Cumans Balance Suggestion

Recently, Cumans got a bonus that makes their stables and archery ranges cheaper (cost reduced by 100 wood). This was intended to be used after players build the 2nd TC so that they would still have enough wood to make military. While I agree with the direction of this change, I think this is a bit too strong since players now just ignore the 2nd TC and make 4 archery ranges/ stables instead. Also, it completely eclipses their feudal ram bonus. No one is building feudal rams when they cost so much wood while stables and archery ranges are half price. It also makes the castle age UT Steppe Husbandry (Scouts, steppe lancers, cav archers are trained 100% faster) obsolete. Why would you research this tech if you could just make twice as many stables and archery ranges at half price instead?

To address this, I propose the following changes:
Cumans lose cheaper stables and archery ranges bonus
Cumans now do not require blacksmith to make siege workshop
Cumans now get 200 wood on age up

My idea for a wood bonus is similar to the Ethiopian bonus, except this is for wood. I feel this change makes Cumans more flexible. The extra wood in feudal age can still be used for more stables/archery ranges, but not as many as before. It can also be used for the 2nd TC and a military building. It can also be used to get the siege workshop. Removing the blacksmith requirement will also help reduce the wood needed to get a ram out faster.
With this change, steppe husbandry will not be obsolete as the bonus wood is limited. It also nerfs going for 4 archery ranges which currently cost 300 wood. If you can collect 325 wood on your own, then with the bonus wood from my proposed change, you can get 3 archery ranges.
Cumans will also get extra wood in castle and imperial ages with this change. This will help them defend against rushes in a similar way to the existing bonus.

Let me know what you think of my suggestion.

No
Cumans don’t need anything now, and making feudal rams and castle age capped rams more viable means ruin arena games, also wtf 200 wood for age ups is OP.

Its not OP at all. If its OP, its OP because of Cumans, not because of the bonus itself

True, I feel this is a bit OP, but their current bonus is also OP. I initially thought it should be more like 100-150 but then I compared it to the current Cuman bonus. In my post, I showed that the current bonus is even better.

"making feudal rams and castle age capped rams more viable means ruin arena games"
In that case, feudal rams and castle capped rams should be completely removed, not nerfed to the point of unviability. It was always a strange bonus that could break some games. Why did the devs give them this?

I get the intention behind your post but free 200 wood is just asking for the Cuman eco to get out of hand whenever they can boom safely. I think the cheaper military buildings do help the feudal siege workshop by letting you afford support for your rams more easily, but ig battering rams won’t cut it anyway (one garrisoned TC can easily kill two rams) hence why it’s not used this much. I also don’t think capped rams in castle age is OP for arena rn, Cumans aren’t used much by the clowns.

"free 200 wood is just asking for the Cuman eco to get out of hand whenever they can boom safely."
True, but I would think that this is only if the opponent allows it to happen. Opponent may force Cumans to defend and then eco will not get out of hand. I think giving options is better than forcing Cumans to build military buildings. If 200 wood is OP, what do you think it should be? 200 wood is how much Cumans currently save if they build 2 stables/archery ranges. They save even more in Feudal if they build more of these buildings. Cumans also need 275 wood and 100 stone in feudal just to get access to their eco bonus.

In closed maps and in some TG situations the Cumans will be much safer than usual, and it’s in these situations that the +200 wood will be problematic for sure. Also the Cumans might save 200 wood if they build two stables/AR but they still spend 150 in total, downside that isn’t there anymore if they just receive 200 wood.

The most obvious problem of the current Cumans is the Cuman Mercenaries in my opinion.
Almost nobody use it in the match, especially the high level match.

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I feel like the Cumans have enough bonuses already to justify scrapping their Feudal Age TC in favor of going harder on military bonuses. Like extending the wood discount to all land military buildings based on a percentage of the building’s cost, which is also like a roundabout Vietnamese eco bonus with the potential wood savings. Also shifting Castle Age Capped Ram to free Capped Ram in the Imperial Age.

with that change, i will continue to see the map before i pick my civ, continue to have complete control over where i spawn on the map, ignore the feudal age siege workshop and use the extra wood to make town center + farms and continue to spam knights and keep up with all the other knight spammers

Sounds like the changes would work as intended then 11.