I started playing about a month ago and love the game. The one problem that is leading me to call it quits is the insanely high percentage of my games being against English players. I played probably 9/10 games against the English recently and it just feels like being cheated out of playing the whole game.
I’m not saying I hate them because they’re OP. I win a good amount of the games, its just not fun to play the same civ over and over again. ESPECIALLY one that can hole up and drag the game out.
Any way we can get 1 civ ban per player in ranked?
I don’t know in which ranking league you play. But English is typical for beginners, because it’s easy to master. That’s why most opponents there will be En/Fr.
When you move up, this will become more relative.
English has/had stupid pick rates even at the top especially last season. On a side note I have heard some pro players say that English are very hard to master although they are noob friendly.
Regarding French, they require multitasking and high APM so even at an average ELO they start becoming weak/hard to play efficiently because it is easier for the defender to react than for you as French to multitask harass everywhere while still managing your economy and doing stuff on the map.
If you play vs 75% english opponents as a non-english, for every 75 games vs english you have, the English opponent as 25%*(1/9) = 2.77 games vs your civ. With this 2700% matchup experience advantage, you should be able to rapidly beat the low league english players until you get matched against players that, on average, have a fairly even matchup experience distribution as you.
Being stuck vs one civ is only as bad as you make it though. The beauty is in the details. 99.9999% of everything you can do in this game consists of incorrect moves. We already exist in a very constriced space, and it constricts more the better we become. The goal must always be to appreciate the beauty in the details of the landscape we traverse. The civ constrictions are infinitessimal compared to the general constrictions we’re facing by the rules of the game.
In a sense, we’re not truly playing vs the opponent until we’re top 95% anyways. Our losses are due to basic mistakes highlighted by our opponent. The highlighter happening to be english isn’t particularily relevant.
My point is that new players getting into this game and playing around gold will face the English 75% of the time. That is not good for the game. I understand there are ways to derail the same English early aggression fast castle build I’ve faced half the time. The point is the balancing makes the English easy to play, but really not fun to play against. I’m not saying I can’t win. I’m saying I’m not having any fun winning at this point.
If I keep playing there is no doubt I could get out of the English only lobbies one day, but I don’t want to play the English 100 more times to get there. TBH it doesn’t sound like it ever really ends.
I just can’t get a match with anyone other than the English and it’s sucked all the fun out of it for me.
I could be in the minority, but I can’t imagine this game will keep many new players with the current English pick rate. Try to look at it from the perspective of someone trying to get into this game instead of someone who has been playing for a while.
You are right they are not fun to play against. An experienced AOE4 player that knows the game will abuse the most broken civ in the game. Extremally overpowered with the last update. It really is astonishing the developers didn’t think it through with the changes. English was already powerful but they wanted to give them even more options.
They already have fast production of longbows (best archer unit in the game) as well as fast production of man of arms at 15 seconds while everyone else is at 22 seconds. But also give them fast production of crossbows through the council hall so once they go to castle age they quickly can counter anything thrown at them. Then add the ridiculous range of the Berkshire palace that they improved upon because it wasn’t “strong” enough already. Don’t forget the elite Wingard units at well if they go that route instead.
In theory every civ should have a counter. Just pick a civ that counters English and enjoy your free conquerer rank. If you beat english 70% of the time and play them 70% of the time you’ll be in the top league in no time.
I’m sorry for the elitist state of mind I was in when writing. My reply was condemnable.
It’s unfortunate that you can’t ban civs in any other mean than indirectly by vetoing maps. I’m afraid that it might be an evil nessecity, since banning civs could arguably be worse to newer players focusing on learning the game by keeping their civ pick as a constant.
It would be nice if there was more diversity at the lower levels. The current disparity is probably more due to recommendations to new players than the civ’s unquestionable beginner friendliness itself, which is sad.
The only consolidation I can give you is that there’s beauty to the details, and that details come easier through repetition. It’s likely that the English matchup currently is where you perform at your highest level thanks to your experience. It’s also likely that improve faster in these games.
It’s sad that you get little to say on this isolated practice. Maybe other non-English players with exciting playstyles feel the same and would love to become your training buddy. Having fun isn’t just a means to faster learning, but an end goal in itself( i tend to forget that). I hope you find a more pleasant way enjoy the game before getting out of the english trench.
Predictive? English has so many different possible play styles which is one of my biggest gripes about them. I got tower/vil rushed last time I played them. Sometimes they do fuedal aggression with MAA/Spears/Longbows. The new 2 tc into white tower FC is a beast to deal with. dark age MAA aggression into white tower fast castle drongo build is another. Then you also have the classic FC into King’s Palace. Often these fast castle builds are preceded by a small long bow or LB + spear aggression to force a response which is really effective since english doesn’t need a range to create long bows. I think they are probably the least predictable civ of all. Most other civs have like 2-3 possibilities and use 1 or 2 +90% of the time.
Well, I mainly play Abbasid, so when I start the game I check if they are going to tower rush me or dark age MAA comming.
If not, I know they are going to do lb+spears or go to fast castle. Then I check if he’s spamming archers or going for second TC, or lot of villagers in gold. And if they come with dark age MAA, then I just make a few camel archers to force him retreat or make longbows.
If archers comming then I set up a defense with horsemen and archers, if not I make a second TC and then rush to castle because I know they will come with tons of MAA.
In fact they are predictable. As french, that usually they will just send a few knights and make a second TC or spam knights.
Not to mention that 80% of the times they will just rush with longbows, and the rest of the times they will more probably fast castle than dark age agression.