Hello there,
it has been a while since I have posted something, but I have never stopped playing the game and most certainly did not stop caring for it.
I think most of the recent changes have been very good for the game and I really like the direction it has taken.
I am also looking forward to the revamp of water gameplay. This post here, however, is about further improving the balance between the civs in this game, while also trying to reduce the effectiveness of oppressive strategies or techs in the game. But nobody likes only nerfs. Especially not for the civ they like the most. This is why I also tried to compensate civs for some of the nerfs I am about to suggest. Some civs receive more changes than others, which mostly means that the civs that receive little change are in a very good spot in my opinion and do not need much changing.
Please bear in mind that these are just suggestions. None of my ideas are set in stone. And Iâd like to hear your opinion on these changes. As always some will like them, while others will hate them. Letâs just try to be civil about it.
Here we go:
All civs:
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Crossbow bonus dmg to heavy cav stays at 11, but vs heavy inf is reduced to 8. Crossbows are too effective against MAA. It might be the most effective counter in the game and should thus be tuned down. Knights are fine with the +11, since they have more hp and decide when to engage thanks to their mobility.
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CB bonus dmg has been increased from 8 to 11 way back, but was actually aimed towards making knights less effective. It is my understanding that MAA suffered collateral dmg along the way without being the intended target. Crossbows still hard counter MAA with this change, but they wonât be as effective anymore. I find this change also necessary, because mangonels can counter range well, but not reliably. You can never be sure that theyâll be able to do what they are supposed to as their handling is so much different compared to actual human units. Once mangos are dead, they are also hard to replace and the units they are supposed to counter can reign supreme way too freely. I donât want the mango meta to come back, hence I suggest to make CBs just slightly less effective against MAA.
English:
The English late game needs a nerf, while landmarks and Castle Age need a buff:
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âRaise a Fyrdâ available in Abbey of Kings: In this landmark you can now build only the lower version of the unit upgrades available in your age. If you have Early MAA available, you can only build Vanguard MAA here. If you have Elite MAA, you can only build Veteran MAA etc. It applies to MAA, spearmen, horsemen and knights. Allow building horsemen from this landmark starting in age III and knights in age IV, because the landmark can never build the best version of a unit that is available in the current age.
Each unit gets its cost reduced by 30% in age II, 40% in age III and 50% in age IV (if thatâs too much, 30% across all ages). Production speed is also increased by 100/200/300% per age. The former healing effect of the Abbey gets removed. The goal for this landmark is to attack or defend by numbers for little cost instead of quality. The units would get a âFyrdâ prefix to not only be distinguished by upgrades but also by name (Fyrd spearman, fyrd man at arms, etc). -
Council Hall now also has Crossbows available in Castle Age and allows research of incendiary arrows for -50% cost in age IV.
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Enclosures get nerfed, so 1 farm equals 8gpm, but the tech becomes available in Castle Age. There will be an imperial upgrade to improve gpm to 10 (or 12, not quite sure. Definitely not more than 12) per farm. Right now it is very frustrating to fight a 50% NoC English with infinite gold that doesnât need map control and can turtle themselves in like no other civ can. There is barely anyhing you can do to counter English lategame, unless you are much ahead. Which also explains the following suggestion.
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Network of Castles gets nerfed to 20% attackspeed. Network of Citadels now heals all units in the area by 1hp/1s (possibly too strong. If so 1hp/2sec) and has its gold cost reduced to 100 down from 200. NoC in live version is actual insanity. You canât beat the English with an equal or even slightly superior army, if they are under the NoC effect. Esp. with 50%, which is just unreasonable. Hence these change suggestions to give NoC significantly less punch, while still providing a powerful buff to the army. The healing effect effectively increases the hp of all units affected. This becomes even stronger with an Iron Chad MAA frontline. That way NoC would still be very powerful, but not as oppressive as it has been.
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Outpost and stonetower range of NoC effect reduced by 1 or 2 tile(s) in radius. Castle and TC remain unchanged.
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White Tower: Units are being produced 100% faster, so production wise it acts as two keeps for the English.
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Kings Palace can now garrison 15 villagers instead of 10 and has its hitpoints increased to 3k.
Rus:
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Streltsy ranged attack dmg reduced to 30, melee dmg reduced to 42 to make them less of a deathball and to better reflect their 25% reduced cost compared to HC. With their stance buff at max and chemistry researched, theyâll still deal an insane 45 dmg, which becomes 48 with maxed Saints Blessing.
Streltsies in live version are just way too cost efficient for no comprehensible reason. They always fight with at least one stack of their stationary buff, which means that they are not only cheaper but also way stronger than HCs. And they only become stronger and stronger. I donât want to remove their cost discount, so reducing their dmg seems the most reasonable thing to do in order to reduce their effectiveness a little bit. Theyâd still be cheaper and better than HC, but now with a little downside. -
Have Kremlin additionally reduce cost of Spearmen, Archers and Horsemen by 10% to give this landmark a more significant role for the rest of the game. (if too strong, remove archers from the discount)
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Spasskaya Tower: In addition to its normal effect it now also increases wood dropped off at lumber camps by 10%. With this eco boost it might be more reasonable to sometimes choose this over the artillery landmark.
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Boyars Fortitude reduced to +15 hp down from 20.
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Warrior Monks should be slowed down to 1 speed, when carrying a relic. That way you can actually catch them, when they want to run away. Right now only knights and horsemen are really able to intercept Warrior Monks. The Warrior Monk speed advantage over other monks is already big. It should not be that big. Give the opponent a chance to stop Warrior Monks, who have gathered a relic. They would still be faster than other monks, whose speed is reduced below 1 when carrying a relic.
Mongols:
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Max Springald range with upgrades reduced to 12.5 down from 13. Because 13 is too much and Mongol siege already receive several boni due to ovoo techs.
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Kurultai dmg bonus reduced to 20%, but it now actually stays active for 30 seconds for all units after leaving Kurultai range. If Kurultai is positioned next to a neutral or allied market, trade benefits from that market are improved by 10% per trader. That way Kurultai can be used in a military and an economic way and would also synergize with silver tree.
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Improved Biology reduced from +30% hp to +25% hp.
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Khaganate Palace: Instead of its normal effect this landmark now decreases the cost of all mounted units (Horsemen, Scouts, Lancers and Mangudai) by 20% (which also applies to stone costs with the ovoo effect). Right now there is no reason to ever go Khagante Palace. This could change that.
Chinese:
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Firelancer building dmg reduced by 5.
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Second landmark needed to found a new dynasty has its cost reduced by 10% in all ages. This is aimed towards giving the Chinese a better flow.
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Give NoB the mango treatment. Reduce area of effect, but increase dmg to ranged by 50%. NoB has impeccable aiming and can be very frustrating to play against. Hence its effectiveness should be given a clearer role to also better match the role of the mangonel.
Delhi:
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Hisar Academy and Tower of Victory get interchanged. Hisar is now available in age II and ToV in age IV. This gives the scaling effect of Hisar more relevance and makes age IV a decision between infantry and elephants.
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Research time for Village Fortresses gets reduced from 300 seconds to 180 seconds.
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Swiftness should improve scholar movement speed to 1.5 and not higher, because anything higher is and looks absolutely ridiculous. There was an oversight when all monks had their speed improved from 1 to 1.12, so now Swiftness lets scholars run with 1.69 speed. They are faster than a knight. 1.5 is reasonable and would still stand out very much compared to other civs.
HRE:
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Landsknechte hitpoints increased to 100 (+20) to improve their terrible cost and pop efficiency. Instead of 114 hp fully upgraded, theyâd end up with 138 hp, which helps justifying their cost. Theyâd still be glass cannons and still die fairly quickly, but just not as quickly anymore. Their costs would be more justified without making this unit too strong.
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Prelates: Allow prelates to inspire while patrolling. This should help to make prelates slightly more viable in later stages of the game and especially when Aachen was not chosen.
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Benediction: Moved to imperial, cost changed to 350f/350g. Now increases movement speed for prelates and all military units except siege by 5%. If Inspired Warriors is researched, Benediction now also extends IWâs buff to additionally increase attack speed by 20%. Reason: HRE offers barely nothing in imperial except the standard imperial stuff everybody gets. With this change HRE has more possibilities if prelates are used well or Elzbach is being chosen. It also incentivizes the use of prelates with the army in lategame. Itâs almost impossible to have every unit inspired at once, which is why this change would not make IW too strong, but much more rewarding.
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Meinwerk Palace discount increased to 50% and now additionally offers the mace upgrade for MAA to be researched in age II. This change is aimed towards giving HRE a better answer to knights in feudal, while sacrificing the Aachen setup.
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Burgrave Palace: Production and research speed reduced to 250% down from 400%. Unit costs reduced by 15/25% per age for the landmark to not become useless with the progression of the match. Without the Regnitz gold, the HRE struggles to entertain this landmark. This change is aimed towards improving that.
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Swabia Palace: Discount to age up reduced from 20% to 10%. This will make rushing to imperial harder, while the idea of Swabia as a catch up landmark remains. Naked imperial attempts would also be easier to punish with this change.
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Elzbach Palace: Now additionally inspires military units within 3 tiles in radius (which is rather small). It works like Aachen, but only for military units. After leaving the Elzbach inspiration influence, the buff lasts the usual 1 minute. With this, Elzbach would be a reasonable choice to reward multi tc play in feudal and castle age. With this, an army could be completely inspired, but with the downside of being limited to staying close to the landmark. This should help to make Elzbach become a more viable defensive landmark without making it too similar to Red Palace or Berkshire. Itâd have a unique touch to it that synergizes well with the inpsiration identity of this civ.
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The HRE needs more diversity and options. They lack unique units, techs and/or tactics and have a rather thin tech tree and an arguably poor lategame. But what they also lack is a coat of arms! Their shields are blank (aside from two thin lines). Why do they still lack the coat of arms? MAA and knights should carry the Eagle. And if there were a tech that made a reference to the Teutonic Order (for exmpale âReturn of the Crusaderâ: Increase knight hp by 10 and armor by 1/1), the coat of arms could be changed into the Teutonic cross. Just give this civ something more.
Abbasid:
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Abbasids have by far the best trash army (no gold cost army) in the game. There is phalanx, bootcamp, camel support, camel archers, composite bow (barely used because CA are so powerful, but Abbasids have also the best archers in the game)⌠That is why I think there are some adjustments to be made. I want to suggest to nerf the overperforming camel archers to make archers more attractive for Abbasids altogether, while also reducing their costs as a tradeoff. On top of that I want to give the camel support aura to camel riders only or reduce its effect, because when all Abbasid upgrades come together, the cost effecitveness of their army is a little bit too great and is very hard to counter.
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Camel Archer dmg reduced to 10/12/13 from 12/14/15 and bonus dmg to light reduced to 10/11/12 from 12/14/15. Food cost get reduced by 30 to 150f/60w. This makes camel archers less effective in all stages of the game (since they overperform), but they also become more available.
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Camel support (+2 armor for all infantry) is only given by camel riders to a) make camel riders an integreal part of the lategame army no matter if there are enemy horses and b) to make counterplay easier, since camel archers tend to live very long.
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OR: Reduce the area of effect for the armor, so camels that are not very close to the infantry do not give the bonus.
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OR: Revert its effect back to +1 instead of +2
French:
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Iâll go with Beasty here: Revert the cost change of chivalry, but make it an active ability with cooldown. Forget to click it: No healing. Click it and it heals until reentering combat. Cooldown 45 seconds.
This change is aimed towards making French a tad bit more difficult to play by giving it more room for mistakes. -
Royal Bloodlines reduced to 30% down from 35%. French knights are just too chunky with this. Especially in Castle Age. â With the changes to Rus and Mongols, French knights are still the most chunky ones in the game. Just all bonus hp knights have gotten a little less chunky.
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Allow barracks to also profit from castle influence cost reduction to muster cheap MAA and Spears.
Excursion:
The Ottomans start off with Janissaries, Mehtars, Sipahis, Great Bombard, Horse Archers and who knows what else. The Malians are so unique in so many different ways. And civs like HRE and English look pathetic in comparison; even Mongols who also only have the Mangudai as a unique unit. These civs need to get more uniqueness, more techs, more units. They simply need more to choose from. The Landsknecht does not have a single unique upgrade for himself and is the only unique military unit for HRE. Thatâs not enough. Their MAA eventually are only MAA and not a unique unit, but they are still more unique than this lackluster Landsknecht.
For HRE I could suggest several new unique units like another unit from the Landsknecht line (arquebus for example that replaces HC), Ritterbruder or Ordensritter (heavily armored, expensive knight on horseback) that resembles the Teutonic Order, Black Rider etc. I donât say include them all, I just think that some civs got the short end and lack a kind of uniqueness that other civs have. And HRE lacks either another UU or a few new or improved unique techs.
For English I have the Fyrd army in mind, which could be turned into a new kind of unique unit set that becomes baseline for the civ, while the Abbey of Kings allows for faster and even cheaper production for example. The idea is a quick to produce, cheap army that can be massed to either support aggression or help defend. It should be a kind of army the English is always somewhat able to muster, and that grows in strength by numbers. The more Fyrd soldiers there are, the stronger each and every one becomes in the vicinity, while there are limits. Since they are cheaper, they should always be weaker than the regular units, while massing them rewards you with some kind of a buff. Each Fyrd soldier could for example give 0.5% bonus to max hp with a limit of +30% to all the Fyrd soldiers around him. Same for dmg, attack speed and so on. 10 Fyrd soldiers are rather weak, 30 are acceptably strong and 60 each have (for example) 30% more max hp, 25% more dmg and 20% more attacks speed.
For Mongols there should actually be a unique horseman version. Since Ottoman horsemen get a berserk ability, Mongol horsemen could get a âfull gallopâ ability, increasing their horsemen speed by 20 or 30% for 5 seconds for example. There could be a lategame version for the Mangudai to give him better tools for hit and run tactics in lategame. It could improve attack speed and movement speed or only one of both for 5 seconds with a cooldown of 45 for example. Just to give the core units of this civ something more to make them more unique and in line with other civs that offer more uniqueness altogether.