overall it would be a good idea to see if the system for tax collection and popularity management of the aiv could be optimized for a better economy to support the current troop production. You can also give him pole turners in a custom aiv to give him additional gold (this trick also helps the sultan) as he immediately sells them for money. The marshall himself can be helped by giving him a stronger economy either by having him build more farms so he can increase food consumption for taxes more quarries etc to support his financial situation. I would rather argue that Phillip would be suited to use some pikeman with his attacks (like 10% pikemen of the entire army) as he has the necessary production buildings in vanilla already and could certainly need a bit of an attack buff. I'd also be willing to donate a few bucks again for such a feature just to see it implemented.ДЄgreed in terms of it would be nice to have a character that uses pikeman as main strikeforce the only real problem I see here is that the marshall then would need additional workshops in his castle as he would need armors and swords for the knights and pole turners for the pikes. Would you like Sh0wdown to implement such a change as an option (since the default castles wouldn't work one would have to design new castles or simply add some poleturners, but since this all would be optional I don't see why not)? If you want a logical explanation though then one could argue that the Marshal being the commander of the realm's cavalry is the reason why he has this many horses.ДЄnyways, what do you guys think? The discrepancy between the Marshal's army cost and his economy always bothered me. Taking them away from him would be a big disservice and I think nobody would want that. Here's the thing: The character of the marshal is defined by his knights in crusader almost as much as philip is. 'But what about his knights?' I hear you say. Giving him Pikemen would not only establish that rank-wise he's lower than a king, it would also give him a unique flavor since no other ai only uses Pikemen while at the same time making Frederick's army even more unique! Frederick does that, but it very much suits him as an emperor imo to have the money and power to field an army like this (compared to Lionheart who only can afford about half their army to be dismounted knights and the Wolf who has about 1/3 swordsmen). This guy isn't some big bad wolf or king/emperor to be able to afford a whole army solely consisting of the best fighters. Let's be honest here: Does the Marshal attacking with knights and swordsmen (which are basically dismounted knights) really feel like it fits his character of the military commander? The highest military commander, granted, but nothing like a king. This could allow him to save up money and also build catapults, something an ai only does when having 500 gold or more. However I'd rather have a Marshal that attacks more regularely and isn't constantly broke, barely able to afford his knights. Would this make him op? Far from it imo since Swordsmen are far better fighters than Pikemen.

Moreover, the production of pikes can be quite profitable, so he'd be able to field a bigger industry because of the need for poleturners (which equal more weapons and troops in the long run). He can hardly afford the recruitment costs and his limited iron decreases his weapon production significantly.Д«y giving the Marshal pikemen instead of swordsmen you'd reduce the amount of iron he needs significantly. And no, I'm not saying that he never attacks or anything, it's just that he feels sooo sluggish and slow, he's constantly out of money because even when attacking he still recruits knights. What this results in is the Marshal being very slow in attacking compared to other ais. On the other end he builds some of the most expensive units in the whole game, knights and swordsmen! The marshal has a very, very small economy: He only builds one stone quarry and his three iron mines are only good for supplying about 5 blacksmiths/armorers depending on distance and building (armorers work faster). I have two reasons why I think this change would make the Marshal a lot more attractive: This has been discussed before, but I'd like to propose it again.

Stronghold crusader 1 economy