Delhi Sultanate Theme

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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ELEPHANTOS, scholars, free research, early sacred sites, ghazi raiders, Keep-TC, infantry that build!!

These are the core aspects of this faction that thematically encapsulates, “DEHLI”…

But we have a few problems with almost all of these:

ELEPHANTOS
This was SUPPOSED to be the core unit of the civ? And in the description of the civilization it even says so…however the unit is locked behind mid game (castle age), is quite expensive and niche in their functionality/versatility. I think on this point alone I think i can speak for the community that we’re more disappointed than satisfied.

SCHOLARS
This is another unit core to the civilization that has suffered greatly in balance and is now extremely specialized and mostly underwhelming. The healing nerfs were necessary…however the current healing is virtually useless and the benefits that scholars contribute to research speeds are negligible early. Therefore the unit is woefully niche…even the patch notes agree with this referencing to this unit as "specialized "… Scholars IMO are a disappointment.

FREE RESEARCH
In concept, this idea is neat and it alleviates having to macro for upgrade costs!! Early in the game (all dark age and all feudal age techs) this aspect works wonders as long s you don’t forget to click it!! Whether you have 1 or more scholars all dark/feudal are reasonably researched…however beyond feudal and especially into Imperial the free research apsect doesn’t compensate for the slow tempo setting and late critical upgrade timings necessary to remain impactful in game. Rather to maintain timings with normal civs you’re now required to have spent 100s of gold more on your upgrades therefore forfeiting the earlier savings made… disappointing.

EARLY SACRED SITES
Another cool concept in itself!! But sadly… it’s delhi ONLY VIABLE option on land and therefore makes the gameplay extremely stagnant. Though they have repeatedly nerfed this concept over and over in order to diverge delhi playstyle…they HAVE NOT given Delhi ANY viable alternatives (can’t 2nd TC… can’t trade…only capture sites). Still worse is the fact delhi has NOTHING worth spending the gold on in feudal…(we already talked about scholars). So you sit on the gold until you age or worse your market the gold for a more instant use but diminishing return…feels extremely disappointing.

GHAZI RAIDERS
Amazing unit period… (there is a bug… it doesn’t have bonus siege damage like all other calvary :cry:).

KEEP TC
STILL TOO STRONG…i can’t think how to balance this.

INFANTRY BUILDERS
Everyone that loves delhi loves building walls… and probably also use to abuse the compound of defender 25% discount on use to be cheap and fast stone towers… don’t lie. Overall good concept i think it’s balanced now.

IN CONCLUSION
The majority of Delhi identity has suffered major damage and at high levels its currently suffering in pick rates and win rates and frankly less fun to play. What’s your thoughts?

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A few improvements on said themes

FREE RESEARCH should be improved by either improving the speed each scholar provides from avg 12.5% per scholar to avg 20-25%. Or allow DOF to make scholars much faster or start with a few aleady housed once the DOF is created.

Second idea for Free research is a QOL idea. Make it so the first building built of each type will automatically que every available technology per age. Micro will stil be necessary to cancel and reorder tech ques, but it will amount to soooooo much time saved at high levels and be a big improvements for more forgetful players. Default priorities can get tricky? But i think devs know the general optimal que order when order matters (like iron undermesh being more important than siege engineering generally speaking…)

Controversial…
Elephants need to be trained in 40s or less before scholars housed and bsm training speed. This won’t fix everything but faster training will help.

Warrior Elephants die too easily and quickly to crossbows maybe increase base range armor from 5 to 7. Thats 54 crossbow shots up to 61 shots to kill an elephant. Again the issue is how quickly and efficiently a mass kills warrior Elephants with impunity. IMO force range units to be a soft counter and subject to inefficient dismantling of Elephants. Spears SHOULD be the main and legit counter to these slow units.

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MAJOR EDIT
I did admit either here or in similar thread that healing is still OP at high levels of micro out of combat! After watching the pioneer 3D!Bee and the tactician Beastyqt show case the scholar micro heals…

I can admit I was WRONG on how powerful scholars CAN be in the right hands. Now, should scholar OP-ness be left to the elite micro gods??

Regardless, open map ghazi raiders with satellite healing is what English’s Abby of Kings WISH it could be and is a pseudo earlier implementation of french early knights with chivalry. Then the high scholar count doubles as speedy research. The combo is deadly at the high level of micro/macro vs most MU on open land maps.