Hello guys, after checking the average winrates of the civilizations, i gave it a serious thought on what might be adjusted (albeit slightly) in order to furthermore balance the civs without changing their gameplay drastically. There have been tons of posts about “buffing” or “nerfing” a civ - and devs usually come up with their own way instead of actually implementing someone’s ideas (idk why…maybe they don’t want anyone to credit?), which sometimes ends up good (e.g. teuton melee armor), or it ends up being bad (sicilian team bonus…yeah…).
So here’s the list along with an explanation (do not consider ALL changes necessary…those are just some ideas, and instead of hating on the entire post based on 1 change you might not like, maybe you could instead agree with something you like, even if it’s just 1 change:) ):
Franks ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Franks/RM_1v1)
If we take a look, we can see that their winrate is really high early to mid game, but drops steadily for the late game. This might be attributed to their extremely powerful eco (faster berry collection, free farm upgrades) making scout and knight rushes absolutely deadly, as well as their +20% Hp bonus for cavalry. Unfortunately, swapping the unique techs does not necessarily fix that
- A) Cavalry gets + 10%/15%/20% HP in feudal/castle/imperial age (or +15%/20%/25%)
- We’ve seen plenty of “progression” bonuses, so i don’t see why not apply this to Franks as well. Sure, their scouts would be weaker with “just” 50 HP in feudal, but it might be a fair trade off for their great eco & no need to pay for bloodlines. With 15% more HP in castle age, their knights would be a bit weaker though, but the eco should still be solid to back it all up. +25% Hp in imp would actually boost their late game a bit.
- B) they get bloodlines, but cavalry gets +10% HP only in imp & berry collectors work “only” 10% faster
- This might also seem to balance their early game, but idk how much of an effect would the strong eco have to pump out even stronger light cav than before (should bloodlines be researched), so this is probably a bad idea TBH
Berbers ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Berbers/RM_1v1)
Berbers actually resemble Franks a bit, and their early winrate is very high. It looks like the +10% villager speed has a huge effect on that, especially in dark/feudal ages, and could be a relatively “simple” to fix:
- Villagers are 5% faster in castle age, +10% faster in imperial age (+3% faster in feudal age, too?)
Indians ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Indians/RM_1v1)
Indians are a weird civ right now - but not necessarily bad. Their early victory spike might probably be attributed to the (not so recently new) pierce armor they get in castle age, and the late drop is probably from the plate baridng armor, which has been removed some months ago. I think the cheaper villagers are fine, but the piecer armor gives them a huge benefit in castle age, and should be removed, whereas plate barding armor should be brought back (yeah) - but not the + pierce armor for camels, so that ranged units might actually counter the “full camel” spam in teamgames.
- Stable units no longer get bonus pierce armor
- They get plate barding armor back
Huns ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Huns/RM_1v1)
Huns also benefit from early bonuses and have quite a powerspike. I personally think that Huns are somehow okayish, but instead, they MIGHT get some love for late game in exchange for an early game power
- Stables work +10%/15%20% faster in feudal/castle/imperial age (team bonus, changed from +20% across all ages)
- They receive ring archer armor
Lithuanians ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Lithuanians/RM_1v1)
Now these guys are interesting. Though not overpowered at the first glance, I think several issues arise. 1) The +150 food in dark age might be a bit too much 2) faster skirms/spears in feudal age seem a bit too strong vs cavalry (which is not yet able to research husbandry) 3) the relic bonus can still be unforgiving in castle age. Yes, they recently received the winged hussars, and leitis got buffed, but if someone manages to get 4 relics in castle age (especially at pro scene), the basic counters are often rendered useless, whereas missing plate mail armor and now even blast furnace might seem a bit too much for their late game.
- A) They start with +100 food (instead of +150)
- B) spearmen/skirmishers 5%/10% faster in castle/imperial age (+3% faster in feudal age, too?)
- C) both at once
- Bonus A - they get blast furnace back, but relic bonus capped at +2(+3?) in castle age (and +3 in imp, too?)
- Bonus B - relics are reworked and now they get bonus in the following manner (which might make teamgames on huge maps more interesting, to be fair):
- 1 = +1
- 2 = +2
- 4 = +3
- 8 = +4
- 16 = +5
Vietnamese ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Vietnamese/RM_1v1)
Vietnamese are actually a pretty nice civ with very strong rattan archers - provided that you can get to them. What was a really nice change was that their economic upgrades no longer cost wood - which is very good. Unfortunately, they still seem to struggle a bit, and this bonus can be expanded upon:
- Economic upgrades do not cost wood, and are +10% better (e.g. double bit axe = +22% wood collection)
- Bonus: paper money is reworked, because one-time bonuses/techs really feel…terrible…maybe (please, ignore me if this is bad), something like Divine crossbow, which lets crossbow line deal +1 “splash” damage within 0,5 tile radius, might seem like a fair replacement
Byzantines ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Byzantines/RM_1v1)
They obviously suffer from the early game due to no eco bonuses, but actually ending up quite “versatile” in late game. There can be an easy fix for this (of course, just one of the following is should be good for start):
- A) -DEPRECATED- Italians have a similar bonus, ignore it. Advancing to the next age is 33% cheaper (previously, only advancing to imperial age was cheaper)
- B) Spears/Skirms/Camels are 30% cheaper
Malay ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Malay/RM_1v1)
Those guys have been nerfed recently…except for the karambit warriors which do not help their early game at all. I don’t think they need a new bonus though…
- Advancing in age is 100% faster (instead of 66%)
- They get the chain barding armor (yeah, the fish trap and harbor nerfs are enough for those poor guys to deserve at least this…Idk about the elephant cost though)
- Bonus - Elephants are 25% cheaper in castle age, 35% cheaper in imperial age (was 30%/40%)
Portuguese ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Portuguese/RM_1v1)
Portuguese suffer a lot early in the game, which might be attributed to only a small bonus of reduced gold cost for units. On the other hand, Feitoriae might seem a bit too strong in some situations (yeah…islands…)
- All units cost -25% gold (or maybe even -30%, but caravel (and organ gun?) cost is adjusted accordingly)
- Feitoriae generate resources in a slower rate (especially gold, stone and wood)…
Burmese ( https://aoestats.io/civ/Burmese/RM_1v1)
Burmese are the final civ i think need a minor change right now, according to winrates (Cumans got buffed recently!). As we can see, their winrate has evidently dropped since the arambai nerf (which was, to be fair, necessary), but their early game is pretty weak nonetheless.
- They can research leather archer armor
- Bonus - arambai (elite too) lose 1 pierce armor
Well…that’s all i could think of - i don’t think anything about sicilians (first crusade and sicilian team bonus feel really silly…) and burgundians (flemish revolution is wtf tech) right now, so i’m not the guy to think about their bonuses 11. Hope you guys like those changes and agree with them - they are all based on statistics and i’d love to be corrected if necessary - this is what we are here for!