What is weird to me is that some people say “HRE eco too strong nerf it to the ground” while others say “HRE only has eco so needs a buff”. Like… what is going on?
I believe that what HRE needs is people to understand more of some game concepts. As a perfect example, is sooooo likely that, when battles get 50+ soldiers on each side people will start only A-moving and hoping to win. Also, the usage of the eco is so… lame. People just mass knights and build some siege and that’s it. I remember watching a 3v3 Pro League Tournament match where HRE was just massing knights while Delhi, in his team, was building infantry. Delhi didn’t even use his Compound of the Defender, and by the early Castle Age the match were far from over. Delhi could’ve gone for honed blades knights, even if taking a lot of time, and HRE could’ve massed up infantry. But noooooooooooo. Me HrE Me ReLiCs Me GoLd Me KnIghTs Me CaN pAy.
The team won the match, but dude… It was by some 20 seconds time that they could destroy the opponent’s wonder. They chose a weak composition just because they were playing meta and, due to that, won by an error margin of time.
My point is: people are still transitioning almost never with army comps. This means that either you outmass your opponent with the sheer eco, or you lose. If the opponent effectively counters you, you just keep trying to outmass him harder.
There is no consistent cheese HRE can do, like tower rushing, Fast Castle Horse Archers or fishing boat rush (Delhi), and the player base spent a lot of time getting frustrated with cheese plays, and almost no time properly developing strategies, understating the game, and it’s mechanics, and so on. It’s not the playerbase’s fault, sure, specially when you try to do something and lose to mass Horse Archers yet again. But that happened.
The more the game develops, the more room will be for new strategies and other concepts becoming important and more proeminent. Give time and HRE will go back to 50% WR. The civ is fine.