This patch is a joke and I am not seeing Relic doing anything about the HRE in the near future. The civ actually was nerfed, the MAA are even less special as all other inf from other civs got buffed by another 10% in dmg and hp in age IV. That means that the amount of which the HRE MAA were better has actually been reduced. They lost the hp advantage, got a little less all dmg advantage but now the +6 is working correctly.
The Mongols even get 30% from the university tech, meaning that their melee inf got buffed by 20% in dmg and hp. The Abbasid and English MAA are real tanks now and the Chinese palace guards have even more hp. Also the Delhi MAA deal more all around dmg than the HRE MAA as they get +3 instead of a measily +2. I still canāt believe that the twohander tech was nerfed and doesnāt give hp anymore. It is only +2 for this tech. This is so ā ā ā ā compared to the English iron clad and the Delhi honed blades. The HRE just has the least value unique techs.
The Landsknecht was passively buffed by this, but remains to be trash. It helps him little to have 10% more of hp and dmg. The main issue that complete ā ā ā ā units like archers counter him more than effectively remains. He is still not worth his costs.
Honed blades is still so much better than the two unique MAA techs for HRE, because it has +3 dmg to MAA and knights. They have two techs in one and the HRE has one tech in two. Or one and a half in two. They are still stuck with useless techs like Benediction and their keep techs. You can also list the more than underwhelming +3 melee armor for spearmen in age IV. Inspiration is still ā ā ā ā . The knights are by far the worst knights in the game now due to the English knights getting the correct network of castles buff. The HRE historically had among the most powerful knights in the medieval ages, but Relic just doesnāt care. They do not care for the HRE. This civ has the worst design and is a freaking boring one trick pony that has no lategame and is crippled beyond reason if it doesnāt get at least 2 relics. Why does the Burgrave palace exist at all? Itās a terrible landmark. Even if you donāt wanna go for relics, it is still terrible. 5 barracks for age III that also cumulate the costs of units will never be good.
Itās like Relic just doesnāt give a ā ā ā ā about the HRE. It offers freaking nothing except for slightly better MAA. This civ is still unfinished and boring. The patch didnāt change anything for this civ but made it even less spectacular compared to the other civs. All is standard for them except MAA. No techs for anything. I am so annoyed by this. And they actually said they implemented beta feedback in this patch. What a teaseā¦
And what is this siege madness? Why was siege buffed? Why were springalds not nerfed? What were they talking about in the dev stream? āWe want the springald to be good vs siege onlyā¦ā And they didnāt nerf them one bit, but made other annoyingly strong siege even stronger. Why would you see less springalds now? You will actually see more, I am sureā¦
I have lost my faith in Relicā¦ Already. At least for now. I will test the patch in more detail this weak and maybe I will change my view on anything I just said, but I highly doubt it. My main complaints were 100% untouched. The HRE offers way too little and they even got more boring now, with their MAA getting nerfed (but bug fixed) and the MAA for every civ getting buffed. That means they actually traded the missing +3 dmg vs heavy for the 15 hp. I meanā¦ The HRE was bottom tier already, why make it worse for them? The HRE MAA will be better against armored units, but the MAA of English, Abbasids, Mongols, Delhi and Chinese will be better against all non heavy units, especially against their counter in the crossbow as they either have more hp, more damage, more armor or more speed.
The HRE will remain this boring and lackluster for the next 2 or 3 months at least.
If playing on this patch will be the disappointment I expect it to be, I will quit AoE 4, pretend it didnāt come out and will check back in 3 months or so. I do not want to put all my AoE hype into the gameās state that it is in right now, but rather want to dig deep again when the game has actually received quite some changes in the right direction.
Iāve put a lot of effort in trying to communicate with Relic, giving them ideas, adressing bugs, not only in regard of HRE and I feel like it all gets ignored. Not just my stuff specifically, but all our ideas in general. They stick to the lame designs they have right now, have no courage to actually try something and leave us with this unfinished product.
If the coat of arms was not fixed by this patch for the HRE, I will actually freak out and die inside at the same time. I didnāt see anything in the patch notes, but I am also not in the mood to go ahead and look now. I am just pissed off that this patch is so lame and lackluster. Nerfing horsemen, buffing siege, leaving springalds as they are and definitely putting HRE last in the tier list is just too much for me right now.
If you a-click monks they still run into the front lines doing nothing in the process except dying. That was also not fixed, so much I know.
I am very disappointed.
Edit: I did test some things: The coat of arms is still missing. This is for me the actual proof that they do not really care about the HRE. This really annoys me. And when you improve gather inspiration from 40% to 50%, the carrying capacity of the villagers still doesnāt increase accordingly. I donāt know if that is intended or not, but it feels weird. Prelates do not try to inspire towers anymore (tested for outposts), but they still canāt inspire springalds and try to inspire mangonels, but to no avail. If mangonels around, Prelates try to inspire them and do not stop until you move them. So mangonels can actually block your army from getting inspiration. Not that it matters, because inspiration suffers from an utter ā ā ā ā mechanic and is useless anyway. Thatās all I did before I closed the game again. Didnāt feel like going any further.
