Equalizer/Second wind cards for early game civs

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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Rushing feels completely awful to play in some matchups, I wanted to discuss the idea of more civs getting “Equalizer” cards.

Some civs already have these, like Malta’s “Trip to Jerusalem”, or Spain’s “Reconquista” or “House of Trastamara”. These cards are useful to help trying to catch up after a rough all in or lost fight.

I’ve made some example cards for civs that could benefit from having cards of this type:

AZTEC

nextlahualli
Nextlahualli(III, INFINITE) - Arrives fast! All current units that benefit from promotions gain one rank. Ships 1 Gold rank Jaguar prowler.

telpochcalli
Telpochcalli(II) - Ships one Eagle Scout and 20 food for every 3 War Hut units lost. Improves Eagle Scout HP and Attack by 10%. (MAX: 15 Eagle Scouts + 300f)
(This card would be useful to continue pressure in Age2 after the aztec player lost their initial mass. The eagle scout is a balanced unit for this, as eagle scouts aren’t very strong by themselves, but a great auxiliary force to an existing army, so this card wouldn’t be too broken IMO).

HAUDENOSAUNEE

reciprocy
Reciprocity (II) - Gain a 5% boost to ALL gathering. 8% of all Food, Wood, and Coin gathered from natural sources is granted to you again. (MAX: 600 of each resource)
(A ‘second wind’ card in the style of Lakota’s ‘Great Hunter’. Keeping with the style of Haud’s resource cards being universal across the 3, it would help a Haud player who is playing AgeII either advance to fortress or mass up for another push)

battleof
Battle of Fallen Timbers(III) - Ships one Redcoat(Consulate) for every 4 units lost so far(MAX: 15 Redcoats)
(Age III equalizer card aimed to give a boost to a Haud player who is struggling to fight late AgeIII)

RUSSIA

zemsky
Zemsky Sobor(II) - Arrives fast! Your NEXT age up is faster, and the price is reduced for each unit you have lost. (-8 resources per unit lost)
(Russia seems to struggle fighting age2 against FF, but they also struggle in a FF themselves, this will give them a bit more versatility to age2 play)

volga
Passage through the Volga(III) - Ships one Northern Musketeer for every 4 Russian Infantry units lost so far(MAX: 15 Northern Musketeers)

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Those are a few examples ^^ Let me know what you think about these cards for rushing civs, it’s tricky that cards shouldn’t REWARD players for losing and taking bad fights, but I think early game civs deserve a few tools to help them get back into the game from tough openings.

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gostei das cartas menos a primeira carta asteca

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I think putting a cap onmaximum refund (especially important on treaty modes) for returned res is a great ideal but in general these seems like really good ideas or good starting points to help boost civs that really stuggle to get going. Prob not perfectly balanced as is, but much more reasonable to work with and balancing than many proposals. Cool!

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Russia struggling age2, this is a new one lol.

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With alot of the turtle/camp civs being meta like malta/italy/otto, russia has a VERY small window to win the game in age2. They can’t really ff that well to match an enemy ff and they struggle fighting an ff as well so I think it isn’t unreasonable that the civ can use a boost

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The only ones I saw that caused any concern were the Huad resource one (capping it at 1800 is probably too high. Maybe cap it at like 400 each for 1200 total), the Huad Redcoats (Huad is very good at FF-ing or FI-ing and this likely unintentionally buffs both of them), and the Russian ones. Russia is getting buffed next patch and I would want to see how that plays out before suggesting any further buffs.

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If you rush and fail, why do you deserve a refund or big boost as equaliser? Opponent deserve the win for defending against your rush.

It is horrible if every aoe3 games ends in age 2. The game should end in age 3 or 4.

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That’s a good point - I agree that you shouldn’t get rewarded for bad trades or all-ins, but right now it just feels that playing aggressive isn’t rewarded as much as stagnant defensive gameplay. In many matchups it feels too risky committing to early fights, then you just end up getting out scaled. Equalizer cards aren’t power spike cards, they have value only if the player is losing so I think it would make playing aggressive a little less risky. I think you should be rewarded for interacting with the opponent more.

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I hear this a lot but in the case of malta I disagree, malta has a below average win rate at all elo levels. I feel they’re receiving unnecessary nerfs at this point and win rate will only continue to drop as a result. Are they an annoying civ at times? Sure but they’re far from OP.

Italy feels way weaker than it used to be as well and with the upcoming changes there’s no way it will remain OP in the new patch.

Otto has also received a lot of nerfs, abus have been nerfed many times, delis got nerfed, the tower/300g politician got removed so that hurt the FF/FI. That being said of the 3 civs you mentioned I think otto probably still need some tweaking due to the free vills just making it so easy to age up fast, I think they’re nerfing the church card though so that might help.

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Malta is disproportionately weak early but strong in late game. Once they get to late game their unit beat anything with 50% hp extra. And it is really really slow to push because of fixed guns, super culverins and depots. Depot make sure you cant drag all army forward they would get bombed. You have to let your army wait on the side and take out depot one by one from distance. It makes pushing malta very very slow, and malta just heavy fortification and boom behind

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