Loving the game so far and have played in the closed betas. Been playing the whole range from 1v1s, 2v2s to big 4v4s in Black Forest and so on. Just a few glaring issues that need to be addressed.
RIBAULDEQUIN - Just a special mention for this piece of garbage. Costs as much as any high end siege weapon yet has 0 value. It definitely shreds units if it gets to fire. However that’s the problem, its going to get killed before it does anything. It has a delay before firing, it has even shorter range than handcannons, in fact I think it has the lowest range for any ranged unit in the game at 3.75 tiles. It gets sniped by enemy siege and also gets sniped by enemy Xbows and Handcannons. The shortest ranged unit in the game needs a delay before firing and has low ranged armor. My proposal to buff it is just simply increasing its range from 3.75 tiles to 5 tiles.
FRENCH - These guys have everything. Cheaper units under keep, cheaper eco bonus, faster TC, free melee upgrades in blacksmith, cheaper resource drop offs, stronger traders. They’re too overloaded with eco bonuses. Their unique units are fine, but its a bit ridiculous how strong your eco is. I suggest that their resource drop offs are full priced, no free melee upgrades and scale back TC bonus to 5/10/15/20%. Gambesons tech is too strong, maybe scale it down to +3 melee armor so cav can get more damage in. Lastly, their water is too strong. Hulks in feudal is too much. They already have a unique ship.
ENGLISH - Not much to say, I think they’re fairly well balanced. One note is their siege. I wish their unique Trebuchet tech also made their trebs accurate just like Warwolf tech for AoE 2.
CHINESE - Arguably the strongest post imperial civ. However, their lack of eco bonus plus needing to build two landmarks just makes them play extremely slow in 1v1, 2v2 games. Maybe the 2nd landmark for the dynasty system could be made 50% cheaper. Some form of herding or foraging bonus would also be great for the Chinese or the AoE2 classic start with an extra vil for dark age.
HRE - They’re good in specific strategies but also very one dimensional. Landsknecht still suck, paying 100 gold just to get countered by basic archers. They’re also probably the weakest team game civ. I’ll suggest giving them the Ribauld if it gets buffed. Also out of bounds for a simple balance patch, but Reiters for HRE in imperial would give them more options for imperial age unit comps. Reiters are armored cavalry armed with pistols.
MONGOLS - Similar to the English I think they’re well balanced. Some games they feel like the strongest civ, and some games they feel like the worse. I hope they add back the early lancer for the Mongols however, it would allow the Mongols to go for an all in Feudal rush and give them the ability to siege buildings.
RUS - Once again, they’re pretty balanced. Slight nerf to Streltsy making them cost 100 gold. Their eco can also snowball out of control, a slight nerf to the bounty tiers so they get them a bit slower should be good. Hunting cabins should probably get a sight nerf to the gold trickle, maybe 2 seconds more on generation. All this is to make going imp and massed Streltsy slower.
ABBASSIDS - I’ve played them the least, they seem fairly balanced, Camels Riders are a bit too strong, they reduce the damage of enemy cav and deal bonus damage against them. I would reduce their bonus damage slightly.
DELHI - They have the same problem as the Chinese. No overt eco bonus. Their free techs just research for so long, paying for Scholars just offsets the initial free bonus. Delhi could use an eco bonus like the faster TC or maybe even cheaper vills. Tower War Elephants are incredibly expensive and their damage isnt really that high compared to 3 crossbowmen. War Elephants again are so expensive. 100 gold reduction for Tower War Elephant and 100 food reduction on War Elephant would be my suggestion.