When I joined and read up / checked the tech tree etc there was a tech called "wooden shields" which gave extra protection against ranged attacks (but it never appeared as an option in "Techs" or "Upgrades".

Now whith the reduction in HP for melee troops they are extremely vulnerable to ranged with an extra attack tech/ comm bonus (as I am currently finding out against Renno's archer hordes! lol).

Could this tech be ressurected / implemented to reduce the massive advantage a "first strike" with ranged currently gives - even when total forces are reasonably balanced?

You might be thinking of "Wood Shielding" which is available? It adds strength to your new buildings and makes wood cost more for you...

He's referring to one of the "forgotten techs" (Shields) that increased range resistance.

I understand what you mean... but to add that line of anti-range techs would eventually neuter range. Why would you ever use ballista, for example, if mace just shrug them off?

The problem I see with this is that it really does penalize marks and ballista more than archers, despite the fact I think it's archers that really require the penalty more than any other unit.

Therefore, may I propose a flat decrease? -10 ranged damage/turn?

You have a point darkguy.

How about the shields only being effective against archers? It is opponents with vast quantities of archers that are the problem. I just don't know how much this would add to the programming complexity.

I have to admit that as an amateur programmer myself I wouldn't enjoy having to write code for "check if the firing unit is an archer and that such-and-such tech is researched then do this". It probably wouldn't be tragically difficult... just slow, and to be honest, rather unimportant. Fix the big probs first, eh?

Come on, I lead the charge to get ranged nerffed and now that they are we're still complaining?

A full stack of archers will do 20-30 damage, which is about 2 of any basic melee units (when you factor in things like range, att/def, it may be less, but not more) which I think is reasonable. This solution would make it more likely 1 unit lost per attack, which is worthless; five archers to take down one units is doable, ten and you might as well go all melee. If archers had some secondary effect (like supression, lowering morale, etc) then I'd be fine with that damgage, but in the current system they don't. To have any use at all archers damage is fine where it is now. Ranged have always been the real powerhouses in this game, and neutering them (rather than changing the game mechanics) is not a quality solution. What was really unfair was when health was dropped AND ranged damage stayted the same, but Req fixed that.

What I have proposed is ranged sheilding options for higher level troops (since they wore more armor they would naturally have more options available to them). Perhaps a basic level of sheilding (%10) for basic troops, %20 for mid, and %30 for the highest level, with the techs getting more expensive for the highest level units (something like 2k for %5 on basic, 4k for the next %5 on mid, 8k on the remainging %5 for master. If that seems expensive, 30% ranged sheilding for all your melee troops is a big bonus. I think a scailing solution like this, with perhaps some ranged bypass features, is far better than a flat bonus/deduction for one unit, as it feels more nutural.

Of course, all this discussion may well be moot, as the new combat/tech system will undoubtably change things again.

well when i first joined waronline.net all the troops were fine to me i just dont no why req changed the game for