As the title suggests, this is a discussion thread about if and how the TG meta can be changed to make more diverse TGs. First I’d like to make a poll if people even want it to be changed and if they think there is a way to change.
- I like the current TG meta
- I don’t like it, but I fear it only gets worse if we try to change
- If anything, there should only be minor changes
- The meta is fine, but I think there could be more civs with unique strats
- I don’t want to have the meta changed, just less stale
- I’d like to have more strong strategies
- I’d like to have everything working to the same extend as in 1v1s
- Meta is bad, make everything equally strong
- The meta needs to be overhauled, other units need to be stronger
0 voters
Then I’d like to summarize what imo causes this stale meta. It’s several points, so be prepared for a trip.
A) Positions: There are flank and pocket civs. Flanks are closer to the opponent (and therefore don’t need as much mobility) and pockets who are more distant and therefore need more mobility on their units. Flanks are also more prone to the attacks of the opponents (cause of shorter travel) and must defend themselves more often. Defending is easier with ranged units than melee units, especially if you are 1v2 - ed.
B) Knights + Archers have the least weaknesses and cover each others weaknesses aswell. There is almost no unit which can deal with both. Only Boyar and Eagle come to mind. But the eagles don’t work as well cause of the next reason:
C) Pop efficiency. TG cause of the way they are usually played tend to last way longer than 1v1s, at least at equal skill level. I don’t want to go deeper into this, it’s just a matter of fact at this point. That means especially melee units with low pop efficiency have a hard time being competitive. This also applies to the eagle which in 1v1s would counter both, Knights and Archers. Interesting here is, that Cav Archers, besides being way more pop efficient than archers don’t see as much play. Which leads us to
D) Convenience + Transitioning. Knights and Archer plays are just the most convenient of all, also in 1v1s. Which is even more crucial for TGs. Not because of the single player, but the other teammates. To play good in a team you need to know the strengts and weaknesses of your mates. If your Team members play something you aren’t familiar with you can’t support him as well as if he plays something you know. Especially transitions are problematic in TGs as they need to be communicated, they can easily lead to a fast loss if executed at the wrong moment. And tbh in most TGs once the fight has started there are only a few “right” moments when you could justify a transition.
E) Gold from Trade. In 1v1s Gold is limited. In TGs it’s actually the opposite. The other ressources are limited. (ok most arabia TGs don’t reach the state of a wood game, but it can happen)
This naturally makes all the Gold units more viable, which for occurance are Archers + Knights.
Just to mention: I know that there are several other strats that work in TGs. You can’t even call them off-meta anymore, more like “counter-meta”. Or even also just meta on different “closed” map types. For most of these strats also apply most of the reasons mentioned above. I just use Knight/Archer as paragon here, to make it more easy to understand the reasoning.
I am pretty sure I also forgot some other important things here, so please feel free to correct me there. I currently don’t play a lot of TGs, so I am a bit “out of shape”.