Points cost for foot Light Spear

[rpayne]

I too think that LS should not be free. (Nor should any other weapon POAs). How that is achieved is another matter. The fact that it is "tricky" doesn't excuse not making the effort to do so - I'm sure balancing all the other weapon capabilities was tricky and no one would claim that it was perfectly achieved either! But it's mostly near enough for practical purposes...whereas a free, generally useful POA is about as obviously unbalanced as it gets.

I think this is the point here.

I know people do not want half points, something which I think would make fixing this problem easy, but it's already been decided that FoG doesn't want to do this.

So the only remaining option, if the general public thinks foot LS shouldn't be free, is to make it 1 point.

However, how would you do this in a manner that makes existing units cost the same relatively, and increases the cost of units abusing a free LS (bow/LS) or units who cost too much (pure SW)

I think my original suggestion is reasonably good, with the slight problem of the Mob. Does anyone have any better suggestions?

Perhaps Mob would just arbitrarily cost a point more in this new system? Or perhaps they should only be 1 point, but be less effective (if that is even possible)


It is worth noting that several of the armies that get Bow/LS armed foot only give LS to the front rank, which would in effect make them cost less than swords anyway.

[ethan]

LS+SW should cost as is
LS+Bw should increase 1AP
LS alone should cost as is (i.e. free)
Sw alone should be free (this also means no Bw) OR should get a rule change to make them better

[rpayne]

For reference, this was my original proposal:

Reduce the base cost of all foot by 1 point.

Increase the cost of all impact and ranged weaponry for foot by 1 point, except for Javelins and Bow*

So the new weapon costs for foot would look like so:

Sword - 1
Skilled Sword - 2
Light Spear - 1
Defensive Spear - 2
Offensive Spear - 3
Heavy Weapon - 3
Impact Foot - 2
Pike - 2

Javelin - 0
Firearm - 1
Sling - 1
Bow* - 1
Crossbow - 2
Bow - 2
Longbow - 3


These changes would keep all foot unit costs identical, except for the following:

Bow/LS would be 1 point more.
SW only would be 1 point less.
SSW only would be 1 point less.
Mob would be 1 point less.


Disregarding the Mob issue for now, how would people feel about Skilled Swords only costing less? I've never played against the Spanish Sword & Buckler men in a game so I can't speak to their effectiveness. Are they closer in effectiveness to Defensive Spear / LS-SW, or to Offensive Spear, IF-SW and Heavy Weapons?