Hello,
TL;DR: create a custom civ-pool (example: only archers civs) and go random with selected civs
My argument:
Idk if this was suggested before, but I’ll tell my PoV about this.
I started to play last year and this is a huge game in terms of meta game, adaptation, micro gameplay, etc. Maybe the most common advice from the top players about how to improve is “learn build orders”. And I quite agree about that.
So, it’s not easy for new players to dominate every build order, for example from 1250 Elo to below, players usually play from one build order, max 2 in general. (Archers and scouts are the most common).
Before moving on to my main point, yes, I know that in the first stages of the game you can play with every BO for almost every Civ, feudal archers with Bulgarians, or Britons scouts. Yes, some civs take advantage of a BO, but in general you can do whatever you want to early game.
With that in mind and moving to my point now, the reason I don’t go random Civ on ranked is because I don’t dominate yet the best way to play or take advantage on every Civ. Like, I don’t have too much practice with early drush yet, or tower pressure. Or simply some days I just want to go full archer or full calvary civs.
So, I think it would be a good idea to add a custom random Civ on rankeds, in order to choose a civ between a group of them that I previously marked. For example, if I want to play Cav civ I’ll choose Franks, Indians, Lithuanians, Berbers, Magyars, etc. And get a random Civ between that selection. Or if other day I want to play full meso civs, make a random selection between the 3 meso civs.
I know, great players go full random no matter what and they adapt to the game. But at least for me and some of my friends, this would be a good step forward to start going full random.
Cheers,