I’ve been thinking that the more I watch Drongo’s casts, the more I realize nobody ever uses the springald and cannon emplacements in keeps and outposts. The problem is that defensive structures are too fragile to justify the very expensive upgrades, both techs come too late and too expensive to defend against rams, in the late game well-placed trebs and even bombards can outrange them and enemy units quickly evacuate the area anyway. Losing a keep with both a cannon and springald is losing 1350 resources, which could go towards a second keep, walls or lots of outposts. Deciding to go for a “bombard tower” is even worse.
What could be done to make those techs more popular? Right now besides their obvious purpose, the only advantage they offer is a +2 range increase for arrows. The most obvious change would be going the AoE 2 or boiling oil way and have the emplacement research apply to every structure. If not then at least have them increase hitpoints or add slow auto-heal for the structure, so the cost vs utility is justified.
PD: In vs AI matches they are useful (even against the hardest difficulty), because the AI is stupid and likes to YOLO all units under a keep.
I’ve rarely seen keeps and outposts with springalds. Absolutely never have I seen cannons, only in super cheese matches with 5 keeps around a sacred site or such. The only defensive building where I see folks justifying the expense in more normal games is the Barbican.
If you haven’t seen it in the games you play against, maybe it’s because they forget to do it. In a long, high-level game, emplacements are almost always added to defensive buildings.
Admittedly I’m not very good at AoE4 (I like having a game where I don’t feel the need to tryhard, which is what I do for AoE2), but I find I dislike the upgrades because it’s on a building by building basis. And when they cost stone, I’d rather have more buildings.
LOL, check Beasty as HRE he only spam cannons and keeps.
Towers is super good, if you have stone. You can not kill them without bombards or trebs. Rams do not work either.
Currently you need 10-20 minutes to finish already killed opponent. (Even if he has twice less vils, you need 10-20 minutes.) Imagine you buff towers. We will die to see tower defence games with infinite horses running around and killing siege.
Towers already stop units from diving IN.
If opponent build a castle with oil or a few towers, than you literally forced to play trebs + springald micro. so boring.