Archer and xbow upgrade cost has been increased in the latest patch to minimize archer power spike in early castle age and early imperial age. But most civs didn’t get any compensation for this. Here is my suggestion on restoring knight-archer balance as it was before.
Pikeman upgrade cost is reduced 215 food, 90 gold → 175 food, 75 gold
Thumb Ring cost is reduced 300 food, 250 wood → 250 food, 250 wood
Cavalier upgrade cost increased 300 food, 300 gold → 400 food, 350 gold
Plate Barding Armor cost 350 food, 200 gold → 350 food, 250 gold.
Edit: I think Chain Mail Armor and Plater Mail Armor cost can be reduced too.
I think Arbalester upgrade cost increase was a bad decision. I wish this was reverted. But since there is little chance for that to be happened, I’m proposing increasing Cavalier upgrade cost instead. Also I always find Cavalier upgrade cost is too cheap for its cost, especially if you compare it with any other Imperial age upgrades.
Reducing Pikeman upgrade cost is not new and people were asking this for a couple of months, even before latest patch. After the patch, Hera recently became vocal on Pikeman upgrade cost being too expensive and therefore not being able to counter knight in early Castle age. I find it is very logical to give non-cavalry civ a slight boost on anti-cavalry option.
Thumb Ring is a mid to late castle age upgrade and usually better against melee units. Good cav civs usually lack this tech and even some archer civs don’t have it. Reducing its cost will be a good way to buff low tier archer civs like Vietnamese without affecting Britons and Vikings. Chinese and Mayans will be buffed as a result of this change which should be off set by other nerf.
Civilization Balance
Chinese
Technologies are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age → Technologies except unit upgrades are 15%/20%/25% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
Mayans
Option 1 - Resources last 15% longer → Resources except food last 15% longer.
Option 2 - Thumb Ring is removed from the tech tree. Plumed Archer ROF 1.9 → 1.7
Vietnamese
Eco technologies cost no wood → Thumb Ring and eco technologies cost no wood.