With the changes to the Age 2 age ups now live, I must say I’m very happy overall. At least for me at my level, all 5 of these options are now viable with different strategies. I trust the dev’s judgement, but I’m drunk and it’s still fun to throw out ideas for changes to the other age ups and see what everyone’s thoughts are!
If this is too long, just skip to my Age 5 idea for Texas. I’m stoked about a revamped Alamo!
Age III
New Hampshire: Well we tackle the elephant first. What to do with New Hampshire? Not only do you get a factory, but you also get 2 sweet little cannons to win the falc war. Others argue, though, that the villager equivalent to the factory is on-par with other settler shipments. If the devs do decide to nerf, it seems like the easiest way is to simply put a small cost on the card.
I propose something a little more creative: make a separate New Hampshire Factory that gathers more than a non-upgraded factory, but can’t be upgraded normally. Instead, it can be upgraded in Age 4 via a separate, more costly upgrade called “re-tooling” that also shuts down the factory for a period of time.[1] This imposes a tradeoff decision on the player: do you want to stay in Age 3 and exploit the early factory or do you want to hold off until Age 4 and get the normal factories?
Indiana: An interesting concept and it seems tempting at first, but it’s just so long to do the age up. Speed up the age up a little bit and I think it becomes a valid choice again.
Maryland: There’s very little water play at my level in Ranked Supremacy so it’s tough to say how useful this actually is. What I would personally love to see is that instead of Minutemen, the Annapolis Naval Academy allows Marines to be levied from docks instead of Minutemen. Yes, even before the US Marines card is sent. Land towers still levy Minutemen as normal.
Tennessee: This is by far the weakest age up. Are the devs trying to enable a villager push? If so then it comes so late in Age 3 and requires so many cards… I instead look at this age up as a way to maintain map control, using the outpost boost and settler combat to let those settlers stray far from home. Personally I would like to see:
- Overmountain Settlers: Increases settler attack and hitpoints, makes resources last longer, and ships 5 settlers.
- Watauga Association: Ships 2 outpost wagons, and allows State Militia to be trained from towers.
Kentucky: I actually find this one fairly useful as-is, but there are two issues. The coal mine doesn’t last very long, and it shoves you all-in on sharpshooters. You get sharpshooters with the age up and the shipment is just a massive batch of more sharpshooters. It would be great if the age-up or shipment gave you a mix with some gunslingers in there so you could mix up that composition a little bit.
Age IV
South Carolina: Good as-is.
Vermont: Controversial, but I think it’s good as-is. Maybe Green Mountain Boys could allow militia or Minutemen to be trained from mills and estates.
California: Good, but I wish the revolt costed less and allowed you to train Californios from town centers.
New Jersey: It’s my understanding that this is powerful in treaty, but seldom used in supremacy. I think if the first shipment of New Jersey Seaports came with 900 resources, that it would be used much more. As it stands it takes a lot of shipments to break even.
Ohio: Niche, but good as-is.
Age V
Illinois: Strong, but good as-is.
Connecticut: Niche, but good as-is.
New York: I would like to see it reduce the training time of mercenaries and outlaws, but otherwise it seems niche but good as-is.
Florida: I like this one whenever I’m making lots of Cavalry, but Florida Cowhunters is just so useless. You know that rancher/cowboy unit that some revolution civs get? I would love to see this shipment grant a few of those to allow you to actually ranch those cows.
Texas: Kind of underwhelming, especially for such a prideful state. I propose the following:
- Texan Forts: Forts slowly train units for free, and can now train Napoleon Guns. [2]
- The Alamo: The Alamo was a Spanish Mission, so why not ship a Spanish mission with a unique set of improvements inspired by the Alamo?
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- The Alamo itself: A church with the Spanish architecture and a ranged bombard attack like a tower. Capable of levying large numbers of Minutemen and light artillery.[2] Cannot be used as a Homecity rally point (relevant to the history of the Alamo). The overall stats should be between a tower and a fort.
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- Defend the Alamo! 20 Minutemen levy at the Alamo!
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- Remember the Alamo! The people rally! Every house musters 2 State Militia.
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That’s it folks! Hopefully you like some of these ideas, I’m most excited about the Alamo idea - hopefully y’all like it too!
Saved round: I would also love to see a card called 8th & I that allows Marines to be trained from barracks.
Footnotes
[1] The logic here is that the factory was so ahead of it’s time that in order to modernize it needs to shut down and rework most of the machinery in order to produce at the same rate of factories produced later.
[2] I’m using the Napoleon gun because it’s somewhat unique and looks more common for the era, but since the Alamo cannon was an 18 pounder and the Napoleon Gun a 12 pounder, maybe heavy cannons or horse artillery are more appropriate?