[jaif]

I would say that if gold is your issue, then you aren't balancing our check book well. You have a maintenance cost, so once you get an army big enough for your purposes, all you do is maintain it.

But resources are killer. I just checked my current game - ulm has 435 resources per turn. So if an army gets wiped out, I can replace with roughly 12 black plate infantry per turn, or 17 chain infantry per turn. Sure I can also build at other locations, but then I have to ship them to the point of contact.

Now this would be ok if those 12 could do the job of the 17, but I don't think they can in my experience. I think the margin of difference is too narrow - only in the early game, only for short fights, only with the right support, and even with all of that, they are only a little better.

One thing I'm trying now - assuming black plate is so great, then I shouldn't need shields. Arrows are going to bounce off anyways, so why bother, right? I tried out battle axes and pikeneers, and I've quickly moved to all pikeneer forces as lasting far longer than battleaxes. It does seem to work against the weak archers/slingers - the little stuff bounces off the armor and the pikes hold back the melee damage.

But I'm still not convinced that black plate is all that big of a deal. It doesn't seem that wonderful, and I don't think I've expanded any better than I would have just buying chain.

-Jeff