I just don’t like the water maps for various reasons:
- Lack of features (like waves, static ships on the water, various fish: sharks, whales, other types of fish, etc).
AOE 3 had the better naval battle and environment features that are missing in this game.
- demolitions ships are too strong (HRE especially)
- Deli fishing ships are too strong too
- French Hulks
- Transport ships can only carry a maximum of 16 units and are too weak bcse of its HP…
- Few civs are possible to play on the water map
Moreover, currently what I am experiencing in a quick match is that I or other players would drop as soon as we see it is a water map…
This just takes a lot of time to find a land map.
3 Likes
While points 1-3 I agree with (although I think it’s cause demo bug in imp mostly, castle age demos are pretty fine). IMO 4-6 aren’t an issue.
After the nerfs French aren’t the #1 civ on any water map anymore, Lodya’s are really crazy and often win water by transforming fishing boats and galleys from HRE/England or light junks from Mongols can go either way.
Transport ships are much stronger than in AOE2 and are imo in a great spot, I would argue 16 units is too much in feudal, age 2 required multiple upgrades and imp to get past 10 and landings are still common in that game. They also are liable to survive the trip as long as you don’t run into the middle of a navy.
I agree few civs are viable on water, but pretty much every map has that issue. Basically only Mongols, Rus, maybe French are playable on open maps, only a couple civs are playable on closed maps (HRE China usually) etc.
Most maps (not just water maps) have maximum 3 good civs and anything else is shooting yourself in the foot.
Also to add another point, bad fish spawns on water maps are more liable to decide the game compared to most maps (although mountain pass altai and king of the hill have similar issues of spawns randomly ruining a game)