So, when you get a relic, do you do the exciting thing and attempt to convert the enemy units, or do you do the “safe thing” and run that relic straight back to base, to never see the light of day again, and never to play a part of the game outside of a steady resource stream ever again?
If your answer is #2, then you my friend are playing a game with badly designed relics.
Relics should NOT incentivize playyers to make them dissapear forever. Relics should come in several flavors.
For example, there could be relics that give the monk a specific aura if they are carrying the relic, and arent able to be garrisoned. There could be relics that unlock a quest or a journey to get to a specific place on the map, at which point they would unlock a named hero unit that has like 1 more attack than normal units. There could be relics that cause enemies to have negative stats.
But simply locking relics away is poor tasteless… and relicless design.
monks are so weak and wololo so slow that it’s near impossible to use the relic offensively. I sometimes use it on defense when it’s convenient to pull out of the monastery. Most games there’s a player that collects and hoards them all though so it’s rarely an option for me anyway. Should limit 3 per player or something.
And yea for some reason I have a memory of relics and wonders having unique and powerful benefits. Like Civilization 5 wonders - each has its own special perk. The fact that every relic is the same kind of undermines the definition of a relic. And the wonders do nothing other than a countdown, what a missed opportunity.
It is Age of Empire, not Age of Mythology.
Relics are just stuff left behind possibly by Anicent Rome so those European being so fancy for them.
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The reason, i suppose, that relics generate Gold over time in the temples, is because:
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The religious pilgrimage generates money, and more if there are relics of saints or sacred objects there. Military orders were even created to protect pilgrimage routes, and towns with lodging service were even created just for that, check out “Ruta de Santiago”.
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Many conversions occurred seeing the supernatural powers or events related to relics, that is why the conversion occurs with a monk carrying the relic. Well, that in a “Christian context”, and I think also a Buddhist one (how many conversions did the happy “Buddha’s tooth” generate). In the Mesoamerican case, however, it is different:
Exceptional cases, according to your example:
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In Latin America, in the Andean antiplano of present-day Peru, many peoples brought their relics in combat, generally carried on a litter. There they carried mummies, stones, jars, cloth, or any sacred object that they called “huacas”. They were usually arranged or modified so that they made some sound, which supposedly represented that their “deity” supported them. The fact is that unlike the Europeans, these relics were not intended to “Convert” the infidels, but rather to “Scare” the enemies and serve as a banner for their troops.
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The Mexicas also had a special banner, which acted as a relic in their armies, the Spanish realized that and managed to win a battle by capturing the banner.
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Considering the previous example, as you say, a new function could be applied for relics in some civs, in the previous case for example, priests who take out relics can infuse an aura of +1 attack, or 20% attack speed to the civs. nearby troops. So it would make sense to keep priests carrying the relics near troops.
Conversions
- Personally, I would like to see the “Convert” unit mechanic from Age2 revived, which all monks normally had. At the moment, the only thing left of the mechanics is the ability of some Abbasian Imams using the “Faith” technology of IV age, unfortunately as it is of fourth age, by the time you can afford it it is not so profitable anymore because the battles there are of amassed armies and it would be hard to control the monks to convert one by one other units. Unless the devs give the monks an AI to remote convert groups of units when commanded to hit the “attack” button instead of dashing at the enemy for no reason and dying in vain, which is what usually happens when you have monks in your army.
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