spirit of the law tested this and concluded that replacing some galleons with dromos is a winnign move while repacing some galleons with eltie cannon galleons is a losing move in sea batlles
2 Likes
That’s another win for Dromons. Why? Because they are far better against units than Cannon Galleons are.
Most important is imo the fight against Trebuchet and Bombard Cannons.
If I understand this correctly a Cannon Galleon does 50+25 damage against Trebuchet. The 1 meele armor of Trebuchets reduces this by 1, so its 74 damage, and 3 shots are needed to kill the 150 health Trebuchet.
The Dromon does 50+35 damage against Trebuchet, so only 2 shots will be needed. The rate of fire is also only 8 seconds instead of the CGs 10. So a Dromon can kill a Trebuchet in 8 seconds, while a Cannon Galleon needs 20 seconds. That is a meaningful advantage.
A Bombard Cannon kills both a Cannon Galleon and a Dromon in 2 shots, but while a Cannon Galleon does only do 50-2+25 = 73 damage against the 80 health Bombard Cannon, and needs 2 shots to kill it, The Dromon does 50-2+35 = 83 damage against the Bombard Cannon and needs only 1 shot to kill it. This actually means that Bombard Cannons are not really a Counter against Dromons unlike against Cannon Galleons.
Dromons also don’t need Chemistry, so if an Enemy has an Castle and Trebuchets on your Island and you reach Imperial age it is a much improved strategy to fight the Trebuchets with Dromons instead of Cannon Galleons like before.
I recently had a game on Pacific Islands as Goth against Spanish, and at some point the opponent had both middle Islands, while I had the outer Islands and many additional Wood islands, I had water control but I could not fight the Spanish Bombard Canoons with my Cannon Galleons. The Dromons will be probably much better in this situation. However I don’t think Goth will become a Top Tier water civ because of it.
2 Likes
He replaced them 1 to 1 not replacing them at the same cost.
A Unit costing more then 2x should perform better, right?
yes, but its not the case for elite cannon galleons
You have some nice questions here. You can actually see from the video that they do quite a bit of splash damage against standard galleon formations. The best way for any units that attack with projectiles is to form a semi-circle or an arc. Additionally, galleons are an extremely clunky unit. This would make dodging extremely difficult.
No, you would do that in the early imperial age to attack your opponent’s buildings. Just like cannon galleons. By late imperial, you’d be pop capped. At that point, you decide if you want to replace galleons with dromons or not.
That is a very nice summary of the issue. Yeah, I am not that worried about goths or huns. It’s Byzantines with their extra powerful fire ships, and Romans with their insane galleons that scare me.
Absolutely not. Rams cost way more than 2 times that of pikes. Do they perform better than pikes against scouts? Cannon galleons cost way more than 2 times that of demo ships. Do they perform better against fire ships? This is simply not how AoE2 works.
While it’s an odd fit I think you could argue for Dromons for Ethiopians who as axumites had a sufficiently good navy and were in interaction with both halves of Rome as well.
Plus Torsion Engines… fun.
Oooooooooh. Torsion engine dromons. I like it
I like the idea of Torsion Engine Dromon 2.
But we need to make Dromon balanced first.
1 Like
Man, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I love Ethiopians. They are one of my favourite civs. Torsion Engine Dromons would be beautiful. On the other hand, it might be completely busted. Maybe at a later point, if Ethiopians lose some other naval upgrades. But even then, it might be too much for team games. If you have an idea to balance it, I’d love to hear it.
I mean until that very moment the Eth navy and water map placement is probably pretty mid. Vikings and Itsly and Port and other water civs boat circles around you