I agree with this. I main mongol myself, and I rarely resort to tower rush, exactly for the reason you said. I think Mongols play so much better in other ways, but at a cost of a more difficult early game.
People either under/overappreciate mangudai’s. Kurultai is immensly strong when used correctly especially in team games. (But you never see this used in ranked games)
Going for Trade is rarely appreciated. People rather go ultra greedy on vills. not realising you can actually achieve more stability from trade-econ if played right. (Dont have 1 trade route, have at least 2).
People cry about wanting more assymetry, yet whenever i go Tradewing for Abbasid in Feudal, my teammates GG and quits. (I’ve made my own abbasid build that allows me to hit Imperial in 11 minutes on some maps by going for feudal trade, alternativly drop imperial and go for a absolute crazy castle death push)
People are so focused at META, they are blind to see other ways.
And then they get outraged when seeing things getting changes as it might break their meta.
or at some cases, without realizing, Forcing symmetry into the game that wasn’t really intended.
Balancing through the change of numbers is a NEVERENDING story.
Infact it is nothing but a form of Maintance if anything. You will always have something that needs rebalancing. Always.
So it is as you say, balancing through the magic of numbers isn’t going to work. More fundemental changes are needed, but this comes at the cost of breaking people’s META and otherwise cookie-cutter builds.
I mean, for me as a strategy game enthusiast. 90% of my enjoyment comes from not Out-skilling the opponent. but Out-witting them by creating strategies of my own.
People meme and rage at me going Feudal Tradewing 1TC for abbasid.
But they quickly shut up once they get donated 5k gold in 14 min mark to have them catch up economy wise.
They think Mangudai is the weakest unit, because on paper, it is so.
But forget it’s one hell of a good Knight-killer with the Shia-bow upgrades.
Not to mention wrecks absolute havoc on ones econ.
Majority of HRE players never use Landknecht, because they dont have chonky armor and HP.
and solely rely on spamming MaA. Not realising the immense deadly effect mixing in Landsknecht among their MaA, and how they wreck havoc against the enemie MaA hard counter units, the crossbows.
Abbasid Imams are heavily underused. It is a singular unit that can turn the tide of battle against Dheli with their Conversion ability.
People so obsessed spamming french knights, they forget French Crossbowmen are far superior. and actually hardcounters ranged units!
People laugh at my friend who always plays Rus favoring a foreward Kreml.
What they dont realise is that this foreward Kreml is part of a strategy.
When the enemie is busy distracted “harassing” the kreml, they forget their other flanks.
Yes Golden Gate is GOD tier Landmark.
But when it comes to Warfare, you can have all the Wünderwaffe of the world, but it wont secure you victory.
If something “Trash” tier has succeeded in doing what it was suppose to do, then it is God Tier for the overall strategy and timing.
I could go on forever.
But as I mentioned in my post. People tend to Echo the “top” players because they are on the top.
They see the game from a limited set of eyes and perspective.
Rather than the full perspective. And more importantly, the perspective of the developters.
On that thought, on paper, Shouldn’t the Developters be the “Top” players of the game? Afterall, they are the ones who made the game! So they should have the most knowledge about the game and its mechanics.
yet rarely do you see a Developter also being a top competative player.
but that kinda compares it towards the same thing as why isnt the Car Mechanic the Race Driver.
I think in the end, what is important is that especially for the Developters.
They need to see it from all these perspectives.
The perspective of themselves, as the developters and their initial ideas and concepts of the game.
The perspective of competative players, pushing the limits of their game design and what is possible to do in the games that is being made.
The perspective of casual players, who wants to enjoy the game and be able to have a good experience.
One has to thread a delicate balance between these points. And a lot of people fail to see this sadly.