Re: Collecting problems
@Esthlos: Please stay on-topic
It's a balance problem, which exists in multiplayer as well as singleplayer games.
These balance problems limit the number of viable strategies, which in turn makes KaM more repetitive.
Aren't problems like this exactly what this thread is about?
By the way, something similar can be said for the Bowmen/Crossbowmen balance too:
by the law of large numbers, their damage over time is representable as:
DamagePerSecond = AttackSpeed*Attack*Number/(100*TargetDefence*TargetHP)
So, for Crossbowmen that would be (using abbreviations for simplicity) XAS*120*XN/(100*XTD*HP)
For Bowmen instead BAS*60*BN/(100*BTD*HP)
(Defence can be different vs Bows or Crossbows, but HP is never, regardless of if you consider the total HP or single units' HP)
On average, BAS is the double of XAS
So Bowmen DPS= 2*XAS*60*BN/(100*BTD*HP) , or XAS*120*BN/(100*BTD*HP)
The ratio of their DPSs thus is BN*XTD/(XN*BTD)
So, against non-shielded targets, the ratio of their effectiveness is BN/XN
Against Wooden Shielded targets, it's (2,25/3 is 0,75): 0,75*BN/XN
Against Iron Shielded targets, it's (3,25/4 is 0,8125): 0,8125*BN/XN
What does this mean?
Well, first of all that Crossbowmen's penetration bonus is more effective against Wooden Shields than Iron Shields (which makes sense, I suppose).
Secondly, that against unshielded enemies the best ranged unit is always the one you can make/keep more of.
Thirdly, that Crossbowmen are better when you can make/keep more than 0,75*Bowmen vs Wooden Shields or 0,8125*Bowmen vs Iron Shields.
This means that they are better in the early-to-mid game, since Iron production is faster to start up.
But they get worse as Leather production gets going, catches up and eventually ends up on top (don't forget that Armor and Weapons Workshops work slightly faster than Armor and Weapons Smithies, plus they use unlimited resources).
Sadly, most of the early-to-mid game happens in Peacetime, which hides a lot of Crossbowmen's viability:
according to this tutorial by sado, you should have Iron production going by minute 20 and Leather production going by minute 30.
Since the tutorial doesn't actually specify at which exact minute you should have the workshops: if the 2 Armor Smithies are running by minute 20, then for Bowmen to catch up by the 60 minutes mark you need to have the 3-4 workshops running by minute:
- vs Unshielded: 39,68
vs Wood Shield: 32,91
vs Iron Shield: 34,99
If instead we take 30 as the time when the Workshops should start producing:
Without considering that you should have more Workshops than Smithies, Bowmen become more useful than Crossbowmen approximately at minute:
- vs Unshielded: 100
vs Wood Shield: never
vs Iron Shield: never
- vs Unshielded: 30,32
vs Wood Shield: 40,98
vs Iron Shield: 36,68
And with a peacetime of 60-90 minutes, such a rush won't ever happen.
Obviously, all this math assumes no losses suffered; before the end of Peacetime this is correct, and after that it mostly depends on how dearly you keep your ranged units alive.