Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-35691112-20180526032212

My idea is to make certain hired NPC's more effective against others. For instance, pike-wielding soldiers are more effective against cavalry/trolls/ents etc. Sword-wielding soldiers would be more effective against Pikemen due to their ability to maneuver better and easily counter pikes. Cavalry would obviously be more effective against swordsmen/archers (even though they would first have to be within striking distance of archers). Mace/club/bludgeon etc could be more effective against armoured troops.

I am aware that in PvP, these attributes of which weapons are effective against what are already in place due to the way they function, such as pikes having larger range and swords swinging faster and cavalry having improved speed. However, NPC's have limited capability in what their AI can do, so they cannot make use of a pike against cavalry like a human would. All AI's can realistically do is aim and attack without really being able to effectively use their equipment against foes who it would be most effective against. Cavalry units, for example, don't really make use of their mounts to be effective, as it is somewhat impossible to realistically code that into the game. They simply ride over to the enemy (at perhaps a little faster speed) and their only apparent edge against a normal unit is that the bad AI of a normal unit may attack the horse accidentally before the person riding it.

My suggestion is to add buffs. perhaps a 30% buff or something if a pikeman NPC is attacking a cavalry NPC. Or a cavalry against a swordsman. or swordsman against pikeman, etc.

Not giving exact ideas on what would be effective against what but I think the concept itself would improve the lore. Especially on multiplayer. If you knew a player only spent money on hog riders, you could get Orc pikemen to combat it and would gain a tactical advantage due to preparing for the specific enemy. Also, this encourages more diversity in a hired army. Rather than basic swordsman being for poor people and cavalry/banner carriers being for the people who can afford it, it would create a tactical use for having different types of units. This could add a lot to the battles and make units seem to have more tactical use, rather than people trying to overwhelm an enemy by simply spamming units onto them with the sword of command.

I am not sure how difficult (if possible at all) this idea is. I assume it is somewhat possible due to the banner carrier being able to boost stats of allies. I just think this idea could really boost the tactical use of units rather than it just being a spam-fest that it is currently. 