In light of the recent news that AoE III will be included in the upcoming tournament, an earnest discussion should be had regarding balance.
Here are my suggestions after playing heavily over the past year and consistently being a top 300 player:
Ottomans:
- Increase cost of 5 Spahi card to 1,200f, or only allow 4 of them for 1,000f.
- Reduce Bashibozuk HP down to 170 (from 180)
- Increase cost of Mosque first settler limit upgrade from 100c to 125c.
- Increase cost of Mosque first settler spawn rate time from 50w to 75w.
- Increase Mosque build time by 5s
- Abus Gunners only gain +1 range (from +2) in age V.
- Ottoman Grenadiers now have 13 range (down from 14).
USA:
Increase (nerf) unpacking time for:
- Capital Wagon by 10s
- Meeting House Wagon by 5s
- Bank Wagon by 5s
- Mill Wagon by 5s
- TP Wagon by 5s
- Blockhouse Wagon by 5s
*Increase the cost of MM and the other levy buttons from 150f/150c to 160f/160c
*NERF the Russo-American Age III card by decreasing the food gather rate from 30% to 25%.
All of these in conjunction with one another will still leave USA in a very strong place.
Aztec:
Lakota:
China:
- Increase unpacking time for Consulate Wagon by 5s.
- increase train time for Disciples by 2s
- Increase unpacking time of Blockhouse Wagon by 5s and only allow Castle Units to be trained from it.
Malta:
- Revert 1% XP nerf.
- Upgrade Age IV Sentinel card to 55% stat increase, +2 range and melee range, and +.25 speed.
- Upgrade Wall guns to have a +10 range to its aura
- Upgrade Advanced Commandery to also increase Commandery HP, Attack, Range, LOS, & RoF by 10%
- Upgrade Auberges Card to also decrease train time of Commandery units by 10%.
- Decrease cost of German Tongue from 450w → 425w.
- Upgrade Dignitaries Age IV card to also slightly boost Hospitallers in combat: 5% more HP, Attack, & Speed
- Increase cost of Hospital from 100w to 125w. This will nerf the xbow/pike rush just enough and will be warranted in conjunction with the above buffs.
Italy:
- Reduce Architect cost -5c from 170c to 165c and spawn rate (buff) by 3s.
- Fix Economy Statistics on post-game screen to include resources generated from Lombards
Sweden:
- Guard Pikemen Upgrade now changes Pikemen’s wood cost to coin instead of a 25% cost reduction.
Ethiopia:
- Reduce Palace Wagon unpack time by 3s
- Reduce Grainery build time by 3s across the board
- Reduce Field build time by 5s across the board
Hausa:
- Increase Raider spawn rate by 4 seconds (nerf)
Inca:
- Reduce Kancha House cost from 170w to 165w.
- Increase Kancha House HP from 1600 → 1650.
- Decrease (buff) base Priestess spawn rate at the Community Plaza by 15%.
- Increase Bola Warrior base speed by .25.
- Reduce cost of Plumed Spearmen by 5f, from 100f 25w to 95f 25w.
- Decrease cost of Huanka Support (Second TC + Warhut in age 2) from 500c to 450c.
- Decrease cost of big button upgrade on Kancha house from 250f/250w/250c to 225f/225w/225c.
- Increase Kancha House build limit +2 upon sending Autarky card (Age III).
Russia:
- Reduce cost of batch villagers from 260f to 255f.
- Have them start with a 500f crate instead of multiple 100f crates.
- Upgrade New Order Regiments to 15% Stats per unit
- Enable Age III Detinets card to also increase Blockhouse build limit by +2
- Combine two Factory Cards into 1 card, costing 150f/150w/150c (sends 2 factories).
• Team Patriarchy now increases Inquisitioners’s cost and train time by 40% (net negative of 10%).
Japan:
- Samurai Mortar attack now has +1 RoF (slower attack rate in exchange for the extra range).
Mexico:
- Decrease XP gained from Hacienda by 20 XP.
GENERAL:
*Increase time it takes to revolt by 5s (including all Mexican revolts).
*Decrease base HP of Mounted Grenadiers from revolts by 10 and base attack by 1.
7 Likes
Hasn’t the tournament already started?
2 Likes
I’m thinking this is intended to save a card slot for Russia. Imo the way to do this would be replacing Dueling School (1) and Fencing School (2) with an age 3 version for -65%. Russia’s thing is kinda fast training infantry imo, so making that easier to achieve makes more sense than a reduced factory footprint.
To add to this (from a Team perspective):
Japan:
• Japanese Samurai Mortar attack now has +1 RoF (slower attack rate in exchange for the extra range).
Sweden:
• Sweden’s Guard Pikemen Upgrade now changes Pikemen’s wood cost to coin instead of a 25% cost reduction.
Russia:
• Team Patriarchy (Russia) now increases Inquisitioners’s cost and train time by 40% (net negative of 10%). Germany + Russia in team games is THE lamest thing currently in the game.
Ottomans:
• Abus Gunners no longer gain +2 range in age 5.
• Ottoman Grenadiers now have 12 range (down from 14).
Inca:
• Fix Poison Damage application if possible (Inca may need less buffs if a fix can be achieved as this would significantly improve JBs).
4 Likes
Yes, perfect - those are all of the things I missed, thank you for that. Think I’ll edit and add them in.
And yes, Russia has a lot of cards that go unused so giving them an “extra slot” would be good. An Age III -65% inf train time card is also in tow for sure.
Cards like Detinets, infantry siege damage, Sovnya, ############### Improved Buildings, and a few more can be added into the decks where 3 or more of these would otherwise be absent.
1 Like
I personally think the Ottoman mosque techs should be the following:
-
New Order Infantry (600w): Ships 5 Nizam Fusiliers and lets you train up to 20 from the barracks.
-
Topcu Corps (1000c): Ships 1 bombard and reduces bombard pop by 1.
-
Kapikulu (1500f): Ships 4 Sipahi and gives them 0.10 more melee resist.
This Ottoman FI mosque stuff needs to stop. Also, I don’t like nerfing their units, but make them more expensive and slower to train.
2 Likes
• Ottoman Grenadiers now have 0,56x vs Artillery(down from the absolutely unreasonable 2x)
They just need fewer hit points so that cavalry and skirmishers can kill them.
They are designed as an anti-artillery unit. It’s a unique unit for a reason. So this makes no sense.
It makes no sense that they outperform Grenadiers in every aspect for no reason other than being an ottoman unit
1 Like
They are anti-artillery primarily. Make them weak against infantry and cavalry. They aren’t really a nornal grenadier. Like the Hakkapelit - not a normal dragoon.
It’s not like the civ would have needed any more specialist units to counter whatever but hey why not, as long as they stop being anti-everything
Having a ranged hardcounter to artillery in age 2 is nonsense. Most euro civs go to 3 for this advantage. Why would you design a unit that singlehandedly counters a whole comp ?
Either give it a crippling weakness, or redesign the whole thing. Otto’s feast-or-famine logic has become feast-or-diet, and that’s a problem. Oh no ! TCs are too expensive ! Otto cannot 3TC with 1kwood ! Let’s reduce TC wood cost. But Otto is limited to strong age 2 play because vills techs are too expensive ! Let’s reduce it !
Oh no ! Otto is weak to cav ! Quick, we need to give them a pikeman that’s also countering goons because GOD FORBID they have weakness. All because the almighty Abus has a weakness vs goons.
Auto-training vills is slow, so we cannot give them any more weakness. It would limit the options of turtling or booming !
Some civs have a preferred game plan. And that’s ok.
10 Likes
Arrow Knights seem like a worthy comparison; it’s a little messy as AKs are either great or terrible, but they are basically only good against artillery and buildings. Maybe Ottoman Grenadiers should have like 10 attack at range and a bigger bonus against artillery (for the same overall damage vs artillery).
Added a few items:
Ottomans:
- Increase cost of 5 Spahi card to 1,200f.
- Reduce Bashibozuk HP down to 170 (from 180)
- Increase cost of Mosque first settler limit upgrade from 100c to 125c.
- Increase cost of Mosque first settler spawn rate time from 50w to 75w.
- Increase Mosque build time by 5s
- Abus Gunners only gain +1 range (from +2) in age V.
- Decrease Ottoman Grenadiers range by 1, to 13 (down from 14).
USA:
Increase (nerf) unpacking time for:
- Capital Wagon by 10s
- Meeting House Wagon by 5s
- Bank Wagon by 5s
- Mill Wagon by 5s
- TP Wagon by 5s
- Blockhouse Wagon by 5s
*Increase the cost of MM and the other levy buttons from 150f/150c to 160f/160c
*NERF the Russo-American Age III card by decreasing the food gather rate from 30% to 25%.
All of these in conjunction with one another will still leave USA in a very strong place.
Aztec:
Lakota:
China:
- Increase unpacking time for Consulate Wagon by 5s.
- increase train time for Disciples by 2s
- Increase unpacking time of Blockhouse Wagon by 5s and only allow Castle Units to be trained from it.
Malta:
- Revert 1% XP nerf.
- Upgrade Age IV Sentinel card to 55% stat increase, +2 range and melee range, and +.25 speed.
- Upgrade Wall guns to have a +10 range to its aura
- Upgrade Advanced Commandery to also increase Commandery HP, Attack, Range, LOS, & RoF by 10%
- Upgrade Auberges Card to also decrease train time of Commandery units by 10%.
- Decrease cost of German Tongue from 450w → 425w.
- Upgrade Dignitaries Age IV card to also slightly boost Hospitallers in combat: 5% more HP, Attack, & Speed
- Increase cost of Hospital from 100w to 125w. This will nerf the xbow/pike rush just enough and will be warranted in conjunction with the above buffs.
Italy:
- Reduce Architect cost -5c from 170c to 165c and spawn rate (buff) by 3s.
- Fix Economy Statistics on post-game screen to include resources generated from Lombards
Sweden:
- Guard Pikemen Upgrade now changes Pikemen’s wood cost to coin instead of a 25% cost reduction.
Ethiopia:
- Reduce Palace Wagon unpack time by 3s
Hausa:
- Increase Raider spawn rate by 4 seconds (nerf)
Inca:
- Reduce Kancha House cost from 170w to 165w.
- Increase Kancha House HP from 1600 → 1650.
- Decrease (buff) base Priestess spawn rate at the Community Plaza by 15%.
- Increase Bola Warrior base speed by .25.
- Reduce cost of Plumed Spearmen by 5f, from 100f 25w to 95f 25w.
- Decrease cost of Huanka Support (Second TC + Warhut in age 2) from 500c to 450c.
- Decrease cost of big button upgrade on Kancha house from 250f/250w/250c to 225f/225w/225c.
- Increase Kancha House build limit +2 upon sending Autarky card (Age III).
Russia:
- Reduce cost of batch villagers from 260f to 255f.
- Have them start with a 500f crate instead of multiple 100f crates.
- Upgrade New Order Regiments to +15% Attack & HP per unit (up from 10%)
- Enable Age III Detinets card to also increase Blockhouse build limit by +2
- Combine two Factory Cards into 1 card, costing 150f/150w/150c (sends 2 factories).
• Team Patriarchy now increases Inquisitioners’s cost and train time by 40% (net positive of 10%).
Japan:
- Samurai Mortar attack now has +1 RoF (slower attack rate in exchange for the extra range).
Portugal:
- Buff Logistician by also increasing Town Center housing by +5 (from +10, new is +15).
- Give +5% hunting/berry gathering bonus back
Dutch:
Mexico:
- Decrease XP gained from Hacienda by 20 XP.
GENERAL:
- Increase (nerf) time it takes to revolt by 5s (including all Mexican revolts).
- Decrease (nerf) base HP of Mounted Grenadiers from revolts by 20 and base attack by 1.
- Increase (nerf) time to build Community Plaza by 5s
- Decrease (buff) Grainery build time by 3s across the board
- Decrease (buff) Field build time by 5s across the board
- Decrease Royal Musketeer Melee Resistance by 10% (from 40% to 30%).
1 Like
Stop making your suggestion look like real patch notes it doesn’t make it real, it just confuses people
1 Like
Speak for yourself. How in the world is that confusing?
7 Likes
He is following the format of real patch notes but it is fake
It is a hypothetical patch of what he considers ideal changes, but he does not intend to deceive anyone.
5 Likes
because people would legit think a patch just dropped, especially he has that title (announcement—balance changes), then carefully read the patch and then find out it is fake
I’m not a moderator or dev obviously, official patch notes come out on the website and we’ll all know when it hits.
I’m pretty sure only a tiny fraction of people are getting confused, especially those who frequent the forum.
I also did not intend to use the same format - I always use the title followed by bullet points. My format is slightly different overall anyhow. My style is also “little buffs, little nerfs”…which is also opposite to what the devs have been doing until now, instead with “big buffs, big nerfs” which never goes well.
Lastly, right in the beginning of the post I specifically mention that these are my suggestions.
3 Likes