Rethinking the Meta with Sparta: A Historical Approach

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

 There has been a lot of discussion of how the meta of 0 A.D is haphazard, with typically only one strategy dominating the game.  These points have merits, but while buffing and nerfing a single type of unit may seem like the best/easiest option, it seems better to look at the units in the context of which faction they are in since there should be a large difference between the functionality of a Roman Triarius to that of a Mauryan counterpart.  Thus, I would like to use a single civilisation, Sparta, as a general template for this approach.  The focus will basically be on the units, but the changes should affect other parts of the game.  As another note, I will be using generic names to make the article more user-friendly. Please understand that my intention is not to make completely formed document but instead a base by which others can provide feedback; my hope is that some of this would see presence in the base game, but regardless, this approach should lead to a better purposed approach to both design and balance.  There are limitations to this since 0 A.D. does not depict development chronologically, but my hope is that this method is a reasonable balance between the dynamics of history and gameplay.

Village Phase Units:

Spartan Hoplite

In considering how to make Sparta, having the most prominent unit type withheld until the late game seems an absurd choice.  Rather, this unit should play a central role throughout the game for Sparta.

Training: Although the player would start with one Spartan, training more would require the construction of the mess hall, a building that trains heroes and provides the basis of upgrades to the Spartan units.  After this structure has been completed, Spartan hoplites would be able to be trained at the Civic Centre.  Spartan hoplites have long training times, which can be quickened with later technologies, but in general, this unit would be difficult to mass.  Besides boasting a large defense, one of the biggest advantages would be a decently ranged aura to buff friendly mêlée infantry units' attack and defense.   By researching the technology "Tyrtaean Hymns," the slow Spartan movement could be increased to allow them to better match the speeds of faster units.  On the other hand, "Squires" would allow this aura to affect helots, making them significantly better at fighting.  Later upgrades could make Spartans cause a fear aura, make their train time much faster, or simply buff their stats.  Simply speaking, the player could have a great deal a freedom in customizing their Spartans to the needs of their game.

Spartan Women:

Women in the current meta are weak and vulnerable units. The same should not be said for Spartan Female units.  With a faster movement speed and higher hp pool, these units should be able to better hold out against raiding until help arrives.  Aside from building defensive buildings, they should offer an inspirational aura that makes helot units perform much better when fighting in their territory.  Nonetheless, this makes them only support units albeit valuable ones.  The only disadvantage they, like the Spartan hoplite, would suffer from is a long training time.  Women would be trained at the Civic Centre only.

Helots:

Making up the next part of the Spartan roster, Helots should play a central but unique role that reflects their class.  Helots would be strictly armed workers, wearing only the lightest equipment.  Like the aforementioned units, they would only be trained at the Civic Centre but at a faster rate.  When fighting alone in friendly territory, they would be mediocre at best, but outside, they would be only cannon-fodder unless Spartans with the right upgrades were nearby.  In the later phases, a technology could be researched to free specific ones for a certain cost, making the freed helots significantly better in combat and lacking the penalties in neutral and enemy territory.  They would benefit, as already mentioned, from the presence of specific units.

Skiritae:

Yes this unit would be available at the village phase and would be the only unit trainable at the barracks during this phase.  It would retain all the features it currently possesses.  Its main value would be as a harrassing unit at this point, but it could also be used to deal with raiding units your opponent would field.  It would benefit from Spartan auras, making sending a Spartan hoplite in conjunction with a raid an excellent choice for heavier damage.  In later parts of the game, this unit could see action in raids but as other units become more efficient with this function and Skiritae benefit from fighting near Spartans, their role would become one of bolstering flanks of formations.

Town Phase:

Periokoi:

Like the Spartan hoplite, this would be a frontline unit, but despite its lacking powerful auras and the large stats of Spartan hoplites, they would be a force to be reckoned with, almost on par with standard Athenian hoplites, and potentially better if a Spartan hoplite is with them.  Their gather rates would be decent, not as good as helots but better than Skiritae, but the main advantage would be the ease by which they could be massed.  These would be trained at the barracks.

Boetian Allied Cavalry:

These units would be expensive but potentially powerful even in small numbers.  Unlike the Skiritae, which are both shock and frontline troops, Allied Cavalry would only be shock troops.  This would require researching Boetian Alliance, however.  These cavalry would be spear cavalry and trained at the barracks for the standard cost plus some metal.  Altogether, I would see this as more of a force to field if an enemy uses a mainly ranged unit composition or as a means of harassing some workers.

City Phase:

Spartan Pikemen:

In the final phase there would be the option to reform the Spartan military, modernizing it.  The results would be that Spartan hoplites would be transformed into the following unit, making their training time significantly faster while still retaining powerful stats.  The aura they formerly had would be gone though, and they would be expensive to maintain in production for very long.  If timed correctly though, a Spartan player could beeline to this technology, hoping to quickly overwhelm their opponents.  This could be just one of a few options for how Spartan hoplites could evolve.  If the player wished to maintain quality over quantity, they could research a technology that favors the aristocrats.  Yet another path could be a way of getting some of both things, allowing @#$% sons to be legitimized.  Since each of these could favor specific unit compositions, it would allow the player to operate with that framework in mind, having build orders that could play to the different strengths. 

Olynthian Skirmisher Cavalry: 

As technologies could gradually make Boetian cavalry more purposes towards supporting Spartan phalanxes, this unit could arise as a potential trash unit as resources dwindle and raiding becomes a matter of resource efficiency.  These units would be cheap due to them being levies of allies have an average training time.  While they would be pretty squishy, their speed and affordability would be their selling point as resources grow scarce.   
 

[Lion.Kanzen]

With the reforms, we can get Walls, new tech , something more?

[Lion.Kanzen]

I like the Helots, you know they are slavery society.we can have many type slaves, there will be different from Rome's slaves in DE.

 

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

Good questions.  As for walls, there is a simple reason that Sparta lacks walls in 0 A.D.  They didn't have walls.  Granted, later on the city had city walls, but much of what 0 A.D. strives to do is depict civilisations at their prime, and during Sparta's prime, they had none; rather, men were their walls.  As for other effects of the reforms, I haven't developed my vision of Sparta much beyond what you see there, but I could see room for other aspects.  In the case of @#$% ( not born in wedlock) sons being legitimised (which was a consideration), that could have profound effects on Sparta's economy.  During this time of Sparta, the city was experiencing many problems, for although all Spartans had equal rights, gradually some wealthier families acquired land, depriving others.  At the cost of potentially weakening your Spartans, there could be technology that makes Sparta a better booming civilisation.  

Edited September 6, 2017 by Thorfinn the Shallow Minded

[Stan`]

@Hannibal_Barca Maybe some ideas for your balancing mod ?

[Lion.Kanzen]

There are more than balancing, it's ven create a new slave unit.

[av93]

"Reform tech" could give walls and pikeman champ trainable in barracks.

[Servo]

I love the game though the current mechanics make the game quite one/two dimensional and imo really needs overhaul. Since I mostly enjoy single player mode I have no problem adapting to anything except some realistic mechanics and animations.

When it comes to multiplayer problems arise not because the game is not playable but rather players preferences. But if the development teams mindset is already set on a very specific mechanics then it's really hard. Though suggestions can change some views but it's really hard because individually they are also like us maybe(gamers). 

The development imo should have started with the factions and what strength this faction should have historically then give them bonus. This bonus is very important in the very early stages of the game and must be useful and felt between 1st and 2nd phase. If they have unit strengths give them tweaks later.

Faction should be classified as either economic, military, defensive, and/or aggressive. 

For Spartans I don't even know their history except some on movies but I would classify them as aggressive and military and give them more loot bonus.

 

[Sundiata]

Focussing on the historical uniqueness of each civ is the perfect way of diversifying the factions. Every faction has their own character/culture/history, and using this in terms of architecture, units and technologies offers so much potential for gameplay and aesthetics.

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

Very true.  There are some ideas I had in mind for how the economy and defences could more uniquely function for Sparta, but I have not had the time to put that on paper.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

15 hours ago, Servo said:

For Spartans I don't even know their history except some on movies but I would classify them as aggressive and military and give them more loot bonus.

 

I think a lay-person would think so about Sparta, but that's almost a 180 from the reality:

 

Sparta was a very very conservative, agrarian society. The city of Sparta itself was average in size at best. It's hard to even call Sparta a unified city, when in actually it was a collection of smaller villages which banded together to make a polis. Think of Rome in its very early period, where a village stood on each of its hills and only later unified into one polity. Same with Sparta. Most of its diplomacy with other Greek states involved efforts in maintaining the status quo or by building defensive alliances.

During most of the Peloponnesian Wars against Athens, Sparta espoused a defensive strategy, while Athens used a hybrid defensive/hit and run strategy, with wildly aggressive risky campaigns against Sparta's allies which usually ended in disaster for Athens, lol. True, Sparta would besiege the city of Athens every Summer with a force of hoplites, but this force was always too small to actually take the city itself. They never actually attacked the city's defenses and instead burnt crops and farms around Attica. At one point, Sparta built a fortress at a port in Attica. To attack Athens' shipping lanes? Nah, to suck away Athens' slave population. Sparta was very passive-aggressive whenever they went "aggressive." The largest hoplite battle of the war was a strategically defensive measure on Sparta's part and another wildly aggressive move by Athens and her allies. As hinted at previously, this ended in disaster for Athens. lol

Sparta hated venturing out of the Peloponnese. During the Greco-Persian War, it took a large amount of haranguing from other city-states to get Sparta to move North and attack the Persians at Plataea. As an example, Athens had to threaten to move its entire population to Magna Grecia in Italy and found a new city if the Spartans didn't @#$%ing get off their asses and assist the Greek alliance. 

 

Yeah, Sparta should be this oddly defensive, agrarian civ. I say oddly, because it didn't have a city wall into well into its decline. I think a usurper actually built the first city wall in Sparta. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. At any rate, it was into the Macedonian Age before Sparta built its own walls and that was only because its system of defensive alliances had crumbled and its military system was in shambles. So, yeah, in the game the Spartans should have no walls and somehow have super strong soldiers but only defensively. Hard to emulate this in the game with the current mechanics. I could see Sparta getting a super-uber bonus when fighting in its native territory, maybe easiest to implement with building areas, but getting maybe a slight nerf when fighting in enemy territory. So, in a team match, the Sparta player would play defense, and then provide the extra manpower in a crucially-timed team-based push.

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

While you have good evidence and the argument is sound, I would personally see it a different ways.  First, Sparta was not unique in being formerly a collection of smaller villages that banded together.  That is typically the way that ancient urbanisation occurred in Greece and Etruria.  Considering its centralised government, it was just about as unified as cities like Syracuse or Athens.  While Sparta did not offer the most aggressive policy in the during the Persian Wars, its habits changed following the Peloponnesian Wars.  Much of the time it kept itself busy enforcing oligarchic ideologies on city-states and even heading campaigns against Persia.  Definitely this changed following the Battle of Leuctra, but they even had their shot at rising to power through the work of Cleomenes III... which was promptly crushed.  Regardless, my hope is for an open-ended design of how players can adapt their play-styles.  Definitely there is a focus to Sparta; it is an infantry-centric civilisation, but my hope is that despite that fact, it would remain a potent force that does not always necessitate a passive strategy.