I know that the Italians have been analysed to death but there are some things about the Maltese I don’t understand yet.
I’m guessing that fire throwers are like hoop throwers in the campaign basically replacements for grenadiers but I haven’t been able to get good detailed information about them. Yes I know their get a rocket attack as a shipment but that’s hardly unique as other euro civs get the grenade launcher card. And i know about the flame thrower attack but i’m guessing that’s a charged ability…
I also know that Maltatese units gets 2% extra hp for every shipment, but is that all units, all military units, does it include order units (the Foreign units).
Commanderies can’t research unit upgrades so are foreign units (including hussar/goon) shadow teched? Or only partially so, relying on the 2% extra hp per shipment if that even applies.
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The new fire throwers are more like Skirmishers then Grenadiers.
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That seems strange since they come from the artillery foundry and Maltese get imp guard xbows and the HP ATK and CmBat cards for Xbows. So they don’t seem to need a replacement for skirmishers (as well as Order Longbows and Caccador). Maybe it’s more like a combination of Bolas Warrior and Grenadier without the hand cav bonus.
Abus guns are also Skirmisher replacement from the Artillery Foundry.
They also do Siege damage.
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Yes but Ottoman also don’t have Crossbows…Crossbows being a Skirmisher units that most civs get until they replace them with regular skirmishers.
Crossbows barely counter heavy infantry and Dragoons.
Longbows are a lot better then crossbows but they still decided to give the British a Skirmisher unit.
I’m pretty sure the fire throwers are supposed to fill that gap.
Grenadiers counter heavy infantry well (totally pwn musks).
And X-bows are still pretty good vs dragoons (Much Better than they are against HI), wouldn’t it make more sense if fire throwers were like grenadiers that are slightly good against goons like but with an AOE attack (like Bolas are decent but not great against goons).
Update: It Seems I was right, their Fire throwers are grenadiers that have a slight bonus vs goons but are still utterly helpless against heavy cavalry (unlike skirmishers which can struggle a little).
As far as I can tell the 2% per shipment bonus doesn’t affect mercenaries or units from a commandery. Tell me if i’m wrong about that.
Fire throwers are basically skirmishers, because they do well vs heavy inf and light cavalry like dragoons. They also have a good siege attack and do siege damage so negate resistances like the abus gun or huaraca.
The crossbow also fills this role especially with the upgrades but hoop throwers are a more effective and more expensive version, they’ll help you deal with large masses of heavy inf or dragoons a lot better, even vs skirms they do ok especially with the rocket card which gives them longer range, before that they can be kited though.
I’m not sure if the 2% is for all units, as for the order units I believe it does effect them(effects the order galley I noticed).
They do shadow tech, also cost slightly more than normal but are slightly stronger (about 10% stronger I think). They are like the units mexico and usa can train at forts by shipping a card, usually about 10% better than normal, so you’re huss and dragoons are stronger than normal but at higher cost, probably makes up a bit for the lack of any cav upgrade cards.
Okay just an update since it’s been a while and I’ve been able to collect more accurate information. There’s a whole thread about Italy and I think I made a good overall summery of italy there but here’s Malta including little obscure information.
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Malta is a defensive focused civilization that much is obvious.
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Their standard army units are Crossbowmen, Pikemen. Hospitalers, Sentinels, Fire Throwers, and all artilary units that aren’t mercenaries including Fixed Gun (It is both a unit and a building).
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Commandary units which includes the default hussar and dragoon are all foreign units and are not subject to the extra 2% hp per card and regeneration bonus. They don’t need to be upgraded like standard units and natives but they also cost rougly 10% more but have 10% more HP and attack. I’ve confirmed this by watching a stream where Order dragoons HP didn’t increase after sending a card.
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Crossbowmen are royal guards get the standard triple card treatment and their share the triple card treatment with Pikemen which can be upgraded to Guard/Imperial status (Confirmed in the tech tree in the May PUP). So Pikemen can still be used even in the late game and could be better than swedish and spanish pikemen despite not being RG.
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The other royal guard is Culverins which should be better than the italian RG culverins because they get the 2% hp per card bonus but they have no special cards otherwise.
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Fire Throwers are basically grenadier/skirm hybrids defensively they are light not havy infanty so they fall to anti-skirm skirms but be warned they cost coin/wood like mantlets not food/coin like grenadiers.
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Crossbows vs. Fire Throwers.
They both serve the same role and they both cost wood.
I wonder which one will be better in practice.
The high siege and the fancy cards make Fire Throwers kinda cool though.
Hospitaler and Sentinel might be annoying to use because of the high pop costs.
I wonder how the Malta meta will develop.
They seem a good pick for new players though.
Nothing about them seems complicated and they have a bunch of cool things like rockets and big cannons.
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Have they got both tags?? That would become them very weak vs any artillery unit
I think so, I don’t think it’s that bad, they have a lot of HP and the combined bonus of Culverin and light cannons isn’t that huge. And they would be a threat anyway and how often do you see siege elephants?
I’d say it depends on what your enemy is building and what cards you’ve sent…As a general rule I’d think that fire throwers would do better against musketeers while Crossbows would do better against goons and halberdiers.
But it really depends…just like sometimes halb/pikes just do some things better than musks.
They arent the best unit because they are countered by any unit in the game. x8 vs them is a huge bonus.
Also which attack no-artillery units will use against them, siege or melee/range??
Malta seems very underpowered. Watched a lot of maltese games and they lack tempo and there’s nothing they can do vs a strong FF civ, they need several early game buffs to make them faster. 2 pop sentinel doesn’t help because you need so much wood for housing that they are hard to mass early and for 2 pop they’re not as strong as a soldado for example.
Late game they lack a factory as well and they really need a second factory considering they have no other great eco buff like italy have lombards at least.
Devs did the mistake of giving them just a single factory. Mistake that ES solved with WC giving 2nd factories to each european. Im sure they will give it, maybe paying some price to retain the archaic civ concept idk
I’m not bothered by the lack a factory, because Malta have that infinite food for wood card, you can bank food in livestock if dropping your food to zero for a short time scares you.
I can get really high coin for Inca wto spam macemen with the infinite food for coin card they have so I’m sure I can just fine with Malta.
I’m pretty sure people find ways to exploit some cards, units, buildings or technologies once the DLC is released.
It is hard to make a new civ not OP because people will find the strangest strategies.
Better to have a civ that looks a bit underwhelming than have it be OP even in the hands of someone who doesn’t even know how to use it.
I do have the agree with Skadi on this and sometimes a few players overlook actually strong cards/units/strategies.
Seen it plenty of times, people call underpowered and bam it is the actual opposite. Takes a few weeks of experimentation and a few thousand matches.
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Nobody uses those type of cards outside of treaty though, certainly not viable in 1v1 supremacy.