Going to talk about some russian weaknesses and things to point out for the dev for future russ changes
I’ve like to thank the developers for still caring about the game to this point, it is nice to see balance patches coming out
Since the release of AOE3 DE There have been changes like:
Sioux got access to walls and mortars [ Without walls they were suffering a lot in the late game and without mortars it was impossible to win against walls ]
Aztec got access to mortars and their units not costing so much wood [ Aztecs while strong vs most units, the moment opponent was behind walls and with a strong combo of skirm + musk they didn’t have much advantage, now with mortars it is a lot easier to get those walls and now be able to use meele units and also their units costing heavy wood was an issue ]
Sweden at one point didn’t have xbow, they were added, at the beginning it was only caroleans and pikes and slowly they got xbows and jaegers
Otomans got many changes but one specifically is a new unit called Azaps while most changes within otomans are kind of needed one important thing to know is ABUS guns have 22 range which is insane for a unit that can snipe your canons if I believe correctly this unit max range even in imperial was always 18. And Azaps is a new unit that can deal very efficiently against RANGED CAVALRY and may I say might even be ok vs the rest of units
Brits got the rangers [ if I remember correctly one issue most people complained about was how weak longbow were against musks, something along the lines of finding a solution is where I believe rangers came in
And one thing with these changes is they fix a big issue these civs HAD at any point in time during the time this game has been active.
of the CHANGES MENTIONED ABOVE those are only a few of all changes that have happened but those definitely made a turning point for these civs
And I also believe there have been changes for other civs as well I just haven’t played them all
I’ve spoken about this before and after seeing how devs have reworked and changed many things in current DE, It is a completely viable idea to have Strelets reworked, Current strelets don’t work and are more of a liability than actual useful
Current strelets don’t have more than 14 range until age IV and V which they get 16 with AGE IV card and 18 with IMPERIAL upgrade and strelets do not have good stats unless fully carded which they need 4 cards
and even with these 4 cards strelets struggle extermely hard from early game to late game. I will be showing more detailed information as to how they struggle below:
SOMETHING TO CLEAR out of the WAY, I’m talking about STRELETS dealing with what they are supposed to counter.
Some proof of what I’m talking about from my own experience
strelet vs 14 range musk
vs 14 range musk strelet don’t have an answer until IV, And the more strelets you have the less useful it is as 30+ strelets only the first 2 lines will shoot the rest won’t
strelet vs musk and ranged cav
given that strelet have to be too close and is extremely weak, Ranged cav just outperforms
strelet vs strong ranged cav
I could say the same here, this is a rus mirror
strelet vs war wagon or 18range dragoons
Lastly the impossible task, dealing with long range ranged cav
Now talking about STRELETS only for this portion they have to be reworked. Russia’s answer to ranged cavaraly and musks is close to non existent from commerce age to IV and that is the period of the game where it matters the most.
My suggestions for strelets would be change their range
commerce 16 range without the need of a card.
fortress 18 range with veteran upgrade
Industrial 20 range with guard upgrade
Within these ages is when rus strugles the most to deal against units like Germany war wagon which gets 18 range by fortress and port goon which get 18 range by industrial
Aside from the range. Change the current 10 strelet make it 5 and change the price fo strelets to go with the changes alongside stats. in Commerce strelets have 72 hp 8 attack and 14 range.
Make it something around 85 or 90 hp, 10 or 12 attack and 16 range
BUT ALSO change their cost from 38f and 10 wood to something like 40 food 20wood?
Any change that occurs just make it so RUSSIA can have an answer to ranged cav and musk without having to suicide or drain economy
In short I think strelet could be a unit that start with 85 or 90 hp, 10 or 12 attack and 16 range and scale up to whatever stat they get in IV and imperial and end up having 20 range. If by each upgrade strelet price changes that could also be an option given their new strength, but make sure their stats do change much more too whenever their cost goes up
The 10 strelet on the blockhouse doesn’t work, make it 5
An image and a short video, explained differently
Some of the unit types strelet should counter or else russia has no answer which is similar to what has happens to changes you have made to civs that needed them. GAMES very rarely get to IMPERIAL
DIFFERENT OPTION
if strelets are to be changed a little to become something greater in the late game it would still leave a big hole in fortress and early Industrial as RUSSIA currently has it.
Russ has pandours and you have recently added Counter jaegers but both options are extremely hard to get and do not have a long lasting effect meaning after they run out there is still no answer
Let me first show how it looks when russia has equal tools to answer back or contest resources
Having a trainable skirm instantly fixes the fortress+ game for russ because skirms with 20 range and cav archer do not require cards to work, The moment they come out of the building they are 100% useful
So having a trainable unit similar to a skirm cheaper cost/ weaker stats and 20 range that cost food coin, definitely gives a similar feel like the examples given in the video above
any option you give that is past Industrial is already too late, game is over by then or players will have 2 heavy canons by which the limited option you give won’t work which is counter jaegers + pandours
OTHER THINGS that could be changed
Landed Gentry
This is an ok card, allows russia to train cav archers early and against some matches it is useful but overall this is a bad card. It is not a good card
Reason behind this is because cav archer being one of the best units russia has making them cost wood for the remaining of the game will make russ lose.
When this card is sent we have the following
Cav archer 55 wood
Strelet batch 100 wood
Canons 100 wood
Buildings cost wood
Upgrades cost wood
Wood is the most scarse resource in the game food and coin is infinite, despite having factories the wood consumption is too high
My suggestion: When this card is sent add a button/tech on the stable it could be a permanent button/tech which allows to switch between wood or coin depending on what I want to use or a 1 time thing. that allows to revert back to costing coin. This button/tech should work after Fortress
PORUCHIKS
CARD SYSTEM FOR RUS
For future changes please do not add a new combat card, instead merge them, make them less cards. 1v1 supremacy is mostly about sending units/crates and very few combat cards and most civs that are meta do not require cards for their units to work off the start
This post is to effectively aim at what russ truly struggles at and what things to avoid in future changes. Developers have clearly made changes for the better good to civs that had no answer to certain scenarios
Don’t talk negatively about anyone and do not bring comments as following: But in vanilla they used to this or that. Vanilla does not matter anymore given we have developers who can make changes and revert them. Biggest example removing 3 vills for brits and adding them back. That is how balance works making changes where they are needed.
Russia as of right now has no proper answer to ranged cav and musk type of units of any civ and early Fortress to early industrial and there is not a solid answer against skirm that is long lasting.
lastly in comparison to all other civs russia requiring too many cards for only 1 unit to be barely useful this is also not working. Example strelet horde is a very weak card for its bonusses and card should not be buffed to encourage players to keep on using it. Just remove the card, Do merge other cards whenever possible.