What's the point of getting Armor Piercing for Rogue heroes?

[Rodmar18]

Hello,

Currently, Rogue heroes get Armor Piercing passive ability pretty soon, and later the Stronger than Steel leadership ability. Although I'm not 100% sure, I don't think that they stack (because the leadership ability is said to grant Armor Piercing to any unit in the hero's stack).

So, given the situationnal utility of negating the Armoured bonus on a few units, I never chose Armor Piercing for my Rogue heroes.

Would it be possible to have Rogues (and units led by Rogues) actually better at fighting armoured unit than fighting non armoured unit? I don't mean having both abilities stacking, but perhaps gaining a +3 bonus instead of the +2 usual bonus. We could say that, due to their nimbleness, they would benefit from an offensive "martial art" ability against cumbersomed units.

What do you think about the current Armour Piercing ability for a Rogue, and the proposal of having them even better against armoured foes?

Stronger than Steel would also improve (+1) units' Armor Piercing inherent ability, as well that granted by items.

 

[Jolly Joker]

I find myself thinking about this.

First thing coming to mind is Charge Command (Warlord). This will never apply to the hero in question (all have Charge anyway), and many units come with Charge (Berserkers, for example), while others won't actually charge, ever, (like archers).

Having both abilities to pick seems to be an advantage; if you intend to pick Stronger than Steel, you don't have to pick AP and vice versa.

Now, with Stronger than Steel being an exclusive ROGUE hero upgrade, your question actually reduces to the question whether STS should give something different than "Armor Piercing", because in that case it would stack with AP - which it shouldn't, obviously. ARMOR gives a bonus, and armor piercing negates that bonus, end of story. It can't do more than that.

The only option would be to include OTHER "defensive steel" which is, if I'm not wrong SHIELD which gives +2 against non-flanking attacks. So the only real option I see is to expand STS to giving +2 damage for non-flanking attacks against Shielded units in addition to +2 damage against armored units. This would be a pretty good ability, obviously, and better than 4 points. Might be worth 6.

 

[Rodmar18]

Perhaps you have a brillant idea: negate any bonus provided by equipment, that is Armour and Shield. If STS costs more, it could be useful to take Armour Piercing, finally.

Bonus granted to armoured and shielded units through Mystical City and Empire upgrades would still be active, though.

 

[Jolly Joker]

I find myself agreeing, since I never take either AP or STS with Rogue Heroes.

I may mod this for my personal mods, so thanks for starting the discussion.