And what about Aoe1??? it’s a puzzle about Aoe 2 or return of rome. 
Sir this is an AoE 2 thread
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It really looks like everything in there is a hint to a change in the game.
Some things might be campaign related though like “Yodit”.
- Varangians: new Castle Age UT for the Byzantines (Milita Line regenerates HP?) or even second UU
- Yurt: Mongols (maybe Cumans or others too) get Yurts instead of houses that are cheaper but have low HP
- Tankred: Crusader Knights become trainable?
- Llama: Inca bonus gets changed
- Bengalis: Need a buff
- Goedendag: Flemish revolution is changed (Maybe cheaper but weaker Flemish Militia?)
- Barracks: Infantry buff/rework/change
- Chinese: To weak in Low ELO, too strong in high ELO, maybe some small changes there. Making their start more generic would be boring though.
- Dravidians: Need a buff
- Royal Heirs: maybe a change to this technology?
- Iron Boar: change to the Huns campaign? Or change to normal Boars?
- Tatars: Need a buff
- Yordit: change to the campaign?
- El Cid Campeador: changes to this campaign too.
- Teutonic Order: Another Crusader Knight hint? Teutonic Knight changes?
- Paper: Vietnamese UT change or new generic technology (for University, Monastery or eve Market).
- Viking Age: if Infantry is rebalanced then maybe Vikings need changes too
- Murder Holes: if Infantry gets stronger maybe buildings need to be stronger too. Maybe buildings to extra damage in “melee” (1 tile range) with this technology.
- Champion Warfare: buff to the Champion or Milita Line in general
- Stonghold: change to this technology.
- Pointy Bois: Maybe the Spearman Line gets changed too
All just wild speculations.
But I’m curious how right or wrong I end up being with those guesses.
I’m really curious what Gambeson ends up being.
My guesses:
- +1/+1 armour for Infantry or just Milita line
- +10 HP for Infantry or just Milita line
- Combination of armour and HP (like +1/0 armour and +5HP)
The last patch notes made it sound like they wanted to release a major update for AoE2 before they release RoR.
While some of us were preparing for the console release, others started to work on one of the biggest updates in AoE II: DE history. This update will bring a large number of fixes and changes, a massive number of balance changes, quality of life improvements and more. We also know you’re eager to hear more about Return of Rome, and will have more news on that in the coming months so stay tuned!
I guess they need to get this update out fist.
They added new achievements on Steam. That happened 1 month before the Dynasties of India release last year, that’s a strong hint.
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Nice idea.
It could also be that some line get a regional last upgrade, like winged hussars for example.
Varangians could replace champions for Byzantines
Crusader Knights replace Paldains for Teutons and maybe other civ?
Just try to guessing.
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Sicilians maybe?
They would need a new UT.
I think it might replace Cavalier and Paladin, only giving them one Imperial Age unit. Skipping one step.
Varangians feel more like they should happen earlier like in Castle Age.
The current Byzantine Castle Age UT is not very popular even on water maps.
Giving Fire Ships +1 range makes them miss a lot of shot.
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It was just a puzzle, no hints no nothing
Just have fun and let it go
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The numbers Mason! What do they mean?
Jokes aside, I do think that the puzzle contains a few hints for the upcoming big balance update. For example, we know for sure that there will be some changes to Flemish Revolution, maybe it gets replaced entirely with a new tech (Goedendag?). Sounds plausible, at least to me.
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Might be just a change to Logisitica. When Infnatry becomes stronger, the counters that were designed for a time wher they were bad need some kind of adjustment, too. I could imagine that tech further increasing the Cavalry Armor of Cataphracts instead, so Catas become more specialised against Halbs.
Either that or an entirely new Infantry line?
Would be interesting, what would happen if there were some Iron boars on certain maps in addtion to the standard wildlife?
Could indicate they want to split the Teutons. But not sure in what.
Maybe. Maybe they indicate that some of the devs predicted “when we do this, aoe becoms age of vikings!” and they just decided to rename it.
I mean it could also be an age 2.5 or something like this, something in between feudal and castle age that gives some castle age features but not all of them. Potentially extra TCs, Siege and Infantry upgrades or something like this. Could be interesting.
Another thing could be if they actually remove Murder Holes. may sound a bit weird, but if they instead eg buff the damage output of the defences it could be an interesting tweak.
Could indicate that we will be able to train certain “Champion” units. Units that either are somewhere in between standard and Hero units or potentially give some benefits to nearby army.
I don’t think this kind of “Aura” effect is somethiing that suits AOE2. And I also think that the way we currently play the game doesn’t really allow for “Champions” in form of super powerful individual units to be that effective. Cause they need too much individual attention.
Could also become a general tech that improves towers in the midgame. They are atm totally “dominated” by Castles for various reasons and an extra tech could make placing towers as more “flexible” alternative useful again.
I would like that.
Viking Age : replaces a current Viking unique tech (maybe Berserkergang while buffing the Elite Berserk to have the effects of this tech by default), gives some cargo capacity to the longboat. Which would fit the original intended design.
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There is a noticeable correlation between things that need balance changes and the answers of this puzzle.
Bengali, Tatars and Dravidians are arguably some of the worst civilisations in the current balance.
And Dravidians have the additional issue that one of their UTs and UUs is based on wrong research.
That technology works perfectly well and does what it’s intended to do.
Greek Fire on the other hand is completely useless on land maps and not even that good on water maps.
This weapon is pretty unique to this particular area it makes no sense to turn that into a generic unit.
Many people are not happy with how the Flemish Revolution works so it’s not unlikely that they will change it.
Also unlikely. I don’t think they plan on releasing any DLCs before RoR and that is ancient themed.
How should that work?
I think that’s too big of a change and also has little to do with Vikings.
The minimal range on Towers is required to make it possible to counter Tower rushes.
That sound like a mechanic for a unique unit, not something that everyone can train.
I too think Towers need to be more useful later on, especially compared to Castles, but I don’t think this hint is related to that.
I think it’s really sad that they changed that design. “Shooting more arrows” isn’t really an interesting design.
Water gameplay is not really fun and certainly not balanced, so changes would be appreciated.
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Paper money was already changed once and I like the new version (I even suggested it, though it was so close to the update the devs had probably already implemented it). Maybe it’s a hint at an UT like the one for paper money, but fir a completely different civ? There’s a lot of demand for one time use UT to be replaced, especially Flemish Revolution.
Regarding the Varangians, they sound more like an UU rather than an UT… possibly a secondary UU, but it’s also possible that it will become the Byzantine main UU while the cataphracts would become a common unit replacing the knight line for Byzantines, Persians, Chinese, Cumans, etc. (with obviously rebalances and Imp upgrades)
I agree. That’s why something like “Paper Mills” could be a new generic technology.
No idea what it would improve though.
Not sure if it’s likely that Cataphracts in their current state could become a regional unit.
They are only balanced because Byzantine miss Blast Furnace.
Also they are a very iconic unit by now and their current design is very Byzantine with a big Christian sign on the back.
The Varangians could be a second Barracks Unique Unit or just the name of the new Castle Age unique technology making their Militia Line stronger.
Not sure if the Mediterranean architecture of the TC on the image is a hint towards anything.
Paper also just could be a new Monastery or University tech.
Don’t sure what this would do then.
Maybe they remove murder holes (and don’t remove the minimum range btw) and add paper instead.
But idk what Paper would do. Any guesses?
Paper beats rock. There must be something involving stone mines or siege weapons that launch rocks.
Being serious though, there’s already the Block Printing technology.
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Paper could reduce upgrade times. Including stuff like Imperial age.
But also just to make tech transitions easier to perform.
Indicator for that could be the question they asked which answer was “Barracks”.
this would be weak for an unique tech. Only giving a temporary advantage that often isn’t that much, building an extra military building to get one important unit faster isn’t a huge investment at this point.
I said, I can imagine Paper becoming a generally available tech in the university (replacing murder holes).
There it would make sense if it’s like 200-300 res or so.
What could happen with the Incan LLama? Does it become their new TB?
This is just your personal opinion, devs don’t think so
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You know how the devs think?
If there’s any conclusion I’ve made from what devs did wo far, nobody knows what they think.
And I think that’s actually kinda good. I don’t want to know what would happen if someone could read their minds.
And this makes it the more funny to guess what…
Ofc only for people who can handle guessing “wrong” 
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What’s wrong with Tatars? I thought they were generally considered well-designed and balanced nowadays.
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