Regarding cheaper wood buildings: Malians already have 15% wood discount (except farms) and teutons cheaper farms.
Its hard to find bonuses that fit them and actually help them.
And as you already explained correctly in your opening post: Bulgarians are usually quite behind when reaching castle age.
buff bulgarians with another 50% off bonush ( docs tecs for italians, monasteries for burmese)
in this case i think 50% of blacksmith makes sense and its honestly modest compared to teh former mentioned
barracks stable siege and archer cost 100 wood perhaps in castle age
those would be two solid bonuses
This Krepost instead of Castle looks like Frank bonus to me.
I like the idea to have Krepost do more things than just Konniks but dont see the inability to make castles as a buff. If this is done asd civ bonus it could look like this:
Caste deal less damage, have less HP and range, cost 350 stone. In comparison Franks have normal Castles 25% cheaper.
Making Kreposts completely replace Castles would almost certainly need more adjustments after such a buff, from questions such as âHow much more powerful does Stirrups become from faster access to Stirrups?â Maybe the Stirrups bonus is lower in the Castle Age and then automatically upgrades in the Imperial Age? Either way, I think this could be the most efficient change which uses what Bulgarians already have. As the Bulgarians have great unit compositions. But I feel their unit transitions are awkward, even with the faster working Blacksmith, which might make players feel confusion on how to commit, and so cause those players to play Bulgarians without confidence. Because playing the early game according to their tech tree and bonuses always forces Bulgarians into M@A and towers, which for the Bulgarians doesnât have a natural transition into a Castle Age Stable or Archery Range. But turning the Krepost into a Castle replacement, meaning, alongside other benefits, Bulgarians have faster access to Stirrups, has the potential to make Scouts another good Bulgarian opening. For the Scouts could quickly upgrade with Stirrups in the Castle Age. And already having Stable upgrades from opening with Scouts is the natural Castle Age Stable transition Bulgarians appear to be currently missing. Or those same Stirrups Scouts could instead upgrade into Stirrups Light Cavalry, setting up the Bulgarian player for a Cavalry Archer switch. As the Bulgarians are among the top four civs in the game for Hussar/Cavalry Archer/Siege Workshop combos. For their Cavalry Archers are almost fully upgraded, missing Ring Archer Armor; their Siege Workshop has almost everything except Bombard Cannon, and their Hussars are among the best in the game with Stirrups.
Or keep the Krepost and Castle as they are now, but give Bulgarians a new civ bonus for faster attacking melee cavalry starting in the Castle Age, and reduce the effect of Stirrups so that the new bonus and Stirrups values amount to the current Stirrups value.
Just compare Bulgarian civ and Turk civ.
Bulgarians receive FREE about 800 resources ( 600 food and 200 gold) for upgrade of Militia line.
2) Bulgarians save (receive) 50 stone from every towncenter built.
3) Blacksmith work 50% faster. That is very poor bonus. Very rarely it may be useful. Even at 100% faster, it is poor.
Ot the other side are the Turks. They are only Imperial age civ, and at the the time of Aoe 2 they were just Noobs compared to Bulgarians. They are included at Aoe 3 and there , the Turks are very powerful.
But at Aoe 2, the Turks receive Bonus from Dark age.
So the Bulgarians save about 1000 resources for the whole game, while the Turks save about 2300- 2800 resources and have powerful gunpowder units, who are created faster( every unit, and not just several researches at blacksmith) and have 20% Gold mining Bonus from Dark ageâŠ
And you say- the Turks are weak ??!!!
I say- Remove the Turks from Aoe 2 and put them only at Aoe 3 !!
Bulgarians are in a really bad spot as well. And itâs not about how much resources you save, is how and when. Free light cav is nowhere near as relevant as other free updates. Free chemistry is great, but itâs an imperial age bonus, while other civs have better things. Earlier.
Handcart and wheelbarrow are 750 resources, yet vikings are much more stronger than turks. Why? Timing and importance of the free tech.
Free light cav is amazing, itâs just not expensive or slow to upgrade, meaning itâs no big deal in most situations. Itâs a very practical buff on Arena though, upgrading your scouts to LC means they kill monks in 2 hits as opposed to three. Getting that for free isnât negligible, as you can get the early scouts out and still have the bonus. Hussar is their only FU trash, and it helps them toward a full army composition when those upgrades are paid upfront, so it helps them in a meaningful lategame way too.
The problem is the limited scope of the stone bonus. Itâs absurd that the devs shipped this civ with maybe 100 free stone, in Castle age, and called it a civ bonus. Thatâs way weaker than Paper money in a 1v1 and the Vietnamese lost a tech slot and have to pay for the bonus resources.
Bring back pre nerf Konnik 11
Question were Bulgarians top pick at pre nerf?
Probs not cuz half the player base was going OP Cuman and the other half was going OP Sarracen to counter them 11 More seriously they were probably more picked than today, but there was the new toy effect that partially explained it and as an OP civ they were probably less popular than Cuman.