Champions .. professionals or mercenaries ? Phase 3 rush problem. Good idea

[JC (naval supremacist)]

What is a champion in this game ? He cost a lot and dont work. Nearly every game starts at Phase 3 and finish as a ping pong game between Castles and Champions.

The simple citizens definively stucked in a role of worker in the backyard

Werent the champs only citizens with skills above average ? If no, were they mercenaries ? If so, isnt too irrealistic to have an exlusive army of mercenaries ?

Why make a binary distinction between champs and citizens ? What about giving random (but ranged between 2 values) abilities for each citizen trained and give

a graphic distinction for those who are stronger. This way, in order to have a big army of champions, the player has simply to produce lot of units (praying that a good rate of champs will born among them)

After, the player can decide to save his best units from imminent death in order to build up a high-rated army of champs. In a kind of way, its a bit similar to the Veteran system but more oriented to something

about gifted at beginning than aquired with experience.

Beside this, some civs should still be able engage mercenaries.

[niektb]

Actually I think that the champions are some form of a standing, professional army rather than citizens that have their normal life and being called to war sometimes.

[auron2401]

Werent the champs only citizens with skills above average ? If no, were they mercenaries ? If so, isnt too unrealistic to have an exlusive army of mercenaries ?

Worked for Qarthage.

Though they did keep an army in reserve of purely citizen soldiers, and they put their own officers in charge of mercenaries.

Also, Champions are ridiculously good for their price, (from a combat point of view)

[JC (naval supremacist)]

mmh, i think that a system of random abilities assignement for each units would be fun and more historical realistic (dont need to wait P3 to see super-soldiers coming out from a barrack)

exemple of the proportion of the randon generator (proportions can change with Phasing and upgrades)

1% hyper-soldiers (heros) (only after P3)

9% super-soldiers (champions) (only after P2)

20% good-soldiers ( veterans <<<)

30% average-soldiers (<<)

40% weak-soldiers (<)

for sure, one can upgrade armours and weapons. One can imaginate that military civ like sparta would have random generator fixed with different proportions.

Another good point would be that players will no longer do that annoying-procedural routine during the 15 first minutes of the game . With this, making only females can be really risky !

The game will be less splitted in a ECO phase then a MILITARY phase.

Beside this, once your empire become rich, be able to buy mercenary champions at high price (why not a good on the market ?? a mercenary-market ! with fluctuating price)

[niektb]

Such random stuff sounds a bit like something that would be horrible for competitive gaming (Since one player could have luch and get a stronger army even though he has spent an equal amount of resources)

[JC (naval supremacist)]

yes and no .. in the early stage of the game, since the opponent ignores your composition , he wont always want to take a risk in a rush...

But the possibility that an ennemy can rush you will force you to produce soldiers by security and this will make the 15 mins of the game more interesting (by now, the winner is too much often the one who can demography boom with womens in the first 15 mins .. and its a pitty.. its like a no-game period - as in 0ad18, rush turns into a penaly and no more an advantage !)

For those who are have their workers under the fire of a tower in P2 , those early champs can be the solution to get rid of that and relaunch the game without that unbalanced situation

In the late stage, the proportions % described up , should tend to be equal thanks to large numbers . But as long as Heros and Champs dont work (and veterans work slower) , the army with less champs will score better on ECO and can then buy some more Mercenaries-champ on the gladiator-market ^^ .

By now, the game starts at P3 and is too much a result of the ECO in P1 and the towers in P2 . I love naval game because its complex. As long as we can make the strategy of the game more complex, its a good point for the gameplay and

the fun

cheers,