Custom Units

I would love to be able to train and equip soldiers to use multiple weapons. The most obvious example would be to give a group of infantry a bow and arrow to set off a few volleys before engaging in close-combat. So yes, I think this kind of customization should be in EWOM - in fact I think EWOM is particularly well-suited to this kind of customization given the unparalleled control it seems we'll have in designing our troops. If all we can do is make cookie cutter units anyway, then all that control goes to waste.

And I don't think it'd be unbalancing, either. To take the aforementioned example, I could choose to train 50 soldiers to use both a sword and a bow, or I could train 50 soldiers to use a sword and 50 to use a bow. In the former example you get 50 versatile, potentially better, troops while in the latter I get 100 troops (for the same number of weapons). So there's a natural trade-off, so that making the versatile units isn't always the best decision.

Have you ever played GalCiv 2? EWOM will have an in-game unit designer similar to the shipyard, where you can comp,letely customise your units.

I would add that the versatile soldiers shouldn't do as much damage with the specific weapons as soldiers trained with only one weapon unless the versatile soldiers spent more time in training. 

I have, and in GC2 you can equip whatever combination of weapons and other modules that can fit. Basically the analogy to allowing troops to use multiple weapons.

Let's say that it takes 10 turns to train a basic soldier. No fancy things, no extra training. Once you give him a sword, it would add a flat 5 turns. Now it takes 15 turns.

Teach him to use javelins (to throw in the initial fight, like the Romans did) and it adds another flat 5 turns. It's now 20 turns.

Why flat and not percentage? Because there's going to be many more kinds of training in Elemental, gathered from dev. journals by Frogboy. If Advance Combat Training added another 20 turns to the base 10 turns of training, and then weapons each added 50%, the cost for doing so would grow exponentially, discouraging the use of advancely trained soldiers with multiple weapons - the exact kind I'd be most likely to want to train in several weapons.

Yes infact I have played GalCiv2 but the limit with that game was the ship's hull so its a little harder to figure out the limit on a human (or Fallen) maybe like three weapon training max. I dont know but I do agree with Luckmann, the soldier with more training with different weapons should take longer to train.

But I do think they should put this in since if you have a hard time putting alot of villagers into your army you can just create a bunch of super soldiers that are awsome in melee and ranged combat (like samurais) and let the rest of the villagers take care of the economy. 

I was also wondering if you guys think there will be a wide array of melee and ranged weapons?

ex. using a scythe instead of a sword, javelin instead of bow/arrow

I sure hope there is because then there will be clear cultural differences on the battlefield and they could go even deeper and functional differences with the weapons.

Ideally the weapon maximum training should be unlimited, but the weapons which the unit(s) can carry should be limited to three weapons.  Hopefully this is true for champions/heroes...  and if we're allowed to move weapons being used by units then the same true here as well.

@Olp33, About designing different kinds of weapons: Go ahead and make a mod. The problem is that you want to see those weapons on your soldiers, and that means designing new textures. Also, there isn't really a reason to use scyths unless you expect your troops to help the peasantry during the harvest season .

Anyway, the option to equip a unit with different weapons at the same time is a must. Archers *need* to have shortswords, else they will just get mowed down by a group of 5 scouts. I would also like to make a unit with both a heavy crossbow, a tower shild and a short spear. I'll then train them with a phalanx-like formation, and laugh as I see the sky turns black with arrows and the ground turn red with blood .

Not being a fencing expert, I have no idea if a scythe would actually make a god weapon, but I actually think it might be interesting to try: looks like it would be easy to avoid somebody's gaurd, especially if both ends were sharp.

lol Gazing ya thats true with the scyths. honestly I just think scyths look cool and if you have a double bladed one itll just mow down grunts lol. but instead of having a short sword why not just let ur archers stab peoples throats with their arrows?just like legaless lol 

anyway I just hope there are more melee weapons than spear, sword and short swords. maybe a morning star? that would be awsome to watch lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_scythe

Essentially a Halberd.

Actually, I realise I was actually thinking of a sickle, not a scythe. But, then again, both would look really cool...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle-sword

Gotta love wikipedia.

I want flails, but I'd have to see what the physics did to one.

Nunchucks. Why not?