Cause I really don’t know what Purpose the current design has. I have no Idea why I would ever make them in Castle age.
I will just post my concept here and hopefully others will do also. Maybet there is one in it that finally givest them a role.
My Concept Idea: Make them slow moving Towers.
Yeah. Let them be usable to
A) herass opponents which try to expand their eco. Opposed to the other archers the EA is usable in low numbers (individual units) to herass cause the high HP makes them longer to be overwhealmed.
B) Garrisonable. To protect low PA units (like vills) from being killed to easily by archers. Usable both for forwards and siege bushes aswell protection to your own expansion.
The unit is good against archers but bad against Cavalry and anti-cavalry units.
How to achieve this?
First the Food cost must be lowered otherwise it’s not a seizable unit for an early castle age play. New cost: 60 F, 80 G.
Second to be good for stationary herassment it needs at least the same range as standard archery, 5. Otherwise it’s too easy to push them away from your walls + woodlines and reduce their effective herassment range even further.
Third they need to have higher speed and some conversion resistance. Otherwise again would be too easy to counter them with monk play. They are a very expensive immobile unit which usually is the ideal “target” for monks. So they just need that resistance otherwise they are unusable for that concept.
Fourth as said they get 5 garrison space. This is both for offensive as defensive utility. Especially as the new civs don’t have rams to garrison with.
Fifth to make them easier to kill in melee they get a minimum range of 1. Which makes sense if you think about it.
Sixth to make them better for herassment they need a bit more dps against vills than currently. To achieve this they now deal 1 less damage than archers but fire 2 arrows per volley. Increasing their effective DPS vs vills in castle age from 3 to 4. It’s still not much for their cost, but it’s a much needed increase. Whilst they will have basically the same DPS vs knights and Skirms.
Sevenths they gain their high PA back, but the HP decreased to make them - again - better vs archery but weaker vs cavalry, their supposed main counter.
So the stats for the Castle Age variant:
Cost: 60 F / 80 G
TT: 30-40 seconds
HP: 160
Attack: 4 Pierce x2
ROF: 2
Range: 5
Acc: 100%
Armor: 0/3 Pierce
Speed: .8
Armor classes: Archer, Cavalry Archer (0), War Elephant, Cavalry
5 Garrison Space for foot units, Conversion Resistance
Imp:
Cost: 60 F / 80 G
TT: 30-40 seconds
HP: 230
Attack: 5 Pierce x2
ROF: 2
Range: 5
Acc: 100%
Armor: 0/3 Pierce
Speed: .8
Armor classes: Archer, Cavalry Archer (0), War Elephant, Cavalry
5 Garrison Space for foot units, Conversion Resistance