To maximize FUN, and expand on what I believe is the identity of my favorite civ bar none (that being a diverse army, with easy transitions, that lack full upgrades to compensate.)
Farimba made cheaper, nerfed to +3 Attack, ADDED Blast Furnace
Malian Cavalry will require an additional upgrade in Imperial, but are otherwise unchanged.
REMOVED Champion, ADDED Blast Furnace.
Malian 2Hers will have +1 attack at the cost of -10 HP compared to their current Champions. Making them slightly stronger than they are now.
Farimba now affects Cavalry Archers. REMOVED Heavy Cavalry Archer to compensate
Malian Cavalry Archers are now viable, being slightly worse than Generic HCA (Due to missing HCA themselves, Parthian Tactics, AND Bracer.)
Elite Gbeto -2 attack, upgrade SLIGHTLY reduced cost
Now that Blast Furnace is available, Gbeto need to lose -2 attack to compensate.
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What made you believe cav archers are part of the Malian identity 
More attack and less HP on infantry also goes against the civ’s identity since their bonus is about making them survive longer.
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At face value sure. But these changes make their Swordsmen stronger, not weaker.
Fully upgraded 2hers beat Malian Champions as it is. This mitigates that. Stronger Infantry that overall cost less.
Cav archers aren’t necessarily part of the Malian identity, but a varied army is. Their cavalry archers were decent historically. They were highly respected too, being called the ‘Ton-Tigui’ or ‘Quiver Masters’. Since they were usually rich, and front liners, reduced range and increased attack makes historical sense on a basic level.
I think it is a good idea. Malian always have low HP high damage unit. Changing their Militia in this way can make them more align with this role
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No, Malians have a mix of things. Largely generic cav, but with +3 attack from Farimba, Gbeto with high micro potential and damage output, but low HP, and infantry, with high pierce armor, but below average attack. There may be some stuff I missed, but that basically sums up Malians.
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Literally none of this changes. I’m gonna edit the post so it’s more clear.
The cavalry, and gbeto are literally the same. The Infantry are still lower attack and higher pierce armor.
I love the change that Malian can never get the last unit (no Champion, no Paladin) and how about no Arbalester but giving Bracer? ofc also no Heavy Cavalry Archer
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I entertained that idea, but I think that’s too strong of a buff for a civ that’s already balanced as it is. (47% winrate 1v1 arabia)
Adding Bracer would give the Malians fully upgraded Skirmishers, and make Tigui a good bit stronger.
And also, I prefer to get regular cavalry archers that have more attack but less range.
Giving them bracer AND +3 attack would make them very strong. Just personal preference on that one.
I think the civ AS IT IS NOW is a pretty complete and well-designed civ. So I kept the ‘tweaks’ to a BARE minimum.
EDIT: Though this could work, if Farimba didn’t affect Cavalry Archers, and Tigui was buffed to allow Cav Archers and Crossbowmen to fire an extra arrow that deals 1 damage.
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This could work, if Farimba didn’t affect Cavalry Archers, and Tigui was buffed to allow Cav Archers and Crossbowmen to fire an extra arrow that deals 1 damage.
But as I said i’m keeping the tweaks to a bare minimum. I believe the devs did a FANTASTIC job with the malians…
…If you forget about the Alpha, where they were the most OP civ to ever exist.
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before you post how many hours you played malians, maybe post your rating?
gameplay and strats change a lot until 2k+
Malians don’t need worse infantry, and the Farimba benefit is that you don’t need to research another tech to get +5 attack on cavalry, that is in fact a nerf.
- Magyars already have extra attack on cavalry archers.
Lack of Blast Furnace is what makes Malians unique in design because the infantry and cavalry is balanced around that.
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Malians Infantry would be better, not worse.
The rest of your points are valid though.
Would it not be interesting to have Infantry and Cavalry designed to be not fully upgraded? In fact, the whole civ could be based around units that aren’t fully upgraded. I feel like THAT is the Malians identity. As it stands now, they only have 2 Fully Upgraded units in the Imperial age.
This would still be the case with these changes, unless you count Gbeto, which you shouldn’t because the Gbeto is recieving no changes.
But you nerfed it. To get the same attack, you now have to research a tech, which is a nerf.
I did also mention the Elite Upgrade should be made cheaper as well.
You know you can edit a post right? If you do it before it’s been around for ten minutes, it doesn’t even show up in the edit history.
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Yes. But for some reason they keep posting without replying to you.
At the bottom right of a post should be the reply button.
Does that not work for you?
Champs become insane. Need to remove supplies to compensate for it. And that in turn will nerf their castle age against meso civs
Surely will make Malians a top tier civ for open maps. Might be a bit too strong for Nomad style maps where they’re already quite strong. But a nice idea.
Rather than removing supplies I removed the Champion upgrade. So they are 2Hers.
Also, Farimba is an Imperial age upgrade so cav archers wouldn’t be absurd. Generic until Imperial, where they miss HCA, Bracer, and Parthian.