Eles do fall off by age 4, but the fact is Delhi has some really good maa and handcannons available given how strong forced march and the palisade building can be. ToV gives you prolly the highest reliable dps on handcannons since the changes to streltsy and network of castles. With springald support, you have a pretty scary comp for imperial since handcannons and bombards dont have imp upgrades and only really need 2 age 4 techs to get going. Cant really say Delhi are the weakest in age 4 when they have arguably the most effective maa/handcannon combo currently avaible.
If you want eles to be the main feature - which is fair - then something from the delhi infantry is prolly gonna need to be toned down and, honestly, that would likely be a net loss given how hard handcannons dominate when you get a critical mass of them.
Thats not to say you dont have a point about tempo - but I’d argue thats down to having some of the most out of place or downright bad landmarks in the game. As an alternative list of recommended changes, consider;
- Hisar Academy moved to age 2 (replaces ToV). Generates a base food amount of 100 food/min scaling up to 600 food/min depending on number ot techs researched.
Delhi, as is, has no real incentive to use common tc boom stats. Abba has cheaper vils, French can scale faster, English can compound it with cheaper farms, etc. This should help pump out vils from multi TCs or it could be invested into more military in age 2 for rushes. The idea is to add more strategic variety to the civ than present.
- Palace of the Sultan moves to age 3 (Replaces House of Learning). Acts like a keep. Holds unique elephant techs. Sultans Elite Elephant reworked from a handcannon Tower elephant to a stronger War Elephant with more movement speed and splash damage.
We need a keep type landmark for the civ - Ghazis are solid, but for some extreme pushes with added spears, a strategic hold is kinda needed for the civ. Tower eles are in a good spot but war eles still seem prone to getting sniped - and both come out so slowly that they can be swarmed by masses of infantry before they achive enything. This is a big spike, but the idea with this is to get the elephants out and end, or bust.
- Compound of the Defender. Doesnt change cost of stone buildings/emplacements. Acts as a siege workshop. Boosts HP of stone buildings and landmarks by 50% - build time readjusted accordingly. Increases build time of palisades for infantry and allows outposts to be built.
To complement the more offensive alternative landmark, this one is for a more defense oriented gameplan for age 3, where you can focus on defense and seige. More strategic variety between the two, and all.
- Tower of Victory. Infantry get +15% attack and move speed. Cavalry get +5 LOS.
Scaled up bit to look like an age 4 landmark. This is the power option - boost what army you have, take make the final push and finish before your eco gasses out.
*House of Learning. Acts like a university. Still allows access to unique techs. Researches technologies for free without any negative time modifiers. Garrison up to 8 scholars to generate tax gold up to 500 gold/min.
This one covers the last part of the civs eco weakness - you get more techs and a much needed gold trickle. Between this and the suggested Hisar academy you get more net passive res than most cvis, but Delhi also has completely basic eco for farms and passive SS gold is all but gone now. This is the sustained fight option.
Potential Elite elephant stats:
- Spawns at a rate of 1 per 100 sec or 50 sec with 3 scholars
- 900 hp, 55 tusk attack (no spear attack), 2.5 attack rate, +30 vs buidings
- Aoe on tusk attack, same as landsnakes
- Speed of 1.25 tiles/sec
Palace of the Sultan unique techs:
- Mahouts - elephants move 15% faster
- Demolition Beasts - elephants gain +50 siege damage vs buildings
Other changes;
- Melee elephants no longer classes as heavy cavalry. They’ll always lose to masses of melee inf, and gunpowder. A weakness to crossbows really just screws the melee ones over to the point of impracticality.
- Efficient production enables scholars to sit in markets to boost trader production speed.
