How to strengthen the English civilization?

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
1

As a veteran player who participated in the closed beta and has witnessed every version of Age of Empires IV, I present a robust solution for enhancing the classic civilizations, focusing specifically on the English.

The second-age landmarks currently feel underdeveloped:

  1. The current English meta overwhelmingly prioritizes rapid construction of a second Town Center.

  2. The English almost never hunt deer.
    To break this rigid playstyle, I propose the following changes:

King’s Abbey:
Its healing mechanic is almost never utilized. Therefore, its aura will be changed to affect all landmarks. Additionally, it will be able to produce Villagers at a high cost, providing an alternative to the fixed “fast second Town Center” strategy. It will also feature a global Network of Castles ability with a cooldown.And can store resources.
Effect: This change forces players to choose between building a second Town Center and using the Abbey to produce Villagers. With its powerful healing aura, the Abbey can be strategically placed near deer patches for safe hunting, enabling a more aggressive playstyle that may forgo the second Town Center. Due to the high Villager cost, the second Town Center option remains viable. If a player builds the second Town Center and uses the Abbey to produce Villagers simultaneously, their economy will boom, potentially increasing the English win rate. However, this dual Villager production leaves them vulnerable, as it diverts resources from military production. Furthermore, if the “Council Hall” landmark is not built, Longbowmen will lose their “Q” ability by default.

Council Hall:
With the removal of the Longbowmen’s default “Q” ability, the Council Hall will provide a technology to upgrade and enhance this ability, making it stronger than the current version.

Summary of Tier 2 Changes:
These synchronized changes introduce deeper strategic considerations and greater playstyle diversity, while preserving the original viable strategy. The Longbowman “Q” ability is currently underused and ineffective in most situations, making this a meaningful adjustment.

The third-age landmarks are also underdeveloped:

Palace of Westminster?:
The current English meta of rushing a second Town Center makes this third Town Center landmark a strategic trap, leading to certain defeat. It requires a significant buff.
Change: All Villagers produced from this landmark will possess the attack strength and rate of fire of a Longbowman! However, their cost will be increased accordingly.

White Tower?:
The current meta of rushing a second Town Center makes this landmark the default choice for defense against Knights, but it offers little offensive capability.
Change: Add: All military units produced from Landmarks and Castles receive a 5% cost reduction.

The English are exceptionally vulnerable in the fourth age due to a lack of powerful military options.

Berkshire Palace:
This is currently the only chosen landmark as the alternative is non-viable. The English are particularly weak in the fourth age during 4v4 matches, though the previous changes should offer some improvement.
Add: All military units produced from Landmarks and Castles receive a 5% cost reduction.

Wyngard Palace:
Currently, no one uses it, though the previous changes should make it more attractive.
Add: Grants a powerful King unit.

2

English are fine, council hall just got buffed with the 5% discount to longbows and now you gather faster from deer and boar by using a campfire so you can place your 2nd tc on one of those food resources and it really helps with food for villager production.

English now feel like one of the most balanced civs in my opinion.

2 Likes
3

This buff is still too weak. The English remain particularly vulnerable in the Imperial Age during 4v4 matches, and more importantly, in professional play, they still struggle with gold shortages after advancing to the Castle Age.

4

The game is not balanced for 4v4.

5

My Experience on playing English only in 3v3 or 4v4 matches for 5 years.

Result:

  • English is unsuitable for large 4v4 maps where horses thrive.
  • English Units = WEAK and SLOW
  • English Eco = SLOW
  • English allies = QUIT

Strategies:

  • age2: fast attack > too slow. By the time you get to enemy base, they are already at castle.. few stomp stomp and boom your units are ashes.
  • age2: 2 tc + troops > allies quit at 8-10 min mark.
  • fast castle > too slow and weak units.
  • villager attack > too slow
  • age2: 2tc eco boom > allies quit at 8-10 min mark.

Almost all other civs have auto-healing units that are much stronger. Just compare cavalry for instance where enemy cav is like 450HP vs English 250HP. It’s ridiculous.

Only chance is to eco boom and protect your base. Most of the times your ally gives up when you’re about to start your spam.

2 Likes
6

English knights while under the aura of network of castles will beat any other knight cost effectively and the same applies to pretty much every english unit. The key to the civ is making good use of the aura. You can also quickly make knights in castle from the white tower and keep the king with them to heal.

7

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

In short: You want the civilization to win the game for you.

The English received a “king” throughout the game’s updates, which is basically a fast-attacking French knight who heals himself and other units.

It’s also the civilization with the most variants.

People don’t play well with the English because it’s an easy civilization to play, which attracts noobs, but the civilization itself is strong.

You can’t expect the civilization to be both aggressive and defensive at the same time with all the bonuses.

You want it to be a hunting civilization, but you want to hunt ‘safely’ hahaha. No.