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VISION FOR THIS REWORK (Same as Last Slide):
EARLY GAME
In this variation of the HRE, the nerf to Holy Inspiration means the early economy is a bit slower. Resources at home base won’t exhaust quite as quickly, but rapid tech-ups will be harder to pull off, and less rewarding (though still a valuable option in some matchups or maps).
To offset this, the Feudal Landmarks have both been buffed in powerful ways to open up new avenues of gameplay. Some players will pursue the more economic and defensive Aachen Chapel—which will boost their economy and improve the prospects of survival for their villagers (especially when paired with the ‘Halberd’ upgrade in the Barracks, to punish cavalry raids)—and have access to additional prelates to keep their villagers and sparser defensive military units healed up. Other players will pursue the more aggressive Meinwork Palace, giving them access to much stronger spearmen, horsemen, and men at arms, which they can then use to win key engagements and establish some map control, or take the fight to their opponent’s base.
Because the HRE’s castle timing won’t be as fast as it currently is—and the Regnitz Cathedral not nearly as reliant on map relics as before—HRE players will have a wider variety of early objectives to pursue. For example, because the Burgrave Palace now complements existing military infrastructure, and the Palace of Swabia now complements existing Town Centers, it will be profitable to build a barracks or two and an additional Town Center or two in the Feudal Age, giving this stage of each match greater longevity and a wider variety of options for HRE players.
MID-LATE GAME
With the HRE’s fast castle timing slowed down, a naked fast castle will be more punishing to pursue; Ayyubid players and Zhu Xi players will almost certainly be able to reach the Castle Age first, and aggressive civilizations will be able to field more units on the map to deny prelates moving toward relics. Moreover, because of the new Regnitz Cathedral design, neutral relics on the map are no longer significantly more valuable for the HRE player than for other players. Therefore, players will need to evaluate on a match-by-match basis how valuable relics are as an objective, and will need to rely on new tactics to secure them—whether that be (1) putting pressure on the opponent with the Meinwork and taking map control in preparation for the Castle Age, or (2) playing a defensive Aachen Chapel, producing Feudal prelates and making spearmen in preparation for a Burgrave Palace alongside your Barracks that can pump out units to contest relics, or (3) harassing the opponent with ‘riveted chainmail’ horsemen while constructing the Regnitz Cathedral so as to use cheaper prelates to grab relics, etc. The new synergies between landmarks are endless!
Of course, players are now also more free to choose not to contest relics at all! Whether relying on the infantry discount of the Burgrave Palace, or controlling sacred sites to reduce the price of producing relics from the Regnitz Cathedral, there are now other ways for HRE players to bolster their access to gold in the mid-late game. But players who get greedy and try to secure relics, and capture sacred sites, and produce relics from the Regnitz will quickly find themselves stretched thin, and out of gold. So prioritizing objectives and timing investments well will be key to the HRE’s success.
As we move toward the Imperial Age, the Palace of Swabia will be a significantly less powerful option on its own, but both Imperial Landmarks will have valuable use cases. Neither will reward a Fast Imperial nearly as much as the current meta, but because the HRE will now have a slightly stronger late game economy (Benediction and Imperial Abbeys), and stronger military units (Meinwork, Halberds, Forlorn Hope), their late-game should be stronger overall.
If you guys like my suggestions and want to see any of them implemented, I don’t have great ways to get the attention of developers. So feel free to upvote this post, engage with it in discussion, or send it to anyone in discord or elsewhere that developers might see.
And I apologize for the many posts dedicated to these rework suggestions. The initial post took a lot of work, and I’ve wanted to amend it as new ideas came to me, and as you guys gave feedback.
Thanks!
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Holy Roman Empire civ need a few Unique Units like Ritter, Victual Brothers (Hanseatic Corsairs), Black Rider and Swiss Pikeman.
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I can understand the desire to see the HRE get new unique units, but that requires more dev time, and would not do much to address the plethora of issues the civilization currently faces.
A bunch of new units were added to the English, for example, but almost no one uses any of them because they didn’t actually address the weaknesses of their respective landmarks.
You know what, I guess they just used the most important idea of HRE’s variant to made Japan, cause I did feel Japan is a better HRE when I played it. I don’t know whether they will create another HRE’s variant, to be honestly, OotD is a bit boring.
Oh, I believe it is better if you use some existing material to design new units of HRE.
Like I just find ZXL’s new cavalries are all from campaign, the Devs may not have enough time to creat some new models.
Hey mate,
I follow your progress of suggestions closely, since I’m an HRE-enjoyer myself and posted some suggestions here as well.
I very much like your ideas and would like to make some suggestions myself, since i firmly believe, that this is not your final form yet.
Here are my thoughts:
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I love that Imperial Abbey now increases the range with placed inside relics.
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I like the layout of the barracks, it’s cleaner now, since all the thechs are under their units (removal of one MAA-tech)
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to Aachen Chapel: I believe it is overtuned. Letting it produce prelates and the Benediction tech gives way too much eco in Feudal. Also you get a little too much tempo by having more Prelates on the field for Relic grab starting in Castle. My suggestion: remove Prelate production and let Benediction be researchable in Castle Age.
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to Meinwerk: I think Riveted Chainmail is a little overtuned, I would suggest giving +1/+1 instead.
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to Regnitz: I like the idea a lot. I think 5 relics is too many and the cost is too high. I would suggest: up to 3 relics, with the cost: 200/300/400.
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I would actually leave the Burgrave as it is right now (so remove your suggestions for the Burgrave).
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Palace of Swabia: well done!
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Hello, I hope you are very well 
I really like several of the ideas you propose, very good work. I love those technologies to improve infantry units. As I mentioned before @MUTYLATOR5553 some unique units would also need to be added. Greetings.
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