On the surface, the Abbasids looks like an adaptable, jack-of-all-trade, civilization. But in reality, there’s only one way to play them, and that’s Economy wing-multiple-TownCenter-boom. Play them in any other way and you won’t fair well.
There’s no point in having multiple choice of wings to choose from when you are forced to follow the set formula of:
Economy->Culture->Military.
The player should experience more intense decision making when aging up.
To make that possible, there is a need for buffing the other wings to make them more appealing candidates. Here are my thoughts:
Boot camp gives an additional +1/+1 armor to infantry and make military buildings cost -50 wood. Or something like that to give the Abbasids the possibility for early aggression completely changing how early Abbasids play if you go for military wing for feudal.
Military wing or camel wing? Two of the upgrades in the military wing is for camels. Those upgrades should be moved to another building and replaced with something more universal. For example, instead of camel rider shields, we move it in favor for an upgrade like boot camp but for cavalry? Increasing their health by 15% and grants them +1/+1 armor. This way military wing looks appealing for castle age up.
In the Culture wing, change “preservation of knowledge” to “preservation of knowledge and faith.” It combines “preservation of knowledge” from the feudal age with “faith” from imperial age. In addition to the discounts, it would allow the Abbasid player to build mosques in the feudal age and grant the faith ability to imams. This would complement the religious emphasis of the actual Abbasid caliphate and gives us other ways to play Abbasids in feudal. Besides, nobody uses faith in imperial age.
What do you guys think? Do the Abbasid feel like a one trick pony (or in this case camel) to you?
I saw beasty and Mista opening with culture and mili on hybrid map. They are going to fish, they don’t need villagers and multiple tc, so economy wings is useless
I am on board with this post. I have also made posts recently loathing the new camels. The camel armor aura from imperial tier military wing used to be in the feudal tier. Camels were freaking awesome back then because it gave them a support factor that allowed early aggression that honestly wasn’t too crazy because players can just kill the camel to end the aura. After they moved the aura to imperial age it’s like a mere back thought, something that won’t even come up 90% of games. The compensation of raising camel archer’s damage is not as interesting or effective. Specifically vs early armored targets, high damage on camel archer is not as useful as having armor support aura on spearmen.
Was the old aura +2/2 ? I agree 1/1 is more appropriate. But if you just give it to the infantry then it doesn’t really make the camels more relevant.
I would like to see Camel Rider Shields (+3 melee armor) apply to camel archers as well. Right now the armor upgrade is just for camel riders and they already have an armor upgrade in the stable called “Camel Rider Barding” +2 armor. Do we really need two separate armor upgrades that are only for Riders and exclude archers? Plus, the net armor from the stables upgrade is more than the upgrade from the landmark. Shouldn’t the landmark give a noticeably stronger bonus than something redundant that I can just get from the stables?
This would be cool. I admit I never use that upgrade for imam single conversion even once. I’m not sure making it available in Feudal would make me use it more.
No? In the early game there are less units. Converting one unit out of a band of ten in the early game will have more of an impact than converting one out of 50 in the late game. Maybe we can see the return of Saracen’s monk rush!
just having imams available in feudal to heal a feudal army would be huge, way more than converting a unit here or there. It’s what I like about Ottomans, getting the early heals is major when it’s just 10 units in an army like you said.
They should just change that single conversion bonus to -50% cooldown on aoe wololo. Or an upgrade to make the aoe wololo able to convert siege, that’d be scary and make you wonder which wing the Abba player took.
The 15% health boost is trash IMO. Feudal infantry have <100 hp. It adds 1-2 attacks of survivability. Basically nothing when you’re facing an enemy TC shooting arrows every second. Archers are the primary feudal unit and they overkill like crazy as it is; +15% hp infantry are just as likely to be killed in one volley as they are without the buff.
well it gives you very superior spearmen. sometimes i like to go for raiding with spearmen in age1/2 with rams. and the military upgrade is sweet in that case, it lets them take a few extra hits which equals an armory upgrade. early on that’s quite an increase
Against a more skilled player, a Spearman rush won’t be effective even with a 15% boost. Maybe add some armor to it and degree the cost for military buildings and the military wing will have a spot in the competitive scene.
I see your frustration, because I only play Abbasids.
The constant nerfs made this civ lose all its advantages.
If you gets tower rushed by an English player, whose villagers have bows then you are done !
Gone are the days where you can boom with 2 TC, because villagers used to cost 25 food only.
Therefore it is hard to build a momentum to keep up with the almost free longbow men that are pumped by English. You cannot produce cavalry at the same rate.
If you go all in you don’t have enough for archers.
Therefore, fresh foods stuff should be brought back to original state.
The best three ways to play this civ are:
Two TC military wing
Three TC economic wing (watch Valdemar)
Or a fast castle by going to culture wing.
Each of these options depends on the opponent you are playing and the map.
