Addressing the Inca late-game situation

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
1

As I assume most of you know, and as I have also recently discovered, Inca are in a very weird position right now in terms of their strength in 1v1 Supremacy. The civ feels reasonably strong in age II, with a very good bowman + spearmen composition, infinite wood, Kanchas, etc. They are also perfectly fine in (early) age III, as they have strong Native shipments to swing fights, Huaracas can hold their own vs Falconets, the 2 TC shipment is amazing, their bows and spears scale well enough, and so on.

However, after that is where they fall off a cliff. If the Inca player cannot finish off their opponent in age III, and they let them get to age IV, when heavy artillery becomes a thing, they are cooked. Inca are arguably the worst civ in the game when it comes to dealing with Heavy Cannons and their variants (Great Bombards, Papal Bombards, the likes). And I think this should be addressed - it’s fine for a civ to have weaknesses, but I don’t think it should be so profound, to the point where they are on a constant timer to finish the game before their opponent gets to the Industrial age.

Naturally, feel free to suggest other solutions to this in the comments, or if the devs are reading this and have a better idea, go ahead, but here’s the 2 ways I would solve this:

  1. The Arrow Knight approach - extend the negative damage multiplier which artillery has against Arrow Knights to include Huaracas. This will help them massively vs Falconets and Heavy Cannons, but I fear that it might not be enough vs massed or super heavy artillery a la Bombards. It’s also not necessarily an “elegant” solution, as it relies on a hidden multiplier, and Arrow Knights still have 30 range, whereas Huaracas have ~22.

  2. Light Cannons - Inca already have access to a one-time shipment of 4 Light Cannons through their Stronghold’s big button ability - Thunderbolts of Illapa. However, 4 Light Cannons alone aren’t enough to carry their whole late-game, especially when Factories can make an infinite amount of heavy artillery. So, why not fight fire with fire by giving Inca an infinite source of Light Cannons? This can be done either through the aforementioned big button technology - by making it enable the training of Light Cannons in Stronghold and/or Native Embassies (or making the big button infinite), or through a home city card. I prefer the former, personally, as it would add a strategic element of protecting your Stronghold in the late-game in order to have access to the Light Cannons.

2

I hear you dude, as an Inca main, I might be biased, but it sucks trying to take out heavy cannons as Inca.

  • They can always out-range the only anti artillery unit they have (22 range in age 3, 23 and 24 with more upgrades vs 28 range for heavy cannons and great bombards), plus, they have a wind up animation, unlike most artillery.
  • Any decent player will know that if they can’t use “culverin like units”, they just need to make pikes vs whatever cavalry or shock units they try to use to snipe the cannons.

I can’t remember the last game that got me as far as age 5, they always end at the early age 4 or before.

I feel like the game has a bit of a mess with the stats UI, adding more hidden multipliers doesn’t seem like a good idea.
There are still a bunch of units with the “guardian attack” stat messing with the UI.

Literally yes, is there a reason to not add them? Every native civ has the captured mortar, what is so bad about this one?
They could at least try to add it and make it stupid expensive or something.

As you said, through an infinite card, through the tech, or heck, a politician (Leader? I forgot what they call them for Inca).

imagen
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Let me add another idea if light cannons are the absolute devil to the developers, if the very notion to add them would be a capital sin.

To try make them more “fun”, instead of just buffing base hp, range, or damage, how about, an ability?

imagen
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“Drop the shields”

  • For the next 12 seconds, all Huaracas have their artillery multiplier increased by 1,5, range increased by 4 and wind up animation removed, BUT, they lose all their ranged armor and can’t siege buildings. 120 seconds cooldown (The huaraca loses the shield and constantly spins the sling in movement and idle animations).

I pulled the status increase out of thin air though, testing would be required, but it can fight the weakness of trying to get close enough to snipe artillery, while being punished for nose diving in desperation.

Or, something like that, heck, maybe the opposite:

“Shield push”

  • For the next 15 seconds, all Huaracas have their siege armor increased by 0,5, ranged armor by 0,15, and range increased by 4, BUT the wind up animation and attack speed are duplicated and can’t siege buildings. 120 seconds cooldown.

The “can’t attack buildings” is just so they don’t go around lame sniping factories like other siege units (COUGH COUGH… humbaracis …COUGH!), these abilities still punish players who can’t take advantage of them in the time they are active.

I would like these purely for the cue in the animation of the huaraca winding all the way back to fire from further away jsjsjsj
They could add the sound cue of them breaking the sound barrier too :open_mouth:

imagen
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Heck, why not BOTH?! Make it so you have to consider if you have to ambush or push a position (cooldown affects both however, like the haude war chief, obviously having both active at the same time would be insane).

Idk, there is still so much that can be added to the game, I feel like it needs more “gimmicks” instead of base stats.