I’m sure we are all aware that often historical accuracy is sacrificed for balancing reasons. Maybe historically it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Cumans to have decent navy, but this is true for a couple other civs (e.g. Mongols).
However, I find from game balance perspective, Cumans have unfairly weak navy. Many holes in the tech tree aside (e.g. missing cannon galleons and bracer), seems like none of their bonuses help them on water. As far as I know this is unlike other civs with major holes in their navy tech tree who have eco bonus (especially wood bonus) or military bonus (I’m talking about Aztecs, Malians, Huns).
- Additional town center in Feudal age: excellent booming bonus. You think it would be great for relatively closed maps especially. However, it’s a lot of wood investment for a long term gain, at a time where water control is critical. So I think this directly competes with water control at least for a good amount of time.
- Can build rams in Feudal age & capped rams in Castle age: need I explain why this doesn’t help them on water? Also considering the wood cost for rams and siege workshops, this competes with getting on the water for the same reason.
I know probably not a lot of people play pure water maps, nor are water maps incredibly balanced, nor would a naval buff makes a lot of historical sense for the Cumans, but I just think Cumans’ disadvantage on water seems obviously unfair. I don’t know what’s a nice way to help them in that regard without anything weird, but I did come up with something despite how ridiculous it sounds:
Rams can travel on water (perhaps slightly faster even).
Thoughts?
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or dont play them on water maps lol
some civs arent good on navy, thats fine
use your extra vils from your feudal boom to collect more wood and gold and make more ships
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if you think cumans are weak on water wait till you see malians.
no galleon, no shipwright, no bracer.
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Yeah I already said in the original post about civs with bad tech tree (e.g. Aztecs, Malians, Huns) have some early bonus that help them on water somewhat, whereas Cumans early bonus all seem to work against them
In other words, these civs can be played such that one try to take control of water early, whereas this I find hard for Cumans as their eco bonus start to be felt noticeably starting Castle age.
Malian can work by virtue of their wood bonus. But you better win before imp.
No one is forcing you to use them
In the end, there are so many civs that are just as bad as Cuman that it doesn’t matter. You could be Magyar and eventually get bracer+shipwrigt+dry dock, but it doesn’t matter if you’re against a civ that has even a semblance of viability on water. Water bonuses are just that strong.
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Fair about the not using their bonus part. Cumans just stand out to me as a minimum considering both having bad tech tree on water and don’t seem to have bonus that could realistically help on water.
I agree and I wouldn’t be comfortable landing on a water map as Magyars, though their tech tree is quite acceptable. Cumans just seemed to be most minimized on both grounds in tech tree (no bracer, shipwright, basic cannon galleons) and bonuses that could help on water…
Well, all I have to add is that unfortunately someone’s got to be in the bottom and when it comes to water Cuman got the wrong card.