compared to new cavalry units leitis, boyar(even including exisiting ones. ex paladin)
It is too expensive
and on all the situation of 1vs1 match
the cost, 1600F 1000G, means that it needs almost whole resources from map…
after upgrading there will be no gold left.
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First off, they are 1600 food and 800 gold. The food cost is the heavy side. Gold cost makes pretty good sense to me; there are quite a few Elite techs that are more expensive.
Elite Cataphracts are expensive for good reason though. A fully upgraded group rips through most late game armies, aside from a large group of ranged units, paladins and some UUs (and for that you get cheaper skirms and halbs). Byzantines also have a cheaper Imperial Age, so having their strongest unit be very expensive to offset that makes sense as well.
If you’re comparing them, Cataphracts themselves are not as gold-expensive as Boyars by 5 gold, which translates to 40 Boyars in the difference for upgrade cost between the two elite techs. A lot? Sure. But when do you ever see 40 Boyars in a game? Boyars have no Civ-specific tech either. Cataphracts, however, have Logistica, which is both an insane cost and in insane tech. There are very few technologies in the game that add +6 to a unit’s attack AND causes a type of blast damage (although not the exact same in testing).
EDIT: Forgot the impact of one other key thing here: technologies. Bloodlines is 100 gold and is not offered to Byzantines, but is to Slavs, effectively making that gold cost 100 more. And that other 100 gold? Made up for by the cheaper Imperial age. So without Logistica, you’re probably spending more total game gold on Elite Boyars than Cataphracts…
The other caveat is that you can’t compare them to other cavalry units directly, as Cataphracts don’t do well head to head with them. They are an infantry and siege smashing unit.
And then Byzantines really aren’t in need of a buff, so anything done positive to them needs to have balance adjustment. They are one heck of a versatile civilization.
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Reduce it to 1500 food 800 gold.
THEN it will be affordable 11.
That extra 100 food is just pushing it!
Kappa.
1000 gold is not a small resource value, but it surely isn’t too much late-game