Hey there, so I just finished an Araby campaign (right before they added victory conditions - lol), and I have a few comments about the roster. I've seen people commenting on the discord channel that the roster is bloated - I don't think that is right, but it does reflect a feeling I got at times while playing that it's difficult to find the roles some units can fulfill. Don't get me wrong, this is something I actually like (using units differently from their purpose, for instance, is one of the things I love from battle improvisation in Total War AND Warhammer), but I felt that Araby has a few units that are not distinct enough, and thus become easily replaced by more standard units that can do the same for less campaign hassle.

One of the things I love about CTT is that most units, even the unshielded Empire spearmen, are useful one way or another. Which is why I'm posting this here and not in OvN - because I think abilities might be the perfect solution for this while keeping the balance. I'm thinking of Araby Cavalry vs Infantry, mostly. Cavalry I think is in a great place: knights for blunt instrument purposes, riders. scouts and carpets for deep flanking and harassment, sipahis/cataphracts for shock and entanglement, monsters for chaos and damage, camels for those armored dawi and brets. They're all competent at what they do, it's not like you have Chaos Knights or Grail Knights at your disposal, but they can be used in various effective ways. The only unit from the cavalry section I'd be ambivalent about would be Camel Riders with Bows. Though they were occasionally good in a scrap (particularly after the armor upgrade tech), I just replaced them with jezzails when available, or would end up grabbing more scouts. Their fire while moving ability is good against slower targets and to do the flanking game, but I really could do the same with scouts, which are faster to boot, easier to "handle", and are Core. What if they had lesser weapon strength, perhaps even a lesser rate of fire, but had Poison or another kind of debuff attack? As in, what if they're not really useful to get kills, but to help the rest of your army do it? I think that would fill a niche, and it would be more worthy of a Special Unit slot.

In terms of infantry, I constantly found myself struggling to define what I could do with Jaguar Champions, Nomads, Warriors, Arabyan Guard, and Pit Fighters. I think Corsairs, for instance, are a stroke of brilliance in an army that is already incredibly mobile and aggressive. My difficulty with the units mentioned is that there's clearly a Warriors to Guards pipeline, but Guards are expensive and slow to recruit till basically the end game. They're pretty great (and AP!) but they're easily replaced by a Warriors and Southland Warriors combo, IMO. There's also so many Special Units and not so many slots for them, so I found the combo more effective (more units in an army) and cheaper in the long run. I'll get to my suggestion about this later, but first I want to talk about the other units I mentioned.

Pit Fighters and Champions can be used essentially for the same things, and there's no clear or perhaps even subtle way to decide which situation would fit one better. The Champions' ability is good for shocking enemies into submission, but so is the Fighters' sheer damage potential. If I understand the roster right, that's what they're supposed to be for - the shock infantry to the main lines, because Araby is all about that quick win. I'm unclear about the lore on the Champions, but I believe that making them Striders would enhance and better delimit their function as shock infantry. It would also mean emphasizing the roster's mobile shock tactics ethos. Deploying Champions in forests and shallow waters would be a viable tactic, and they could even work as support for when you need to get that unit over the hill ASAP. I also think such a change would make Pit Fighters' function clearer - I don't think they need a change per se.

I wanted to touch on Nomads very briefly - they're interesting because they're clearly designed, their purpose is easy to see, and yet they rarely made a difference in battles that would offset their cost, both in terms of a Special Unit slot and the time they take to be recruited. So my suggestion here would be to eliminate their Fire Whilst Moving ability, their Volley Fire, and make them one turn faster to recruit. I think there's a lot of potential there to be used in combo with Corsairs, but their campaign cost is just too high I think.

Which brings me back around to Warriors and Guards. While I disagree that the roster is bloated, I think the problems with the "indefinition" of its infantry lines would be overcome with the simple elimination of Warriors. I know this is a bit of a radical suggestion, and in line with the idea that it's bloated. But I want to reinforce that this way, the purpose of the rest of the infantry units would come across much better. Even Sharkas Slaves would be benefited by this, because apart from costs there's little reason to take them over Warriors, generally speaking. Guards would become essential in the long run, good accompaniment to Spearmen as part of a main line, instead of having more cost-effective measures with Warrior combos.

That's my feedback for the Araby roster/campaign, considering CTT. Please let me know if it's much more on the OvN than the CTT side, I can post this on the discord channel :) Sorry for the length!