“Receive 10 wood per villager trained till arriving in imperial age”
Guys, the pools seem to indicate maybe Dravidians need technolgies such as fervor, siege engineers or the civ needs no changes at all. But there were no convincing argument as to how their playrate can be improved in land maps. So despite what the poll says I still belive the above bonus of getting 10 wood per villager trained is better than getting 200 wood for every age advanced as well as some wood discount on siege. After discussing with @DemiserofD for extended time, I think I may have a replacement bonus for 33% siege wood discount which helps Dravidian weakness against siege, monks and skirms. The solution is to have light cav carry the civ till mid castle age against siege, skirm and monk weakness. Then have battle elephants take over as high DPS melee cavalry.
These are the order of changes needed by the civ
With this above bonus, Dravidians can have the timing advantage while arriving in a new age like malay to offset their squishy unit weaknesses.
Along with this change we need to introduce a new bonus which looks like a precursor of ‘woots steel’
"Infantry and cavalry +1 attack starting in feudal age"
With this change, Dravidians can make a scout + archer/skirm opening work better.
- Scouts can trade better vs skirms + scouts combos since they can kill skirms in 5 hits instead of 6 which other scouts take.
- Scouts can evenly trade with man-at-arms instead of dying due to lack of Bloodlines upgrade.
In the castle age, Light cav can kill all siege and skirms one strike earlier.
- Mangonels die in 5 hits instead of 6
- scorpions die to 4 hits instead of 5.
- skirms die to 4 hits instead of 5
- E skirms die to same 5 hits, so its balanced for the resource spent
- Does not change archers or vill kill balance. So only adresses current weakness of Dravidians
- Battle elephants kill monks without sanctity in 2 hits and with sanctity in 3 hits. Making Battle elephants with devotion a possible tool in their stable.
All these dynamics work only when all attack upgrades available for the age are researched and at least one armour is researched for light cav. At least one amour is needed because otherwise a light cav chasing a mangonel can be killed by a knight in 5 hits. It is the same number of hits light cav need to kill siege after the +1 attack buff. So the cat and mouse game of who kills who first maintains the balance of the game before armour/attack upgrades. So blacksmith upgrades become vital technologies for Dravidians to keep their edge as the game progresses which was historically something south India and Dravidians excelled in. The beauty of this gameplay is that armour was less prevalent in a tropical country like India. So Armour being prioritised less than attack upgrades is a good historical nod for the game in contradiction to playstyle of other civs.
Just a wierd coincidence. Dravidians can counter teuton ironclad siege in imperial age better than now with the +1 attack and ignoring armour. Some civs like Koreans counter Dravidians hard due to lack of Siege engineers and good cavalry. With this change, Dravidians can employ light cav against such civs.
I have seen Age of KIng civs designs like this where a gimmick given as civ bonus is enhanced by the imp tech. So this design suits that mould as well and would be loved by the community.
Urumi is hardly useful in castle age with skirms killing them from range. So a 0.05 speed boost and +1 attack is not going to make them helpful for Dravidian gameplay. Give the +1 attack to all infantry and cavalry. It suits the civ which gave the armour cleaving ‘damascus steel’ blades to the world. Husbandry is good for light cav. But some bold changes are needed to make their stables a vital part of their gameplay.
I would like to hear your thoughts @Pulikesi25 , @Zelley00 , @DemiserofD , @UpmostRook9474 , @Juggernaut8704 @VenialFoil55155 and @SMUM15236