you can press the small arrow left to your name on my post to see the reference
Freeborn are a bigger eco sink than sofa, at a fraction of the power and utility; and to unlock them you need to kneecap your eco??
All Things Castle
Sofa: 180 res per 26s; 12.3dps base + 1.85 bonus vs infantry; 195 hp 3/3 armor; 1.725 movement speed; heavy cav tag.
Freeborn: 125 res per 15s; 6.55 dps base + 2.91 bonus vs range; 175 hp 0/5 armor; 1.375 movement speed; infantry tag .
The only 2 advantages the freeborn has over sofa are:
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Takes no bonus dmg from standard castle units (springalds are the exception).
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Already starts with +5 range armor without needing an expensive upgrade.
One idea to rectify this expensive, niche unit is to take it out of the famriba and enlist it into the standard malian roster. Swap in a stronger donso with +1 melee armor and more bonus vs cav. And while we’re fixing the famriba… all units are unlocked immediately when built and the building has double the standard production speed.
Malians REjoice! The dev’s have heard our cries?! Now let’s see/anticipate how they answer?
My guess give the wording
Refreshing adjustments for Malians…
“refreshing” - aka something that hasnt been implement before
“adjustments” - change to an existing unit/building.
My guess? Either something to do with cows or something to do with properly countering heavy enemy frontline?
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Okey. Let’s hypothesize.
The devs said they are going to improve the feudal gameplay of Mali and Japanese.
Both are Infantry Civs and were greatly affected by the change of Elite Tactics Army in Imperial (IV).
I have a few ideas:
1.- Nerf to the mounted Samurai, they will take away some HP or attack stats so that their fast castle is not so broken.
2.- Shinobis can now be built in barracks, landmarks only unlock them.
3.- Another unique unit, Sohei warrior monk.
Oh wait, that was for Japanese. For Mali
Mali possible changes
1.- Freeborn warrior as a new unit in feudal. The Farimba version now is Mansa Freeborn warrior.
2.- Archer renamed Sofa, and Sofa renamed Farimba (It’s worth dreaming), also as new unique unit, the “poison” arrows are their ability since feudal. Poisoned Arrows now increase that damage.
3.- Musofadi warrior get the first strike ability at the beginning, a “Bonus damage” when attacking from the shadows, without the Landmark Huntress Fortress. Now the landmark only “Improve” that bonus damage.
In any case, let’s hope for the best.
Where did you hear these specifics? Feudal gameplay?
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Attention to detail!! Well done!!
HOpefully patch notes today? Patch tomorrow? copium??
My updated predictions for upcoming mali patch are:
Feudal Tower landmark will now give a discount on TC builds, and/or reduction in market plus traders.
cow boom will be staggered per age with caps and/or overall reduced to a lower count, higher food generation at an adjusted cost?
musofadi age 4 landmark double strike will now be always a permanent passive effect starting in feudal and age 4 landmark will buff the effect or the age 4 effect will be revamped.
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What makes you think it’s gonna be today?
Wishful thinking…
The seasonal event is set to end on the 12th, after being extended? Also they mentioned upcoming patch in tandem with the end of the seasonal event; so i was hopeful we’d get a sneak peak…
BUt now my guess is patch is Thursday?
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Neat changes; the pitmine gold increase appears inconsequential? Seems like filler;
otherwise Feudal Sofa buff created a few near breakpoints.
vs. Spears Early knights, keshiks, sipahi and more.
the 50 gold discount on 2nd TC? It’s early lets see if we can cook a faster timing.
Surely the increase in HP on PitMine and houses are very much welcome.
Lastly I’m convinced the springald BUFF may have leveled the Abbasid Mali MU?
The Springald buff might have leveled every MU vs Malians, as their army often consist of masses of infantry. And the Japanese new early game is a direct counter to Malians.
I hate the Springald buff and Siege as a core army component in general. It slows down your army and the game, and forces your opponent’s hand. Siege was in a great place already. The Mango nerf in Imp is welcomed though. In general, the game is much more fun when Siege is not involved.
I also hoped the Malian buffs would give it some interesting options, but they’re nothing like the Japanese buffs. I won’t start making Sofas in Feudal, or spam Musofadis in general. 2TC will still happen sometime in Castle and my early build won’t change much because Pit Mines and Houses are sturdier.
The changes to sofa has done something very amazing to one prominent feudal MU!!
Ghazi Raiders vs Sofa! Now bc of the HP and DPS change, 1 sofa can kill 2 ghazi’s at the same time!!! This is huge bc it negates delhi efficient production opening on ghazi raiders if Mali can at least produce 1 sofa for every 2 ghazi. CORRECTION 1 SOFA CAN KILL 2 GHAZIS ONE AT A TIME; NOT AT THE SAME TIME.
Next since DOF is still the more popular landmark it means donsos will be stronger than delhi spears, so cav/spear combo will favor Mali over delhi.
However it’s not completely Mali favored bc ghazi’s are faster so they can pick their fights and delhi has healing esp with DOF, so they benefit from pulling back wounded units.
IMO the adjusted meta of Mali vs Delhi is to open up immediately 2 stables, war scouts, pro scouts, then full sofa to force DOF Delhi into spears, once spears come out mix in archers. If Mali can pull off pro scouts with their 2 deer packs that should be more than enough food to mega mass sofa, contest Delhi sites and delhi pro scouts, and berry transitions.
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Aight this is the Mali aggressive anti DOF Delhi build. Obviously it will require lots of scouting.
Open up double scouts immediately, start all vils on food until your first vil trained from the tc comes out. Once that vil comes out pull 5 vils to a straggler tree to cut down 50w only then back to food. Send one of the food vils to build the pit then 2 houses and collect 10g then have that vil come back to food and remain on food.
Meanwhile do your best to keep your micro active on the 2 scouts to hopefully scoop up the majority of the sheep on the map. The goal is to have all the sheep you can find at your TC then have both scouts already hitting the Delhi mining camp in dark age while transitioning to feudal with the mansa. During the feudal transition have all vils but the 3 on food and 4-5 on landmark building cutting stragglers. You want enough wood to immediately drop a stable to upgrade warrior scouts for the 2 scouts you should already have in delhis base. I’m talking a 4:35-4:40 warrior scouts that can push Delhi off the mining. The 5min ghazi will not beat 2 scouts. So this alone might force Delhi into spears. If Delhi opens spears, you already won the pro scouts game! Transition your micro into getting pro scouts and keep massing war scouts. And adapt with archer and donsos to keep Delhi honest.
Delhi’s better option is to still open up ghazi and eventually scare you off their gold, even though this would throttle their scholar production and research timings, but at least this way they can contest Mali pro scouts. IMO Mali should respond with double stable instead of donsos, bc warrior scouts can kill ghazi at 2 scouts to 1 ghazi. Then eventually when all the deer you can get is in, switching to sofa beats 2 ghazi for every one sofa, which should at some point force Delhi into spears.
If Mali can get deer and contest sites, mali’s eco lead and superior feudal units should put Delhi in a bind.
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I’ve been having a lot of success with the free scout being upgraded at the enemy base around the 4min40s mark. Especially with pro scouts meta being what it is, denying vils on gold is huge.
Also feudal sofa are legit.
I have a faster build…
Standard Mali open 5 on wood, 1 build pit mine and houses.
Stop after 50w then go all on food. The house builder collects 10g before coming bk to tc to collect food. If you force drop you can start feudal transition Around 2:15 (French timing). Build with 4, collect food with 5 until you can afford an additional scouts, then only keep 3-4 on food the rest on stragglers. Send both scouts to enemy base mid transition and start nipping at whatever vils there, DONT GET PINCHED!!! it’s negligible before war scouts upgrade, but bc warrior scouts upgrade is coming, it’s very relevant damage!!
Bc you didn’t go full pit mine surrounded with houses, to get a respectable pro scouts timing you’ll need to put 3vils on gold. Vs most civ except French, a sofa switch will force enemy to mix spears. If they mix spears then you mix donsos, which will force them into archers. If your micro is good you can jav and snipe their archers or keep it simple and archer too.
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@Shneider177 what do you think about Malians vs Ottomans? Is it playable Castle Age onwards? I find Janissaries + Siege a pain to deal with. Seems busted now with the siege rework.
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Ottoman military prowess; both their ability to passively amass the unstoppable force and like you mentioned the shear strength of their unit roster (Jans, sipahi, mether, aoe healing; stronger siege). IMO it’s a mistake to pit “infinite” mali eco vs strong and free Ottoman military.
I would try to keep the skirmishes small, even if they are edging the bouts; at least that way your passive income can outscale their passive unit production and stagnant eco. Esp in castle since Jans murder cav and you dont have anything that can sufficiently frontline like sofa. Freeborn can hold vs range attacks, but MAA and even spearman (cost for cost) can wear them down.
Having said all that; if you can keep a frontline and can micro your posion arrow archers; Jans wont be a problem.
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After watching anochad last night, I have an idea for an ultra ultra omegalul turtle book that might work vs pro scouts FC builders??
The idea is you need to be able to secure 2 golds and at least 1 big tree line. The catch is you’ll be in feudal for a thousand years and will likely have to wall in your whole base and jav towers.
Start off regular macro but only cut 50 wood. Build the tower landmark in a defensive posture where it covers at least your gold and hopefully some wood line. You will build with only 2 builders but if you can macro correctly you should still be aged by 4:40. Meanwhile you’ll need a total of 550w 400g collected by the 4:40 so you can drop your TC asap. To do so immediately upon transition move all but 3 vils to stragglers. Then build a mining with your first 50w and send 3 vils to mining. Next a lumber camp and send all new vils to lumber. Lastly make additional houses to not be population blocked.
Build 2nd TC defensively behind your tower landmark. Obviously scout enemy so you know what it is you can actually do or not but assuming it’s pro scouts FC THEN put all but 7 vils on wood and gold. You’re gonna omega cow boom and wall your base depending on enemy tempo.
2nd TC pays off in 6mins and full cow boom pays off in 7.5min. you’ll need 2nd gold mine bc you will absolutely deplete the first and you’ll likely need to eat cows bc the map will be off limits.
Assuming a 5:30 TC, you’re in the green by 11:30 (+18vils). Assuming you get the cow boom started with at least 2 mills by 6:30, you’re in the green by 14min (~12vils worth).
Does amounts of approx vils are enough to offset anyone (but HREs) sacred site and relics. Now you just need to outproduce and hold until you can safely age.
Gonna risk all my rank to test this out tonight.
Update 2/28
I tried the build vs AI just to get the macro down and see how long it took to get 2nd tc and 20 cows. I could not start the tc building any faster than 5min and I average around 12mins to having a full cow boom. Which is too slow giving most pro scouts into FC are hitting castle at 10-11 mins with units and religious units on the field.
So my next idea is to pull back on the full cow boom before the 11min mark and go full full military in order to defend the relics and have superior military numbers to combat the castle units.
Castle guy spent 350 plus scouts on pro scouts, 1800 on aging, 200w on mosque, 150+ on monk, ~350 on veterancy. He doesn’t have my economic power but the techs, the relics, the sites, and his castle landmark might have something to say about my eco lead??
Mind you by the 11 min mark I would have invested 1650 into the 2nd TC and at least 15 cows (1350) 5 ranches 500.
So we each invested bout the same amount? Will my investments allow me to build a force that can deny him relics?? And defend my base?
I’ve not been having any success with the 2tc start…
One reason is pro scouts is that strong. The other I think is the cow boom is too slow to attempt while going 2tc. Lastly FC eco/land grab rivals whatever you hoped to achieve with 2TC.
So let’s consider what advantages 2TC could gather over the meta pro scouts FC/ALL-IN?
Pro Scouts into FC , COSTS: 350 + 65xscouts + 1800 = 2345 assuming you made 3 scouts. Excluding China’s and Rus, a 9-10min Castle is extremely conservative. Once in castle, these civs have tech and civ specific bonuses that asset with matching up the tempo; relics sites raise etc etc.
Meanwhile 2nd TC, starting at 5:40, up to the 10min mark would have cost: 800 + 50xvillagers + 50xres_depot= 1600 assuming 13 vils +1 in que and 2 resource depots. The assumption taken for granted is assuming these villagers would be constantly and safely gathering for the past 5mins?
2nd TC guy is an age behind and would absolutely need a superior military to combat the tech advantage. But does 13 ish villagers and a few hundred resources in reverse compete with pro scouts 4k+ safe food and castle techs and special civ perks? If we had feudal knights or a John dark, sure!! But instead we have Walmart knights (sofa).
It’s not looking good on paper. I’ll keep losing elo trying stuff but it looks like pro scouts, semi cow boom FC or full cow boom FC are the only viable ways to play Mali ATM.
It’s not the 2TC play I wanted but it works wonders vs pro scouts meta.
Build pit mine, scout for the Drush, if no Drush surround your pit mine then slow age.
In transition make a rax. The donsos can be used for defense or aggression on enemy mines and killing scouts. If you mega mass donsos, especially if you get a head start in the donso production then enemy has to go archers.
Meanwhile you immediately go 2nd pit mine upon age up. If you could sneak a large pit mine??? That’s worth 3.6vils worth of gold.
From there keep the pressure about their food, if you were successful in denying some level of pro scouts it means they are starving around the same times you are starving!