Elephant Archers Suggestions

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
62

Elite EA upgrade is already very cheap for what it is.

63

Yes, and it have much more sence when EA would have this. This is platform on the back of elephant, can easily be filld with many archers 11
Beside this, kipchak or chu ko nu have other roles in their armies.

1 Like
64

Maybe, but it would be grossly imbalanced. A unit that can fire multiple projectiles needs to be weak in term of HP, which EAs are not.

65

And EA are pretty expensive for what is :elephant:

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66

Not really, it is actually easier to filed EEAs than Paladins, for example. Their price only becomes an hindrance when both players are done with upgrades, but Indians have the Sultans UT to help out with their Imp Camels and EEAs.

67

I’m not sure what leads you to believe it’s easier to fill your population capacity with elephants than with paladins. Paladins cost 75+60, EAs cost 80+100, or substantially more, and they need to be made at a castle, further adding to the difficulty.

4 Likes
68

Paladin upgrade is more expensive, and you have to upgrade to Cavalier first aswell.

It is harder to go straight for Paladins when you hit Imperial, than it is to just upgrade EAs to EEAs.

69

There is that, but it’s also made at the castle. Many Unique Units are theoretically easier to get to due to the shorter or cheaper upgrade time, but in reality the castle based production means they’re actually much more difficult to practically mass.

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70

Buth their huge HP pool and strong armour, combined with being a ranged unit, means that you should not be losing too many of them, and can comfortably accumulate over time.

Their only real counter is Monks, on any realistic scenario, since Indians not only have the best Camels in the game, but also FU Cav Archers and Hussars.

71

Bringing Elephant Archer fire rate on par with cavalry archers would fix a lot for this unit. Might just seal the deal.

2 Likes
72

Might also make it too strong against buildings, but I could see an argument for this change.

73

Their bonus against buildings could receive a little nerf to compensate.

74

Not going to lie, I like their bonus against buildings, as that is the most unique aspect about them, an anti-building Cav Archer.

75

I didn’t mean to take all of it away. -1 would be enough.

1 Like
76

+2 damage to building (+3 on Elite) does not seem like a lot, specially when Saracens get +3 on a more spammable unit.

77

+4 is good with a bad rate of fire? :s

1 Like
78

I mean
virtually everything counters them. Paladins beat them both in equal numbers and in cost effectiveness. Halbs beat them by a huge margin in cost effectiveness, and actually beat them 1v1 as well. Even Skirmishers beat them in cost effectiveness.

The only thing they ‘counter’ is archers, but even there, they don’t counter them as well as, say, knights.

The only thing I could possibly see them used for is against cavalry archers or mangudai, but even there, their short range and slow speed means they’ll not be particularly effective at actually stopping them, they’ll just be hard to themselves be killed.

4 Likes
79

I wouldnt compare EA with paladins.

Instead, i would compare them with cavaliers. Cavaliers is the first upgrade for knights, like EEA for EA, and the upgrade cost is way cheaper than paladin one.
Even having this in account, EEA are more expensive and less effective than cavaliers, and harder to mass.

Indians doesnt have cavaliers but if they had them I would chose them over EEA. This is why camels are used over EA, in my humble opinion.

However, since the EA is a slow tanky archer, i suggest to compare them with similar UU, like the War Wagon to see how to improve them while keeping their identity. Also, we have to consider how EA can help indian army composition: camels, HC, BBC, hussars


1 Like
80

I’ve previously suggested the following

  • give them +1 or even +2 range
  • make them a different class so they don’t take bonus dmg from skirmishers AND halbs, only one of em
  • give them something special, like damaging surrounding units slightly when dying

I do also like the fire while walking aspect you suggested

2 Likes
81

Why? War Wagons only cost 60 gold and 94 Wood after the Korean bonus, have 9 base attack and comparable armor and HP. Wagons atleast have the offensive presence and have a perfect companion Siege onager. Wagons also matchup better vs skirms. EA has no business being more expensive than the WW while being worse in every practical way. Even with the Elephant’s more HP, they perform worse against melee units than wagons do

5 Likes