After a few talks on discord, and stumbling upon some old forum posts... I've been digging into SF, and wandering about others' opinion of them, and how they work.
So, basically, SF are like MI, right? Same behavior code, I believe? Though presumably better?
First, a look at range. Range has zero impact on recruiting costs. Melee SF, R4 SF, R5 SF, all the same. Basically, the formula for recruitment cost seems pretty simple. (Weapon+Armour+Training)*0,45 = gold per 10 men. For archers, inf, and possibly MI, that looks rather like 0,25. In other words, SF are nearly twice as expensive per man as "standard" types.
But are R0 as (in)effective in melee as R5 ones are? Are they still essentially better MI, or are R0 treated as better inf? Because if they are exactly the same as ranged SF, but with no range... and they cost the same... that's pretty terrible. Garbage even. I bet if players knew this, many would do a few things quite differently.
Regarding recruitment limits, SF seem to be about 1/3 of standard (inf/archer/MI) types. Recruiting 100 SF at 90 gpt (gold per ten) would cost 900 gold, while recruiting 300 archers at 50 gpt would cost 1500 gold, for example (if your honor is somewhere in the 800 range or so). Maxing out on SF would therefore cost less than maxing out on archers, for units of the same w/a/t values.
How much CS would a 100 men 90gpt SF unit have, as opposed to a 300 men 50gpt archer unit have? I don't know... that data is a bit less available, harder to compile and extrapolate from. You can't see what others have as w/a/t values, and people often mix unit sources, so it's then hard to extrapolate from the recruiting costs. Also further obfuscated by the fact that large units get a debuff to CS/man, which may or may not be modulated by type (I'd assume it isn't?). If anyone has data, I'll take it. Otherwise I'll try to collect some in the weeks to come.
So for now, the following question remains unanswered: for the same equipment values, will you get more CS from maxing out on archers, or on SF?
But that also props up another question: is that CS value really representative?
In an old forum post, I saw someone claim that SF will typically deal about twice as many hits as a comparable standard unit. However, they would still lose as many men/hit as the other things. In other words, glass canons. Are they really worth twice the cost per man if only their attack is doubled, but not their defense?
Depending on all these answers, what should one conclude? Is ranged SF worth it? Is melee SF utter garbage? Looking forward to your input!
