Most of the European explorer cards provide a stat boost (+50% hp and attack) as well as a dog on top of their special effect. However if you compare this to the spanish, Indian or Chinese explorer cards they recieve no extra unit. The spanish bonus improves war dogs, but gives no extra military prescence in form of a military unit. The same can be said for the Indian and Chinese cards. All of these cards lack tempo and most of their permanent effects become relatively weaker as the game goes on.
I propose that all of these cards should ship extra military units to compensate for their lack of tempo. My proposal is as follows:
The spanish card “Conquistador” will also ship 3 war dogs.
The Indian card “Good Karma” will also ship 2 white tigers.
The Chinese card “Snatch the pebble” will also ship 4 disciples. It ships a higher value of units as it is an age II shipment.
Do you agree with these changes or do you disagree? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts about this proposal
I think I’d be careful about adding too much to the Spanish explorer card. Spain’s shipments are cheaper than normal and 3 extra War Dogs is kinda a lot. Having it send 1 would probably be reasonable.
For India, White Tigers are pretty good units and the card is already +60% attack/hp. I’d probably just go with either 1 White Tiger or +50% healing rate for Indian monks (Indian healing rates are pretty bad, and while the last thing India needs is more important cards, this one wouldn’t be too bad).
For China I think 4 is fine. It’s an age 2 card so it probably wouldn’t be an issue. China already can ship 5 disciples in age 1 so I don’t anticipate it being an issue.
Small buffs to make useless or extremely niche cards somewhat usable to mess with the opponent in different ways and still require some level of micro to get more usage out of the typical first card sent (such as 3 vills).
For Spain and India, 1 of each of their respective units is enough though, and adding +1 to the build limit should round it up for late-game.
I think I’d be careful about adding too much to the Spanish explorer card. Spain’s shipments are cheaper than normal and 3 extra War Dogs is kinda a lot. Having it send 1 would probably be reasonable.
For India, White Tigers are pretty good units and the card is already +60% attack/hp. I’d probably just go with either 1 White Tiger or +50% healing rate for Indian monks (Indian healing rates are pretty bad, and while the last thing India needs is more important cards, this one wouldn’t be too bad).
Thnx for the welcome. I do not think that the card should be weaker because Spain gets tons of shipments. Their other cards are not weaker so why should only the explorer card be worse? I think that the spanish card should include at least 2 war dogs. In age II the explorer dog has got the same hp as 3 war dogs (420hp), roughly the same damage (15) as 1 war dog, but deals 100% dmg to vills. Every time you ransom your explorer you will get the dog back, which equals 420 hp and 1 war dog dps. Spain does not get this, which is why they should get more dogs shipped. Anything less than 2 war dogs is a complete ripp-off. You get lower hp, dps and long term value compared to a normal explorer dog.
It’s the same for India. 2 tigers have 144hp and 16 attack. Anything less than 2 tigers is pretty bad. The effect that you can train them is only good in the super late game. 135f for a 144 hp unit is not good except when you want to overpop. 1 tiger would not cut it.
Did they change something? For years the dog and explorer both had to be ransomed (ie 100c for the explorer and then another 100c for the dog).
As to the point of cheaper shipments, most civs won’t send their explorer dog. If Spain’s gets too much of a buff (in addition to already buffing the dogs) Spain could easily afford it and 4 WDs in age 1 with +20% stats could really mess up some explorers. Germany basically must build a TP in transition and Spain having 4 dogs at that point would be pretty nasty. Obviously, it doesn’t apply to just Germany, 4 buffed dogs could basically kill any explorer in the game and the +50/50 stats to the hero makes it even stronger. Other civs usually just can’t afford to send their explorer card in normal games, so the “send your card then” doesn’t really work.
Buffing it too much for Spain specifically creates balance issues. Unnecessarily creating balance issues is in general suboptimal imo.
Did they change something? For years the dog and explorer both had to be ransomed (ie 100c for the explorer and then another 100c for the dog).
As to the point of cheaper shipments, most civs won’t send their explorer dog. If Spain’s gets too much of a buff (in addition to already buffing the dogs) Spain could easily afford it and 4 WDs in age 1 with +20% stats could really mess up some explorers. Germany basically must build a TP in transition and Spain having 4 dogs at that point would be pretty nasty. Obviously, it doesn’t apply to just Germany, 4 buffed dogs could basically kill any explorer in the game and the +50/50 stats to the hero makes it even stronger. Other civs usually just can’t afford to send their explorer card in normal games, so the “send your card then” doesn’t really work.
It seems that you are correct. Now you do not get the dog back when you ransom the explorer. A few patches ago I played team games when my team used the explorer cards and we all got both the explorer and the dog back with a single ransom.
I am not saying that the civ facing Spain will send their explorer card in response. Intead, I am comparing the spanish explorer card to eg. the russian one, which can see play on very special maps or if you meme in team games. Compared to Russians, Spain has excellent age 1 cards. First, you need to send your 3 villagers unless you really want to cripple your eco. Then you have the option to skip sending a card or send something like capitalism, team cheap barracks, schooners etc. Would you really skip any of those cards to send your explorer card instead? The dogs will arrive in your base, so it will take a while for them to even reach the enemy explorer. Wouldn’t it be better to just train 3 dogs from your explorer and send eg. capitalism or atp instead? You would be able to deny the tp faster as you do not have to wait for the dogs to run across half of the map.
Maybe 3 dogs is too much. I do not know. However, I strongly believe that getting 1 dog is really bad in terms of unit combat value. So the card has to send at least 2 dogs for it to be worthwhile getting.
The explorer card is fine if you’re actively treasure hunting. You already get the hero pet + the bonus vs guardians which makes treasure hunting the high value treasures substantially easier. If you’re chasing the treasures, the card really pays for itself. I’m not opposed to a slight buff, but I don’t see these devs adding anything to the power budget of those cards.
The only thing I want is the unbelievably obnoxious dog to stop barking. Every click. If it’s in the control group, it takes over all other audio responses. The mutt needs to be silenced. In fact, it’s that stupid dog being unbelievably annoying that causes me not to use the explorer card just because I don’t want to listen to it.
And the “find explorer” hotkey should not prioritize the mutt. It should prioritize the explorer. That’s another one that sometimes happens that needs to be fixed.
