their costs raised to reflect cost of equipment and training.

[oxxid]

Currently, to wich guns stops the moral drop ? And what does trigger the moral drop, where is it possible to check it ? I guess it is in EDU, but there are no such terms refering to moral in the unit's description, except their own. Is it triggered by the type of bullets used ?