I was really thinking about this topic this last week and I wanted to put down what I would consider my minimalist list of things to adjust for india that would have minimal affect on current 1v1 balance.
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Professional handlers > mahout decreased by 2 population (from 1) . I think most people can probably agree with this. It would greatly improve the unit’s viability in age 5 when everyone is at or near 200 pop. I’ve never known anyone decent with india to use that card 1v1 so likely not controversial
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Grazing. Camels trickle food, elephants trickle wood and sacred cows trickle (coin?). this card is so bad, this would give it additional functionality and would buff the civs lategame eco. it shouldn’t be terribly relevant to 1v1,except on like, araucania llama spawn- (but india already can get back to back shipments for 14+ min there so that’s not my balance problem) assuming it would have to affect all livestock, it could just be cows maybe?Also plays into the unique sacred field mechanic.
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Jat lancer > 3 pop. ez fix to that unit and makes them almost worth using from the atonement card. almost.
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Consulate church. This could be an ottoman consulate Mosque, or the dutch consulate. dutch has lots of effects from the arsenal so it would be risker, adding a Mosque to the otto cons affects india only and would normalize their train time. this would require dropping the riding school lite™ from “terror charge” but would otherwise be hopefully minimally impactful for 1v1. Normalized train times would be very welcome.
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Karni aura > act on current rate instead of base rate. this would make the aura much more noticeable on imperial teched vills and much less like 1/3 of an age 1 card. wouldn’t drastically change its effects in age 2/3/4