I think you are understimating trash units
I dont think I agree on Bulgarians being worse than Koreans and Portuguese (I honestly qould rather have them over Slavs) but yeah nothing else too unexpected. Also, a bit surprised on how high Aztecs and Byz are and how low Cumans are. Maybe Aztecs should loae the extra starting gold sin e nerfing their other bonuses would be wasting a bonus
I like this tier list, I would personally put some civs one tier higher (berbers, indians, Cumans, Bohemians, maybe bulgarians) and drop some civs one tier lower (Burgundians, Celts, maybe Incas, Malians, Turks), but I guess these tier list come down to personal preferences and experiences to certain degrees.
In particular, one civ I would love to see more explored on arabia is bohemians, I think they have great potential for aggression since their bonuses can be very well suited towards military production and aggressive gameplay with potential for castle drops and even guard towers shenanigans. Of course they have few major flaws and I can see why pros are opting for safer picks on a 75k tournament since thereâs not shortage of good civs currently.
I am also not sure about aztecs > mayans, I feel they are around the same power level but Mayans have a more flexible and reliable gameplay, while aztecs are pushed more towards being aggressive in castle age which leaves more exposed to making mistakes and taking bad fights that throw the advantage the civ guarantees or getting countered one way or another.
I mean, if you want to leverage aztecs strenght correctly you have to take the initiative and take decisions and risks one way or another. Of course theyâre extremely good at doing that (good eco bonus + cheap strong units + faster production is an insane combo) and KOTD arabia is well suited to the playstyle, but itâs still dicier than just play a bit more conservative and wait until your archers cost almost nothing and your eagles have 100HP.
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In feudal age they save 100W on blacksmith and gather gold and stone 15% faster, which means roughly 1 less villager on gold if they go archers, when going on stone might even be less important if you start mining from dark age, all in all their bonuses donât seem very suited for Arabia, imho. And most of them donât work before castle age (faster vills, more wood discount, chemistry xbows).
What did you have in mind, specifically?
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Bohemians feudal age is not great but they still have 3 bonus going for them (they have spearmen bonus aswell), so I woudnât consider it weak either.
Castle age is where they shine, and here I have to disagree with Ornlu since I think in castle age having chemistry is way better than having thumb ring since, while it shouldnât make much of a difference against enemy archers, it sharply increases the damage output against other units (+33% versus +2 kts, +50% vs +2 eagles, +100% vs +2 skirms and mangonels) that are supposed to counter crossbows and after chemistry arenât really as effective anymore, so chemisry crossbows can be pretty painful to deal with. In addition, chemistry affect units and buildings that are not affected by thumb ring (skirmishers, TC fire, towers and castles, plus potential to get HC in castle age and BBC right away in imp).
In addition to this, most of the stuffs they want to go for donât cost food and are affected by gold+stone shaft mining (crossbows, monks, siege, castle drops and maybe even towers), so they have potential for 1TC plays that are working very well on kotd arabia since itâs easier to snowball push with the help of hills around enemy base, thatâs why I think this arabia version can suit them decently (not as well as things like arena of course).
Donât forget that Thumb Ring also increases accuracy. Crossbows are at 85% without it. This means Thumb Ring can increase DPS by 1.18 / 0.85 = 1.388 or 38.8%. Itâs also faster than Chemistry to research, and doesnât cost gold. Thumb Ring is definitely better against low Pierce Armor enemies like infantry, or very high PA like Rams.
When enemies get close the accuracy has less effect, but if you donât miss the shots while they close the gap then they may never get close. Keeping enemies at a distance keeps crossbows alive and helps snowball numbers.
TR also affects micro. By firing quicker you can move more frequently, which makes it harder for melee enemies to land hits.
Idk if Iâd say TR is always better than Chem, but itâs at least equal IMO. And every TR civ gets Chemistry when they reach Imp anyway, at which point Bohemians are just at a disadvantage.
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Crossbow has more accuracy than 85%. SoTL showed that units has more accuracy than game tell you even in max range, thus thumb ring give 20-25% more damage output approximately. In Castle Age, Chemistry is stronger bonus than thumb ring except against LS, spearman.
Interesting, do you remember which video? I found an old one that showed Longbows at max range had about 83% accuracy instead of their stated 80%. I have no idea if that same shift applies to Crossbows making them closer to 88% accurate without TR, or if any of this is still true in DE.
Either way, my opinion is that the DPS is similar, but the added micro from TR is more valuable when facing enemy melee units. Being able to shuffle your stack more frequently messes with their pathing, it makes the archersâ fire rhythm faster than the melee unitsâ. It also means fewer mistakes where you were too quick and the crossbows had not reloaded in time for the command.
Chemistry has its uses in cases where it takes damage from 1 to 2, such as against mangonels or skirmishers, but these are fights I try to avoid taking (maybe one mangonel in an open field, but too dangerous around choke points).
We are talking about same video. 85% accuracy mean 85% of shots goes to main target and other 15% shot goes randomly, and these random shot can hit target still, thus even in max range crossbow should 88~% accuracy. Therefore Thumb ring bonus is mostly 18% RoF. I still think 18% attack damage is better 18% RoF even though it ease micro against melee units you mentioned. I still defend Chemistry is better than Thumb Ring in Castle Age except against Spear-line and Longsword.