Well I dont think I have to explain too much, why I feel like cumans need a buff.
They have a pretty generic military with no economic bonusses, except for one that requires to follow a particular strategy that is easily countered on all semi open maps and still having below 50% win rate on Arena.
So to compete with other civs, you either have to simply play better than the opponent, or you have to go for the two tc boom, a boring, one dimensional, easy to counter strategy.
So my idea is to buff their early game without affecting their two tc boom, or late game power.
My idea is in the same vein, as the recent Saracen rework, which I actually quite liked. Take the power from a unique tech and redistribute between the tech and a native bonus:
Reduce the bonus from Steppe Husbandry from 100% to 70% training time reduction for Scout cavalry, Steppe lancers and Cavalry archers, and give the Cumans a civ bonus, that natively reduces the training time of these units by 30%. This way Cumans can execute a decent scout rush that actually has an edge over other civs scout rushes, with the fastest producing scouts in feudal age (23 vs 30 seconds).
I don’t think it gives them a huge advantage (its not supposed to), but it gives them a slight edge that should enable them to do something else than just the two tc boom.
I could also potentially see to extend the civ bonus (not the tech) to affect camels as well. Cumans do not get heavy camels, so they are not a unit they want to go for in the long run anyways, but reducing the training time from 22 to 17 seconds for them might give them a nice boost in early castle age as well.
Stable units 5% faster in feudal, +10% faster in castle age which means their Stable’s units get their full speed (15% speed) in castle age, not 5% each age.
Recive heavy camel upgrade.
Cuman Mercenary UT
This UT need to be removed completely and give them something better.
Cumans would be incredibly OP. Also this is not a general cuman buff idea thread. I proposed a specific buff and gave reasons, why I consider that buff to be appropriate. Please stay on topic.
I agree with the rest, the Elite upgrade is one of the most expensive ones, howver. It just doesnt cost any gold.
Elite kipchak 2100 ressources, Elite camel archer 1500 ressources, Elite Mangudai 1775 ressources.
Anyways. I think all the cuman units are fine. Their main problem really is the lack of an early game bonus if you dont go for the two tc boom, which is why I am aiming to buff that part of their game.
I don’t think redistributing Steppe Husbandry would give Cumans a much needed buff in anyway. Production speed only matters when you have enough economy to sustain it and Cumans just don’t have it in feudal age. Yes, you could go for double TC boom to bump up your eco but by the time you finish that set up, your opponents would have probably finished up their defense or already knocking down on your palisade walls with feudal age army. Unless Cumans do get some sort of eco civ bonus other than god-awful double feudal TC, I don’t think your suggestion would mean anything.
Sarracens also received a buff with DE: Cheaper markets. This buff made it easier to use their market civ bonus.
I think they should receive a similar tiny help through cheaper blacksmiths. This would help them to ram rush by decreasing the wood expenses, or for scout rushs or archer rushes.
Regarding your proposed buff, huns already have faster stables, so they would feel similar to huns (despite no dark age eco bonus) in feudal age. However, in castle age huns can go for fast knights, but cumans could go for fast cav archers or steppe lancers instead. I would like to see this in action.
This may be really strong, since their scouts are also 5% faster, meaning that the cumans scout rush will be super fast to hit the enemy, it may become even stronger than franks or huns scouts, and more versitile than the mongols one.
Useless bonus (Only Militia will be affected in Dark Age, plus too expensive techs) and stupidly broken (Feudal age and castle age will be messed up thanks to them).
Interesting idea! Totally agree! Actually what about making it 50-50? It seems even better and it will give them a very deadly power spike, but to add more stuff, I really think their second UT need a change and maybe little buff for the Kipchak like +1 attack or reducing ROF.
50% faster production of scouts, steppe lancers, and cav archers for free is way to strong of a bonus. it would mean they could get cav archers out in roughly 23 seconds in early castle age. it means scouts come out in 20 seconds.
I think as MatCauthon already said, 50/50 would be too strong. I initially thought about 40/60 but I think going 30/70 is safer.
I agree that their Imperial UU is pretty useless. The Kipchak is mostly fine, I just think they went a bit overboard with its attack delay. 0 obviously was too op, but I think they should still have less attack delay than the mangudai, as they are the more squishy, faster version, they should be easier to micro as well. I think it should be okay, to give them the same attack delay as the crossbow instead.
Giving Cumans a better TB feels pretty dumb when the TB was literally nerfed in last patch. Walking back-and-forth on details/decisions like this is usually not a good sign…
