I’ve been playing a lot of the african civs recently because they’re very fun and unique however I have the same issue every game it seems particularly with ethiopia.
I play well and do everything fine, I’ve won several small fights, killed 10 vills and have a great eco then the brit player arrives with several falconets and musk. The falconets kill gascenya fast as they’re quite low HP, neftenya also die and same with shotels.
If I FF and beat brit to fortress I still lose because either he went full age 2 and has a lot of huss and musk or He’ll reach fortress a bit later but 2 falcs not only kill everything I have but also kill the sebastopol mortar easily.
I’ve considered making culvs but you need 300 influence tech just to train them then 500 influence per culverin.
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eu tenho o mesmo problema que você. a artilharia deveria custar o valor em ouro e madeira, acho muito burocrático pegar artilharia com hausa e etiopia
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I don’t think there is a good answer to this other than catching them out of position or taking very poor trades to power through.
- Shotels are low health and have low base attack so they’re pretty bad at dealing with cannons.
- Desert Raiders are too expensive and high pop.
- Culverins have a huge upfront cost that’s basically unaffordable in most games.
- Oromos are a lot better now, but their charged shot can delay them from getting on top of cannons and give your opponent an extra second or two to get units in place to screen them from melee.
- Sebastopol Mortars do x0.1 vs artillery and are massively expensive.
- Daroods are an okay option against the 2 falc shipment, but countering cannons with infantry is not usually viable.
- Javelin Riders in melee is probably the only reliable option to deal with lots of cannons.
Ethiopia was kinda left in a bad spot after their strong outlaw and dervish strategies were nerfed into the ground. They could use some buffs to their other units to compensate. I think some buffs like this could help:
Shotels: reduce their attack by 1 but increase their RoF to 1 (equivalent to +1.75 attack on a regular melee unit)
Sebastopol Mortar: change their artillery multiplier to x0.5, and give them x1.5 versus infantry
Training European artillery should be reworked to function like the pseudo-shipments from the Italian Basilica. They could be available without needing to research a tech, but would share the shipment queue and would be one at a time. Researching a “European Advisors” tech could represent bringing in foreign expertise to make them domestically. This could make them available to be trained in batches and not use the shipment queue. It could also alter their cost to something like 400 influence/100 wood to make them a little more affordable.
Fields could also be made less tedious so they’re not such a big distraction when you’re trying to transition from natural resources.
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Other than winning the game in age 2 which I do a lot of the time the only thing that is quite effective is the senna horsemen but you need to use a shipment and 1000 influence to send them so basically 2000 resources for 5 units just to deal with a falc shipment, if they make a foundry later then I don’t know what you can do.
I agree that the cost of artillery should be split between influence and something else, 500 influence per culv after already spending hundreds just to be able to make them is almost always impossible. Hausa can get influence a bit easier through universities and can get goats at age 3 but ethiopia lack that option and can’t even train goats until industrial.
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I feel like just having influence shipment in the deck is worth it 90% of the time since it allows you to pivot easily
I also feel like i never have this problem with hausa since you get so many cows from shipements and then a single royal feast tech means you have enough to get whatever you want
I used to even do a fulani falc timing which is pretty fun
edit: as for ethiopia always send the jesuit influence card and also set the monastery to influence heavy to maximise income
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The royal feast tech is actually a great idea, I forgot that exists. You can send the 8 semi fattened cattle card upon reaching age 3, that plus any cattle you had before should get you like 2000+. Sending the cattle is always good anyway so even if the attack doesn’t come they can carry on fattening until needed.
The downside being all your cattle are now gone but you can ship that card infinite times.
I’ll try this.
I think 14 cannoneers in stagger mode can be good against a 2 falc + musket push. You only need 12 age 3 cannoneers to one shot a falc. For sure you will lose some due to the range difference but usually I find I can cheese them down and still have at least 8 alive iirc. You can send 700 influence in transition so it is your first shipment in age 3. One game I was able to hold a musk art push in age 2 just with javelin riders + cannoneers.
If your opponent drops a foundry you probably won’t be able to cheese it down this way and you will need 1000 influence for culvs and then have your monasteries on the max influence setting to continue production if need be. If you have the shipment to spare in transition I think the palace + 300 influence can be decent to send so you are ready to research imported cannons as soon as you hit age 3 (700 influence is probably better if you have the eco to make a palace normally)
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There’s a unit that you gain from alliances that is sort of a hard counter for falconets. Can’t remember the name.
Also Javelin riders are very good.
Somali Darood Militia is probably what you’re thinking of. They do 14 ranged damage with x2 vs artillery. They will get countered by Falconets, not be a hard counter to them.
Sort of a hard counter 
Personally i automatically mass javelin riders and that pretty much scares most people out of a 2 falc push. They are only countered by skirmishers so you can’t really go wrong with it.
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Just had a look at their multipliers and the javelin riders do get 2.5x vs artillery in ranged and in melee so could work with a decent enough mass, especially after sending their card.
If I FF I go The palace plus 300 influence shipment followed by 1000 influence age three. With good scouting you can determine if you got falcs or culvs or mercs.
Javelin riders are the bread and butter of affrican armies. You should be massing them most of the times. They are very versatile and trade well with most other units in the game. They are really a cossak and a cavalry archer in one unit.
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