Why a Rework?
In the current meta, the HRE is certainly underperforming, but not massively. So why a rework?
The heart behind these changes is to address the fact that HRE feels extremely one-note, with almost all of its power tied to a few really strong landmarks (Aachen Chapel, Regnitz Cathedral, and Palace of Swabia), leaving other landmark options, and even play styles, woefully underutilized.
That the strength of both the Regnitz Cathedral and the Palace of Swabia are largely reliant on a fast-castle or fast-imperial play-style also factors heavily into why the HRE feels so predictable and inflexible.
This rework, therefore, is aimed at reducing the power level of the Aachen Chapel, Regnitz Cathedral, and Palace of Swabia, but not in a way that makes them just worse. Rather, the goal is to both encourage other landmark choices at times, as well as to open up a greater variety of uses for the landmarks being nerfed.
For example, though the Aachen chapel has (on paper) been buffed (it can now train prelates, and gains access to two unique technologies), the blanket nerf to Holy Inspiration and the introduction of the Imperial Abbey (which essentially functions as a mini-Aachen chapel comes Castle Age) together make the Aachen Chapel a much less necessary choice—it now functions appropriately as a strong boost to the Feudal Age economy, and offers some technologies to help it maintain its usefulness alter into the game, but players who go Meinwork Palace are no longer as punished in their farming economy by opting away from the Aachen Chapel.
As another example, the rework of the Regnitz Cathedral addresses the feast or famine nature of the landmark by guaranteeing a few relics, but also reduces its overall potential for gold generation. Therefore, in theory, the landmark will provide the exact same value later in the game as it does earlier int he game—2-3 relics.At the same time, the Burgrave Palace has been reworked to scale later into the game, and also to complement a more aggressive Feudal Age—as the landmark relies on existing military infrastructure.Therefore, in changing both the Regnitz Cathedral and the Burgrave Palace in these ways, a fast-castle play style is no longer essentially required, and both landmarks open up new strategic options for HRE players to utilize.
On top of all this, an effort has been made to bring a bit more strength to the HRE Feudal Age, with access to unique techs that help set their spearmen and horsemen apart in a powerful way; while the Palace of Swabia has been nerfed pretty heavily, to redistribute the HRE’s strength away from rapid tech ups (though those are still possible, and profitable), and toward a more well-rounded unit roster and strong defensive play, with good come back potential.
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- REWORK DETAILS
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I. General Changes:
A. ‘Holy Inspiration’ now only increases villager gather rate by 20%-30% (depending on balance) by default. Accordingly, villager carrying capacity is reduced to 12-13
B. Monasteries (still locked until the castle age) now cost 250w (or 300w, depending on balance) and are called ‘Imperial Abbeys’, which additionally operate as a resource drop-off, and can garrison a prelate to generate a smaller-than-Aachen-Chapel villager inspiration radius (probably around the size of a granary’s).
II. Feudal Age Changes:
A. The Aachen Chapel’s villager influence is unchanged. However, the Aachen chapel can now additionally train prelates, and access two new unique technologies in the Feudal Age:
‘Benediction’: Increases inspired villager resource drop-off by +3 (or +2, depending on balance)(Costs 150f, 200g)
‘Sanctuary’: Inspired villagers gain 20% damage reduction, and heal 2hp/s when not taking damage(Costs 75w, 100g).
B. The Meinwork Palace’s discount and research speed is reduced from -40% to -25%. However, it now provides exclusive access to three unique techs:
'Halberds’ (Available in the Feudal Age): increases the attack speed of spearmen by +15%, and extends the duration of their stun against cavalry by 1 second.
‘Steel Barding’ (Available in the Castle Age): Increases the melee and ranged armor of knights by 2.
‘Riveted Chainmail’ (Available in the Imperial Age): Increases the melee armor of spearmen and horsemen by 3.
C. The stable can now research ‘Stirrup Mastery‘ in the Feudal Age: A new unique technology that allows horsemen to melee attack while moving (without having to stop or slow down).(Cost: 100w, 125g)
III. Castle Age Changes
A. The Regnitz Cathedral no longer doubles the gold income of garrisoned relics. Instead, every 240 seconds it spawns a relic inside the Regnitz Cathedral, until it has spawned 2-3 total (the total number of relics, and their spawn time, will vary depending on balance). These can then be moved by prelates to other structures as desired. Additionally, like any other monastery, the Regnitz Cathedral functions as a resource drop-off, and inspires villagers within a small influence radius when garrisoned with a prelate.
B. The Burgrave Palace no longer functions as a barracks with a faster production speed. Instead, it features a structure influence mechanic that connects to barracks built adjacent to the Burgrave Palace. Inside the landmark, there are two rows of toggles—the top row toggling between various barracks production boosts, and the bottom row between resource discounts. 1 toggle per row can be active at any time.
TOP ROW:
2x unit production speed2x research speed15% chance to spawn an additional, free infantry unit directly from the Burgrave Palace (per unit produced by an adjacent barracks)
BOTTOM ROW:
-20% food cost-20% gold cost-20% wood cost
IV. Imperial Age Changes:
A. The Palace of Swabia no longer functions as a town center that produces villagers faster and cheaper. Instead, whenever a villager is produced from any of a player’s other town centers, the Palace of Swabia automatically produces a villager for free. Furthermore, whenever a villager is killed, the Palace of Swabia automatically queues up a free replacement villager, which takes 15 seconds to produce.(Automatic villager production/reproduction can be toggled on or off, as desired)
B. The barracks can now research ‘Forlorn Hope’ (Verlorene Haufen’) in the Imperial Age—While charging, Landsknecht gain 40% damage reduction, and +10% movement speed.(Cost: 150f, 250g)
