Wouldn’t it be better just to remove every Age 1 Villager shipments since 99% of the time it’s what any player will ship first anyway? The 300 resource shipments and eco cards would see more play and you could specialize into builds more. Of course you’d need to tweak native civs/ports and italy to some degree for balancing.
14 Likes
Agreed. We should get rid of all age1 villager cards and replace them with civ unique cards.
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I think the major reason is there is not enough time or xp for many age 1 cards, and age 1 cards cannot be too powerful either, so people naturally go for the most effective one or two, and all the rest only waste card slots.
Maybe it is possible to let age 1 cards gain more value in later ages like the Irish immigrant, so they can be “reserved” to send later.
4 Likes
There isn’t much time, which would also bring XP, exactly because with 3 vill shpment your food gathering get a boost that will make you reach age 2 way faster, without it there would be more time in age 1 that would open for more age 1 card use… Since once reaching age 2 you will hardly use age 1 anymore, unless for cards like irish immigrants…
Removing 3 vill cards would also make the game slightly more approachable to new players or players that prefer a slow start game, since that is the only part of the game that would be slowed imo
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I agree with removing the “3 Settlers” card, but beware! Not all civilizations have this card, the ones that will benefit the most will be the Russians, Portuguese, Italians, Indians and Chinese who do not have this card anyway, and the most harmed will be the French and Germans, who have an improved version of this card. Maybe it would be necessary to add 1 initial settler to some civs to compensate. There are also some other special cases such as the USA who have immigrant cards, the Ethiopians who have the “Trinity” card (Ships 2 Villagers and 1 Abun), or the Mexicans who have the “Alhóndiga de Granaditas” card…
5 Likes
I do agree, age1 should be the age where you build your strategical foundation . Every Civ should have 3-4 different openings depending on the match up and map that are of equal value and not just only a single one , which is almost always the settler card.
We would see a lot more variety, but…this can cause huge balance issues for Civs that currenntly rely on them and are already not doing great or dont have much of an alternative like Haude for instance or the Dutch (please buff colbertism ! ). This has to be done slowly and carefully if Devs interested in that. I do however welcome this change for sure!
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the next civ I would take a away the 3 villager card is for sure Sweden . Why do they even have it? Otto also doesnt need it, they have Capitalism and Silk Road, both excellent age1 cards. Also schoners are an option on water…We might even see a revival of ATP, which would be awesome. Maybe decrese the TP cost a bit further and this card is back in the game !
This should have been a survey. I would surely vote against it.
I want 9 vills start. Every civ gets 3 vills more, and remove 3 vill card.
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then you will find the balance are in a mess. every civs need a lot of time to adjust
The alternative option is to simply start with 2 additional villagers for a faster start. Just build in the villagers at baseline, remove the villagers card, and let more Age 1 cards be “good” to send by comparison.
Now, here’s the catch. On large maps especially, this leaves a much shorter time to explore before you need to hit the button to go up to Age 2. That means less map explored. Less time treasure hunting, etc. My guess is that you’d also not get enough XP for that second age 1 card before age up either with the change. It would significantly change the start. And as others have pointed it, certain civs would be at a big advantage.
It’s a lot to think about.
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Im sure mexico with its 600w uber mill/tc/estate/outpost and 2.5 vill eq shipment would be totally fine with other civs loosing their .5 to 1.5vill eco lead…
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It would be a nightmare balance wise to just remove 3v, it can be done with overperforming civs like brit and perhaps in the future we’ll see swedes get it removed but apart from that only new civs that have alternative mechanics should not have 3v, like how italy don’t need it.
4 Likes
I think to compensate every civ should get 1-2 more initial settlers.
Additionally, I think a good way to promote more Age I play is to increase the resources to age up, maybe 800food ->1000food or something like 800food → 800food, 200coins, what do you think?
I think maybe explorers need a buff so they can gain more treasures instead of giving extra villagers.
How about make it so that on the first shipment, all civs with a standard villager card get a few villagers with that shipment only.