Organ Gun: Now benefits from the Target Lock feature
TECHNOLOGIES
Ordinance Besteiros: This Royal Guard upgrade for Crossbowmen is now available by default and no longer needs to be enabled by the Papal Guard politician
Besteiros (Treaty of Tordesillas): Removed from Church
[NEW] Ordenança (Treaty of Tordesillas, 1000f): Greatly improves the train time and hitpoints of Crossbowmen and Pikemen. Enables Valor promotions for Crossbowmen that will improve their hitpoints and attack speed for each defeated enemy military unit.
+25% Hitpoints
-40% Train time
The Mohawk Statesman (II, Politician): Politician removed
[NEW] The Ethiopian Queen (II, Politician): This new Fortress Age politician delivers 5 Elite Shotel Warriors
As i havent played for a while, i would like more seasoned veterans opinion on how these changes will affect ports gameplay/meta.
I agree!
My point of view is more based on their historical factor tho, and getting rid of Mamelukes and barbary corsairs was long due!
Hence why im asking for opinion on gameplay, as it seems it will change a bit.
Im still waiting on their rework, but these changes left me happy enough to reinstall the game now.
Really nice changes. Just in case you don’t know, they haven’t added the feitorias card that gives you a trickle from each town centre, looks like they forgot it so yet to test that.
Nice changes to the xbow church tech and giving it a royal guard upgrade without needing papal guard politician. Doubt it will see much use because all of ports cards are gunpowder unit attack/hp, so it won’t be anything like the maltese xbow.
2 organ guns to 3 organ guns is great, target lock for them is great, age 4 upgrade card is intriguing but yet to try it. The field gun card would be nice to use for a FI.
I really want to try the new age 1 card and see if it feels like a decent buff, it seems to be exactly what they need just to help them get going early game and you get more benefit with each additional tc.
Removing 4 Mamelukes from the port is like removing 5 spahi from the Ottomans, it makes no sense. Instead 3 organs broken in my humble opinion, go back to some vanilla versions where many abused 3 organs.
Armored pistoleers instead of mamelukes isn’t a bad trade though. Addition of 8 cannoneers is also what I’d been hoping for. I don’t think 3 organ guns will be broken, it’s only a 1 time shipment and the organ gun hasn’t been changed other than target lock. 2 organ guns were trash, completely useless. I’d rather have had 2 gatlings than 2 organ guns.
It makes historical sense but not in gameplay, they were based on them a lot in 1v1 now it will be more complex. Remove the Mamluks but add mercenaries that serve the same purpose in place of the Armored gunslingers who are meh.
I am by no mean a great playre, but for me it will be my first card most of the time. 0.6f0.3c0.3w/s feels like 2 settlers per TC.
So I ge the same amount of settlerd in Age 1 (1 more starting settlers), an 2 free villagers in age 2.
With this card I will not feel anymore than I am lagging behind my opponent in settler production due to lacking settler cards.
The 3 organ guns card feels too strong, I would put 100 or 200 coin cost on it to balance it.
After reviewing the Cards and the new Techs, I think I should bring my 2 cents to this conversation. I’ll be talking about these cards in both in a historical sense and in a balance sense:
Feitorias (I): I honestly think this Card pretty much fixes the entire Portuguese Civ by itself, since it makes it no longer map dependent and finally gives Portuguese a chance to build up an Eco. The fact that it’s also a good historical reference to the Trading Posts that the Portuguese built around Africa and Asia is just icing on the cake;
The buffing of the Organ Gun cards: It’s about time! Both the Age III 2 OG and the Age IV 3 OG were outclassed by pretty much all other artillery shipments for the other civs. I don’t think either of them are OP, to be honest. The Age III OG will now appear more often in standard 1v1.
Estremoz Field Guns: I can honestly say that I don’t know what historical fact is this supposed to be referencing. Is it referencing the battles of Montes Claros, Ameixial and Elvas (2nd)? Maybe. I do remember seeing this specific name this in a mod as one of the new Portuguese Church techs (can’t remember it’s name though). Anyway, gameplay wise, it’s a strong Card that has a bit of added flexibility allowing for Ports to either be more agressive or be better prepared to an enemy rush. I like it!
Constable: Overall a very good Card. Ports had the tendency of having an overall “squishy” army comp, but this Card might solve it. Port Spies might also became a bit of a menace to Mercs. The historical reference is a bit weird though: the most important Constable of the history of the country became famous during the late XIV century, a little bit too early for the game’s time frame.
Grapeshot: Excellent Card, will probably make OG useful beyond an Age III shipment.
Carracks and Naval Infantry: I’m including both of these Cards in one bracket because of 2 reasons. The first, they’re both great historical references (Ports were one of the main developers of the Carrack and the predecessors of the Portuguese Marines were, for a long time, the equivalent of the King’s Bodyguard). The second reason… they’re both TERRIBLE cards, gameplay wise. Compare Carracks to any Card that buffs ships and they always look bad in comparison (especially with unique ship buffs like Spanish’s Spanish Galleons and Armada in Age II and III or Dutch’s Admiral Tromp in Age III) and remember that Spanish get almost the exact same ability as Naval Infantry but also a buff of 20% hitpoints to ALL warships with their Armada Card. Carracks should give something like +45% extra Hitpoints to Caravels and be an Age II Card to even be considered as something useful and Naval Infantry should bring something more to the table besides allowing to train Infantry units from your warships.
The new mercs: Overall solid (especially the Cannoneer Card) but losing 4 Mamelukes is a pretty big deal. Not sure if Armored Pistoleers are going to be good enough.
The Chuch tech change: Finally! Besteiros was not a good tech in Legacy and, with the changes in DE, it was a downright joke. With this change, not only does the game reference the unique form with which the Portuguese army was organized during the Modern Age, it gives them an actual good tech that will allow for a new style of gameplay from Ports.
The Ethiopian Queen: Kind of a neat historical reference in the new Politician and basically gives Ports an equivalent to the Scout Politician. The fact that they’re Elite as well might make them somewhat appealing for a Port FF, but I’m not sure if she’ll fit Port meta.
Overall, I like the changes, but I’m still disappointed that Ports (together with Dutch, Indians, Russians and Japanese) weren’t as well developed as French, German or Ottomans in this update. I still have some pet grievances towards this patch like the Devs not changing Encomienda Manor’s name (nitpicky, I know), Cards like Donatarios not receiving any buffs, some weird absence of some historical references (no reference to the Knights of Christ, seriously?) or the sad absence of a new UU either to replace OGs or just in general. However, I still enjoyed the update and appreciate the Devs for what they’ve done!
Carracks could be okay if it also gave a +2 build limit or something like that.
Naval Infantry should also let infantry construct docks and outposts to be able to actually secure a bridgehead. Maybe also a little Galleon buff since it’s something they can already do.
Closed topic