Some more mild balance ideas for thought

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

General

  • Remove Supplies tech - Man-at-Arms upgrade reduces militia-line food cost by 10 (and do some kind of decrease for goth/inca discounts)
  • Remove Arson tech - all castle/imperial age infantry units get +2 vs buildings for free
  • Squires research time -15s, cost -25 food
  • Gambesons cost -25 food
  • Man-at-Arms research time -5s
  • Longsword research time -10s
  • Two-hand Sword research time -10s
  • Champion research time -10s, cost -250f, -50g
  • Two-hand & Champion move speed from 0.9 to 0.94, +1 attack vs Cavalry
  • Winged Hussar gunpowder bonus reduced from +4 to +2
  • Onager cut should not be heard in fog of war
  • Siege towers should be able to hop over a single house
  • Crossbow upgrade -25f, Arbalest upgrade -50f
  • Transport ships capacity should be automatically upgraded to 10 in castle age, 20 in imperial age. Careening and Dry Dock should no longer affect carry capacity, so reduce cost of those techs slightly.
  • Town Centers normal cost to repair
  • Fix accuracy of Town Center shooting
  • Fix bad pathing (challenge level: impossible)

Aztecs

  • Carry capacity increased to +4

Bengalis

  • Rathas should start out in Melee mode - much more useful overall, reduces the amount of tedious micro needed (or add a toggle in options/Castle for the default mode, or 2 hotkeys in castle to produce melee ratha or ranged ratha)
  • Add 2 distinct hotkeys for melee weapon switch and ranged weapon switch
  • Food trade team bonus buffed from 10% to 15%

Bohemians

  • Hussite Wagons shield ability should not shield other Hussite Wagons
  • Houfnice -1 pierce armor
  • TB: Markets work 60% faster (down from 80%)

Bulgarians

  • Konnik -0.2 reload time
  • Merge cavalry armor and infantry armor upgrades into one upgrade-line, the cost should be the infantry one cos its cheaper

Burmese

  • Manipur Cavalry also gives Cavalry +4 attack vs Standard Buildings (or alternatively include +4 vs standard buildings for Elephants only in the elephants civ bonus for +1 armor)

Celts

  • Infantry move 5/15/20% faster in Dark/Feudal/Castle Age

Chinese

  • Tech discount becomes 10/20% in Castle/Imperial (instead of 5/10/15% in feudal/castle/imp)

Cumans

  • The 2nd Feudal TC should be nerfed in some way: HP, garrison, attack, range, cost, work time etc… It is way too good even on open maps

Georgians

  • Start with -25 wood

Gurjaras

  • (standard & elite) Shrivamsha Rider -0.05 move speed

Hindustanis

  • Ghulam bonus vs eagles reduced from 2 to 0/1
  • Non-elite Ghulam pass through damage reduced from 50% to 33%
  • Shatagni nerfed back to +1 range (or remove the +1/+1 gunpowder units armor bonus)

Huns

  • (standard & elite) Tarkan -0.1 reload time, additional +3 vs Buildings (need anti building buff since due to masonry/archi it is worse than Paladin at this role)

Italians

  • Non-elite Genoese Crossbowman +0.2 reload time

Japanese

  • Samurai receive 1 less damage from enemy unique units (similar to how royal heir shotels take less dmg)

Khmer

  • House garrison capacity changed from 5 to 3/4/5/6 (per age)

Lithuanians

  • (standard & elite) Leitis -1 attack, cost +5 food, +5 gold

Magyars

  • +15 food gained for a wolf kill
  • All units 1 shot wolves

Malay

  • 3rd Infantry armor is no longer free

Mayans

  • Archer discount decreased from 10/20/30% to 10/15/25%
  • Adjust Plumed Archer to cost -2w -2g compared to current

Mongols

  • Nomads house effect also affects TCs / Castles
  • Do smth about steppes (put hp bonus as part of nomad UT or nerf to 15% in castle age)

Persians

  • War elephant bonus vs buildings reduced from 30 to 20
  • Citadels bonus dmg reduction from -25% to -10%
  • Savar should be identical to Paladin - just be a regional skin for Persians, Huns, Cumans

Poles

  • Lose Siege Engineers
  • Szlachta Privileges cost from -60% to -50%
  • Standard/Elite Obuch -5 HP, +5 food cost

Portuguese

  • Technology speed team bonus from 25% to 20%
  • Gold discount from 20% to 15%
  • Feitoria also provides 20 housing population but still does occupy 20 population (small buff, not requiring 4 houses for a feitoria)

Romans

  • Scorp gold discount from -60% to -50%
  • Legionary anti-infantry bonus from +4 to +2
  • Centurion Militia-line Aura: move speed nerf from 10/15 to 6/12, attack speed nerf from 20% to 11/18%

Saracens

  • Return old civ bonus of Cavalry Archer +4 vs buildings
  • Stagger the camel HP bonus to 15/25%

Teutons

  • Conversion resistance team bonus swapped with monk healing range civ bonus (or nerf the team bonus conversion resistance by 50%)

Vietnamese

  • Archery Range HP bonus no longer affects Cav Archers
1 Like
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Some of them are actually quite radical tho.

2 Likes
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Nerfing everything not to change everything, paraphrasing " Il Gattopardo".
Edit. In any case, some considerations.

It will probably be necessary, but let’s wait a few months first.

Absolutely not, that thing is already too strong perhaps.

They would need a kind of Scout Acher, a predecessor unit of the Cavalry Acher, so they have something to hoard in the feudal age. Only then you would have to give it to all the other civilisations and it becomes a mess.

Agreed for the market, not for Houfnice, indifferent on Wagons.

I would much prefer it if they lost the Heavy Camel Rider.

Make it -50.

The conversion resistance bonus is practically the best thing they have. It also has enormous strategic value in TG, so why take it away?

Vietnamese already have a mediocre win rate on Arabia, and a 50-51 winrate in the 1900+ Elo range. Why nerf one of their options?

2 Likes