The basic concept of Age of Empires is the virtual chess pieces. Basically, players need to think of a strategy and have war tactics that are based on adaptation, critical thinking, predicting what the opponent is thinking and how he fights.
And the game has several civilizations that emphasize certain types of combat units. You can play as a civilization that has the best archers, like England, the best cavalry like France, or the best infantry like the Germans.
In addition to these units, there are variants that add more charm to the game, such as the crossbowman who serves as long-range heavy infantry, two types of cavalry, several types of infantry, etc.
And many people like me make all types of troops, be it cavalry, infantry, siege, archers, etc… I tend to play in an adaptive way, but obviously it’s very common for me to prefer to produce more units that my civilization has stronger, right?
So, these are basically the pieces on the board. Heavy infantry, pike infantry, archers, crossbowmen, cannoneers, siege weapons, warships, and the player will probably set up his strategy, but it is not a rule, he will play according to what is necessary to do.
And in the fourth era there is a new unit, the firearms. They are more modern, more expensive and have their advantages, but they do not replace the other pieces on the board, since archers destroy cannoneers, it all depends on whether the player has a good strategy and tactical perspective of combat.
The new update failed in two things that are the basis of the game. In the fourth era, infantry and cavalry pay the same amount for an update that leaves the infantry at a total disadvantage.
So that German player whose civilization has a special focus on infantry in the late game needs to change his strategy or he will be greatly harmed because he will be 10% behind the cavalry. So the way they made the infantry very weak in this update harms many players who set up an entire game thinking about a strategy and in the end are harmed by a whim of a bad update.
Melee infantry was one of the pieces on the virtual board of Age of Empires that was harmed.
The other was siege weapons.
Because the update made archers replace siege weapons, castles are falling to armies of crossbowmen and archers simply have C4 on their arrows.
So those who play France and England do not need to make siege weapons. The cavalry now has extra power at the end of the game and the archers replace the siege, archers and crossbowmen destroy buildings, destroy infantry and siege weapons.
Whoever made the update did something very particular, with a very particular vision of how the game should work. Many players who had a fondness for units like men-at-arms will reconsider play the game.
Medieval battles decided by cavalry and archers was how the Mongols fought, but all other regular armies were made up mainly of men on foot, peasants armed with swords, clubs and axes. Arrows were expensive. Heavy cavalry was for nobles, a regular medieval army had few heavy knights.
But we are playing a video game, physics and history are not that important, even so it does not justify leaving the infantry handicapped at the end of the game, cavalry declined at the end of the Middle Ages, it did not make sense to give extra power to cavalry and ranged units, expensive gunpowder units were fine to have an extra attack because it was a new technology, but the rest should remain the same.
Basically, we need to revert the update in regard range units, level the cavalry as it was and not nerf the melee units. And I think it makes more sense for a man-at-arms to break a siege weapon than archers with magic arrows that destroy literally everything in the game.
80 crossbowmen destroy wonder in 44 seconts