Poles civ identity

I don’t know if anyone else feels the same way, but Poles are like, broken (both as in strong and weak) in so many different areas that they kinda work out in the end, but the civ feels very straightforward and boring to play as and play against. Especially when literally the only FU units they have are champions and obuchs.

Tbf I think the obvious fix to Poles is to give them Paladin and lower the discount from Szlachta to -33% or something, maybe even inverse the UT ages…

But I don’t think we will ever get that.

Their economy is super strong, but their options are so bad, besides the ridiculously cheap cavalier and hussars that can trade against champs and halbs. They don’t even get halb to counter cavalry. Oh, you need something against archers? Here, make cavalry. You need to counter infantry? Here, make cavalry. You need to counter cavalry? Well… guess what you gotta do!

Like, is there no way to make them more balanced of a civilization, both in winrate and in tech tree, give them halbs, give them last archer armor, make folwars easier to use, but not as strong so their boom isn’t as ridiculous, something like double the range, but half the % of the farm immediately received, nerf szlachta (as that’s the things they rely on in 80% of the games, in the other 20% it’s spamming hussars), make winged hussars not counter infantry, but be stronger against archers.

Idk, sorry for ranting. It’s just a very weird civ that probably could be approached in a more serious manner than “just make cav bro xd”.

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Totally agree. It’s basically the same what I wrote about poles several weeks ago. But from a different perspective.
The onöy thing I disagree a bit with is that they are only cavalry. I think they can also go obuch + range but it’s ofc heavily nerfed since the last patch.
I think the folwark desig is a huge problem, it’s either op if you get away with it or terrible if you don’t get away with it. That’s way too volatile.

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Poles are the only civ in the game that can transition from tower rush to cavalry with almost no drawbacks. That’s their identity.
That’s why they get strong food income early and bad options later. And tbh I don’t mind if they get changes in other areas as long as they keep their unique TR → cav.

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Paladin without last armor is actually not worth it imo. On top of that you need to spend resource on UT. I am fine with their current knight line.

I think winged hussar is just so strong to the point that both of the civ had to lack some blacksmith tech to balance them.

Ehh no. Remove Arbs in that case.

This one is 100% necessary. But need to nerf Obuch so that they are not so much cost effective.

So more powerful in early game in open maps but same effect in the end as game goes on. Have mixed feeling about this. Stone to gold conversion ratio should also be reduced to 33%.

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Arbs, obuch and siege are all very good units with poles, they don’t need to go winged hussar all the time.
Poles with paladins, last archer armour and halbs and nerfed folwarks = Slavs with arbs and BBC, pretty much. Meh.

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I’d say give the last cavalry armor upgrade, remove Szlachta priv and replace it with something else.

Perhaps infantry units are effected by the villager regeneration rate

Hmm, regeneration could be interesting. I’d rather see it for their cavalry, since Vikings already have regenerating infantry, but the only mounted unit that regenerates is Berber Camels.

I agree that Plate Barding would be ideal, but necessitate nerfing the knight cost reduction.

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I agree with your idea solution. I think their main counter to heavy cav is meant to be the Obuch.

I don’t think it’s a problem. In the early game, it can give a nice bonus, but also likely makes you more vulnerable to raids. In the mid/lategame is where it is really relevant, once you have the farming eco. It’s not that volatile, because you should always be able to use it later in the game.

Please, just nerf Szlachta, and give them Paladin. I don’t like healing units very much, it’s just not that fun to use. It also steps on the Vikings toes.

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Poor design, another double-eco bonus into a predictable boom, nothing playable. Yay.
Just Like Sicilians these days or Burgundians. Developers love these post-Imp post-boom wars, they dont care much about early game playability. Donjon who?

Booming into loads of cheap trashy units seems really unsatisfactory.
I guess it’s why I don’t like Goths.

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Literally this.

Nobody wants to take this away.

Why? They should have a mixed identity, kinda like magyars.

If you take away arb give them HC.

Will never happen.

I don’t think it steps on Viking’s toes, in fact I think the game could use more healing units overall. Still, for melee units it’s not that useful. The unit that benefits the most from healing is the Camel Archer.

Yeah.

Overall everyone seems to agree that making forwarks easier to use, but not as strong will improve the general feel and identity of the civ by a lot, since it’s (why censor this lol?) hit or miss now, you either use it 100% on arena or like 10% on arabia.

Keep the current range, but make them so even if 1 tile of the farm is in the radius to get affected and then half the bonus.

Then take it from there with the tech tree and the UTs…

I love Poles, but yeah spamming knights for everything isn’t ideal. Giving them Paladins won’t help that, the cheap Cavs already trade well against Paladins. I like the trade off of the discount vs less power.

Maybe give them Hand Cannoneer, or faster siege?

What I hate is that Poles have both really strong Winged Hussars and Semi-Trash Cavaliers in the same tech tree, so open the can of worms, what I will use? Poles were famous for the Winged Hussars historically and should be the main cavalry unit to spam.

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Any discount on Paladin with bloodline is more than broken. That’s why we don’t have such a civ right now.

Poles only need to counter elephant. The half price knight can beat up any other knight civ before imperial age. IMO. Poles need halbs, and nerf their knight discount to 33%

Poles were also known for lancers, which were quite effective against other cavalries if I’m not mistaken.

Folwark could get a small buff by having it be garrisonable, but for like, 5 pop, like Khmer houses. That still leaves it open for raiding / gotta be careful not to place it too far from help, but you won’t lose all the villagers either.

I feel like Obuch + Skirmisher/Arbalest is strong enough to be a non-cavalry option, especially on closed maps. Don’t they trade pretty well against cavalry as well?

Obuch+Arbalest is just soo effective on arena vs many civs.

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Nice idea.
Or just approaching this from a completely different way, making Folwarks have a bonus which isn’t directly an eco bonus, since they already have a nice eco bonus and an army discount.
Folwark gives farmers the ability to garrison up to 8 vills in it, and shoot few arrows (only when having 4 or more vills inside of it), having just 4 range and 4 damage. This synergies much better with the fact vills can generate HP, makes Feudal Age a little bit more interesting, but Devs chose to give Poles a generic farming bonus, just like Slavs.

You know. I’d like to see you put your money where your mouth is since you like to disparage just about everyone and everything.

I want you to show us a balanced “unique” civ without an early eco bonus. Since you like to disparage everything so much.

The forwark isn’t generic. It’s front loaded which is very different from many eco bonuses. It’s also pretty much what allows Poles to work. The stone to gold bonus wouldn’t carry the civ to anything decent because the early game is all about food and wood. Stone and gold bonuses are subpar.

Folwark being a mini tower is kind of unique but at the same time it’s not going to be all that great for their economy at all and the civ will lag behind.

And your folwark tower would either be too weak because wood only cost and military units will laugh at it, or too strong and insane due to wood only cost.

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Isn’t it a combination very vulnerable to siege, expecially on closed maps?