Hey everybody.
I just came back from hiatus, I’ve been a player of the game from release, with HRE as my main civ, but I sadly fell out with it because it was so abhorrently basic compared to other civs that have unique things going on.
So I was wondering, has HRE seen any improvements since 2 years ago?
Off the top of my head:
Minor tweaks in gameplay, such as queuing monks to pick up relics/capture sacred sites being easier, have benefitted HRE. That being said, I feel HRE has gotten the smallest number of changes over the last 2 years. So they are still as basic as before…
Regardless, they are still A or S tier.
Phew, a lot has happened in 2 years.
Siege: From the famous “Siege Wars”, with Dark Sringvaider and Lord Sithmangonelus spreading terror, to its end recently at the start of season 9.
– The Springald now acts as the AoE2 Scorpion, anti-melee infantry, and the mangonel reduced its area damage, although it is strong again in post-imperial.
– There is no longer Anti-siege Siege, although the cannons, because they do siege damage, could be considered the best to destroy mangonels, but even their damage was reduced (50). Culverin became an improved bombard for some civs.
Toughness: New stat, it is practically the “percentage” armor that some units had, now it is officially called that. All sieges now have 0 ranged armor, but 60% or 85% ranged damage resistance. Shaolin Monks, Byzantine Limitanei, and Landmark Elzbach Palace all have resistance bonuses.
Naval Battles: The naval system was balanced in Season 3 (S3), although it is still unpopular in ranked. There are still no Boarding Ships (I’m suggesting it).
Wall Rework.- Now is very Easy to Place Palisades and Walls, Perhaps the best wall placement system in all AoE games. Since Season 6 you can build them by selecting the edge of a forest, ores of gold or stone mines “without creating gaps”, and extending it across the map, even in unexplored areas.
No unique unit limit: While all civs had a maximum of 3 unique units+early units in the beginning, there is no limit anymore. The number has increased since each season, but to summarize (Unique units only):
– English: 3
– French: 5
– HRE: 2
– Russ: 3 + Unique Ships Mechanic
– Abbasid: 3
– Delhi Sultanate: 5
– Mongols: 5
– Chinese: 6
– Japanese: 14
– Zhu Xi: 9
– JoanDArc: 8 + JoanVariantDigievolutions (6)
– Ayyubid: 7
– Order of DragonTail: 8
– Mali: 8 + MansaVariantDigievolutions (2)
– Ottomans: 6
– Byzantines: 4 + mercenaries (12)
Well, you’ve missed several ups and downs of this civ in the Top that streamers make.
However, “Still the same” in its most fundamental aspects. A shame.
Oh, by the way, HRE still has the Zweihander Landsknecht as its only offensive unit and the Support Prelate. And it’s still as weak as ever.
In fact I’d say they made a terrible mistake by giving the Order of the Dragon, its variant, a gold version of Landsknecht, since it has double the HP, if it’s stronger, it’s worth it and can be used in builds, conditioning its version of the HRE to have little HP so that the heavy doesn’t increase its own too much. With this, HRE remains the civ with the fewest unique units in the game.
In fact, I share your pain:
“The thing is that I promised myself not to play HRE again until they gave it more unique units, and well, I plan to keep it.”
The devs revealed that they have new DLC and that in the future of the game they are going to try to improve the differences between the variant civs and parent civs, especially in the visual aspect, so that they are more historically correct, or at least not a copy with minimal changes of the civ they precede.
If so, in the future we could have a HRE not dependent on the changes to the Order of the Dragon, and with the mechanics that many want: “Mercenaries from the HRE kingdoms”, such as Swiss, Teutonic Knights, Italians, Bohemians, etc.
Also, I continue to suggest when I can, that they give more Landsknecht type units to the civ, including: