I think the Britons have two characteristics for archers, the extra range by age and the production speed in archery ranges. Both characteristics separately are fitting for an archer civilization, so I suggest that the Britons’ team bonus for production speed in archery ranges could be given to another civilization such as Bengalis, Incas, Dravidians, Magyars, or even Burmese.
In my opinion, it would be a good modification. However, I don’t have a specific suggestion about which civilization should receive this bonus. What do you think about it?
I tend to agree that this this TB could be changed, but for another reason. It’s not just “archery ranges recruit faster”, it’s “archery ranges work faster”, which means the techs are also faster researched… yet it has been given to a civ without thumb ring or parthian tactics. It’s also worth noting that some of its civ boni on ranged units don’t work on ALL archery range units. So clearly, some other civs would make a way better use of such a TB.
all the civs you list are already good enough and don’t necessarily need buffs.
Britons at the same time are fairly lackluster in 1v1s after the Xbow nerf and could use some love, it’s a largely overhyped civ that noobs like to cry about because of how strong they are in TGs where you blindly spam 1 unit.
I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. Team Aftermath ranked Britons in A Tier in their latest 1v1 Arabia civ tier rankings video last month, even after the nerf.
Hi.
The team game bonus of the Britons in Age of Empires II is too powerful. The range of their archers is so high that it is difficult to get close to them, and they also have an excessive number of archers with only two archery ranges, which requires only one additional villager on gold. Furthermore, when combined with the Saracens in team games, they can become unbeatable.
I’m not sure what could be the new bonus for the Britons, but I think that as a community, we should expand the discussion on the topic. Currently, many bonuses in the game are being adjusted to achieve a balance in gameplay.
I completely agree with you. I think it would be better if the Britons’ TG bonus were exclusive to another civilization rather than being applied as a team game bonus
Britons is getting a heavy nerf on their TB. Although I won’t mind it shifting to another civ. Can be a potential new civ - Nubians, for example, in the future.
A totally busted TB.
I asked for an almost useless militia line +2 LOS as new TB for Britons in a different thread. They usually open with Drush or M@rush. This bonus will help to scout villagers movement once you hit enemy woodline or berry.
This is precisely the reason the Briton team bonus should have been given to someone else.
In return they could get… farms build faster / champs +2 LOS / shepherds carry +3 / outposts don’t cost wood / …
And one of their civ bonuses could have been strengthened if necessary for 1v1 balance.
Diluting the civ bonus to 10% instead of putting it in a place (civilisation) where it works well feels like a waste.
I’m sure I’ll get criticised for this, but I don’t think Britons should lose this bonus because it actually has a sensible historical justification. (In fact, all the Britons’ bonuses do except the extra range for crossbows/arbalests.) That said,
“Archery ranges recruit faster” would actually make more sense historically.
20% faster working archery ranges would be cool on Italians since they lack a direct Archer bonus asyde from UT and are not strong atm and could use a buff.
Then britons could get a new TB focused more on the 1vs1, but that would be fairly strange since a team bonus is intended to be used for more players.
They could instead be given gambesons to keep their militia FU alongside a new team bonus. Maybe like infantry +X(1 or 2) bonus damage against skirmishers( or generally archers) similar to Persian cav team bonus
Then all this skirmishers “hate” (like the new bengalis bonus damage) could be a reason to finally add a general imperial upgrade for skirmishers like all other trash units, or any unit aside monks
What you say makes sense. They could also lose the extra range per age and keep the 20% faster firing rate for archery ranges. I suggest they cannot have both. However, if they lose the extra range, they would lose their historical essence in AoE II
What you suggest, adding the bonus of 20% faster working archery ranges to the Italians, seems perfect to me. They currently only have the Pavise technology (Foot Archers and Condottieri have +1 armor/+1 pierce armor).
Condos are an indispensable team bonus for the Italians. The Italian Genoese/Hussar/BBC combo is one of the most feared in the game, showing them to have a solid archer build.
This trend of immediately wanting to follow up positive changes with even more extreme changes seems strange to me, without at least letting the new modifications play out for a bit. “Flem Rev was nerfed to be less cheesy? Obviously the next step is to remove it from the game! Brit TB was halved and will now be less oppressive in TGs? Time to also move it to another civ!”
The one sensible takeaway from this is that the lower value on the Brit TB opens up more room for a larger value as a civ-specific bonus, or UT effect on another civ. (Possibly varied by having one affect training speed (or unit-specific training speed), vs. building work rate.) But it doesn’t follow that the TB needs to be removed from the Britons.
I don’t see the issue with this, given that it’s a TB that civs with those other techs can benefit from. There are already a lot of TBs where the host civ is not always the one that benefits the most from them. In any case, a hypothetical new cav archer civ could have something like “Archery Range techs/upgrades research ~30-40% faster”).
If I were to make another change to the Britons at this point, it would be to further differentiate the Xbow line from Longbowmen, by reducing the free range, or making Yeomen only affect Longbows/towers.
Possibly, or a larger value tied to their Imp UT, since Silk Road is a prime candidate for a rework.
Yes yes yes. This. For every nerf of this kind they make. Like the Hindustanis vil price nerf. They dilute the identity of the civs and make them more generic while making those specific bonus able to exist in another civ at their full potential.
