PREAMBLE
I know this will be a fairly atic bug report, and I ask for patience from the moderator who will have to read it. But I have spent enough time collecting data that I think I am able to clearly indicate the balancing problem and how to fix it.
GAME INFORMATION
- GAME BUILD #: in particularly the release of Dynasties of India onwards
- GAME PLATFORM: Steam, but it is irrelevant
- OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 11, but it is irrelevant
ISSUE EXPERIENCED
Condottieri with Pavese are less effective in countering gunpowder units than generic Cavalier.
FREQUENCY OF ISSUE
- 100% of the time / matches I play (ALWAYS)
METHODOLOGY
To make my balancing task easier, I created a local fork of AoE Combact Simulator, so that I could more easily test different values. In addition, I supplemented the tests by doing a simple stop-micro against the AI in the editor.
EXPECTED RESULT
I expect generic Condottieri to be as effective against units equipped with gunpowder as generic Cavaliers. Otherwise, what is the point of having that unit in the first place.
IMAGE
In the picture here, I tested the two units ‘Generic Cavalier’ and ‘Condottiero with Pavese’.
EXPLANATION
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Hindustanis: the range of their unique tech was increased from +1 to +2; in addition, HCs of Hindustan die in 3 hits instead of 2 like generic HCs. This makes it possible to significantly reduce the number of Condottieri before they get too close making it difficult to engage.
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Burgandians: The civilisation bonus “Gunpowder units gain +25% attack” means they do 19 damage per shot, instead of regular 12 (17 - 5 pierce armour). This is a real 58% increase in damage output.
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Janissaries: Condottieri special armour does not apply against Janissaries. Simple as that.
Furthermore, it must be pointed out that this is the optimal situation for the Condottieri. They can freely charge enemy units by valuing their +10 bonus damage, whereas in a real-game situation they face an obstacle proving even less effective than their Cavalier counterpart.
FURTHER ANALYSIS
The effectiveness of the various types of Cavalier against the Janissary. As can be seen, only the Paladins are truly effective.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Continuing the previous analysis, Condottieri must be a good alternative to Cavalry in mixed compositions when the enemy has HCs. That is why I propose changes in many of their characteristics.
Cost: 50 Food | 35 Gold → 55 Food | 30 Gold
Swapping the two values gives some benefits:
- It makes the unit more sustainable in the long run while reducing its impact in ealry imp.
- As a nice tuch, It gives the unit a unique cost and no longer shared with the Serjeant.
- Makes the cost of the unit easily comparable. Putting the value of gold 33% higher than that of wood and food (100F=100W=75G) means that 25 Cavaliers cost the same as 30 Janissaries, and cost the same as 42 Condottieri. (25 x 1.33 = 30; 30 x 1.33 = 42).
Hit points: 80.
- Unchanged.
Amor classes
- Infantry (+10) → Infantry (+13)
- Condottiero → Condottiero (+4): means -4 damage sustained by all gunpowder units
- New → -1 damage from Janissary
- Unique unit (unchanged)
- Melee armor 1 → 1 (unchanged)
- Pierce armor 0 → 0 (unchanged)
The increase of the armor infantry class is to properly balance the Burgundians’ HC. The point is that generic Condottieri should take 13 damage from Burgundians’ HC.
- 21 attack → -4 from blacksmith upgrades, -4 from condottiero class → 13 damage
- 13 bonus attack → -13 from infantry class: → 0 bonus damage
- total → 13 damage.
Furthermore, generic Condottieri should also take 13 damage from Janissaries.
- 22 attack → -4 from blacksmith upgrades, -4 from condottiero class , -1 from Janissary
- total → 13 damage.
There is probably a more elegant solution to achieve the same result, but I do not know how the game data is currently organised.
Attack Statistics
- Melee attack 10 —> 12
- Attack bonus vs Gunpowder +10 → +2
- New → Attack bonus vs Eagle Warrior +2
- Speed 1.2 → 1.105
- Reload time 1.9 → 1.9 (unchanged)
- Traning time 18 seconds → 20 seconds (probably even more)
Now that they are tankier and a bit slower, they no longer have to play the role of glass cannon.
RESULTS
The new Generic Condo! So you can see it is slightly better than its predecessor without the use of Pavase, but by no means too strong. In fact, it still requires the use of a few specific civ bonuses to be more effective against real gunpowder civilisations.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
I have not studied the effectiveness of the Condottieri against Hussite Wagon, also e.g. the 110 HP Condos of the Armenians may need to be adjusted (reduction of the HP bonus?), in any case, thank you for your patience in getting this far! I appreciate it.
OTHER REMARKS
Edit. Fixed a typo.