Well you can think that what I want is spear-using soldiers in Barracks can counter archers by melee and spear-using soldiers in Archery Ranges can counter horsemen by ranged, so that means the 2 units may have to receive lots of stats tweaks. Armors, speed, attack bonus… They would be basically equivalent to 2 unique units if they are really too far from the original.
I did not read the entire thread so I apologise for anything that was already mentioned. These bonuses are all from my recent attempts to come up with made up Civs.
I also grouped the bonuses up for better readability.
Longer lasting recouces:
Gold Mines last lonnger (for a Civ that is reliant on Gold income)
Stone Mines last longer (for a Defensive Civ)
Trees last longer (probably a too strong water bonus)
Free techs:
Ballistics free (strong bonus for an Archer Civ)
Devotion and Faith free
Careening and Dry Dock free
Fletching, Bodkin Arrow and Bracer free (cannot be given to an Archer or Navel Civ)
Demo Ships and Petards return their gold cost upon death
Infantry returns part of their cost upon death
(These bonuses failed in the past, but here I specifically put them on units, which are designed around being expendable)
Every time you kill an economic unit (villagers, trade units, fishing ships), receive 50% of said units cost
Tech modifications:
Villagers benfit from Barrack technologies (Supplies, Gambasons, Squire, Arson) starting in castle age (powerful Civ defining eco bonus)
Gambason and supplies apply to all infantry units (powerful Bonus for a Civ with an infantry unique unit)
Dock technologies (Careening, Dry Dock, Gillnets, Shipwright) give double the benefit (powerful late game water and hybrid bonus)
Wheelbarrow and Handcard give double the benefit (powerful eco bonus)
Town watch and town patrol give an additional +2 LOS
Techs and units available earlier:
Careening and Dry Dock available 1 age earlier
none unique castle technologies available 1 age earlier
Other:
Monks are created 50% faster in castle ans 100% faster in Imperial age
Convert the wood cost of infanry units into an additional food cost (niche)
Hunters and Sheperds do not need to drop of recouces (would be too weak individually)
a unique tech which can be researched repeatedly and grants the entire team food per villager with every research (difficult to balance)
Constructing archery ranges and stables grants you a free herdable (minor eco bonus which rewards aggressive play)
Cavalry deals bonus damage against units below a certain healt threshhold (may not entirely fit AoE2)
A unique tech which unlocks your castle unique unit in your Teams military buildings
Complex Civ defining bonuses:
all food types can be dropped of at docks (and towers) and yield an additional 10%
(This bonus essentially forces the player to contest any water he can get his hands on to set up an economy around it. The towers are included because, it needs to be at least somewhat usable on landlocked maps, otherwise the Civ would polarise to heavily.)
Villagers produce 50% faster, cost -50% and work 10% slower
(This Civ bonus essentially forces the player to use the overwhelming economic advantage this bonus provides in the early to mid game to close out the game as fast as possible, otherwise he will inevitably lose, because of the POP ineffiecincy of the villagers. One could give this Civ an unique tech that would improve the work rate of the villagers to only 5% wose than average, to make the lategame economy slightly less bad)
only needs to research the most current upgrade on a given upgrade path, determined by the current age, but needs to pay the combined gold cost of the previous upgrades additonally
Example 1: I’m in Imp and want to tech into Archers and have no Archer defense upgrades. Now I only need to research Ring Archer Armor, but with an additional 150 goldcost from leather archer armor
Example 2: I’m in castle age and forgot to do the wood upgrades. Now I can just research bow saw and skip double bit axe (still gain the benfits) and at no additional cost, because double bit axe does not cost Gold
Example 3: I just reached Imp and want to upgrade my current knight mass. I cannot upgrade them to chavalier, because the most current upgrade on the path would be the paladin upgrade. Now I can commit to paladins and save the upgrade 80s upgrade time and #### cost cavalier, but I need to have enough recouces to actually afford the upgrade and can’t go the middle road and just tech into cavalier.
(This would be a completly Civ warping bonus that can be both overpowerd or an outright hinderance depending on the situation)
Unique Buildings:
A TC like unique building:
cost: 275f/50st
a bit more durable than military buildings
no garrison space or arrowfire
produces villagers at 10% slower than TCs
10% more food dropped of at this building
A unique building unlocked in Imperial Age
cost: 300w/300st
about as durable as a siege workshop
allows you to train the castle unique units (elite version) of all the other Civs in the current game, but they produce 20% slower and cost 10% more
(Tech tree needs to have some notable gaps to ensure that none of the unique units get compltly out of control)