This is more of a “what if” contemplation on Ethiopia’s design. At this point, it’s a bit too late for changing a core feature like Mountain Monasteries, and there’s really nothing majorly wrong with them. However, judging by their extremely low pick rate, there are obviously issues with the whole design of Ethiopia, and Mountain Monasteries in their current form do contribute to that. But fixing that is more of a matter of moderate balance tweaks, rather than a wholesale rework. Never the less, a more substantial change like replacing Mountain Monasteries with Forest Churches could be a possible avenue to improve Ethiopia’s gameplay.
Mountain Monasteries
Mountain Monasteries certainly are present in Ethiopia, and their depiction is visually accurate. There are tons of examples ranging from the Abuna Aregawi House which is clearly the inspiration for the in game model, to the famous rock hewn churches of Lalibela.
While they aren’t out of place, monasteries in the mountains is not unique to Ethiopia. Mountainous locations are the norm for monasteries since the whole point of them is to be in a secluded place. There’s also a bit of a conceptual stretch in equating mines with mountains and the subsequent gathering of coin from the building. Yes, there is the example of the Lalibela rock churches, which were literally quarried out of rock, but that was made centuries before the era of AoE3. Even then, quarrying rock is not quite the same as pulling coin out of an already constructed monastery.
From a gameplay perspective, the impermanent supply of resources is a significant hindrance to Ethiopia. Unlike Hausa who’s Universities churn out an endless supply of influence, Ethiopia’s supply effectively dries up when mines run out. You can keep it going with the Tabot card, but constantly deleting and rebuilding them is tedious and feels more like an exploit than an intended feature. It also makes zero sense for how influential a monastery is to depend on how much ore is left in a mine.
Church Forests
Church Forests are an iconic sight across the Ethiopian highlands. They preserve a small remnant of once widespread forest in a deforested land.
Compared to Mountain Monasteries, Church Forests are a lot more uniquely Ethiopian. Their focus on preservation and sustainability also supports them functioning as an infinite source of influence and wood. Gathering influence and wood by sustainably tending a grove of trees around a church makes a lot more sense than mining gold at a monastery, especially when the influence of the monastery ceases when the coin runs out.
Their role could be similar to that of Mountain Monasteries, but providing wood instead of coin, and having an infinite supply. It could be gathered from at the same rate as mines with 75/25, 50/50, and 25/75 split of influence/wood. It could have gather rate upgrades independent of wood gathering so that Ethiopia would eventually want to go out and chop some trees once upgrades stack up. Upgrades for Church Forest gathering could be limited to only Abuns except for cards/techs that boost all gathering. It could also support much fewer gatherers to balance the infinite supply.
The theme of conservation could be extended by giving them an aura that boosts the yield of nearby trees, berry bushes, and mines (boosting mine yield could be locked behind the Lalibela Rock Church card). This would mean you’d still want to expand and put them down near strategic resources to get the most out of them.
Overall, Church Forests could serve a very similar role to Mountain Monasteries, but with a focus on a very secure wood income instead of fast but limited coin gathering.
Interaction With Cards and Technologies
Some Ethiopian cards could synergize very well with Church Forests, especially with some minor tweaks. Most of these tweaks would also work well with the current Mountain Monasteries.
Bushburning
This card is basically just a worse version of Sawmills because it gives the same gather boost in a much more restricted area and without the yield boost.
Current: +15% wood gathering and +5% hunt/berry gathering within Granary aura
New: +20% wood gathering and +5% hunt/berry gathering but -10% wood yield within Granary aura (yield effects would cancel out under Church Forest aura)
Coffee Berries
The opportunity cost of this card is way too low since you’re giving up half your available food at the expense of only slightly faster gathering coin. There may be a concern of faster coin gathering combined with the already fast gathering MM, but this would be less of an issue with Church Forests.
Current: Berry bushes yield coin at 90% the food gathering rate
New: Berry bushes yield coin at 100% the food gathering rate and +5% berry bush yield (would stack with Church Forest yield boost)
Lalibela Rock Church
Current: Ships an Abun and MM builder and improves MM mine yield by 25%
New: Same effects applied to Church Forest with yield boost applying to any mines within their aura
Tabot
Current: Adds 900 coin to all MM
New: Make it a prerequisite tech to Ark of the Covenant with a similar effect (boosts autogather rate) instead of being a card
