Some Ideas on Buffing Heavy Melee Infantry

[Zer0pntEnergy]

Quoting myself here:

@Zer0pntEnergy

Perfect example for this is Aztec. Look at Skull Knights and Jaguar Knights. These units are constantly being brought up as useless units. Why is that? Simply look at their stats. Skull Knights have an atrocious 4.00 movement speed, which means they get kited by every single ranged unit in the game. If the Aztec opponent researched 10% infantry speed from Arsenal, Skull Knights will never attack any ranged unit again. They also have 0 ranged resist and only melee resist, which means they get destroyed by Skirmishers.

Now look at a similar unit, the Urumi. The Urumi has 4.50 speed, already better. But even more importantly, the Urumi has 30% ranged resist, which allows it to tank Skirmisher shots and defeat them in close combat. The Urumi is what the Skull Knight should have been. Its exactly the same role, but due to powercreep, the Indian civ, which got released later, has a great unit. Meanwhile, the Skull Knight is trash.

Another great example, very similar: The Jaguar Knight. They are also considered useless. They have 4.50 speed, but 0 ranged resist so they get destroyed just like Skull Knights by Skirmishers. Their melee resist is also only .10, which is low for a melee unit.

Tl;Dr: Give Aztec melee units more speed and ranged resist. To do this, make change the Jaguar and Skull Knight Temple cards to grant speed and armor. And/or rework some of Aztec big buttons to provide armor/movement speed for these 2 melee units. Aztec big buttons do not offer any special unit upgrades unlike Iroquois or Lakota, who can directly upgrade their units with their big button.

Having the Jaguar Knight as heavy infantry anti-Skirm with 0.10 melee resist and 0% range resist is complete nonsense, the unit loses to the unit its supposed to counter. And being melee with only 4.50 speed means it gets picked off by Dragoons or any ranged units, causing Aztec to suffer heavy losses after a poor engagement.