Hello everyone! So a few days ago I watched this video from SotL where he made a commentary about having a lot of chavalry and infantry civs, so I started thinking about a new possible Archer civ for the game.
For a new civ to make sense, I think it has to be competitive, fun, and bring something new to the table. With this in mind I came up with the following idea as the base structure for the civ, but I’d like to see how far we can get with the design as a community.
Civilization Name: Undefined (we need a civilization that is represented by the following mechanics!)
Civ Bonuses:
- Bonus 1: Starting in castle age, infantry (and maybe foot archers too) deal 2/1 damage back whenever they are damaged by an enemy melee/ranged unit. (Missed shots wouldnt proc, siege is unaffected)
- Bonus 2: Maybe Once a research is completed, gain 25% of its cost back in wood.
- Bonus 3: Maybe Repair cost reduced by X% (maybe 60%, making it only 40% of normal cost).
- Bonus 4: To be determied
Unique unit:
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No name yet! - Foot archer with stats similar to an Arbalest (maybe 1 less range and/or 1 less damage, but could have like +10 hp).
What makes it different? Split shot → Every time they attack, they shoot 1/2 (2/3 if elite) extra arrows at different enemies for a % of its damage.
Castle Techs:
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Castle Age: Executing arrows → For a (slightly pricy) cost, foot archers (arbalests and UU) execute targets whenever one of their shots would leave them below X hp (this could be a fixed amount like 8hp, or a % of their hp, like 5%) (Split shots would apply this)
-
Imperial Age: Open for ideas!
Team bonus:
- Maybe Walls/Gates grant +1/+3 LoS
Tech tree:
- Barracks: Full
- Archery range: Full archer and skirmisher line, cav archers do NOT have Heavy upgrade.
- Stable: No Hussar upgrade, No Cavalier upgrade. Room for steppe lancers and/or camels depending on the civ’s region.
- Siege workshop: No bbc, no siege onager.
- Monastery: Mostly full (block printing, redemption, fervor, sanctity needed but MAYBE no atonement)
- Blacksmith: Full archer upgrades, Full infantry upgrades (considering removing last attack), 2/3 cav defense upgrades (could be improved to 3/3 depending on stable units)
Intended Playability:
The civ is intended to be played as an archer civ with the executing arrows as its special feature. Having infantry support that slowly damages its attackers would mean archers are more likely to execute enemies, but at the same time allows for counterplay by the enemy by adding 1 or 2 monks to heal the return damage.
Lacking both bbc and -decent- cavalry as an archer civ usually means you will struggle against enemy siege, so that’s why I expected the monastery to be full and allow for counterplay in that regard.
The wood eco bonus rewards the player for getting upgrades (let it be economic, university, monastery or other military upgrades). In the early game something like Loom would only give 12.5 wood, but as the game progresses and upgrades get more expensive, the return on the high prices would minimize the sacrifice of getting these upgrades (for example getting ballistics for a total of 475 resources would mean a return of 120 wood)
Repairs discount intends to give them some benefit in the Treb v Treb wars while not making it too broken.
How can you help?
- The civ needs an identity that makes sense with its bonuses and UU
- The civ could use another (not op) bonus!
- I think the civ would really benefit from some diversity to its gameplay. I think that’s what the Imperial tech should allow. Maybe if we have a civ with steppe lancers, the tech could be “give steppe lancers +4 pierce armor” (remember they would still lack the blacksmith’s third armor upgrade).
- Any ideas on how to improve current propositions is welcome! Keep in mind most numberic values in this post can be improved, I just gave a general concept of the civ.
I’ll be reading the comments. If you read until this point thank you very much and have a nice day! 
