Recently, there were a lot of New Ethiopia players in 1v1 ladder around ELO 1800. Almost all of them use Sudanese build order. It‘s insanely strong and overwhelming for most other civs in age 2 (50 strong military units around 7min30s). Therefore, Ethiopia needs a urgent rework for this balance problem.
1.Mechanism of ROF decrease + 4.5 speed. The DPS of Gascenya and Sudanese dervish are overwhelming and my army just gets melt if these units get close to me. The lower limit of range attack ROF should be increased by 0.5 for both of them, imo.
2.“Lancer” in age 2. I mean shotel warrior is pretty strong. Its tanky 170 HP and anti-infantry tag let pikeman can’t counter him very well. Please decrease its HP to 160, and let shotel warrior could be killed by 2 shots from towncenter, not 3 shots btw.
3.Age 3 shipment in age 2. Prize bull can immediately be exchanged for 900 wood without gathering in age 2. Its unfair for other civs which only have 700 wood crate shipments. It should be a age 3 shipment.
4.Compensation. Buff Ethiopia opening and let it be able to age up around 4min30s. In this patch, Ethiopia can‘t queue the first villager before 13s, and the normal crate timing is 7s for other non-Africa civs. 6 villagers opening buff is reasonable. Let Ethiopia more economic and less aggressive in age 2.
At last, let’s watch this 1v1 game video between ELO 1900+ players and feel the despair
Gascenya can double its ROF at close range while also having higher than average base damage (and they also used to have longer range). That’s quite beyond me. If I see a regular (not native, not merc, not card-limited) unit with this ability I’d expect lower base damage.
I can kinda see the point though that is since the unit has lower hp, it gets more shots and becomes more vulnerable when trying to close in. But basically all units have that problem (and they do not receive an ROF boost when doing so).
Gascenya are fine, the rush is strong because of the sudanese and their melee damage at range, beating even units like yumi/strelets because they bypass the range resist. My suggestion would be to make the 12 sudanese card respect the build limit, currently people make 15 which is max for the dervish then ship another 12 and it’s overwhelming, stop the sudanese shipment if it puts you over the build limit and the rush is nerfed without damaging ethiopia which don;t have many options to begin with.
Agree, the Prize Bull and the mechanism of ROF decrease for Gascenya and Sudanese dervish will kill this game. In my opinion, the ability to resist cavalry of Gascenya should be cancelled or weakened. And the Prize Bull should be designed to be sent only once and can only be exchanged for 700 or 750 resources.
the gascenya rof thing is probably the only primary issue with ethiopia. the rest is pretty ok I think. the rof gimmick is stupid toxic though, especially on such an already high dps unit
170 HP anti-infantry shock infantry and 900 wood exchange of prize bull are also big problems. (compared with Aztec 155 HP coyote and Inca 140 HP chimu)
sff and all in can beat rohbort ez if ethiopia do everything right，when gascenya，dervish and ethiopia coyote close u then u know how ridiculous they will be
I dont think the shotel is that big of an issue, like pop wise it only does 2 damage more then hussars, cost more coin and has less range HP, not to mention slower as well.
even compared to other hand shock infantry, they get more upgrades and deal even more damage at base.
I guess you haven’t played against the true Ethiopia. First, shotel should be compared with other hand shock infantries, not 2 pop hussar. Second, 170 HP shotel means 3 shots kill for towncenter and 7 stabs kill for pikeman, while 155 HP coyote only needs 2 shots for towncenter and 6 stabs for pikeman to be killed, respectively. Its too tanky! (It‘s annoying when shotels are around your TC, that’s why sepoy is nerfed to 180 HP not original 190 HP) Last, the ROF of shotel is 1.2 not 1.5. Thus, it’s 20 attack against other infantries if it’s conversed to ROF 1.5.
didnt see that ROF actually , hmm atleast from the wiki its 1.25 ROF so thats 19.5 dmg, which is like in between of a coyote and a chimmu, for an unit that is slower then both, and has like no upgrade cards or like special tech as far as I can tell. (the only one i can think of is infantry breastplate which gives it 10% hp)
If the tc fire thing is a huge concern then reducing hp to 160 should more then do the trick but like otherwise I still think its lacklustre
like they should be falling off the longer the game goes on, and the gascenya mass is what really makes the composition shine
Like coyote has coyote combat in age 2 which gives them more then enough HP to tank tc fire and more speed as well and then armour in age 3
Chimmus can get out of trouble and have the combat card in age 3 and the armour tech.
edit: like I think most of the problems are coming from the gascenya, its bascially ashi on steroid and people already hate the ashi to high heaven, combined with the dervisher which is like a skirm ver for the gascenya, fast , gets stronger to more agresssive you are and completely dominate upclose
This is not a theoretical problem. In fact, there are many countries in Ladder that are almost unable to deal with the early fast -forming Musk Dervish and Coyote. 7: 30 can become a huge and unprepared scale, which is difficult to imagine.
Secondly, many people only recognize Ethiopia all in. They do not care about how strong the SFF tactics of 8:30 are. In short, only one military card, 9 coyote, or sebasto, then Ethiopia has completely possessed it At 9:30, a power that is sufficient to destroy a game
I think it is difficult for you to imagine what the melting speed of your unit under the same military population is twice the concept of Ethiopia. Maybe you have never experienced it
How many people have the ability to play superb operation when they are enough to face such a powerful military? Does this game have 5? No, then consider how to balance this civilization without brains.
Like I am ok with nerfing ethiopia, we nerf ■■■■ all the time, but i am unconvinced that the shotel is part of that problem besides the massive gascenya + dervisher timming and as others have pointed out the abuse of big benny.
we can nerf that first and then see how the shotel performs.
I am very happy that you can accurately hit this key point of Big Benny OP. It is also necessary to weaken Coyote. This unit is currently sufficient to destroy any infantry in Ethiopia’s economic system. Pikeman, Chinese Melee Heavy Infantry cannot deal with this. Unit, not to mention that behind them is more powerful to play special ROF Dervish and Musks
I mean if they cant deal with the shotel then likewise they cant deal with chimmus and coyote cause again the stats doesnt stand out that much to me, other then that it takes 1 more hit at base stats, which is meh (other then the annoying situation of maybe tc fire)
And there are other options that are more then viable now, most civs can make halbs and china has the changdao (or just mass cav)
the focus should be on nerfing the the firepower that stands behind them cause that seems to be the biggest issue most of the time.
1.It’s ROF 1.2, if you check this units database: AOE III DEck Builder.
2.It‘s already strong unit without upgrade. And 6.25 or 6 speed doesn‘t affect too much in mass combat.
3.Not only TC fire but also melee anti shock infantry problem. Thanks to this 170 HP, Changdao can‘t beat shotel in age 3. If you watch UEC RO32 windy120% vs Lucas game and you will ask the same questions that Lukas ask.
4. DEV can nerf shotel base HP, and give some upgrade cards as compensation.
I still think that its not a real problem unit, we can talk about a HP nerf to 160(which would solve most of your problems, it would have effective range hp of 177, and take 6 hits from pikes, though why the number 6 specifically i dont know since a normal batch is 5) but other then that I still think its abit ■■■■.
Ok its good in mass combat but that kinda means it requires the backup power of the army behind it, so the gascenya and dervisher mass will still be the deciding factor.
Its like with the nagi, on its on its kinda lacklustre, but because its the tank to the ashi yumi mass that kills everything its able to shine (whole 25% hp card in age 3 aside)
then nerf the gascenya and the dervisher mass before we see how the shotel turns out
and like changdaos are notorious for not countering cav well, so I dont really expect it to counter this unit well either, like china is known for having a cav weakness(if you think about it in the normal counter terms). China’s answer to cav esque unit is their own cav most of the time.
