superior in what way? no chinese player will try to fight SM with a flying crow so like whats the point in making that comparison?
and with one in age 3 flying crow still only has 256 attack vs the 300 of the SM and still lower HP
even if the SM has lower attack speed it has 5 extra range so it doesnt even need to engage the flying crow
edit: like I can say that to compare the stats to say that its a viable unit for ethiopian but to then say that the flying crow is somehow better is just bad
Next patch the SM does 600 damage vs buildings with 6 rof in age 3. 2 falconets do 400 damage vs buildings with 4 rof. In 12 seconds the both the mortar and the 2 falcs will do 1200 damage. Against walls the SM will do
1500 damage against walls in 12 seconds. You are right about the 3x infantry damage however I have no clue how the extra aoe factors into things.
For reference here is the unit on the pup in age 3 with no additional upgrades:
Here is the unit in age 5 with no additional upgrades:
I guess I should have been more specific. I meant the 14 cannoneer shipment. I have been able to absolutely wreck a Spain FF 2 falc push with this shipment by sending 700 influence in transition so it can be the first shipment I send in age 3 while massing javelin riders behind it. It is like an FF I first saw Routline who is a better player than me do and it seems to work at his level as well (he does it with desert outlaws instead of javelin riders) I haven’t played enough of the pup to know how much the javelin rider nerf impacts their anti artillery capabilities but even after the nerf it will have more hp and dps than a Ruyter with a better artillery multiplier.
The attack stats are not comparable if you don’t adjust for DPS. With a card, Flying Crows have higher DPS. The Sebastopol Mortar has more health and a lot more range, but is still worse in every other regard. Since a SM only does x0.1 vs artillery (improving to x0.25 next patch), a Flying Crow will beat it head to head.
Considering their cost, a SM should be much better than a Flying Crow, but in practice they only have a slight advantage.
I’d say that points toward the unit being severely underpowered. Compared to 2 falcs, the SM has marginally more range, health, and attack versus walls (which you probably won’t see in age 3), and only takes up 8 pop. But vs regular buildings, they have the same DPS, and 2 falcs do triple the damage vs units.
Overall, a Sebastopol Mortar costs as much as getting both a Falconet and a Mortar but has only half the DPS of the 2 units combined.
I don’t doubt this works, but 14 Cannoneers is almost double the cost of 2 Falconets. Ethiopia having to spend nearly twice as many resources to counter what a Euro civ spent on artillery is pretty par for the course.
This is the unfortunate reality for the african civs. Sure there are ways to counter a 2 falc shipment like 14 cannoneers or 5 senna horsemen but those cost an additional 1000 res on top of the shipment while 2 falcs is just a shipment. Before we had javelin riders which are unfortunately getting nerfed, hopefully they’ll still be effective or perhaps now their combat card will be a must send upon reaching age 3, the changes to oromo could make them a viable option for dealing with artillery the only issue is the ability delaying them going into melee but you can just waste it on a tresure guardian or something I guess.