1a) Fully upgrading a cavalry archer costs more than a Frank paladin
A cavalry archer costs 3100f, 500w & 1925g to fully upgrade, excluding conscription as well as faith&heresy.
Details
–>bloodlines (150f, 100g) & husbandry (150f)
–>fletching (100f, 50g)/ bodkin arrow (200f, 100g)/ bracer (300f, 200g) ; padded archer armor (100f)/ leather archer armor (150f, 100g)/ ring archer armor (250f, 250g)
–>heavy cavalry archer (900f, 500g)/ thumb ring (300f, 200w)/ parthian tactics (200f, 250g)
–> ballistics (300w, 175g)/ chemistry (300f, 200g)
A paladin, such as the Frank one, costs 3295f & 1845g to fully upgrade, excluding conscription (and chivalry for that matter) as well as faith&heresy.
Details
–> bloodlines (150f, 100g) & husbandry (150f)
–> forging (150f)/ iron casting (220f, 120g)/ blast furnace (275f, 225g) ; scale boarding armor (150f)/ chain barding armor (250f, 150g)/ plate barding armor (350f, 200g)
–> cavalier (300f, 300g) and paladin (1300f, 750g)
I excluded chivalry, because just as conscription it doesn’t change the unit’s own combat stats. Faith&heresy are stuck in between, as they do change the unit itself, but are very situational. But if one were to include chivalry, then the Turk cav. archer would still cost more to fully upgrade, if it wasn’t for free chemistry. And that’s odd, as the Franks are specialized in their cavalry and in fact just in their paladins, whereas the Turks are specialized in… gunpowder.
As a sidenote, most people talked about the cataphract’s excessive upgrade cost, which indeed was near the top, but in the fact it was and still is the berserk who needs by a clear margin the most ressources in the game to fully upgrade, even if one includes in the comparison all related techs such as creation speed or monk resistance.
1b) Upgrading the kipchak is very expensive
The kipchak’s upgrade is a little different, lacking bracer and husbandry (nerf the Cumans didn’t and shouldn’t get back) as well as having another unit upgrade version. While the kipchak costs less gold, it costs even more in total ressources. So I maintain my point that it’s a particularly expensive unit to upgrade, more so than the random UU.
- The kipchak is the central cuman unit
The assumption that because the kipchak is used in every Cuman game means he’s strong enough is erroneous. The mangudai has also been used in every Mongol game and yet has also been (re-)buffed in his long history since 1999.
- The kipchak LOSES to 36 of the other 40 UUs, whereas the chukonu WINS most fights
Micro. has. a price. While you babysit your kipchaks, you can’t do something else that you should have to do instead (eco, other hotspot, etc., cf. Are cavalary archers (except UU cavalry archers) underpowered?). Especially in imperial age, it’s really dangerous to look away even for just a few seconds. A single Siege Onager shot (8 to 8+1 range) and the kipchak army (4+2 range) is GONE, and possibly the entire game with it.
Btw, sources for the chukonu:
Details
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4sS1Ro-f4M (chukonu main test) in correlation with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsjqMBRrb3g (Flaming camel buff) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQTXkEBlCh4 (condottiero buff)