Boar under used

In a 1 v 1 match only 2 boars appear on the map and I seldom see high level players utilizing the boar. IMO the boar isn’t cost effective enough. Yes the boar is the fast food source on a land map but it’s not extremely faster AND there is only 2000 food each which is less than 1 patch of deer?? And deer do NOT hit back AND deer can be brought back to the TC via professional scouts.

IMO
Either:

  1. Add more boars and have them spawn closer to respective TC such that they still cause players to venture out onto the map but close enough that it’s worth the risk early-mid game.
  2. Keep just 2 boars on the map but increase their food source to 5000-6000 resources each and increase their gather rate to 65 food/min and allow up to 15 villagers to gather from it at once. This would make them like mid map or edge of map large gold/stone veins that become serious sources of contention.

Currently as boars are setup why would one risk losing 8 villagers for only a 2000 food source that gathers @ 50 food/min? And you typically have to travel quite far to reach them.

Last point Delhi and Abbasid get 2500 berry patches and collect @ 45 food/min and there are more than just 2 berry patches around the map AND MOST OF THEM SAFELY near starting TCs?? Originally I believe I read relic did this to compensate for other civs having access to boar?? so 2500 berries that don’t need killing and gathers at 45 fpm and spawns more than 2 SAFE patches around the map is to JUST offset TWO boars, typically EXTREMELY exposed mid map that has 2000 food each and gathers at a rate of 50 fpm? I’m not seeing the balance??

3 Likes

I usually forget it’s there. Someone once said that they go for it mid game. It saves some wood and thought to kill it with a few archers or whatever then sending workers to collect it.

did they remove the ability to lure a boar back to your base from aoe2? i tried to with my scout and it seemed like the boar followed him halfway there then turned back even when i had my scout try and aggro him again

2 Likes

Pretty sure you can’t lure boars in this game judging by no pro players using boars early on.

1 Like

seems like something that should really be changed. im not a pro by any means (far from it lol) but i remember a friend teaching me about boar luring in aoe2 years ago. i always thought it was a really cool little trick

If they allow boars to be kited all the way back to TC then sure leave it at 2000 food and 50 fpm. But I prefer the idea of boars as a risky resource but 2000 food and 50 fpm where only 8 villagers can gather from it at a time… that’s not worth the risk UNLESS you’re already have map control.

But here is another analysis to why boars are just NOT worth it (atm). Berries for most civs have a base gather rate of 35 food per minute and spawns 5 bushes per patch. As mentioned above you can only efficiently gather with 8 villagers on a single boar, so that equates to 8*50 fpm. Unless you safely have map control or have a close military to retreat into, you’ll likely need at least 1 outpost for 100 wood and 45 seconds to build it.

Negating the cost of the mill since both scenarios will need at least 1 mill;
scenario 1: boar associated cost, 100w, 45 sec build, 8 villagers 400 fpm last 5 minutes, RISKY
scenario 2: berries, no tower, no build time, need 12 villagers 420 fpm last about 3 minutes, SAFE
scenario 3: sheep, no tower, no build time, need 10 villagers, 400 fpm, need 8 sheep in order to last 5 minutes, SAFE.
scenario 4: deer, tower possible, 100w, 45 sec build, 9 villagers, 405 fpm, (assuming 7 deer) lasts 6 minutes

Given the scenarios above this is why I suggest they either add more boar to the 1 v 1 map; or allow you to herd them back to TC; or increase the gather rate to 60+ fpm and increase the amount of villagers that can efficiently gather to 15 and increase the total food to 4-6k (This is worth the RISK).

I like suggestion n1. I think we could use more boars on the map.

You guys have boars? o-o

They generally spawn in the middle of the map, away from base and it is too dangerous to hunt it, because you will be defensless against enemy attack.

So far I’ve watch most of these tournaments to include the one that is going on now and…none of these pros have gone for boars? They get sheep berries deer FARM … that’s it??

Hopefully Dev’s are taking note.

Another suggestion on how to improve the Boar and still only allow 2 on the map. Clearly at decent to pro level ppl seldom utilize the boar; and I believe it’s because of the HIGH RISK and not high enough reward AND the fact that it takes being strong enough to kill the boar.

I suggest the boar becomes easy to kill be given 3000 food and increase to only 60 food per min gather rate. The idea I’m going for is the ability to have the boar be an early FB boom; where you could setup a tower and fb military and push from that location for the 6 min 15 sec worth of food you’d have gathering with 8 villagers (480 food/min which can support constant villager production and constant food required for single stable horseman production)

Edit

I JUST watched TheMista vs TheViper on High View Rus vs French; Rus (TheViper) went for an early feudal center of the map boar dead smack in stealth forest. As a matter technically, the setup by the viper was impeccable: hunting cabin (auto gold + food drop off point), in the stealth so hard to scout, Rus Tower (stronger and fits the 8 villagers); then he added 2 barracks…
The Viper lost all 8 villagers in less time than he could consume the 2k food… @ 50 fpm gather rates. the commentators Mlord and Demuslim both tried to reference the decision of TheViper kindly but you can clearly hear their criticism of the choice and question if it was worth it (IMO clearly being rhetorical).

Yeah, currently hard to understand the point of boars in this game. The only civilization that seems able to derive any value from them is Russia due to the bounty bonus; for other civs, they spawn too far from the base, are too hard to kill, and can only be gathered from by a relatively small number of villagers at one time.

This also means that Abbasid and Delhi’s inability to gather from them isn’t any sort of civilizational drawback relative to the others and is pretty meaningless.

1 Like

Maybe it should be a different animal and give a different resource?

Like bear for 1500 Gold.

every once in a while one will spawn relatively close to a cluster of deer, in that case its definitely worth hunting it after the deer are used up but before you move to berrys. this just happened to me on a 1v1 on mountain pass

Im general farms are too efficient given their safety. No civ should be able to open up farms almost immediately and have it sufficiently sustain a defensive boom. I’d like if all natural resources got a buff deer 50 food per min, boar 60 food per min (minus berries bc of delhi and abbasid) or farms get a nerf from 35 food per min down to 30 food per min.

Likewise momgol pastures ate extremely safe and efficient WAAY more so than farms. More needs to be done to incentives expanding out on the map.

Heck lets do something radical!!! Farms 30 food per min, sheep 35 food per min, berries 35 food per min, deer 50 food per min (and 1 additional mid map 10 deer herd), boar 60 food per min (and twice as many on the 1 v 1 and allow the boar to die faster).

This way farming and pasturing will remain safe but now will be extremely slow by comparison and will greatly reward those players that capitalize expanding/professional scouts.

For example 10 farmers at new base would produce 300 food per min and require 16 sec build time and 750 initial wood cost. Compare that to 8 villagers 1 tower on boar that would cost 45 sec build time and let’s say 10 seconds kill time yet would generate 480 food per min for 4 minutes. Or similarly deer herd that would generate 400 food per min with 8 villagers for 6 minutes.

boars are just a decorative item of the landscape, its absolutely ineffective to go hunt them. hahaha another massive failure. aoe3 de had around 20?? different animals to hunt and was cost-effective, was that sooo hard to imitate?

If I’m rushing I can’t afford to invest in farms, simply along the way my army kills the boar and some citizens follow and go to collect with a simple investment of resources and time, not to mention that those citizens then I can push them further to make towers or castles