I feel this is the weakest area of EWOM right now, so this is what I'm going to suggest a fix for first.

I think each thing in the same needs a full set of stats: STR/INT/ESS/DEX/CON/CHA

STR- damage, reduces armor class penalty from armor.
INT- spell casting power
ESS- mana pool, magic resistance in some cases
DEX- to-hit, some benefit to armor class.
CON- hp, which should be con*racial modifier.  For humans it would be .5 so a 10 CON average human would be 5HP.
CHA- various effects.  One effect would be likelihood of non-sentient monsters aiming for you instead of someone else.

Note: special abilities and magic can affect all these below.

weaponry and attacking

instead of one attack figure, you'd have three

attack- this is a to-hit number.  It would be based on Dex, level, and weaponry.
damage- this is damage.  It would be based on Str and weapon
combat speed- this will be kept as is.

armor and defense

DEF- this is your ability to avoid the attack.  It is based on dex, training, armor (which lowers defense proportionally based on str)
RES- this is your potential to absorb damage.  This is based on your armor, race (Dragons would have a high res in general, ironeers might have a +1 RES as a racial feat)


Special abilities:
adventurers should get these randomly- there should be a large list of these abilities.
certain buildings/schools of combat should be buildable and learnable through warfare tech.  These schools would give those abilities to trained troops in those towns.

Example: a cavalry school might give a charge special abilitiy, which would be a +DAM bonus for cavalry on their first attack in a turn.
A pikeman school might give a cavalry defense special ability, which would be +RES, +DEF, +DAM  vs cavalry, if the troops are fortified and armed with a spear/polearm.
A rangers rest might give troops with a ranger pack the ability the chance to capture animals on kill instead of killing them, etc.

*This system is from Age of Wonders, and would work similarly.  Troop abilities should generally be automatic for ease of micromanagement and for the AI to use wisely.

Troop levelling:
Troops should not get HP as they level, unless their con goes up
Troops should on level up, instead, gain in a random stat, and gain a level, which will have its own effects on hit and defense.
Troops should have a chance on level up (low chance that rises as levels are gained) to become adventurers

The main benefit of being an adventurer is for the player to have more control over their leveling, and a chance to gain special abilities
* This feature should work like leader level-ups in the Age of Wonders Series

logistics and training skills:

Training skills:
the effect of training should be simple and straightforward.
An increase in building time and gildar cost, for an increased level at start.  Certain special abilities should require a minimum level to get, such as cavalry foe (peasants with sticks won't stand up to cavalry so well, but trained peasants will)

Logistics skills:

Honesstly, the stacks of many units is the most annoying thing to me in RTS's.  I don't like controlling tons of irrelevant units.

logistics should allow for the following

All stacks should be comprised of individuals, and kept as individuals.  They will need to be homogenous in terms of equipment though.

Keep the stack sizes at 3, 5, and 7 for human troops/fallen troops (maybe have a racial ability/malus that lowers the max or min for somebody).  I'm not picky on the numbers here.

-individual units should be upgradable to stacks
- they should also be upgradeable to better armor/weapons.

In terms of upgrading an individual unit to a stack, the more experienced units will pass on some of their XP to the recruit units based on the leader's CHA and the recruit's INT interaction.
- one advantage of this is highly trained units, with high CHA scores- can allow for decently experienced troops to be trainable right away if they live while their cohorts die off.
- adventurers and sovereigns with high levels and CHA scores, can raise the level of any units created in the cities they are in.

stacks should provide a benefit to xp gains from battle, maintenance reduction costs, and slight DEF bonuses for the individual units.  Stacks should be encouraged to reduce micromanagement.
- it should be real expensive to have an advanced army having to build units in 3's instead of in 7's.

stacks shouldn't take longer to train then individuals, if a training hall is built

Upgrading units to stacks should take 1 turn, unless you choose to have higher xp troops added to the stack, though this should be counterproductive in most cases.


One thing I would implement, though allow modding of: I would set a limit on the number of stacks that can be in a square, but special units (adventurers, unique monsters, summons, channelers) would not count in this limit.  As a general rule- if you build it, a stacking limit wold apply- if you don't, it wouldn't.

I would also have relatiively high maintenance costs across the boards- to try to avoid quality always trumping quality.  I would also make maintenace costs be in gold and material- though the effects for running out of each would be different.  Maintenance costs in gold would be heavily reduced by garrisoning units in cities.  Material maintenance costs do not reduce though,   adventurers do not have maintenance.

What I'd be trying to encourage here is for adventurers and channelers to be the crux of offensive operations, with normal troops handling the mundane defensive tasks, unless it's all-out war or you need cannon fodder.

gold shortage- units go on strike
material shortage- units get -RES and -DAM malus

Feel free to fire away or shoot down these general concepts, or come up with better ideas.  If we  can come up with something, this will help the crew get to improving the gameplay more rapidly.