Plumes still barely see any play when compared to Obuchs or most UUs that are considered to be viable and are a worse unit in imp than arbs if you play Mayans properly (aka use the castle age momentum and early imp powerspike to steamroll everythinh.
Plummes are only better if the enemy manages to field something that manages to get upon their arbs in enough numbers to hurt Mayans and normaly Mayans dont let enemies get there.
Its strong but let Plummes rest at least until you nerf the much stronger Mayan archer line
The proposed approach would give the archer the following advantages: #1, Can be massed from Feudal age #2. Costs less wood⊠Wood is more important early game. #3. Does not require a Castle and Yeomen to make from archery range
Maybe Longbowmen take more time to be created from the archery range to balance this.
The archer line is superior in Feudal - mid Castle. On the way to Imperial age, the Longbowman starts to look better.
I am not 100% sure about this, mate. An Elite longbowman also does 4 damage per arrow instead of 3. I guess if you have a lot of halberdiers on the field, it does not matter anyway.
Longbows also have a certain upgrade cost for making them elite⊠thatâs also a thing. Youâre right. 3 Castles should be good enough to make them.
Yes. I agree. Plumes are OP and theyâre also cheap.
True, People do Arbs in Arabia to keep the momentum as you said. But once game stabilizes, plumes is the better option for later stages of the game and upgrading to elite doesnât cost you gold. You get a lot of hp, mobility and army value compared to arbs.
Right, because why would pros use a less fragile unit with greater mobility and higher damage output if they can use Arbalests.
Besides only the wood cost being whatâs noticeably higher for Plumes.
aM vs GL ROTC finals African clearing, Tatoh vs Viper WWC semis houseboat, Dogao vs Nicov DWL loser bracket semis Arabia, Daut vs Jordan DWL valley. Lot of such games where its not a fully open aggressive map, players switch into plums. Obviously on Kotd-4 style Arabia or empire wars maps it might not be quite suitable.
Castles make any unit that require them as a prerequisite for production worse. Castle production is expensive, and even if the unit is fully worth the cost, your castles must often make trebs and research upgrades. Further, upgrades for unique units are an extra hurdle to clear before the investment is worth it, and those unique upgrades again compete for very limited castle production time.
Mayans go Crossbow because getting 650 stone means having a lot fewer villagers and/or archers on the field to apply pressure and secure map control. Further, eagles are a thing they need to consider, and itâs impossible to transition into both eagles and save up for castles ~> plumes at the same time. (well, I mean, you can, but itâll result in you doing both of these things extremely poorly and probably lose trying)
There are plenty of cases where mayans go plumes immediately in castle age, but usually itâs a map+matchup decision, like Dautâs FC plumes against Liereyy in RBW3. Plumes are great, but they arenât civi-defining like the Mangudai is for the Mongols, the Huskarl for the Goths, or the Chuks for the Chinese. Youâll definitely see plenty of games where the Plume, if itâs used, is more of an afterthought than anything. Committing to Xbow in castle age allows for better pressure early and more tech flexibility.
And that doesnât kill the fact that Elite Plumes offer too much for its cost.
They are fine in castle age but way too annoying to deal with in Imperial age (btw they can survive 1 direct hit from onager).
In theory, Plumed Archer is trash. It has lower damage than Arbalest and it cost 50% more total resources than Arbalest. Even gold cost is +22% higher (39 vs 32). Its speed (1.2) also no where near as Elite Eagle Warrior (1.43) or Cav archer (1.54). However, Plumed is still very good unit in raiding, bu generally speaking it isnât OP unit at all.
On the other hand, Rattan Archer is OP in team games. It has more damage than Arbalest and invincible to arrow fire.
Arbalest upgrade is 300f 350g and 50 seconds. It is very cheap. Crossbowman upgrade is also very cheap, 125f 75g and 35 seconds. Plumed Archer elite upgrade is 700f 1000w which is by far expensive than Arbalest upgrade.
+25 hp, +2 PA and +25% speed is good but in return, you gain more expensive and lesser damage unit. It is trade offf, however Rattan Archer and Longbowman is better than Arbalest in every way.
