One of the biggest complaints about HRE are the lack of any advantages for any units other than the prelates and barracks units. I was doing some reading and found this article, which references the following:
Among the hail of normal bolts it was also the practice to include Heulbolzen (whistling bolts) which produced a sharp whistling sound; in the Order’s records they are referred to as Bremsen (gadflies).122 Their purpose was to weaken the enemy and their horses psychologically, and to cause confusion. This effect was not produced by the sound as such, but by the fact that experience had shown that there was a relationship between the sound and pain; there was something like a ‘Pavlovian Reflex’ in both man and beast. An interesting parallel could be made with the German use of the Stuka dive-bomber in the Second World War, which, of course, used the same device of the association of a particular sound with danger, in order to cause the same effect – namely fear and confusion on the part of the enemy.
My suggestion is to give HRE the Heulbolzen unique tech, which would cause their crossbowmens’ first shot (after a cooldown) to inflict a debuff on nearby enemy units, similar to the camel debuff.
Cool idea! I think HRE mainly lacks ways of applying early pressure without going all in. So my ideas are to give them reasons to move out from their base:
Infantry camps:
Cost 50 wood, can be built by military, and can garrison. Produce units slowly, and dependent on # of stealth forests nearby.
Horsemen buff. Make them good for raids
Prelates can inspire military within a radius, and it gives them movement speed. When carrying a relic, they also give regen within a radius.
Landschnekt is faster, cheaper, and weaker in feudal.
I like unique techs that have a historical basis. Another idea is Ministeriales which were basically serfs trained to be knights. It could be a tech that reduces the cost of knights for HRE.
Their UT applies to all infantry. This includes the archery range .
Could be cool, also encourages micro and synergizes with their speed . disengage after effect has worn off, re-engage after cool down. Still counterable.
For me another issue is their age 3 Landmark for training 5 infantry at a time. I think it needs some tweaking. Floating 500+ Res to train infantry of all things is a bit too punishing. It’s a FAR worse version of both the English And French landmarks, and grossly worse than IOs and scholars
Maybe they could change it to “5 production lines” so you don’t have to queue huge amounts of Res to use it
Along with my previous suggestion that marching drills increased to 15% and affects prelates.
Prelate buff ability should be applicable in combat.
And finally if you didn’t know about it, try using professional scouts and bring deer back to your base, for insanely fast food harvesting (obviously prelate required)