Freefighters are underpowered

[Quartz]

Compared to peasant units available on other maps Freefighters on Africa do not have the same amount of HP per Authority to be an effective deterrent to artillery armies. (ALL unit stats referenced will be at standard tier 3)

Standard Freefighters have 3.000 HP per authority which is by far the lowest compared to all other non-ranged "peasant" units.

In Rome, Militia have 3.421 HP per Authority and even Velites, the ranged pezzie has 3.095

In Asia Tribal Elites have 3.500 and the ranged Skirmishers have 3.077

In Europe Mercenaries have a staggering 3.939 and Elite Skirmishers have 3.429.


HP per authority is the most important stat for peasant units which allows them to act as a cushion to absorb and disperse ranged damage and when you can't do that effectively you put this unit in a position to either lose or tie what should be winning matchups.

For example Musketeers and Luyhas put freefighters in an awkward position. Musketeers deal 0.565 ranged damage per authority with 90% accuracy. So that means an army of musketeers will, on average, deplete .565 / 3.000 or 18.83% of the health of an equal authority of Freefighters. This averages out to 22.6 damage per freefighter and they will take 19 damage per round from the melee hits of the musketeers. At 120 health they can only take 60 damage before becoming injured which means freefighters that took above average ranged damage will become injured in the first melee round and that almost all will become injured in the 2nd. And since it will take at least two melee rounds to injure half of the musketeers they are in a situation where the best they can hope to do is for both armies to become more than half injured in the second round and to (maybe) have more standing. And this is supposed to be a FAVORABLE match up.



I would suggest that a minimum of +15 health (to 135 at standard) is in order to help this unit fulfill its purpose as a proper counter to artillery. This would bring it's health per authority stat up to 3.375 which would still make it the weakest of the "non ranged damage peasant" units, but at least not by as embarassing an amount.

[Vadertlk]

+1 and agreed.

[Yukon]

HP must go up or auth down to make them good/competitive at what they are designed to do. It's important to have an army type capable of taking down arty armies or we will consistently see more and more arty take over African ages.

Agreed that freefighters are weak compared to similar units from other regions and relative to the armies they SHOULD be able to PvP

[Frans]

I'm not saying African pezzies don't need a small boost.
I do however not think comparing units to other maps works.

1) I would argue other map pezzies are op. They are so cheap to heal & beat a bulk of other armies. It makes them easy pvpers that can get top pvp very often, while I wonder if that is the intention of pezzies?

2) African map units are weaker than their counterparts across the whole board. (mnt pikes have 20 less hp and 2 less str than praetorians even after their nerf; Euro champs have 2 str more and Rome champs 2 str and 10 hp more all with the same auth; Poisontips pale compared to Euro or Asian lbm; Arqs are better than Musks; examples are endless and it's fine as long as all units are comparably weaker).

Freefighters were nerfed a while back as they were very op.
If they were nerfed too badly, a small boost might be what they need, just be careful not to overshoot.
I believe they were at 125 hp 19 str 35 auth. That's 3.57/auth so please stay far away from that.

[Tiralan]

Changed per age 359 - let me know what you think