SotL recently came up with some ideas for the most overpowered infantry, cavalry and archer civilisations and I just wanted to showcase my idea for the most OP Cavalry Archer civ possible.
Tech tree: Tatars Team Bonus: Cavalry Archers +2 LOS Bonuses:
Cavalry Archers cost -10% Castle, -20% Imperial Age
Thumb Ring, Parthian Tactics free
Cavalry archers fire 25% faster
Units deal +25% damage when fighting from a higher elevation
Thumb Ring and Parth free OR military units take 50% less bonus damage
Cav Archers fire faster
Resources last longer
Scout Line extra HP
Tech Tree - Magyars
Team Bonus - Archery Range 20% Faster
UU - Mangudai
Unique Tech - Silk Armor and Steppe Husbandry
Basically we have Cavalry Archers which are cheaper, fire faster, and have 5/7 armor. they are also created insanely fast and have a meat shield of Hussars with extra health, created insanely fast as well, and have 4/7 armor.
i might not have the health or range/attack of foughtbirds units, but mine come out faster and take less damage per shot, and have a solid meat shield as well.
Also a much better economy.
you want koreans wood discount + mayans bonus actually.
As cav archers add up slowly in the midgame and you are vulnerable while adding them you want a bonus to your counters, too. With koreans discount you get both discounted at once.
Tech Tree:
Japanese (they get everything a CA needs)
Civilization Bonuses:
Land military units (except siege units) recieve 50% less bonus damage (Sicilians), this makes your CA way less vulnerable to skirms, will also help a bit against pikes, should you get cornered
Castles are 25% Cheaper (Franks) you’ll see why when you see the picked UU…
Cavalry archers fire 25% faster. (Mongols) too good to not have
Farm upgrades provide +100% additional food to Farms before they need to be reseeded. (Sicilians) saves you a LOT of wood, since the base CIV does not have crop rotation
Herdables have +50% food (Tatars) good early food bonus, to get to your CA faster
UU:
Mangudai (obviously, lol)
UT:
Recurve Bow: Gives Cavalry Archers +1 attack and range (Magyars) obvious choice for CA
Burgundian Vineyards: Convert all food into gold at a 2:1 ratio; Farmers slowly generate gold in addition to food (Burgundians) you don’t need food to produce CA, so you might as well do this
Team Bonus:
Farms have +45 Food (Chinese) just a nice generic eco bonus, good for saving some wood, which you do need for CA
EDIT: formatting
EDIT2: explanation
The idea is that you have some decent eco bonuses to get up faster, you then have cheaper castles, so you can mass your UU faster, and it is significantly harder for an opponent to deny you from building a castle at all due to the discount.
The Jap tech tree has the last archer armor upgrade (and everything else your CA need), then combine that with the Sicilian bonus against bonus damage, your Mangudai are way less squishy than normally. You get FU champions, so Huskarls don’t mean immediate GG.
well a cav archer civ with only 1 early bonus is actually doomed if it has to face one of the other OP civs. That’s why the 20 % wood discount is actually one of the best to add, because it solves the problem cav archer civs have in general AND adds something to the cav archers themselves.
But maybe a second early bonus would even be better, like vikings or mongols. It’s hard to say.
they have multiple early bonuses. they are cheaper, they get thumb ring for free, they come out faster (archery range bonus), and they have tankier scout line units to tank for them. not to mention the insane economy i have to back them up.
you mean like my resources lasting longer?
if i was to change anything i’d drop the free thumb ring and parth tactics for the sicilian military bonus. yeah i wouldn’t be able to go straight into cav archers as fast, but my army has more armor, is created insanely fast, and doesn’t take much damage from anything.
I said that, only 1 eco bonus, but nothing which helps to add up the cav archer numbers is not so strong in my eyes. koreans discount instead of scout line hp is much more powerful.
which i have two eco bonuses as is. (huns cheaper cav archers, mayans resources lasting longer).
so maybe you need to be more clear. but no. i don’t think saving 20% more wood (8 wood per cav archer basically), is comparable to 30% extra HP on my scout line.
as is in imperial age my cav archers cost 32 wood. that’s dirt cheap. i don’t need to knock that down to 24 wood.
Which civ is that?
And yes, even that, my cheaper trash + cav archers (mangudai) is stronger. Especially vs early agression, the main weakness of cav archer civs.
Besides that, there are also some other very interesting bonusses, which could be put in, like cumans.
Free wheelbarrow and hand cart (vikings, never hurt the best eco bonus)
Free tumb ring and partian tactics (tartars)
CA 10/20% cheaper in castle/imp (huns)
Cavalry 5/10/15% faster in feudal/castle/imp (cumans)
Cavalry have +20% HP
TB:
Archery ranges works 20% faster (britons)
UTs:
Sipahi +20 HP (turks)
Recurve bow +1 attack and range (magyars)
UU:
Camel archer (berbers)
This way, you have cheaper CA, that are trained faster, and are backed by a good eco bonus. They have 112 HP, move faster (15% + 10% of husbandry) and have +1 range and attack. You of course also get TR and PT for free immediately.
The frank and cumans bonus also helps hussars, camels and cavaliers as support units, and your UU have a bonus vs other CA.
Also, in feudal age I have free wheelbarrow, which means better eco and some food and wood saved, then I got tankier and faster scouts for raiding and prepare for my CA switch.
8 extra wood on cav archers and 11 extra wood on mangudai ain’t going to mean much. especially when i’m already saving wood as is.
as for early agression - that’s why i have extra hp scout line units.
i considered this but i figured the extra HP on scouts would be better overall.
That’s actually the best i’ve seen so far. Still i’m torn about the early game, besides the franks bonus actually helps there, too. I’m not sure how it would perform vs the OP archer civ.
Those 2 bonuses are good not just because of its impact, but because they affect so many units.
But I fell that I made a mistake with the UU, since with faster and tankier melee cav I have less need of the camel archer and more of the mangudai…
Yeah, but I too have picked britons and huns bonuses, so I’m not that far behind, and I also have a better eco bonus (in my opinion of course…).
In early castle age you may win, but if I survive through half of it, I have more HP, range and speed on my CA, and have camel archers, who kill any other CA, so you need to use siege.
I also have worse hussars, but more flexible stables overall.
