A further proposal for some underused units: returning (part of) the gold cost

Hi all,
still looking for a way to give a role for some underused units, especially infantry UUs.

A mechanic I would like to discuss is that, at least one of them (say condos or samurais), can return the gold cost (or a part of that), exactly as saracen monks.

So for instance take condos (I would say this mechanic fits nicely their mercenary theme, and also the effect can be locked by a 1000g tech).

I want to point out that this mechanic (which is the same of Saracens monks) does not make a unit a trash unit (even if you return all the gold cost). You pay 10 condos 350g + food. If they die, you can retrain them with food only since you get the gold back. But, if you want to have 11 of them, you need 35+350g.

So units affected by the saracen mechanic are not trash unit even if they return the gold cost

An example to clarify:
If you are in a trash war and you have 350g you still cannot have more than 10 condos in the same time. Basically, you can freeze 350 of your gold to have access to 10 food condos. If you have 10 condos in place, you will have 0g. So you cannot train an 11th condo since you miss 35g.
If they die, you can spend that 350 gold in other units, but if you do, you will loose the possibility to train food condos only.

Some questions:

  • does this mechanic work for some unused UUs? I was thinking of condos because of the mercenary theme and the fact that this can be locked by a team upgrade. Also no balance risk since italians are weak. Other units are the usles samurais or the expensive shotels.
  • which is a good amount of gold returned? I would say that even 100% works.

Clearly this would be applied to one unit only. So this may fix just one underused unit…

2 Likes

Too complicated. Better to implement like the saracen monk tech that returns some gold after the monk dies.

1 Like

I am saying exactly that. Samurais or condos will return the gold cost when dead

2 Likes

Samurai weren’t mercenaries though. For condottiero, it is ok as it fits their status and currently are quite underwhelming. I also think that giving samurais the speed that viking berserker has is good enough.

3 Likes

I agree. It fits perfectly for condos. Also easy to balance since you can lock the mechanic behind a team tech “italian mercenaries”

1 Like

We can lock it, but please don’t. The Condottieros are already Underpowered enough.
Let them have their time in the sun.

Well… it may work even without the tech. Still, even with the tech, say at least 500g, it would give them a meaning to exist.

I mean, the tech would unlock the mechanism of gold return. But still you can do conods without the tech