My Thoughts on Tactical Features
A Short Introduction
While KaM is a very good (the best) game when it comes to managing the economy and maintaining troops; it does suffer when it comes to tactics instead of scale when it comes to defeating the enemy. While I don't play the multiplayer, primarily because I dislike the peacetime, it does sound like it's more about 1) Build an army 2) Storm the enemy; instead of making tactical decisions which are a major part of real warfare of the era. The plan is to reduce the use of the peacetime function which make for the same game plan every time, to scout the enemy, attack strategic points and exploit enemy blind zones. So the idea is to have the peacetime game the standard one, while having features which make more specialized missions both strategically challenging, and possible.
These features will make each match more unique and make the learning curve steeper, making combat rely on more than just numbers and superior equipment to win battles.
Each feature I suggest will have its unique advantages and disadvantages, I'll give one example. Patrols (a new feature to allow your units to go from point A to B constantly and automatically, used to temporarily lift the fog of war (A feature I hope you'll implement, due to the added emphasis it places on strategy instead of just storming the enemy, which I think is boring when repeated in match after match)).
Example
Advantages: The patrolling unit will allow you to keep an eye on blind zones which the opponent could easily march through and attack your forces unprepared, if you have many units patrolling you can always be prepared for an enemy attack. Or you can use them to scout out the enemy and see how they're doing. If you have no scouts the enemy can easily check out your army and find out key points to attack and vice versa.
Disadvantages: Patrolling units will be away from your main army (usually), so it will take a while before they're ready to join the combat and that can prove fatal if your opponent is quick and builds an army which will conquer your city easily. They can easily be crushed by enemies, if they're few in number or slow, and will have to return to the main city for food (unless you want your serfs to cross a vast distance and be slaughtered by the enemy if they're spotted). If you have too many units it will drain food and numbers from the main army.
The Suggestions
The Town Hall's Mercenaries
There has been some complaints on the Town Hall from the devs, which I agree with, primarily due to them not really fitting into the whole idea of the complex economy. My suggestion will make it rely more on strategy and timing to pull mercenary troops off, by basing them on history.
Suggestion 1: Recruit the mercenaries as normal, with the same cost, but set a limitation in how long you keep them until they return to the Town Hall. Either by 1) Setting the timer to the average length of a battle or 2) 3/4 or half to make them more reliant on strategy and careful timing.
What these suggestions will mean: You'll have to plan the attack correctly and be careful what you plan them to do, as they can abandon you when it counts the most. In addition, thanks to the new 1+ bonus for troops armed with shields against missile fire mercenaries won't be thougth of as more than cannon fodder to most players' minds, and specialised vulnerable units to those more tactically minded.
Fog of War
The fog of war will be important for some of the features that will make the game reward careful strategy instead of brute force, in keeping with the concept of the game being to manage things well instead of just spamming things.
Instead of just being able to scout the enemy once and then always see what the enemy is doing down to the minutae detail, you know have to send your troops from point A to B, to get updated information.
With the fog of war you can't just scout the enemy's base once and then always know what they're doing. As the game progresses it will be harder and harder to get to the heart of the enemy base, due to to Watchtowers and enemy soldiers.
Suggestion 2) : Introduce it.
Patrol
The patrol button exists because of the fog of war, and will be there to allow the player to send a unit to go from point A to B, constantly, without having to manually send them forwards and back. This is in keeping with real armies to update your intelligence on the enemy. With this new ability they can guard blind zones which cunning enemies can take advantage of. Patrols will also be a unit away from the main army which can prove devestating if you have too many.
The Enemy will have to take these patrols into account when marching on the enemy as well as sending their own scouts to find out the lay of the land as well as the enemy's position and find their blindzones.
Suggestion 3): Give units the option to go patrolling from point A to B in their command menu (or C, D and E as well, if you feel inclined:).
This will make the standard tactic of just gather your men and storm the enemy potentially hazardous and will allow games to be more challenging and interesting and reduce the repetition that is a little too painfully appearant in the game. It will also increase the potentiality of ambushes and skirmishes, instead of always having massive armies confront each other, so it will challenge commanders in different ways.
(New Building) The Outpost
This has been on the idea list of the devs, but I want to repeat it in hope that they will implement it:)
This building will be there to guard strategic blind zones and will just be a normal building except for that 1) It has no function but lift the fog of war, 2) Doesn't need road connection and 3) (This one might be challenging so please don't complain if the devs don't want it) Notify you when it spots enemy troops, in the same way you are notified when your troops are hungry or your houses have remained unoccupied. The third is to make it superior to troops commanded to scout, since it won't defend itself and won't store or produce any goods.
Suggestion: Implement this feature for advanced tactical options, the 3rd might be very challenging, but I have no coding skill, so I can't really say if any of the suggestion in this article are too hard to implement.
Because the labourers must go to the physical location to construct the Outpost, I don't think the Outpost will be overpowered at all. If the opposing player is using scouts effectively the labourers will be slaugthered; this makes it too risky to send them unguarded which brings us to the next feature...
Escort
This Option Exists primarily because of features which will be suggested later in this article, but is true for the labourers and the odd serf here and there as well. The ability to Escort troops is basic in most strategy games (Patrolling as well), and is a feature which hasn't been that important yet, but will be if the suggestions in this article are implemented.
It will make the assigned escorts to follow the unit they're escorting, which seems quite pointless right now, but it's usefullness will become appearant after you've seen the other features.
Suggestion: Skip the following paragraphs and see the following features before deciding whether or not to implement this one... Then implement this(:
You can escort Caravans or Supply Wagons which are otherwise vulnerable, though your escort should be big enough to fight off enemies or they're little use, if you have a whole army escorting them who'll defend your city?
A New Function for the Storehouse and the School
The storehouse is the most important building in the game, as well as always being the first, so I have a suggestion that I hope you'll implement.
Give the storehouse the ability to be placed on the map without connecting to a road so that you can, in a sense of the word, create new
cities, or if the coal or another resource is located far away from your starting location then you can create a small city dedicated to this purpouse, when I think about it, you'll also have to disable the serfs from other cities from responding so it might be impossible to implement. The entire thing about this feature is to create new tactical options, advantages and disadvantages.
Well, since the serfs are attached to their roadsystem, what I said about having to disable them from responding isn't true. Thank God, I thought this would be the end of this feature:)
I do really like the road system, but sometimes it's a little unwieldy for my tastes. When you have to build a road that stretches far across the map and takes ages instead of just building an additional city, it's quite stupid, and unrealistic at times... While the serfs are connected to their former city and can't be used to construct Watchtowers and Barrackses anywhere on the map, I think it will be good to see the Storehouses using this feature to construct cities and small cities at key locations.
Now, about the School, we'll need it to be able to share the feature if this new system is to work. Because the serfs are attached to their roadsystem, these two buildings will have to be excepted from the rule, in the same way as roads, farms and such are.
Suggestion: Free these two (and the Outpost) from the restriction so you are able to build new cities (perhaps by letting the servants recognize them as roads just with normal production costs).
This means that yes, you can build a new city, even one with nothing but serfs, a school, an inn, storehouse and watchtowers, but what if your enemy ignores this one and goes for your main city? Or if you station many units here what then of your main city, or none at all and it will fall within seconds, or if it is big with too few troops the enemy won't have any problem crushing it before your main army arrives.
This might seem very stupid (since your Storehouse and School won't have any goods when it's created and the serfs won't carry any except to build them), but I have a new feature which will make this a sound tactical option, if the resources or your overall plan demands it.
The Caravan
I know this idea has been discussed before, with the devs against it. I also know I haven't read many of the suggestions of the Caravan unit, so I am sorry if I say something others have said before, but this idea makes for a more tactically based game since it's a tempting target, because it's basically a storehouse on wheels. If you ambush the caravan it will destroy the resources the enemy is sending and thus be devestating, so it will be wise to assign an escort, but that will be one unit away from the army so either way it will be a disadvantage. The advantage lies in trading, as you can send resources from your storehouses to your own storehouses, or markets; or your friends, if you prefer. This makes my idea of having multiple cities possible which can be used to provide just one resource or be a watchtower equipped base.
About the cart: The cart itself will be made at the carpenters, for 4 wood. Two horses will be needed from the stables. 1 Cartdriver will have to be trained at the school. Then it will have to be sent to the barracks to be made into a complete unit. It will be able to carry 100 units of whatever goods you wish to include into it.
Suggestion: This will make for new advantages and disadvantages. So including it would make the matches more interesting.
The Supply Wagon
The idea for this is to provide troops stationed far away from home, with food. And will function by a new button on the soldiers menu which allows them to take food from the the Supply Wagon instead of calling the serfs.
Built the same way, with different cosmetics to distuingish them. This one can carry the same ammount, but can only carry food items.
Suggestion: Yeah, you get the point...
Players Skill Level
This new suggestion is about scaling the matches according to the players chosen skill level (I wrote Skilled, but it's a long time since last I played). Veterans will have serious limitations against Beginners for example.
I will also suggest ranking the matches, so you progress or fall as you win or lose, in addition to making the games more competitive, this will also prove useful for those players who might have written Veteran, but really are Beginners and vice verca. Thus making the games more balanced and unique in a strange combination. The limitations can either be in buildings/ units they can't construct or that the player who isn't very skilled can get starting advantages.
The point of scaling the matches, as well as ranking them, is to make sure the game always gives you the challenge that is best for you. Thus you will always progress, if only slightly sometimes, towards Veteran rank and more importantly to the delight of refinement and illusionary perfection.
Third and lastly (bet you're happy to hear it=)), I suggest having specialized missions where you have a specific objective to achieve, for example you have 100 soldiers and the enemy has a base and 250 soldiers and your mission is to destroy a specific building (or two or three different ones) or the enemy stops you and you've lost. These Special Missions would be best if having a story-ish description, partly to show why the targets are important etc. get creative if you like:)
Conclusion
If these features are included the game will be more varied and they will make the actual battle interesting, instead of it just being about creating a base (A complex one, but a base all the same) and because you focus on building the same army nearly everytime, you'll build the same base (see the vicious circle?). By having so many different tactical advantages and disadvantages, nearly every player will fight differently making their bases differently and they will always try out new tactics, refine their bases to get better armies. Instead of fighting a similiar battle every time, you'll now have unique challenges everytime.
Ironically, though I didn't intend it, it will put a new fresh emphasis on the basebuilding, because there's advantages and disadvantages to having the power centralised or spread out, and you'll be less likely to use the same army for long periods as someone will always have an army you didn't expect and defeat you. So then you'll adjust or try out something new, and the quest for the perfect army begins anew... Hope you enjoyed this article:)