Steppe lancers need a clearer role. Their low armor and low rate of fire right now make them too weak compared to knight line and useless in late game. We won’t want to spend gold for just killing villagers, the unit itself need to be stronger in some ways.
I think extra pierce armor may be a viable start. If steppe lancers have 0/3 base armor with 60hp, they can take almost same amount of arrows from crossbowman as knights [1], and be terrible in melee fight. It may give them a more specific role to raid and counter range units.
In post imp, the fully upgraded elite steppe lancers with 3+4 pierce armor can absorb arrows like cavaliers [2]. Yet gold become a bigger issue when deciding units composition, the elite version will need more stats improvement to encourage players to choose them over hussars. The unique tech can also give them some help. For example, Mongols can change their nomad tech to something like increasing attack for steppe lancers, to balance the lack of last armor upgrade.
Other ways to address them may be faster speed [3], shorter training time [4], or bonus damage on villager like lots of people have suggested. I think the first two are fine right now, and the bonus attack on villager and trade unit will be really interesting. (Standard and elite) +4/+6 on villager and +5/+9 on trade unit should be fine in my opinion [5]. But in the end, we don’t want to spend 40 gold for just raiding, which hussar can do it cheaper and better. Not to mention that steppe lancers now are way too weak against arrows, even the TC fire can kill them faster then hussar [6]. So I believe the extra armor will be a viable start for improving steppe lancers.
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[1]
How many shot can be taken from crossbowman with bodkin?
+2 knight without bloodline: 34
+2 knight with bloodline: 40
+2 light cav without bloodline: 20
+2 light cav with bloodline: 27
60hp lancers with 3+2 pierce armor: 30
60+20hp lancers with 3+2 pierce armor: 40
60hp lancers with 1+2 pierce armor (current): 15
[2]
How many shot can be taken from arbalest (post imp)
Cavalier: 35
Paladin: 54
Hussar: 24
100hp Elite steppe lancer with 3+4 pierce armor: 34
100hp Elite steppe lancer with 1+4 pierce armor (current): 20
[3]
Speed of knight line: 1.35
Speed of light cavalry and hussar: 1.50
Speed of (elite) steppe lancer: 1.45
[4]
Training time for knight line: 30s
Cost: 60f 75g
→ Total resources used per minute per stable: 270
Training time for steppe lancer: 24s
Cost: 70f 40g (update 47820)
→ Total resources used per minute per stable: 275
[5]
How many melee attacks are needed to kill a villager?
9~10 melee attack: 5 hit (non-upgraded knight)
11~13 melee attack: 4 hit (forging knight)
14~20 melee attack: 3 hit (cavalier and paladin)
21+ melee attack: 2 hit
If steppe lancer has 9 base attack and +4 bonus on villager, they will kill them with 4 hit before forging, and 3 hit after. If elite steppe lancer has 11 base attack and +6 bonus on villagers, they will kill them with 2 hit when fully upgraded.
How many melee attacks are needed to kill a trade cart?
12~13 melee attack: 6 hit
14~17 melee attack: 5 hit
18~23 melee attack: 4 hit (fully upgraded paladin)
24+ melee attack: 3 hit
If elite steppe lancer has 11 base attack and +9 bonus on trade cart, they will kill them with 3 hit when fully upgraded.
[6]
How many arrows can be taken from TC fire (post imp)
Cavalier: 47
Paladin: 80
Hussar: 32
100hp Elite steppe lancer with 3+4 pierce armor: 50
100hp Elite steppe lancer with 1+4 pierce armor (current): 25
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TL;DR
Steppe lancer need to be better in either melee fight or absorbing arrows.
I prefer the latter, which can also benefit their raiding ability.
Therefore, I hope they can gain more pierce armor.
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