I’ve made several, rather many, posts about the Maltese. And that’s for three reasons–1, I don’t think they do a good job representing the Maltese/Knights of Saint John, and 2, they aren’t good for most game modes; it seems to me that their best is 2v2s, and 3v3s. 1v1’s they’re below average (last I checked) and in any late-game focused mode (4v4s, FFAs, treaty) they’re pretty well awful unless you Don’t use most Maltese units (even then they aren’t great). And even in 1v1s, they aren’t very versatile with their strategies (pike/xbow). I think their main issue is they aren’t allowed to be what they’re supposed to be–a defensive civ. This is in large part because the AOE3 comp community is mostly people who want sub-20-minute games and for a defensive civ to exist you have to be able to go longer than that. I’m not sure how to fix that issue because Malta Should be a defensive civ thematically/historically. Originally, Malta could quite consistently carry out their defensive plan, due to their OP culv and probably OP fixed gun. But now with nerfs to those (which was good), they don’t feel like the defensive civ they were made to be (to me at least). But rather, if I want to consistently do well, I’m forced to Xbow/Pike, or in late-game, use pretty much just other civs units (with a few hospitallers).
My third issue with them is they feel like what they probably were, cheaply made. They’re quite simply a ton of re-used assets. Hospitals, Hospitallers, fixed guns, commanderies, depots, fire throwers; other than Sentinels, everything unique about them is re-used assets. I don’t wish to simply complain about them–some (most) of these assets work fine for Malta. But I wish that it wasn’t All re-used (except sentinels). And what’s even sadder is that their one truly unique unit is, well, not really that good. And even their other two “unique” units are barely used either.
I don’t think the devs will fix these issues (issues in my mind). So this post may be a complete waste of time. But, in the small chance that they might rework them, I’d like to give some ideas, which I think would make them more historically accurate, more unique, and ultimately more fun.
I think I should first lay some groundwork for what the Maltese should be broadly just for context for my redesign. As stated they should be a Defensive civ. This does not mean they should have no offensive capabilities–I think the Xbow/Crossbow can stay with minor changes. But Defense and map control should be their main focus. I think this defense should be built around Towers, and High-pop but good units (good around defenses)–things such as the fixed gun should not be how they survive. You may say that they already have a focus on towers (outposts) and this is somewhat true. Wignacourt is great and De Redin is fine, but there isn’t actually anything unique about the outposts themselves (I could mention fire towers but that card is terrible).
To make the tower focus clear, Malta will be receiving a new building. The “Tower” will replace the Outpost and will be a mix between the African palace, Asian castle, and the standard outpost. Most information on these towers came from this website, Malta’s coastal watch towers and their part in the fortifications (maltauncovered.com) They should be around the size of a castle and I think their cost should be 350 wood (No coin cost is a nod to the Grandmasters themselves personally paying for their construction). Their damage will start like similar buildings with the standard 30 damage and 1.5 vs cav and they’ll have 3000 hp like the castle. They’ll have 3 main cards and a couple of unique upgrades to boost them through the ages. They can garrison up to two sentinels inside who will fire a secondary shot equal to their damage (they will also share the range). Having more sentinels increases this attack’s rate of fire by .5 each (so 2.5 with 2 inside. The idea is that they’re taking turns fireing).
Age 2 “Wignacourt Constructions” will stay as is except that it will increase your tower build limit from 5 to 7 (extensive fortifications will be removed).
Age 3 will get a new card “Lascaris Towers” which will decrease the Tower’s cost but also their HP (because Lascaris built more but smaller towers). It will increase your build limit from 7 to 11.
Age 4 will get the reworked “De Redin Towers”. This card will like the others increase your build limit (11 to 13). But you’ll also now be able to garrison up to 4 sentinels inside (De Redin made it so each tower would at least have 4 men garrisoned inside). Thereby allowing you to decrease the secondary attack’s rate of fire down to 1.5. Your basic attack now deals a small area attack (De Redin mounted each with a small cannon).
The Tower will have basic HP upgrades but it will also have two unique upgrades. Age 3 “Warning System” When a Tower is attacked, production buildings that are nearby Towers train units faster for a time. This would be a relatively short boost and have a universal cooldown. Age 4 they would have the “Wall guns” upgrade (card no longer exists). This would increase the range of the Tower’s secondary attack and cause it to deal siege damage.
To balance out these changes the sentinel will get reworked a bit. One thing not represented at all is the Knight’s major use of the Arquebusier during the siege of Malta. So, age 2-3 that is what the sentinel will use. All this will do is give them a slightly worse animation (forcing them to be a more in-base stand-and-shoot unit (which they were). Age 4 they will switch to a standard musket. The flintlock rocket ability will be removed but the cards attack and hp boost will stay. The card would need a new name, and maybe slightly nerfed so towers aren’t too OP. To be fair the Arquebusier and the Sentinel should be two different unique units but I don’t want to ask for too much XD.
I have some other thoughts of things that might be cool as well. Being able to upgrade the commadary (which looks quite boring right now) would be good IMO. The Russian Tongue should be removed. Something should be done with this fun fact “The larger part of the troops of the army of the Order was the land infantry. Apart from a pole arm and other accoutrements, each soldier was armed with a sword. Most of them were specialised through intensive training in sword fighting while others excelled in the use of the pike or other pole arms.”.
There are other things that could be added and changed but I think at least some of these ideas (mainly the tower thing) would be great and fun.
