^^^^^^^^^^
That’s why we see only Crossbows, even with Teutons or Berbers. No diversity, no strategy, no innovation, meta is narrower than ever. Your comparison is just wrong.
^^^
We kind of need the meta to not be stale, we kind of need more units to be in the fray don’t you think? We kind of need to take some action to rebalance the forgotten units like:
- Steppe Lancers
- Elephant Archers
- War Elephants
- Ballista Elephants
- Missionaries
- Genitours
and many more
While at the same time containing units that may be oppressive.
For example in the recent RF3 tournament 40% of all millitary units in ALL games on average were Halberdiers.
Thats kind of oppressive don’t you think? Especially oppressive to units like Elephant lines, Genitours and Missionaries etc?
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That’s true, but Black Forest game tell us little about viability, so I wouldn’t rely on that. BF games were always a niche, post-Imp fantasy play.
Absolutely, but the most immediate change should be global, fixing Arabia, the current one doesnt allow any unit but Crossbows.
We have tried many iterations of arabia map. The meta is still Xbow or Knight.
So it means we must change the stats of units to make the game more than just Xbows and Knights, is it not?
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Hell no, that wasn’t the case back in Voobly/HD/AOC, the stats were the same, just way different map.
People had the freedom to go whatever win condition they wanted, due to how different Arabia was (also how strong Trush were, which gave people an escape ticket of the meta).
It’s quite simple, they can just let us play the old ancient Arabia. Meta would still be Xbows and Knights (though currently it’s mostly Xbows), but you’d see much more around it. Especially some good old 1TC UU plays. (unlike the current meta which is quite mandatory too add mass TCs)
Elite Jannies erase FU Generic Arbalest , Elite Conqs erase Arblst too
Its easier to just tweak the units that never see play and bring them to usable levels.
Changing maps for example is never going to help Steppe Lancers, Ballista Elephants or War Elephants as they are
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Really? Funny. Because the moment you make a map closed elephants come out. So how do you propose to make elephants good on open maps without making them impossible engines of destruction on closed maps?
Not really, what you’re saying is a gross overstatement.
Knight line is still much more used than all elephant unit lines combined even in BF Teamgames.
Making the food eco not diverge wildly in the midgame.
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Uh. Every single series saw elephants. So yes. They are common and even Persians were swapping in th very late game too them.
Elaborate please?
Effective food gather rates take a massive hit in the mid game, dropping to like 50% of the gather rate of other resources. In open maps where you cant easily afford to amortize the fixed cost of setting up farms its a pain to use. In closed maps the farm setup is much more forgiving. By the time imp comes around the gather rate is closer to 75%.
Unfortunately as long as this discrepancy exists in a game where units dont change price over time theyre going to suck on open maps and the only time they can come out is when a food boom isnt crushed, which tends to be closed maps.
Fixing the food divergence is realistically the only way to fix them without causing even more problems on closed maps.
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Those are Unique Gunpowder Units, not HC.
Hc meed a matlock tech in archery range that gives them 15% attackspeed like Spanish and aechers
The slow rate of fire is what is holding them back most.
IF you aren’t burgundian, or hindustan, I wouldn’t even bother with hc on imp at the mpment
Even turks and Portuguese and spanish just suck, an Italians have better arbs anyway.
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Actually there are not many civs having both good archer and HC. Usually civs with bad archers have access to HC. Civs with good archers dont. Narrowing the gap between HC and arbalest seems not a good idea.
With 17 dmg and 3.45 rof they will never be comparable to arbalesters.
Arbs are efficient in group, HCs are not. If you raid an enemy TC with 20 HCs you’re going to waste 90% of your damage if you focus fire on vills. You should micro individually every 3 HCs to not waste damage. A huge pain.
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Yeah the ROF could be buffed a bit, like to 3.1 s
Spanish have 20% faster firing HCs and no one seems to care or ever even make them (despite them coming from Ranges not castles)
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I mainly play Spanish and actually use HCs quite a bit because the faster firing is pretty good (that and the only other good ranged option as Spanish is the lower range, harder to mass Elite Conq). The problem that’s been mentioned several times in this thread is basically that civs need a strong HC bonus in order to bring their HC to the level of usefulness that an ordinary (non-bonused) generic unit has.
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Exactly, thats why we need to buff HCs as a unit in general
such as a RoF buff to 3.1 or even 3 seconds.
That way, normal HCs will see some play and any civ with bonus on HCs won’t just ignore it in most games, but actually seriously consider it and plan for using it.
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