After making a town with only archers, knights, and clerics, I don’t think that footmen are all that useful.
-
Footmen run recklessly into battle and get away from the clerics, causing them to take loads of damage as the clerics run there. Then because the clerics start healing as soon as they get in range, which is out of range of their strength buff, and the healing aura. Annoying to say the least, and negates some of the clerics abilities. (Can be fixed with some micromanagement, but eh…) With no footmen everyone stays together, and stays in range of the clerics’ abilities. Even if the clerics get hit and run away and start healing from range, they usually start buffing the archers.
-
I can manage with less military. As I made more of the gongs, I didn’t need to add more hearthlings to the militia as often, compared to always needing more footmen.
-
Especially at the higher levels, it seems like that archers do more damage. When everyone targets one guy, they disappear in seconds.
-
Kobolds (and ocrish clerics) are so much easier to deal with. Footmen eternally chase the archers and it takes forever for them to get killed. Archers with the range buff get rid of them easily, and having no footmen stops them from constantly running away from the archers trying to shot them. (Knights can do the same, but they have a lowered speed, so the koblods stop and shoot more often.)
-
Clerics are more effective. With only 1-2 knights, clerics only have 1-2 targets to heal and thus the health of the knights stays higher and falls more slowly. Also knights have more health and don’t run away as quickly.
-
Enemies with AOE aren’t nearly as dangerous as they used to be. With most of the people using ranged attacks, zillas and ogres aren’t as effective, nor as scary.
I dunno, footmen don’t seem as useful I thought they were, or maybe I’m just crazy and footmen are the best. You guys tell me what you think about each of the combat classes or the setups you use.