There’s a lot of talk about nerfs on here but not much about buffs and currently bugs aside the civs are fairly well balanced at the top end with nothing glaringly op.
There are several civs I think need buffs urgently:
Malta was never a strong civ and has been nerfed continuously due to whining, the civ maintains abysmal win rates across each patch at all elo levels. Revert the wignacourt nerf, give fixed gun 1% hp per shipment and remove the 2% xp penalty as not all units receive 2% hp anymore. Also tongue units need a buff late game, zero reason to ever use them as they get no extra hp and only serve as a 1 time shipment.
Ethiopia, same story as with malta. The civ is massively underplayed and that will never change if it gets nerfed in every single patch. It’s less played than even haud. I see very little reason to play them as they do nothing good, certainly there’s no reason to choose ethiopia over hausa.
Italy, the nerfs to architects to have 1 extra per age were good, same with forcing the use of a card in order to build outposts with them. What sucks is all the other nerfs, xp has been dramatically reduced, the pavisier guard upgrade should be available as standard not locked behind a politician. The whole lombard thing was just a bad idea, they never make up for lack of a factory late game and early-mid game serve only to be used with the cards that deposit resources.
The civ feels slow and weak with poor military units, the FI was rightfully nerfed but now the civ just feels bad(unless you abuse free fort).
Portugal, just give them 5% hunting bonus back.
Brits, just revert all the silly changes and give them 3v and 5v cards, just keep manors at 140 wood.
Japan, maybe boost shrines a little or give them more starting res or something.
Ethiopia mains, all 4 of them, once they stop crying they cant bot somali berber native FIs and counter every other civ trivially, will realize they have 30c/w xbows a fast ff (an old build “forgotten” by the community is 630ff into 730 push. But it requires, may the community forgive me for suggesting such things, micro since fat cannon isnt as easy to use as 2 falcs. You also have a better than 6 vill eq in age2 via abuns and very solid scaling. I feel like the underplay of this civ is as you pointed out in another thread, the complexity makes it more a fotm civ for most and too much effort for power gaming types. But with access to strong spikes. Scaling eco and army, and flexible roster and age ups id say ethopia is more unexplored than needs a buff. Remember 6months ago hausa mains cries their civ was “shit” yet now its considered top tier despite net nerfs last 2 patches. The AR civ community is so small i doubt weve explored much of ethopia to declare it “need buff.”
I agree 100% on malta i think fatty cannon nerfs and xbow right click nerfs was good for health of game but left malta will little. Consistent nerfs to xp, xbow, and shipments makes the civ feel very sluggish albeit once malta gets settled its like japan slow steamroller if it can. But given the tempo meta atm long age2 isnt viable often and no 2 falc eq or tempo shipments outside cancer walling woth forts makes it feel bad to play and play vs. Really could use a big redo atm imho.
Italy is a blast but also requires alot of game knowledge which i suspect keeps win rates and popularity low. Ive had some good sucess using the og garja semi ff plays and using basic matchup and map knowledge to flex comps around. I cant bot FI but like i use my brain and LOW micro/macro and the lombard cards plus full roster and great cards like milanese arsenal (almost a 5+ vill shipment when you think of it) seems to keep me at around 50% w/l. but for me thr worst is how bad paivse are. Italy dies in any long age2 or 3 cause these units suck. It forced musk huss cannon which isnt the worst but good luck pushing prior to age4 vs skirm goon civs (aka most). Shciavonne and jaegers help but trying to get xp farm going plus mercs is just a bit too slow i find. But italy feels less ded than malta and prob just fix paivse and roman tactics and italy Gucci again
Yeeah, Italy needs buffs, especially in treaty. Their musk is extremely weak compared with the other European civs, the papal bombard is a terrible unit too. I think if Garibaldini also gives 15% of hp to the rifle unit will be enough (at least in the imperial age) With a pop reduction of papal bombard with an increase of the speed should be fine. Also Italian economy is bad in treaty, they drain really hard on the coin, but maybe an infinite Lombard shiment of resources seems to be enough fo fix this.
Every other civ with an increased capacity for Settler production is missing Settler cards. If Portugal, Russia, Italy, and India can do without, something different can be done for Britain too.
For age 2 they should let them have the 5 Settler Card but not the 4 Settler Card. And for age 1 they could replace the 3 Settler card with something new:
Puritans
Ships 2 Pilgrims and causes Manors to spawn Pilgrims instead of Settlers
Pilgrims have 10% better stats than Settlers so your initial shipment would be nerfed to be equivalent to only 2.2 Settlers. But you’d also get the long term benefit of hardier and better gatherers from building Manors and a slightly higher ceiling to your economy.
You get a card that makes manors cost 90 wood so not having the 3 vil card in age 1 is fair. Not sure which is better the vil cards or cheep manor houses. I feel that the cheep manors will be better in the long run if the game goes past the fortress or even late fortress age.
Yeah I don’t really play them much so I’m not super familiar with the ins and outs of this civ. They have been nerfed because they were to good but maybe too much idk. Their javelin riders were way to good later in the game 1 pop and over 600 HP.
Puritans