just a list of things that could use buffs, for a more streamlined and fun game.
Natives:
many older natives could use a slight cost reduction and a bigger train time reduction to their units. balance around V.S. for their wood cost as well. it sets you back far too much to be viable for many natives early and pigeonholes many native units to be seen only in treaty/late game team matches. and for all the effort that goes into making them in the first place its a shame and a waste of resources.
lots of native techs are too expensive by 50-200 resources. you cant afford them in the early game despite many of these techs being early game oriented such as berry gathering or mining speed. meanwhile trade posts give immediate benefit through xp gain even without further investment.
new Native African hero techs also could use a massive cost reduction. they are not at all affordable or pay back their cost early game, leaving them a treaty option if that. Nootka Chief should auto respawn just like African heroes as well.
many natives need better techs as well as they focus only on their units or niche strategies, such as Nootka and Huron. for the Nootka just add 2 more cheap techs, for Huron have build limit tech unlock the mantlet shipment tech and add 3 more. updating old natives like these should be a quick and easy win.
tier 1 tp upgrade cost should be halved so booming off map control is easier to access.
Rev:
many revolution cards are bad and need buffs as well. many of these cards should always ship a minimum of 1600 resources along with their effects for them to be viable.
lets use Haiti as an example. the picket card for Haiti that slightly buffs pikemen and make them cost food should also ship 1600 resource worth of pikemen as well. there is just no way in a match i would ever ship this card otherwise, food cost pikemen is not worth a 1600 Rev shipment. this is a common problem with rev cards, they buff a unit but don’t ship the unit they are buffing, making them useless in an actual match.
also the Dahomey card which just enables them at the saloon should also ship Dahomey and Sennar Cav and enable them in the barracks/stables as well with a reduced cost and train time. how is a Rev card that only enables a single mercenary in the saloon viable?
Pirate Flagship after first send should be replaced with a repeatable Pirate Flagship card if the first ship is sunk, and there is no reason to limit the African Roots card to just one native rather than both. and for all native focused revs legendary native tech should be enabled in the tc.
citizen cards meanwhile should also provide at least 12 villagers along with some sort of rev specific buff. the Haiti citizen card buffing native limits is nice, but too many are generic. shipping 6 villagers is far too little value for an age 4 equivalent card.
some rev need a lot more help like Hungary and Romania. too many limits on what you can do, cards that don’t deliver when you need it and a power fantasy that fails to materialize.
Africans:
Many African cards need buffs. feudal armies which only reduces unit train times by 15% is a standout, clearly worse than equivalent cards such as liberation march for mexico/spain or acupuncture for china. at least make it equivalent to liberation march and remove the slight vill reduction buff. currently its just a bad card.
many cards that enable or improve something also don’t ship anything else with them rendering them unviable.
Zuma Rock Lore should atleast increase mining speed, Gobarau Minaret and Massina Madrasahs should ship a university, and Morrocan Leather/Kilishi jerky should ship some goats/cattle so you can actually take advantage of these cards right away. Amina Epic should also be past and future raiders/lifidi trained.
Temenyas should follow the example of Gaananci and Zazzau and become an age 2 card that also ships several of them as well as enabling their age 2 training. Chewa Elites should also affect Shotels, and Bush Burning is a worse eco card than any other civ equivalent with a granary aura requirement on top.
Team Coffee has to be a typo. it is the worst team speed card in the game by far, and its in age 4. you got age 2 Yongle for Chinese, and age 2 Inca Bridges for Inca that gives the same team buff to far more units.
the Sebastopol Mortar could a bonus vs infantry buff and Maigadi should gain promotions and a hp/damage buff near palaces that scales with age. palaces should also have the 20/30/50% shadowtech so they don’t easily die to 5 musketeers late game. some of the alliance techs could use a cost reduction.
All Native Americans:
renegade cards should use consulate versions of units. Medicine Wheel should ship a builder travois and a healer, Llama Lifestyle a llama instead. change Scout cost to 100 food and mercenary bonus to 10x
Haud:
give them a native scout at game start. move Conservative Tactics and Siege Combat to age 4 and add a Huron/Cherokee/Cree native alliance embassy card.
Sioux:
add a card that ships 1 bison for every tepee and town center while boosting hunting in age 3
Inca:
change house bb to ship 1 villager per house, 400 gold cost. this incentives greedy/boomy play as a long expensive set up gets a big reward. revert the warhut 10% resistance bb.
consider adding an additional unit. could be a light cannon equivalent or something else entirely. just something to look forward to in age 3/4.
reduce maceman cost by 20 gold/6 seconds and buff melee/siege rof to 1.5.
remove the age 2 6 chimu and 5 plumed spear cards. change the age 2 ranged infantry attack/hp card into age 3 ranged infantry combat. fold Road Building into Couriers and move it to age 4. give Machu cost 500 gold and ship an extra stronghold.
replace 3/5 vill card with 2 unique wood trickling cards and a reduced building cost+2 builder travois card.
remove the 2 farm/2 builder travois. add another builder travois to Haunka Support, and have Chicha Brewing ship 2 homestead wagons as well. Quipo should ship a tambo wagon and Advanced Tambo folded into Ceque.
Asians:
add in imperial mercenary tech. its about time!
consider following in aoe4 example of wonders being permanent and repairable once destroyed. comebacks as Asians are alot harder than it needs to be.
Japan:
samurai siege damage, gold cost and train time reduced. its current stats are late game siege raider style oriented while not being practical to train. sword saint no longer increases cost.
fold naginata hp with bloody harvest. just a 20% hp boost to a single unit does not deserve an age 3 card slot. or follow axe rider example and ship naginata riders as well. or move card to age 2.
allow dojo wagons to be rebuildable from tc.
add in an age 1 card, “age of isolation”. ships a consulate wagon and 100 export, makes isolation choice free and isolation techs 50% cheaper.
isolation tech military rickshaws now ships 2 rickshaws instead of 1 and clan offerings instead grants 2 samurai with each shipment.
Indians:
Professional handlers pop decrease should be baked into the base units and the card removed. elephant armor should ship a Mansabdar Mahout as well.
Chinese:
remove all food and gold cards. +100 wood start. village limit +1.
flame throwers gain 8 range, +2 per upgrade, tagged artillery instead of infantry. +10% ranged resistance.
Euro:
assassins and Agent cards should ship with spies and reduce their train times.
Fencing/Riding/Engineering School moved to age 1.
USA:
is good. very enjoyable to play. so many options. how can you not have fun with this civ?
compare what you can do all game with this civ to Inca and see how much better it is from an entertainment standpoint.
please make next dlc resemble USA more than Inca.
needs a merc train time reduction tech.
Mexico:
close to USA. very fun.
kinda cheesy with certain revolutions. did Man of Destiny really need a train time nerf?
Briatin:
Scottish and Irish revolutionary options and natives. another royal house option. native alliance options. armstrong guns. so much stuff id love to see added to this civ. its currently alright but id rather play USA. buff Greenwich Time with 100 xp shipment?
Malta:
greek fire ships should be enabled by default. gain a shipment card for them in age 2. have archaic combat cards affect hospitallers. boost fire tower flamethrower to 14 range and make it an age 2 tech from royal decree card.
Italy:
replace the olives in the pizza card with pineapples. while there is no wrong way to eat pizza you have bad taste choosing olives.
papal units are trained instead of hogging shipment que.
Sweden:
+100 wood start. move blackberries to age 4 and with 1600 food blackberries.
Russia:
cheaper healers card no longer affects military units. Kamchatka expeditions also ships 1 mongol scout reskin. add in an age 1 card that ships a blockhouse and boosts their hp by 50%(2000->3000). add in an age 2 card that ships 2 blockhouses and boosts hunting rate and yield near them.
France:
change cuir cost to be 50% higher VS than hussars at 180 food 120 gold, and increase RR to 30% so they have the exact same ranged hp per pop as hussars (243 vs 240 ranged hp per pop). to compensate for late game raids reduce their siege damage to 15.
the 3 cuir card is strictly worse than the 5 hussar card from other civs. change it to 4 cuirs with a 200 food cost so its at least competitive with 5 hussars.
Ottomans:
add in an age 4 card that boosts deli damage and move speed. a card that references Hungarian engineers would also be nice.
remove vill cards and 200 wood at start as well as all gold shipment cards. move Mosque Construction to age 1 and have it also ship a mosque wagon. add in an age 1 native alliance choice between Sufi and Berber.
add in age 2 alliance cards that also ships native warriors for the Tengri, Sudanese and Greek natives, and age 3 variants for House Vasa, Bourbon and Jagiellon.
give Spahi age 2 scaling, a big reduction in potential hp and damage. in exchange increase rr to 40% so they can keep dragoon/skirm comps honest. they will be much weaker in melee especially against their counters but tank more ranged damage so your other units can provide killing power.
Germany:
remove Spanish Riding. age 4 uhlan combat card instead increases move speed by 1. mercenary camps are now an age 1 card that also ships a mercenary camp wagon.
dopplesoldner 25 gold/7 seconds cheaper. siege damage reduced to 40. they aren’t a practical unit to train in age 2 currently while mainly used as a siege raider in team games.