Allow the Krepost to research the unique techs and the elite upgrade for konniks. It still won’t be able to fully replace the Castle because of not having petards and Trebuchets, and the other castle techs(hoardings conscription…). This way you will buff the viability of Stirrups, allowing the bulgarians to get it a bit earlier compared to with a castle. Also buffs the early imp timing of the Bagains 2handswordsmen.
Extend TC bonus to TCs cost only 25 stone. Helps conserve a bit more stone for walling on closed maps. Nothing too big. And it can allow you to drop 1 tower + 3 TCs with the starting 200 stone.
This would make their 1 TC Knight/Konnik pushes indeed very strong as you only need to collect 150stone to build a Kreppost (without further TCs). Producing from 1 stable + 1 Kreppost is faster then from 2 stables. Bulgarian Knights/Konniks beat any other Knight in the game (even Franks) when they have stirrups. However, this might be balanced because of the high cost of stirrups (400food is not that easy to come by when you just hit castle and try to get all upgrades + Knights…).
Nice to have many good ideas. Unfortunately nothing of that would help to see Bulgarians on the Arabia tournament. That would buff what already make Bulgarian strong.
It seems that the issue is the early game. If we “fix” it, I believe that from there on it is a smooth ride, when the upgrades keep coming. After all, Stirrups is an insane unique tech. Bagains as well! But we need some speed, before we reach this coveted castle age. I will throw an odd ball here and propose the following BIG bonus: Let the Bulgarians have the first six units of each type of army or economy 50% cheaper.
What does it mean? The first six villagers produced in the game are 50% cheaper. That’s it, no more. The first 6 barrack units are 50% cheaper. Enough. The first 6 archers and skirmisher follow this rule, etc.
You see where I am going - push the game for the Bulgarians early and don’t change the mid and late stage, then they know what to do. Till then the player should have figured out the direction and can’t complain that there wasn’t enough economy advantage for him/her.
I think that this will make the Bulgarians a scary rushing civilization and worst for the opponents - they will not be sure what will come at them! With this, having a quick archer rush is now not impossible. It can be dropped instantly and followed by a quick scout/m@a decimation, good enough to slow the enemy.
I am a fan of the idea of giving the Bulgarians a very unique bonus, just as they have one-of-a-kind unit and building. What do you think?
What about free cavalry armor upgrades? It would make their scout rush slightly better and make it cheaper to upgrade Konniks in castle age as you want both infantry and cavalry techs.
Yes, you are completely right.
Kreppost / Konniks / Stirrups makes Bulgarians decent and interesting to play in the later stages of a match. There is absolutely no need for a buff in this regard.
The reason the civ is despised at the high level is because you will lose the early game against an equally skilled opponent that plays a civ with good bonuses while you have nothing…
Their weakness is not the military, therefore I disagree with the addition of crossbow. Bulgarians suffer so much because they don’t have any eco bonus and will not get to late castle where they start to shine (they are kind of alright in team games).
As I have stated in multiple posts regarding Bulgarians balance, their Blacksmith and Barracks cost could be reduced to 100w each, this could even extend to the Archery Range and Stable to make up for the lousy early game options. This would also help to place additional farms and saves enough wood to afford TCs early.
Another change I’m very much in favor for is a buff to the Militia line to
Portu with a 100% winning rate shows how inaccurate are those stats, it depends on the player and the match, even with underdog civ the skill difference can make shine a civ like that.
Anyway i do agree bulgarians have no identity, while lithuanians have too many bonuses, the speedy skirms should be a bulgarian thingy, since their militia bonus is meh.
Because it was announced that balance changes are coming with the big October patch. And Koreans are the most unbalanced civ right know according to winrates, tournament picks and balance discussion here and in other forums…
Don’t spread that info without any source, they are releasing aoe 3 DE first, all devs hardwork is going to be on fixing critical bugs during the first month, i expect a big 1 year anniversary patch at november 14 and thats it, not before.
Stats are no stats just numbers 
emoji, not one will think that you re discussing in a good mood.