I’m not too worried about the +40 on the first hit for the Coustillier. It may or may not be overpowered, but it’s easy to tune down in the first patch. The Flemish Revolution seems a lot harder to balance, its strength is going to be hugely situation dependent. Cavalier in castle age also worries me a bit. That probably means at the least that Burgundians do not get Bloodlines, or other cavalry related bonuses. This in turn means a drop off in imperial age compared to other cavalry civs. So using the big power spike in late castle/early imperial age seems like the key to using the civ. That’s not unique, we have more civs that aren’t completely balanced throughout the ages, but these civs can more easily become one trick ponies, like how you see Spanish and think “fast castle into conquistadors”.
I’m honestly kind of curious to how the Donjons will play at this point, that seems like it could be a very nice addition to the defensive buildings game, and having the Serjeants build it is honestly kind of cool too, there’s room for tactical thought there. EDIT: Although them being available in Feudal Age as a complete replacement for towers might bring along some issues. Are the Serjeants going to have like three different upgrade stages? Will a Donjojn be cheap enough to use in defense?
This “food relic” thing throughout the video is very curious. Since he has a relic, perhaps it is a civ bonus that a relic gives gold and food? I don’t think that would be such a big deal, because by Castle Age you probably have a big food eco anyway.
The Burgundians seem really strong to me. We didn’t see any Arbalesters, so they probably have weak archers. But Castle Age Cavaliers which return 50% of their Gold cost? Even without Bloodlines, that’s very strong. Though I guess if your opponent is Burgundians, you’ll probably make a lot of Pikemen and Monks anyway.
If Flemish Revolution basically gives you 100 Champions, I think that will be insanely strong in 1v1, especially if your opponent runs out of gold.
The Coustilier also seems very strong to me. If you raid with a few Coustiliers you’ll kill so many Villagers, and they should also do great against Cavalry. This will also be amazing against Trebuchets and other siege weapons.
On the other hand, we still don’t know that much, because in AOE2 you always have so many hidden stats: do Flemish Pikeman and Coustiliers take bonus damage from certain units, etc. And the video doesn’t tell us how much the Coustilier actually costs. So we’ll have to wait until Tuesday. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the February patch will nerf the Burgundians.
We can counter Champion/Pike mixed with Ranged units and Sergeants are infantry (both melee and pierce armour 4 so don’t select unit luckily they have 75HP), we can with ranged units so they are good.
Burgundian unique unit is a just a joke. It’s much OPer than first Steppe Lancers. Even it is one time 4x damage (well, with base attack it’s 5x) it’s too strong.
Thanks for writing all of stuff. I guess economy upgrades or/and dead knights gives gold back will gone or nerfed in any time and +20 HP and +2 attack for 300 gold and 300 food is better than bloodlines and Blacksmith upgrades.
4 melee and 4 pierce armour infantry in feudal age? I guess Elite one has these stats, man at arms has 45 HP with just 1 pierce armour. With costs and stats I think Sicilians going to be balanced. Thanks again for writing it.
I suspect they will just get an HP increase with each age, but don’t quote me on that. It seems awkward to balance.
O right, I completely forgot we already know about a good knight line bonus they get. So they get castle age cavalier and just making (and losing) knights to begin with basically pays for that upgrade. That could be a problem.
Perhaps he meant -33%. Regardless the percentage, this bonus seems very strong to me. Skirmishers and Spearmen in particular are only strong because of their bonus damage.
With 33% reduction, a Pikeman will do 18.66 damage to Sicilian Cavalry. That’s similar to the 18 damage a Spearman (!) does against Cavalry of a generic civ (I’m ignoring Blacksmith upgrades here). So Sicilian Cavalry will be more difficult to counter. Now, perhaps their Scout and Knight line will be awful for other reasons, but I can see this being OP.
People freaking out about the charge attack, but it appears the unit cannot even attack until it is charged, and likely will have no effect against Buildings.
