The finer points of Gunpowder warfare (with a few ideas)

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Nerdfish

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Gunpowder will probably come in Empires and Ashes DLC in Q4 this year.

While this is some distance off, It could be a good idea to discuss this topic now, because it will be too late once the details are announced.

Theme of Gunpowder

The first question is what makes gunpowder feel like gunpowder. We know from history that it was very loud and very deadly at short range. The downside is they take a long time to reload and running out of ammo is always on every gunner’s mind.

Implementation

With the theme established, we can see how it can be translated into game mechanics.

- All are equal before the gun: A gunpowder unit should rarely be unable to damage another unit due to high defense. This was more or less correct in AOW3, in that gunpowder attack are single shot with very high base damage, rather than repeating attacks like the bow.

- Hear me roar: Gunpowder attacks should inflict extremely heavy morale damage on top of physical damage. One good hit from a cannon should rout a low morale unit.

- Dodge this: Unlike absolute range of a bow, Gunpowder units should have a low base accuracy at maximum range (perhaps 30% at zero medals). However their accuracy and damage gradually increase for every hex within the maximum range, to a maximum of 100% accuracy and 200% damage at point blank. In addition, unlike conventional ranged attack like blow darts and longbows, Gunpowder units should be able to fire at adjacent enemies, as long as they are reloaded. This provide a counter play because conventional ranged units may be able to win a shootout at maximum range, forcing the gunners to close, which exposes them to cavalry charges. This also create an interesting dynamic that when fighting melee units, guns want to hold for as long as possible without losing men to a charge. Lastly, due to their flat trajectories, Gunpowder units should not be able to fire over obstacles at all. Every obstructing unit along the path of a shot will take some damage.

- Make your shots count: This could be implemented by separate mechanisms on tactical and strategic level. For tactical battles, reload should be a special defensive mode, which applies a loaded buff to the unit, which is removed when it fires. However a unit should not be able to reload when engaged in melee. On a strategic level, I suggest implementing a “supply counter” along with health and movement points for these units. Several supply point is consumed each time the unit enters a battle or reload on the tactical map, if the supply runs out, the unit can’t reload. Supply are restocked slowly when the army is in friendly territory, which depends on a number of factors. (If you have a problem with this specifically, please post an alternative)

- Professionals study logistics: A new strategic resource (niter) should be introduced. It’s used only by gunpowder units, similar for souls for necromancers. On maps without this resource gunpowder units cannot be built and gunpowder related tomes cannot be researched. This allow people who hate guns to play on realms without it. A city need an exploited niter source to draft gunpowder units. Gunpowder units fully restock their supply instantly if they end a turn on a city with exploited niter source. They also restock supply faster in that city’s domain.

Here are my 2 cents on the topic ? Your thoughts ?
 
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Gunpowder will probably come in Empires and Ashes DLC in Q4 this year.

While this is some distance off, It could be a good idea to discuss this topic now, because it will be too late once the details are announced.

Theme of Gunpowder

The first question is what makes gunpowder feel like gunpowder. We know from history that it was very loud and very deadly at short range. The downside is they take a long time to reload and running out of ammo is always on every gunner’s mind.

Implementation

With the theme established, we can see how it can be translated into game mechanics.

- All are equal before the gun: A gunpowder unit should rarely be unable to damage another unit due to high defense. This was more or less correct in AOW3, in that gunpowder attack are single shot with very high base damage, rather than repeating attacks like the bow.

- Hear me roar: Gunpowder attacks should inflict extremely heavy morale damage on top of physical damage. One good hit from a cannon should rout a low morale unit.

- Dodge this: Unlike absolute range of a bow, Gunpowder units should have a low base accuracy at maximum range (perhaps 30% at zero medals). However their accuracy and damage gradually increase for every hex within the maximum range, to a maximum of 100% accuracy and 200% damage at point blank. In addition, unlike conventional ranged attack like blow darts and longbows, Gunpowder units should be able to fire at adjacent enemies, as long as they are reloaded. This provide a counter play because conventional ranged units may be able to win a shootout at maximum range, forcing the gunners to close, which exposes them to cavalry charges. This also create an interesting dynamic that when fighting melee units, guns want to hold for as long as possible without losing men to a charge. Lastly, due to their flat trajectories, Gunpowder units should not be able to fire over obstacles at all. Every obstructing unit along the path of a shot will take some damage.

- Make your shots count: This could be implemented by separate mechanisms on tactical and strategic level. For tactical battles, reload should be a special defensive mode, which applies a loaded buff to the unit, which is removed when it fires. However a unit should not be able to reload when engaged in melee. On a strategic level, I suggest implementing a “supply counter” along with health and movement points for these units. Several supply point is consumed each time the unit enters a battle or reload on the tactical map, if the supply runs out, the unit can’t reload. Supply are restocked slowly when the army is in friendly territory, which depends on a number of factors.

- Professionals study logistics: A new strategic resource (niter) should be introduced. It’s used only by gunpowder units, similar for souls for necromancers. On maps without this resource gunpowder units cannot be built and gunpowder related tomes cannot be researched. This allow people who hate guns to play on realms without it. A city need an exploited niter source to draft gunpowder units. Gunpowder units fully restock their supply instantly if they end a turn on a city with exploited niter source. They also restock supply faster in that city’s domain.

Here are my 2 cents on the topic ? Your thoughts ?
Honestly I was quite satisfied with the way gunpowder units worked in 3. They didn't require a special resource, they were class restricted - so in this, they could be restricted to one culture. They required spending a turn reloading, but otherwise functioned more or less similarly to non-gunpowder units. Musketeers were essentially harder hitting crossbowmen who needed to reload; a similar comparison could be made between cannons and trebuchets. I'm sure a lot of the hate for gunpowder comes from the robotic units, such as the flame tanks and mechanical golems and spy drones, but honestly, I'd be fine losing those as long as I get muskets (and possibly cannons) back as cultural units. One of my favorite units in the entirety of 3 was the humble orc musketeer, who could fire off powerful volleys of gunfire, but still hold their own admirably in close combat.

As far as morale damage, if they do bring back the flame/frost tank, or some other flame/frostthrower unit, I feel like that should deal the heaviest morale damage rather than the cannons and musketeers, for reasons I should hope are obvious.

Mostly I don't want gunpowder units to feel like far more trouble than they're worth, which these ideas sound like they could easily become. :( Sorry.
 
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The new culture coming in E&A is apparently based on "fusing magic and steel", which makes me think it'll be a Materium/Astral mix. I think it's more likely to be some kind of magitek theme than mundane gunpowder.
 
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Gunpowder unites are one of those things that can really strain balance. I’d argue that aow3 had a good way to start that. I’d balance gunpowder against magic.

to do this I’d pair rifle men against battle mages and I think the engineer was an excellent gunpowder support unite.

the question of thematic ’feel’ is difficult, and I like the idea of a special resource. But the big problem is that I don’t think adding guns is enough. I’d go for a machine based tome, maybe a magi-tech thing with gunpowder being a part of it. This way the gunpowder is tied directly to providence upgrades and unite transformations. Or whatever they turn out to be.
 
Honestly I was quite satisfied with the way gunpowder units worked in 3. They didn't require a special resource, they were class restricted - so in this, they could be restricted to one culture. They required spending a turn reloading, but otherwise functioned more or less similarly to non-gunpowder units. Musketeers were essentially harder hitting crossbowmen who needed to reload; a similar comparison could be made between cannons and trebuchets. I'm sure a lot of the hate for gunpowder comes from the robotic units, such as the flame tanks and mechanical golems and spy drones, but honestly, I'd be fine losing those as long as I get muskets (and possibly cannons) back as cultural units. One of my favorite units in the entirety of 3 was the humble orc musketeer, who could fire off powerful volleys of gunfire, but still hold their own admirably in close combat.

As far as morale damage, if they do bring back the flame/frost tank, or some other flame/frostthrower unit, I feel like that should deal the heaviest morale damage rather than the cannons and musketeers, for reasons I should hope are obvious.

Mostly I don't want gunpowder units to feel like far more trouble than they're worth, which these ideas sound like they could easily become. :( Sorry.
By "Trouble" I presume you mean the strategic resource and logistics system.
These "Troubles" are justified because gunpowder is worth a lot. These units bring unique mechanics to the table, like necromancer's morale immunity.
They are a lot stronger in tactical combat, especially against high tier units and heroes, so they need some kind of tradeoff.
The strategic resource exist to prevent them from being created everywhere, and reward players able to control specific areas.
The supply system makes them stronger defensively, which plays into being able to control specific areas.

As far as morale damage, if they do bring back the flame/frost tank, or some other flame/frostthrower unit, I feel like that should deal the heaviest morale damage rather than the cannons and musketeers, for reasons I should hope are obvious.
This is a good point, the flamethrower is legitimately a scary weapon. However the standard musket / cannon volley was also able to shatter entire formations.
 
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Gunpowder unites are one of those things that can really strain balance. I’d argue that aow3 had a good way to start that. I’d balance gunpowder against magic.

to do this I’d pair rifle men against battle mages and I think the engineer was an excellent gunpowder support unite.

the question of thematic ’feel’ is difficult, and I like the idea of a special resource. But the big problem is that I don’t think adding guns is enough. I’d go for a machine based tome, maybe a magi-tech thing with gunpowder being a part of it. This way the gunpowder is tied directly to providence upgrades and unite transformations. Or whatever they turn out to be.

Magitech and steampunk is certainly welcome, but @Entherian said tanks and golems were getting a lot of hate.
Since haters are gonna hate, I suggested having them require a strategic resources so haters can turn them off.
As for balance, their main tradeoff is being very powerful in tactical battles, but at a cost of inflexibility at the strategic level.

Lastly, just a nitpick but rifles are much too advanced for the world of age of wonders. A rifle, unlike a musket, is accurate to an extremely long range.
 
Magitech and steampunk is certainly welcome, but @Entherian said tanks and golems were getting a lot of hate.
Since haters are gonna hate, I suggested having them require a strategic resources so haters can turn them off.
As for balance, their main tradeoff is being very powerful in tactical battles, but at a cost of inflexibility at the strategic level.

Lastly, just a nitpick but rifles are much too advanced for the world of age of wonders. A rifle, unlike a musket, is accurate to an extremely long range.
Your right about rifles being to advanced and I did mean musket.

it might be interesting from a meta point of view to leave muskets and similar weapons out all together and focus on gunpowder based war machines.

have cannons, hand cranked Gatling guns, and maybe mortars for sieges. That would put gunpowder in a specific category and be rather interesting.

Maybe the only man portable gunpowder weapons require a crew, like a oversized musket that needs extra hands to work with and steady the shot.

the best solution to appease the majority of players might be to avoid putting gunpowder weapons in direct opposition to the traditional fantasy ones
 
Your right about rifles being to advanced and I did mean musket.

it might be interesting from a meta point of view to leave muskets and similar weapons out all together and focus on gunpowder based war machines.

have cannons, hand cranked Gatling guns, and maybe mortars for sieges. That would put gunpowder in a specific category and be rather interesting.

Maybe the only man portable gunpowder weapons require a crew, like a oversized musket that needs extra hands to work with and steady the shot.

the best solution to appease the majority of players might be to avoid putting gunpowder weapons in direct opposition to the traditional fantasy ones

I previously proposed have a tome of gunpowder (like you suggested, early-mid game), a tome of steam (steampunk machinery, mid game) and tome of alchemy (magi-tech, late game). They have naturally synergy but also allow player to pick what they want.
As for putting gunpowder weapons in direct opposition with traditional fantasy ones, I think that is unavoidable, that's why I introduced that resource as a realm feature. Because on a realm that allows gunpowder, the game cannot force everyone to adopt it. which means there would inevitably be fights between guns swords and bows. However if a strategic resource is required, classic sword and sorcery fantasy purist can keep all guns and machines out of their games, if they so prefer.
 
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I somehow doubt anyone will spend time building an entire DLC with major new features like gunpowder weapons then give people the option to opt out of half the DLC they spent money on. Someone would likely point out that the resources to make gunpowder would be better spent elsewhere in that case.

Edit:
I’d expect a better integration of the system. For me, it fill better in this game if the gunpowder weapons were biased more on pre-musket weapons because it will feel more like you are discovering things.

magic bows would also shift what tech goes where. You may never get even muskets if you can’t make flame enchanted muskets but you can bows.
 
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I think AoW3 was mostly on the mark but in general I disliked how spammy that game got and Dreadnaught was a big offender where especially as races like Dwarves you could basically spam super strong Musketmen out once you unlock them and beat the game just like that. Some degree of limitation wouldn't be so bad, and honestly if they go more strongly on the "Magitek" theme, why not just use mana requirements for those units as well? I do draw the line at individual units having ammo though, as even on the battlefield I find that's just too much of an annoyance. Even Total War never went that far, though some people have suggested it.

Some degree of limitation though even if its just mana would be nice, as I think a proper Industrial or Steampunk or whatever you'd call it faction could also include other aesthetically and historically accurate units from that era such as light cavalry (or heavy cavalry) with better produced armor or maybe even proper Musketeer type units that use rapiers and fill in more of the melee role. Plenty of options tbh.
 
I somehow doubt anyone will spend time building an entire DLC with major new features like gunpowder weapons then give people the option to opt out of half the DLC they spent money on. Someone would likely point out that the resources to make gunpowder would be better spent elsewhere in that case.

Edit:
I’d expect a better integration of the system. For me, it fill better in this game if the gunpowder weapons were biased more on pre-musket weapons because it will feel more like you are discovering things.

magic bows would also shift what tech goes where. You may never get even muskets if you can’t make flame enchanted muskets but you can bows.

If the DLC only provide gunpowder then yes, strategic resource is less of a necessity because people could just not buy the DLC. but if the DLC come with other features then it's a a different story.
As for pre-musket, since hand cannons exist since AOW1 and pistols since AOW2, I am not sure how much more primitive they could be. although Hwacha / Nest of bee style gunpowder propelled arrow launcher could be a nice niche unit.

I do draw the line at individual units having ammo though, as even on the battlefield I find that's just too much of an annoyance. Even Total War never went that far, though some people have suggested it.
They did go that far. the green bar at the button of the unit cards in Shogun and Empire total war shows the unit's remaining ammo. It got removed in warhammer leading to unholy ratling gun spam. Having strong dependence on logistic, I think is a weakness that also defines gunpowder weapons. I think there is potential for interesting gameplay interaction here, and removing it, or making it dependent on mana instead, detract from the units' flavor and character.

2012-02-11_00022.jpg
 
Some degree of limitation though even if its just mana would be nice, as I think a proper Industrial or Steampunk or whatever you'd call it faction could also include other aesthetically and historically accurate units from that era such as light cavalry (or heavy cavalry) with better produced armor or maybe even proper Musketeer type units that use rapiers and fill in more of the melee role. Plenty of options tbh.

BTW, Yes to grenadiers and dragoons. We like them but they may not be that well known to fantasy fans and each tome can only add a few units.
 
By "Trouble" I presume you mean the strategic resource and logistics system.
These "Troubles" are justified because gunpowder is worth a lot. These units bring unique mechanics to the table, like necromancer's morale immunity.
They are a lot stronger in tactical combat, especially against high tier units and heroes, so they need some kind of tradeoff.
The strategic resource exist to prevent them from being created everywhere, and reward players able to control specific areas.
The supply system makes them stronger defensively, which plays into being able to control specific areas.
So, if you want me to get specific?

I don't agree that logistics and supply chains should be unique to gunpowder units and faction. That's been a major concern in warfare throughout human history, so if we're going to handwave it for other armies, we should also handwave it for gunpowder. After all, it's not like archers and swordsmen can just manufacture arrowheads and blades in the field - they need constant resupply just like the muskets do. And where are the battle mages and priests getting their spell reagents? Sure, you can whittle arrow shafts from branches, or collect herbs, but some reagents aren't going to be easily harvested on the go, and forges aren't easily transported from battlefield to battlefield.

I also dislike the idea that there should be a strategic resource that gunpowder units require, as that results in any faction designed around those units needing that resource just to function. Imagine making a faction that needs saltpeter for cannons, but your first city has no saltpeter nearby, and the closest deposit belongs to an enemy faction with no use for it. You're forced to use whatever units you can scrape together that don't require saltpeter, or just abandon your playstyle - either way, the choice you made in faction creation is now a major downside. Instead, I maintain that gunpowder units should be a culture, and so if you want to play games without them, simply fill out the slots in your game with other empires, or even more simply, don't buy the DLC.

I also dislike making gunpowder units have a unique range/accuracy system separate from other ranged units. The high miss chance you described makes muskets sound terrible until you get very close - and if I need my ranged unit to get up close to reliably deal damage, why am I bringing a ranged unit instead of a melee charger? They'd do the same thing at that point: hit very hard on the first turn up close. Also, if gunpowder units damage everything in a line between themselves and their target, why wouldn't every other ranged unit? It just makes them feel worse and makes me want to use them even less.

Anyway, gunpowder units weren't exactly new to 3. The humans had musketeers - literally by that name, even - all the way back in AoW 1, as you alluded to above. All I want is for 4 to continue the trend and bring them back in a similar form as before: gunpowder-themed crossbowmen, with or without a cooldown.
This is a good point, the flamethrower is legitimately a scary weapon. However the standard musket / cannon volley was also able to shatter entire formations.
If you want a purely-gunpowder unit that can deal heavy morale damage, I'd point to mortars and rockets (which are a lot older than people tend to think). Arrows are as good as bullets when it comes to killing troops - if you want to break their spirits, you need something scary, and that's where area damage and explosions shine.
I think AoW3 was mostly on the mark but in general I disliked how spammy that game got and Dreadnaught was a big offender where especially as races like Dwarves you could basically spam super strong Musketmen out once you unlock them and beat the game just like that. Some degree of limitation wouldn't be so bad, and honestly if they go more strongly on the "Magitek" theme, why not just use mana requirements for those units as well? I do draw the line at individual units having ammo though, as even on the battlefield I find that's just too much of an annoyance. Even Total War never went that far, though some people have suggested it.

Some degree of limitation though even if its just mana would be nice, as I think a proper Industrial or Steampunk or whatever you'd call it faction could also include other aesthetically and historically accurate units from that era such as light cavalry (or heavy cavalry) with better produced armor or maybe even proper Musketeer type units that use rapiers and fill in more of the melee role. Plenty of options tbh.
I think it's likely that musketeers in this game, if they do end up getting added, will probably fill the ranged unit role in a new culture, and thus be balanced in that way. Instead of being strong generalists like they were in 3, capable in a fistfight and stellar at range, they'll be like archers, weak up close but strong at a distance. Of course, we'll only know for sure once the DLC's out and we're able to play with whatever it adds, but I think that's probably how they'll handle musketeers.

I'd love more Renaissance/Clockpunk units, though. The way the Dreadnought class felt like the Vinci faction from Rise of Legends was one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed that class. I've got my fingers crossed for some of those units to return in this game.
 
If the DLC only provide gunpowder then yes, strategic resource is less of a necessity because people could just not buy the DLC. but if the DLC come with other features then it's a a different story.
As for pre-musket, since hand cannons exist since AOW1 and pistols since AOW2, I am not sure how much more primitive they could be. although Hwacha / Nest of bee style gunpowder propelled arrow launcher could be a nice niche unit.


They did go that far. the green bar at the button of the unit cards in Shogun and Empire total war shows the unit's remaining ammo. It got removed in warhammer leading to unholy ratling gun spam. Having strong dependence on logistic, I think is a weakness that also defines gunpowder weapons. I think there is potential for interesting gameplay interaction here, and removing it, or making it dependent on mana instead, detract from the units' flavor and character.

2012-02-11_00022.jpg

In battle ammunition vs strategic layer ammunition is very different. I assumed you meant units would have to go back to cities outside of combat to replenish ammo, which sounds awful, and I'm pretty sure none of the TW games have actually done although I barely played Empire.
 
BTW, Yes to grenadiers and dragoons. We like them but they may not be that well known to fantasy fans and each tome can only add a few units.

Yeah depending how its implemented whether as a full culture or what would impact what shows up. I was just trying to think of the most striking and diverse options that could be included and how they could work with the theme.
 
I don't agree that logistics and supply chains should be unique to gunpowder units and faction. That's been a major concern in warfare throughout human history, so if we're going to handwave it for other armies, we should also handwave it for gunpowder. After all, it's not like archers and swordsmen can just manufacture arrowheads and blades in the field - they need constant resupply just like the muskets do. And where are the battle mages and priests getting their spell reagents? Sure, you can whittle arrow shafts from branches, or collect herbs, but some reagents aren't going to be easily harvested on the go, and forges aren't easily transported from battlefield to battlefield.
This may be getting a bit deep, but industrial army have a unique dependence on supplies because of the rate at which it is expended.
An archery can recover a lot of arrows during a campaign, a spearman only need to bring a few spare spears. He is not going to break dozens of spears per battle.
A musketeer or a cannon goes through powder because once it's fired, it's gone until replacement gets to them.

I also dislike the idea that there should be a strategic resource that gunpowder units require, as that results in any faction designed around those units needing that resource just to function. Imagine making a faction that needs saltpeter for cannons, but your first city has no saltpeter nearby, and the closest deposit belongs to an enemy faction with no use for it. You're forced to use whatever units you can scrape together that don't require saltpeter, or just abandon your playstyle - either way, the choice you made in faction creation is now a major downside. Instead, I maintain that gunpowder units should be a culture, and so if you want to play games without them, simply fill out the slots in your game with other empires, or even more simply, don't buy the DLC.
This is a valid point, except for AOW4's dynamic faction creation. if a player spawns without saltpeter nearby, they can research other tomes until they can secure a source. Everyone can play a regular fantasy trope - warrior, mage, priest, thief, until they get their hands on the resource. Once they have a stockpile of it, then they have a choice to go into these units. This makes them far more interesting, IMHO, than just another crossbowman.

I also dislike making gunpowder units have a unique range/accuracy system separate from other ranged units. The high miss chance you described makes muskets sound terrible until you get very close - and if I need my ranged unit to get up close to reliably deal damage, why am I bringing a ranged unit instead of a melee charger? They'd do the same thing at that point: hit very hard on the first turn up close. Also, if gunpowder units damage everything in a line between themselves and their target, why wouldn't every other ranged unit? It just makes them feel worse and makes me want to use them even less.
As I mentioned, because it creates interesting tactical decisions. They are actually a very good defense against melee chargers, which they are likely to destroy in one turn regardless of defense. However they are vulnerable at long range to conventional missile units, which in term may have difficulty dealing with melee units with high defense. This gives them an interesting place in the combat chain, distinct from crossbowmen.
Every other ranged units fire in an arc over intervening units. Allowing gunpowder to do inherent splash damage in a line makes it very dangerous to charge them in a blob, and allow them to create deadly kill zones of crossfire.
 
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In battle ammunition vs strategic layer ammunition is very different. I assumed you meant units would have to go back to cities outside of combat to replenish ammo, which sounds awful, and I'm pretty sure none of the TW games have actually done although I barely played Empire.
Yes I want them to keep track of ammo on the strategic map.
It would not be awful when they are clearing site in domain or nearby. They are just unsuited for expedition or attack deep into enemy territory.
I want them to operate around the niter mines, which gives them a clear role distinct from conventional ranged units.
 
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This may be getting a bit deep, but industrial army have a unique dependence on supplies because of the rate at which it is expended.
An archery can recover a lot of arrows during a campaign, a spearman only need to bring a few spare spears. He is not going to break dozens of spears per battle.
A musketeer or a cannon goes through powder because once it's fired, it's gone until replacement gets to them.
Arrowheads and spearheads break, swords dull, shields split, and spell reagents get spent. All of these require replacements. Sure, gunpowder gets spent, but why are we singling that out? No, I don't like this. This feels to me like just a way to make gunpowder units less playable, or at the very least, much harder to use.
This is a valid point, except for AOW4's dynamic faction creation. if a player spawns without saltpeter nearby, they can research other tomes until they can secure a source. Everyone can play a regular fantasy trope - warrior, mage, priest, thief, until they get their hands on the resource. Once they have a stockpile of it, then they have a choice to go into these units. This makes them far more interesting, IMHO, than just another crossbowman.
I'd much rather they weren't that interesting, and that I could just reliably use them, from the moment I picked the gunpowder culture, than that they were very interesting, but I had to get a resource with limited uses, and research multiple tiers of tomes, and juggle a unique supply/munitions mechanic that nobody else has to deal with. The latter option sounds like "I'd rather not have gunpowder units" with extra steps from my perspective.
As I mentioned, because it creates interesting tactical decisions. They are actually a very good defense against melee chargers, which they are likely to destroy in one turn regardless of defense. However they are vulnerable at long range to conventional missile units, which in term may have difficulty dealing with melee units with high defense. This gives them an interesting place in the combat chain, distinct from crossbowmen.
It sounds like you want gunpowder units to be so interesting they no longer fit into the standard unit types and are almost exclusively late-game additions? I very much don't want this. I just want to be able to start the game with muskets supporting my melee line instead of archers. Simple as that. I'd rather they got nerfed to be more like crossbowmen than they got nerfed to be niche and restricted from play.
Every other ranged units fire in an arc over intervening units. Allowing gunpowder to do inherent splash damage in a line makes it very dangerous to charge them in a blob, and allow them to create deadly kill zones of crossfire.
Archers don't fire in an arc over intervening units, they take huge damage penalties in earlier games, and in Planetfall all ranged units except Amazons had a huge miss chance if they lacked line of sight. (And Amazons were like High Elves so they ignored line of sight because space elves are space magic.) And that's not even counting crossbowmen, who definitely shoot in straight lines, or battle mages, who probably also toss their fireballs and lightning blasts in lines. Again, this all sounds like really complex stuff that'd drive me running away from gunpowder units, and I decidedly don't want that.
 
Yes I want them to keep track of ammo on the strategic map.
It would not be awful when they are clearing site in domain or nearby. They are just unsuited for expedition or attack deep into enemy territory.
I want them to operate around the niter mines, which gives them a clear role distinct from conventional ranged units.
Which would probably stop me from using them. Guns in fantasy is one of my favorite underused ideas and having those units useless except in very specific situations would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

which is why I said gunpowder kills balance. Muskets should be superior to mundane bows. After all, they replaced bows in the real world. Guns that aren’t better than bows feel rather poor to play, but at the same time this is a fantasy world, we’ve got options.

maybe black powder should be handled like a ranged specific unit transformation, a minor one with even more weapons at the major level. This way the guns don’t have to be balanced against tier 1 ranged units.

instead of adding enchantments to weapons these ‘spells’ could be like rearming your units with the new weapons.

melee units could get once per battle grenades or scatter guns that act as a breath weapon on cool down.

Calvary could get pistols that give a bonus when not charging. Evening out Calvary’s damage between first round and second.

Don’t know what I’d do for balanced numbers and the like in combat, but I’m more interested in them feeling right as the player anyways.

plus, this would allow you to role play a faction that doesn’t want to change there very nature and finds another way to survive. Could be really cool faction to play.
 
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maybe black powder should be handled like a ranged specific unit transformation, a minor one with even more weapons at the major level. This way the guns don’t have to be balanced against tier 1 ranged units.

instead of adding enchantments to weapons these ‘spells’ could be like rearming your units with the new weapons.

melee units could get once per battle grenades or scatter guns that act as a breath weapon on cool down.

Calvary could get pistols that give a bonus when not charging. Evening out Calvary’s damage between first round and second.

Don’t know what I’d do for balanced numbers and the like in combat, but I’m more interested in them feeling right as the player anyways.

plus, this would allow you to role play a faction that doesn’t want to change there very nature and finds another way to survive. Could be really cool faction to play.
I'd be much more down for this than the OP's ideas. Or ideally a middle-ground: musketeers as a cultural T1 or T2 ranged unit, but further upgrades coming from new tomes that let you add clockwork/industrial gear to the rest of your army, rather than transforming them into supernatural creatures. Perhaps the capstone transformation (if they even add one) is more along the lines of powered armor, a suit your units wear instead of growing wings and halos, or becoming made of fire, or whatever. A primitive clockwork version of the Fallout-style power armor, improving your units defensively but not giving them much in the way of new abilities. Just as an example.
 
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