First of all, thank you devs! This is what I and many others have suggested before, but you were probably planning it all along eh?
The card is great fun, allowing people to personalize their German play as they prefer. It does have some small issues though, which I will adres further below.
Options in order I deem them strongest:
Hannover
The Totenkopf Hussar are a nice addition to your Uhlan mass and the Black Brunswicker is a good Musketeer overall. Though it does conflict a bit with the circle army card. You also get acces to drummers, who need Tilly’s discipline anyway?
Wettin
10 Trabant and 10 Cuirasiers. 2 pretty good units but compared to 30 musketeers, 10 trabants feels a bit bad… but we all know we are here for those Cuirasiers anway right? They do conflict a bit with the circle army.
Oldenburg The Danish present you with a skirmisher that can hunt for food while not needed for combat making Oldenburg a economic option as well as a military one. Having an embassy acting as some sort of semi town center is pretty strong. EDIT: They cant hunt apparantly…combined with being 2 pop that knocks Oldenburg down quite a bit . I had them as a solid nr1 before. /sadface
The Northern musketeer is an affordable Musketeer that can easily be spammed. Very strong with the Germans. If only this version spoke Danish instead of Russian, that would make the theme stronger I think?
Habsburg
the Mounted infantry are pretty good in age II, and the Line infantry are another 30 musk option. However they do conflict with the age IV infinite Line infantry card. If you want to use that, it’s perhaps better to avoid the Habsburg unfortunately. Mounted infantry also conflict with circle army.
Wittelsbach
While not bad perse, 15 skirmishers is pretty good in age II. The Chevauleger can also be obtained in your stables with the princely Bavarian chevaulegers card. Skirm/goon is a good unit comp but also the standard one for Germans previously, so this doesnt offer something new. Age II skirms might put them over Habsburg perhaps, not sure.
My main issue with the card is the conflicts it has with infinite native shipments. Circle army and the INF Line infantry.
But I also would like to see it come with a flag change for you HC, showing off your allegiance. I’d also prefer to just build these units in the barracks/stables without build limits… but perhaps that’s too strong.
Oldenburg hunters from this card can’t hunt, so no eco option.
Musks are nice for German, so either Habsburgs or Oldenburg, but they got Irish Brigadiers as merc shipment or Landwehr swap.
Cavalry combat and Cavalry hitpoints does affect Chevaulegers, but not Saxon Cavalry, and neither Lizzipaner Cavalry. TEAM cavalry attack and Spanish Cavalry does. If everything affected Cuirassiers, it would be like: 45% more attack, 45% hp, 10% more speed, and cost can be reduced a 25% with Native Warriors. But the problem is their low creation limit.
Hanover has musk as well. And the age IV infinite 14 line infantry card still follows the 30 build limit so you can send it twice for 28 no pop Line infantry. If you go Oldenburg or Hanover you can get up to 60 Musketeer this way.
im going with oldenburg - tried it out today and i really like landwehr + northern musketeers. Its so incredibly cheap O.O Most german strategies are very coin heavy, so its a nice change to do some food + wood gameplay. I add in the line infantry shipments + some culvs. Only downside are the hunters, atleast make them batchtrain…
wettin and hanover are nice too. 1 pop heavy cav is helping the pop-heavy german army a lot.
i dont like habsburg and wittelsbach, because they dont really offer me something ‘new’.
Yeah wittelsbach seems a bit pointless, basically gives you a regular skirm and those dragoons which you can get with a card anyway.
I’ve just been reading up on these units on the wiki and habsburg sounds quite good, the mounted infantry are like ranged lancers and the line infantry have range resist and can change stance to get 20% range resist or 10% siege resist IIRC, sounds like a solid musk.
Wettin seems of little use, some expensive pikes and a few cuirassiers which cost wood.
Hannover is what is calling me the most for those black brunswickers, I’m going to annoy the hell out of people with those, they’re faster than ashigaru and fire fast as well.
Getting the first two techs would certainly shake things up somewhat.
But French dont get a choice, while Germans have 5 options. Thats probably the reason why they dont get the techs. Should be easy to mod in though.
Which would be the best option with 2 techs available?
Yeah Hanover is probably the best one, combine the drummer with advanced arsenal and tilly’s discipline, your entire army moves at like 6 speed
It basically will allow you to negate the effect of soligen steel for super max dopps
also …and i think this might be a bug, but the infinite line infantry shipment in age 4 has a build limit of 30, probably to align it with the prince electors card, but as long as you dont select Habsburg, they never cost pop, so you get 30 units from the infnite shipment instead of the regular number
so you can just go full muskets with the black brunswick, guard line infanty with skirm support, all with faster ROF and like 6 movement speed
Its because the sendable card version of the line infantry that is used for both the Habsburg alliance and the infinite card have a build limit of 30 in the files.
If unintended this could be fixed by reducing that build limit and having the Habsburg alliance increases that limit to 30 again.
Or creating a third version of the line infantry in the files specifically for either card. That way they wont get in each other’s way anymore as well, making the card actually viable if you went Habsburg alliance.
Theres more card that Im not sure are bugged or not. Like the age IV saxon cuirassiers. They dont get their guard upgrade like usual age IV native cards. Probably a bug? Or an oversight?
With the recent patch Line infantry build limit is capped at 15.
Its probably to not let you send the infinite card twice, but it kinda destroys Habsburg as a musketeer option for the prince electors. Just add the infinite card if you just wanted the line infantry.
Hanover still remains as the best option imo. Followed by Wettin for those 2 pop cuirasiers.
Oldenburg royal hunters still dont batch train and are 2 pop for some reason, although the northern musks are nice and spammable.
Habsburg has been nerfed and Wittelsbach doesnt really offer something new to your roster.