So Khmer are now quite well balanced, but Burmese are in a very awkward spot. At the same time, the elephant archer is becoming a regional unit, and some (Indian civilisations) are being scrapped off cavalry archers, knights and rams entirely.
What do you think should done for south east Asian civilisations (RoR)? Wouldn’t it make sense for them to get Siege elephants too? For instance the Khmer were not exactly known for their heavy cavalry. And from a balance point of view, it might make sense for the Burmese to get some anti-archer unit, whether that is the “elephant ram” or a regional elephant archer (who might even benefit from Howdah?).
I personally think the developpers should seize the opportunity to change the Burmese, starting by making the Arambai more powerful (+14/+17?), and giving them battle elephant would give them an opportunity to survive enemy archers without great mobility. I suppose it is difficult to know what to expect from siege elephants. As for Khmer, it would be a lot more controversial as changing a quite balanced civ is dangerous. I personally would not mind them losing Hussars and getting some sort of elephant compensation.
Another interrogation could be the Persians: although I can’t imagine them receiving battle elephants, and Persians using elephants in the Middle Ages is anachronistic, they might still be tweaked because of their elephant identity.
6 Likes
i would love to see burmese get the Elephant archer at least, and possibly siege elephant. not sure if making arambai generically more powerful will help without simply making them hated all over again in arena/TGs. could possibly give it bonus damage vs archers or something
aside from cavalry and monks, drav seem almost like a buffed cousin of burmese, also not too sure how burmese are supposed to fight drav head on in the late game.
3 Likes
Maybe ele archer for Burmese could achieve something useful (but it might not since you need a castle and howdah before they can do what the civ needs) but I don’t think the other civs need to be changed in any other way. First only the Bengali have viable battle eles among the new ones, while all RoR civs have them already, and Persian eles still are the best in stats, so if RoR wasn’t enough to change Persians then now is not the time.
I think giving Burmese at least the Elephant Archers would be a good idea since their main problem is there lack of Anti-Archer options, and the one thing the current elephant Archer is good at is beating other Archers. This of cource assuming that the Elephant Archer remains more or less the same.
2 Likes
Remind me of all those people who wanted to give Turks Steppe Lancers.
You have to heavily justify it, being just weak to Archers or any Historical accuracy isn’t enough for a change like this.
I am against elephant archer. I want to keep the design of Burmese having very poor archer ranges. Elephant archers would nullify that.
Replacing Rams with Siege elephants for the south eastern asian civs (Burmese, Malays, Khmer) may be nice though.
Arambais are a tricky unit to balance as they are glass cannon area damage units, and they should not work to similarily to cavalry archers.
3 Likes
the alternative is buffing their cav, which makes them a generic cav civ, which is reigning majority at the moment
OR buff their siege. which people are against due to their strength on certain maps going infantry + siege
so while you might want to keep an identity which doesnt exist (they have HCA with PT and bracer) it doesnt help balance the game, especially since your preconceived notion of their archery range is incorrect
they could easily swap out the HCA for EA
I don’t think Burmese getting Elephant Archers would nullify their Archery Range. They would still be one of the weaker Elephant Archers, especially if Howdah wouldn’t apply to them. (Getting Howdah would be a whole different case though).
Can’t even remember the Vietnamese’s name, that’s how sad of a state the’re in. 
btw Vietnamese are better than lots of other civs.
Yeah, but the civ itself is a tragedy. Paper money will still burn a hole in your eyes everytime you look at their tech tree.
I want a brief aside to say that my browser’s autocorrect wanted me to use “them” instead of “their.”
Paper money will still burn a hole in your eyes everytime you look at them tech tree.
Apparently my browser was born and raised in South Carolina. Aside finished.
Update: 1 day later, paper money no longer will burn holes in eyes.
Update: 1 day later than one day later, paper money will make most people sad.
4 Likes
So from what we know, they will not be changed in these manners, but by faster created Arambai and more Battle Elephant armour. I’m not necessarily against that, but still think Arambais have lost most of their reason to be. In the Imperial Age, they are either too expansive or too bad. I agree they shouldn’t be like light cavalry. A little tweak would be to let them benefit from Manipur cavalry?
As for Khmers, I understand they want to improve Ballista Elephants, but I feel the buff should have applied more to the Elite version, as reasons to pay for this upgrade are scarce it seems.