Many of these have been improved by a lot, especially the church cards (and their techs). Underwhelming advanced building cards now give a building wagon. These cards are now at least decent in their value. They may still excluded from most decks because they are “not good enough”, rather than useless.
However there are still cards that I feel useless even in pve:
Sumptuary Laws
Grazing
Zen Diet
Hero upgrades
Anything related to healing and surgeon (including Nightingale)
Great card, but I would strengthen it. for 70 coins. There must be inflation there damn it.
The problem with the card is not the card itself, but the uselessness of the unit it improves.
There are few treasures in the game and they are weak. This card doesn’t pay for itself. You can increase heroic damage with this card to 300%, move it to age 3 and then it will work. Also for the Spaniards, Aztecs, Inca and India, this card should improve pets (quantity for example).
Healing is useless in this game (hello Malta!!!) because units die too quickly and not everyone has promotion. I sometimes use one priest if I have 20 heavily wounded people or cannons at age 3. But I don’t need cards for this)))
out of all the hero/explorer cards my fav is Mountain Warrior for Japan. Straight up doubles treasure rewards and the Japanese monk pair are already probably the best explorers for treasure hunting. You can turn a lot of the tiny treasures into serious res and can start nabbing the really valuable ones from age 1. Compared to that card all the other hero cards are memes (I do enjoy buffing the Chinese monk as well though, just for funnies)
the russian one is also very strong situationally, I’ve used it many times. The madlad just shreds guardians after, you can take almost any treaure with it.
There are several cards related to healing that are worth it even if mostly outside of 1v1.
And I don’t know what got into you to add hero upgrades but calling them useless is uneducated at best.
I love how almost all of this is nonsense XD
btw spanish Gold has been nerfed and buffed multiple times now - it was 400c as you suggest here and that was too much.
Those cards are more niche builds not for “standard” play; they work when used for the right build/ situation/ map/ civ vs civ. Healing and hero cards vary from civ to civ but both are most effect in 1v1 then in team/treaty games( ill exclude lakota hero card because of the strong mid-to-late game anti art bonus that the hero can get and would VERY rarely be used as my first age 1 card but none the less a great hero card).
The best age 1 hero cards would be in my opinion would be
Italy, might not seem all that powerful at first but if you first look at all the age 1 cards that Italy has this stands out a lot in what it can do; it arrives fast making it so that you can get treasures you wouldnt be able to early on(with a chance of some being gold/wood and getting more market upgrades= more vils early on) and with the movement speed and the faster grab and you can find more treasures that you would not have been able to get AND also steal treasures from your enemies AND kill there explorer on top of the steal AND kill any forward vils with the dog as it does not have any negative multipliers to vils AND use your explorer to slow fleeing units more effectively then other explorers. (This one is very micro intensive early on in order to maximize its value not nub friendly)
2.Spanish, as they have more shipments then other civs and can afford to use more age 1 cards then other civs and effects there war dogs and can be a combo with there logistician age up giving it more value. (recommended for rushing or even defending against a rush)
Japan, can be either the strongest or weakest as it really depends on the map and luck as they have OTHER age 1 cards that CAN be more effective consistently regardless of map, but if you know your maps well enough it can be a power house. (recommended for team games as there are more treasures of value to find consistently)
4.Inca/Aztec, sigh. Annoying bullet sponge! Once the priest/healers are up and running they can just pop them right back into the fight. Not a first age 1 card i would play but maybe second or third depending on the situation/map. (recommended for those who like to play with community plaza shenanigans)
India , similar to Spanish as they get the ability to make pet tigers like war dogs but there are better age 1 cards that would be better and india needs more exp then other civs for each shipment. (recommended for rushing and maybe even defending a rush as you can make more tigers then you would with war dogs that can body block units)
So far ive only found healing to be useful in fast cav rushes as in running into enemy town centers to force a garrison and slowly peeling away my cav 1 by 1 and then healing them up later with a healer shipment (yes, i do keep a healer shipment in age 2 depending on how well my raiding/force garrison gos and on what strategy im going/feeling with). Or having done a FF and i have wounded artillery sill alive after a battle. The best early game heals is hands down the Mexican padra and for only 300 resource you can get him the aoe heal feels a little strong to be honest but not enough people use it or know of it or forget about it that would force/need a change of it(yet), ALSO heals allies to.
