Disclaimer: I am not claiming that any of this must be added to the game, nor am I certain that it will all be balanced. I just personally think these fit player needs or make for interesting changes.
For new technologies:
In the Barrack:
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Fencing School, or Swordsmanship School (IV)
Requires Gambesons (or maybe not). The Militia line upgrades are researched instantly (or very quickly), and the Militia line units gain +1 attack.
People would no longer need to wait the upgrades so long when they need to or want to use the Militia line. Even if they have been upgraded they could still have more attack. -
Military Drums (II)
Infantry gain +10% speed. The prerequisite of Squires, and the Squires changed to give +10% speed to only the Militia line .
The faster Champions would clearly be more useful.
The Celts might have the Military Drums line provide +50% effect instead of the +15% speed. -
Sack (IV)
Requires Arson. The Militia line units generate a few gold when attacking buildings.
Attract people to use the Militia line in the late game.
In the Stable:
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Caparison, or Saddletree
Split the Bloodlines into Caparison/Saddletree (II) → Bloodlines (III) or Bloodlines (II) → Caparison/Saddletree (III). Both each provides +10 HP to mounted units.
The Scout Cavalry could gain 10 HP at a lower price, which would be helpful against the Franks’ Scout Cavalry and also avoid the overly strong 20 HP in the Feudal Age.
In the Middle Ages, caparisons were part of the horse armor known as barding and adopted by the Crusaders. Many peoples around the world had similar equivalent as horse covers.
Saddles are an equipment revolution just like stirrups, and the development of solid saddletree has a significant impact on horse health. -
Jousting (IV)
Requires Paladin upgrade. Paladins gain +20 HP.
Meanwhile, the base HP of Knight line would be adjusted to 100 (Knight) → 120 (Cavalier) → 140 (Paladin), which is to beautifully make the difference uniform to 20 and to make the Paladin upgrade cheaper.
The Franks Paladins would have 188 HP at most, or we could make the Jousting provide 24 HP particularly for Franks. -
Mahouts (IV)
Requires Husbandry (or maybe not). Elephant units (or only Battle Elephants) gain +10% speed (or even faster).
In the Archery Range:
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Shooting Targets (II)
Split the Thumb Ring into Shooting Targets → Thumb Ring (III). The Shooting Target should be cheap, fast researched and available to every civ as it just provides 100% accuracy.
If possible, the Thumb Ring could be renamed into Quivers, Advanced Quivers or Improved Quivers to reflect the faster rate of fire it providing.
The Thumb Ring is actually there to protect the archer’s fingers rather than make the archer fire faster, so in the game maybe it could be a cheap technology providing like +5 HP to archer units (except for gunpowder units) between Shooting Targets and Quivers or after Quivers. But people are used to the association of Thumb Ring with rate of fire so that might not be going to happen. -
Windlass (IV)
Requires Arbalester upgrade. Arbalesters gain +18% rate of fire.
Meanwhile, the base rate of fire of Arbalesters would be adjusted to 18% less than the current, which is to slow down the power growth of when just hitting the Arbalester upgrade, while also the Arbalester upgrade could be a little cheaper in exchange.
This might not be really needed but personally I feel the power of the fast Imperial Arbalesters should be a little eased so the Windlass could take long (like 50 secs) for research. -
Javelins (II)
Have this technology unlock the bonus of skirmisher units against spearman units to slightly slowed down the heavy use of Skirmishers in the Feudal Age.
In the University:
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Motte-and-bailey (III)
The Watch Towers line costs -25 stone. Preferably not (even if possible) the prerequisite of Arrowslits.
Based on Motte-and-bailey castle - Wikipedia, and Inspired by @Horapallas’s Outpost Network.
The motte-and-bailey defensive constructions are relatively easy to build with unskilled labour, but still militarily formidable. -
Catapults (IV)
A pretty cheap prerequisite of Siege Engineers. Allows the Mangonels line and Trebuchets to destroy trees and berry bushes with the splash damage. Maybe also allows the Scorpion line to destroy trees and berry bushes like the Ballista Elephants.
This could allow every civ to have fair capability to clear a path in the maps like Black Forest, particularly for the Turks.
Maybe it could also be the prerequisite of the Dromon, if its immediate availability when just hitting the Imeprial Age is considered powerful. It’s a unit supposed to be equivalent to Cannon Galleon but it doesn’t even need to wait the Chemistry.
In the Blacksmith:
- Matchlock (IV)
Requires Chemistry. Foot cannoneer units and mounted cannoneer units gain +15% accuracy and/or train +20% faster.
The button slot below the Hand Cannoneer is already used by the Genitour and its upgrade, so the Matchlock must be moved to another building.
In the Monastery:
- Sermon, or Preaching (III)
Split the Redemption into Sermon/Preaching → Redemption. The Sermon/Preaching allows Monks to convert buildings, and the Redemption becomes only to allow them to convert siege weapons. So the civs that don’t have Redemption may have a chance to have Sermon/Preaching.
In the Dock:
- Bulkhead Compartment (III)
- Compass (IV)
Split the Careening → Dry Dock with them. The Careening and Dry Dock become only provide +5 and +10 capacity, so that they (at least Careening) might be supposed to be available to every civ.
The Bulkhead Compartment and Compass provide +1 pierce armor and +15% speed respectively. Some civ could have only Bulkhead Compartment, some could have only Compass, some could have both, and some could have neither.
These bring more flexible balancing tools to the water game.
In the TC:
- Town Defense (IV)
Requires Town Patroll. TCs gain +2 attack (or more).
The Town Patroll could also allow TCs to gain +1 attack to encourage people to research it.
The whole line could cost no gold.
In the Castle:
- Moat (III)
Split the Hoardings into Moat → Hoardings. Both each provides 50% of the original effect of the Hoardings. The Moat could be available to every civ.
For the new units:
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Scout Infantry → Light Infantry → Shock Infantry
Basically a rename and reskin of the current Eagles, making them a little more versatile to apply to non-Aztec or even non-American civilizations like Bantu Africans. -
Eagle Warrior and Elite Eagle Warrior
The Aztecs could have them as unique upgrades that replace the Light Infantry and Shock Infantry. The Eagle Warrior might have +5 HP than the Light Infantry, and the Elite Eagle Warrior might have +10 HP and +1 pierce armor than the Shock Infantry. -
Chasqui
The Incas could have it as trainable/untrainable unique precursor to the Scout Infantry in the Dark Age, or having it directly replacing the Scout Infantry as unique precursor to the Light Infantry.
The list below is going to replace the least used Champions since the civs have high quality infantry UU that can defeat the fully upgraded generic Champion. Even if the Militia line can be fully improved, they may still lose the opportunity to be used due to the superior infantry UUs. So, The following may go further than the above ideas and may all be unnecessary.
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Aztecs: Butterfly Warrior, or Papalotl Warrior
Unique upgrade that replaces the Long Swordsman (and the elite raplaces the Two-Handed Swordsman and Champion).
With lower base attack but a attack bonus against cavalry. Although the bonus is lower than the Spearman line, it would be better able to face a variety of situations.
The papalotl (lit. butterfly) warriors were the third type of elite warrior to feature an explicitly animal theme. The member of them had taken three captives until he captured the fourth and were promoted to a jaguar warriors. -
Vikings: Shieldman, or Ulfhedinn/Jofurr
Unique upgrade that replaces the Long Swordsman (and the elite raplaces the Two-handed Swordsman and Champion).
A Nordic warrior holding a round shield and wearing a wolf coat (Ulfhednar) or a boar helmet (Jofurr), having lower attack but higher pierce armor than the Long Swordsman.
I personally prefer to name it Jofurr rather than Ulfhedinn, because it is easier to pronounce and the worship of wild boars is more unique than the worship of wolves. The theme of boar could also refer to the Svinfylking formation. -
Teutons: Landsknecht
Unique upgrade that replaces the Two-Handed Swordsman and Champion.
Has lower melee armor than the Champion, but has a charge bar for dealing a blast attack by slashing in a wide area (without additional damage), so that it might be good at against archers and spearmen. -
Japanese: Odachi/Nagamaki Swordsman, or J¡zamurai (lit. local samurai)
Unique upgrade that replaces the Two-Handed Swordsman and Champion.
Using a odachi, nagamaki or katana sword with two hands, it could receive -50% damage from siege weapons and have bonus against them.
It can be named into a more general name after a kind of weapon like odachi or nagamaki, or into a more specific name after a feudal warrior class like the J¡zamurai.
Roughly classify feudal classes of the samurai, from top to bottom: Shogun, the top military rulers → (Shugo) Daimyo, the feudal lords or governors → K0kυjin or Kunibito, the local masters.
The j¡zamurai were yeoman-like local gentries from the peasant class, essentially farmers who did military service as and when required. Peasants could not become samurai but as powerful farmers with some say and influence in vellage affairs they loyally served to the k0kυjin and this relation granted them the lowest status of samurai even though no fiefs.
(The ‘¡’ is ‘i’ and the ‘0’ is ‘o’. I really don’t know why it censors the key historical terms…)
- Sicilians: Vavasseur (Vavasour)
Replaces the current Serjeant as the UU in Castles, and the Serjeant replaces the Man-at-Arms as the unique upgrade, like Militia → Apprentice Serjeant → Serjeant → Elite Serjeant.
The Militia could be automatically upgraded to Apprentice Serjeant, and the Apprentice Serjeant could be quickly upgraded to Serjeant at a very cheap price.
The Serjeant could still build Donjons and be trained in Donjons, but the Militia cannot.
The Donjons could train Serjeant line, Ram line and Siege Tower instead of Spearman line.
The Vavasour could build Castles (affected by the fast building bonus) and Donjons, and could have an capability to boost nearby Serjeants’ rate of building.
Of the ‘military’ ranks in Norman Social Organisation and Feudalism, the lowest rank was the Sergens, a professional footsoldier, literally ‘one who serves’. Above the Sergens was the Vavasseur, a soldier who equated to a squire, and who would have probably served a particular knight.