A big reason why melee infantry natives are bad is because melee infantry is bad. That needs to be reworked first IMO then this can be revaluated. However rather then pick any one group to change I’d like to change the mechanic as a whole.
Are you the Peachrocks from the old AgeSanctuary? Accurate and wise pov!
That is one of the things I dislike in AOE3: The matches are basically decided by goons and skirmishes.
Adding both melee and ranged armor like AOM to some units is something that should have been tested a long time ago along with tweaking the overall in-game concepts that makes hand units useless (speed, armors, range, bonus).
This way the natives function as an actual alliance rather then being something you need to spend resources on feeding and also addresses the issue of them being your entire army
I’ve said several times:
-
Create a new trading post exclusively for Native Settlements: A Native Trading Post (NTP) which would cost less than our Route Trading Posts (RTP). 150wood. It trickles a tiny amount of xp, lower than Church.
All conditions of a TP apply to both NTP and RTP like “Advanced Trading Post” card. -
Remove Native Embassy from settlers’ building grid and make it available EXCLUSIVELY as a travois /wagon/rickshaw from NTPs and Town Centers and reduce its cost (50w).
It makes no sense holding a slot for a situational building locked by the construction of another situational building. -
Remove “The Inventor” on Commerce Age and give us an actual useful Politician (The Ambassador, The Translator, The Emissary, The Guide…) based on natives : NTP wagon + native villagers, XP resource, healer, random resource depending on your civ, whatever…
Those three points alone would already hit the core of issues and improve them. Then it’s just balance and reworking/adding techs. There is absolutely no reason in spending 200w in a place far away from your base and still wasting 100w to train units closer to to your base.