Steppe Lancers should be buffed

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

Hey girls and guys, so this conversation has been brought up before and I think that before the next patch and impending balance changes, we should consider buffing steppe lancers.

By no means do I think they should go back to when DE launched that they were these OP juggernauts.

BUT, I think they could have a better role to play in the game. So I’ve gone ahead and compiled some suggestions for buffs that appeared in the forum before as I did for the Inca Team Bonus to start a conversation.

Proposals for buffs, separated into categories:

Armour buffs

  • Better melee armour but less pierce armour

Attack buffs

  • Increase attack in general
  • Increase attack speed
  • Add a “charge attack” like Coustilliers (one person said that it could apply only to certain units
  • Add trample damage

Bonus damage

  • Bonus vs. cavalry (I’ve read anything from a slight nerf to making them spearman class, the equivalent of the genitour to skirms)
  • Bonus vs. light cavalry (Scouts, Light cav, hussars)
  • Bonus vs. knights
  • Bonus vs. camels
  • Benefit from the Persian team bonus
  • Bonus vs. archers
  • Bonus vs. skirmishers
  • Bonus vs. cav archers
  • Bonus vs. eagles (I personally really dislike this one)
  • Bonus vs. buildings (one said palisades)
  • Bonus vs. villagers / trade carts
  • Lower bonus damage from spearman line (as a balance they propose give skirms a bonus against them)

Cost reductions

  • Lower cost for Elite Steppe Lancer
  • Lower gold cost (latest nerf) and increase food cost
  • Make them a three resource unit (add wood cost) making them cheaper in terms of food and gold
  • Increase HP

Miscellaneous

  • Increase movement speed
  • Increase range to 1.1 so they can effectively penetrate walls
  • Make them available to the Turks, Persians, Bulgarians (Volga Bulgars) and the Huns
  • Like Konniks, they die and get up as spearmen
  • Faster training time

In general, do you think Steppe Lancers should be buffed?

  • Yes, significant buff
  • Yes, small buff
  • No, they are good as they are
  • No, they should be nerfed

0 voters

2 Likes
2

Charged attack like Coustilliers would be the most accurate thing to do.
Lances are much more powerful than swords for cavalry charges.

3 Likes
3

SL is my favorites unit, I would love to see some of these buffs, bonus DMG against knights line looks both good and historical accurate

1 Like
4

sorry, I meant “latest buff”

5

I agree to buff the cost and hp a little bit.

My suggestions:

  • Steppe lancer gold cost reduced from 40 to 35, food cost reduced from 70 to 60.
  • Elite steppe lancer upgrade cost reduced to 600F, 300G (was 900F, 550G).
  • Steppe lancer receive +10hp.
1 Like
6

I would Say they need a bonus vs archers and not vs cavalry… they are fast and have a +1 Range do they can potencially be a good counter to arbalesters and hca.

1 Like
7

They are specifically designed to be weaker against archers because their range and stacking give them advantages against melee units

2 Likes
8

Maybe buffs for Tatars and Cumans SL as civilisation bonus.
Mongols SL are fine as it is.

1 Like
9

If they were supposed to be weak against archers they could have removed another pierce armor and bumped the HP and Attack up. They didn’t do that. They did everything but that. I didn’t want them to nerf the damage on the unit, I just wanted them to take the pierce armor away.

Factually speaking, the unit’s only ever been used as a raiding unit ever since the nerfs, so clearly this either wasn’t their intention, or they’re really bad at their job. They’ve failed to make it obvious what they want the unit to do (which I think they didn’t design it with a goal in mind, actually) and as a result the changes have been confusing and underwhelming.

3 Likes
10

Well the problem is they were designed to good for that role and got nerfed to uselessness.

They are a relative new unit, I don’t care if they have to redesign their role, change a few lines in the descripción or Even remove it.

Of course i don’t think that making it an archer counter it’s the only solution, but a little gold reducción will change nothing.

Another option could be to make it a trash unit, increasing their food cost and TT and few minor changes to their stats

11

I find Elite Steppe Lancers particularly underwhelming. Castle-age SL have some use cases.
Increasing damage would be simplest.
I hope they don’t push the unit into a very narrow niche by giving it bonus damage (like they did with Longswords).

1 Like
12

In fact every single ranged melee units are designed in that way. The only exception maybe Kamayuk.

I don’t wanna reduce their PA though. Give them more HP. From 60/80 → 70/95 or 75/100

13

Balance discussion on the steppe lancer

my suggestions are the same as on this thread

14

I drew from yours as well. It was very detailed and I encourage everyone to take a look.

1 Like