Hello together, as a little preface. Me and my friends playing motstly scenarios and skirmishes against AI or each other and haveing fun enjoying our time.
Espacially with the ancient civ’s in Aoe 2.
To get to the point. I played the Thracians now for a good amount of games in different situations.
And there are some… lacklusters I would say.
First of all as an infantry Civ not heaving the last Armor upgrade is kinda… sad.
And it is really noticeable if you fight against a lot of archer.
Not having the last DMG infantry upgrade is fine with regard of the unqiue Tech Bessian Metalworking it is understandable, because it is really strong (personal feel)
But on the other Hand having full Cav Armor with Bessian Metalworking with Chevallier level Knights is very odd.
And again, “infantry” civ.
I would gladly sacrifice Parthian Tactics for the infantry Amror, because why would I go on Cav Archer in Imperial without the Heavy and Thumbring Upgrade.
Next the highlighted “Skirms” of the Thracians.
I am sorry but no.
The little health regeneration and free upgrade is nice but no Gamechanger in battles.
I had expect to get them to the next level with an Peltast Upgrade in form of an unique Unit like the Persian Savar.
Not in form of the Unique Tech which is good, but I would rather Pick the Bessian Metalworking in every situation.
The Unit also already “exists” in AOE 2 Chronicles:
Which has the Thracian Symbol as Shield and is mentioned as “Thracian Peltast" internal, if I did not read it wrong. And it already existed before the second DLC since its apperance in Battle for Greece. And the other 2 launched civs got 2 unqiue Units as well.
I hope I gave nobody the fell of “ranting” over things, but I thought this thoughs may belong here.
Basically Yes, but not like in a special “way” since like the Skirms and knights is the way “every” civ can deal with it.
And the missing armor for an special infantry civs bothers me like I mentioned.
I think you underestimate how powerful the Peltasts technology is.
Against a lot of targets Skirmishers only do 1 damage, but 50% of 1 is still 1 in AoE logic. So they effectively do a lot more damage. Massed Skirmishers are already strong in general but this technology makes them extremely powerful.
Also Rhomphaia Warriors can deal with enemy cavalry and buildings while generating Gold.
They are basically a Skirmisher civilisation with Infantry just being there to keep enemy melee units at distance.
Maybe the mercenary peltast unit can became an unique upgrade for the skirmisher for the Thracian civilization ? This is no the first time than an editor unit will became available as trainable unit (dragon ship, petard, flaming camel). Just rename him as Imperial peltast. Just lower the attack of the mercenary peltast (7 if too high)
The vietnamese imperial skirmisher will have more attack but the thracian imperial peltast will have no minimal range.
Imperial peltast
I add +1 pierce damage but lower their bonus damage by 1. I add +5% accuracy, remove the minimum range and add +10% damage on higher elevation.
Unique upgrade for thracian elite skirmisher
Cost of upgrade : free
Stat : same a an elite skirmisher except :
Pierce attack : 4
Bonus damage : +3 vs. Archer +3 vs. Spearman +1 vs. Cavalry archer
Accuracy : 95%
Special : it does not have a minimum range
Do +10% damage when attacking from higher elevations (+35% instead of +25%).
Thracian player allied with the Vietnamese do not receive the imperial skirmisher upgrade.
Why not just give them an Imperial Skirmisher with that skin?
Just simply use the Mercenary Skirmisher skin for the Imperial Skirmisher in Chronicles and give Thracians access to them. Doesn’t really matter how they interact with the Vietnamese because they aren’t really supposed to encounter them.
Their Imperial Age UT would need to be weakened to make up for that though. I’d rather also see them have Infantry with decent stats instead all of them being the Polish unique unit.
7 or 6 is much to high I totally agree.
I would like to have 5, and 5 extra hp to raise them to 40 but would treat them like the ethopians helbards, just the frist upgrade is free and the last one has to be paid. But we go in the same direction here with our thoughts.
I totally underestimate them, but I know the “importance” of skirms in PvP / ranked.
But pumpimg for example 50 of them to make them deadly, logic wise applies to a lot if not all units, doesn’t it?
The Rhomphaia warrior is totally fine, I appreciate this units since anti cav is form of infantry besides the pikemen not very common. The last Armor upgrade would benefits him too since the elite upgrade does nothing for his health.
Yes this solution can be more easy to make. Also this is good for unranked skirmish for Chronicles civilization because their imperial skirmisher look more good.
For their UT : just lowering the % of pass through damage.
The skin matter more because he is 100% thracian and it’s a shame that he is not used by the thracain civilization.
But if I would now shift my mindest to like: “Lets build more Skirms and give it a try”.
The first thing I would think about in regard to chronicles, I would do it as Athenians and pair it with one Strategos instead of doing it with the Thracians. There they got +1 extra dmg and Thumbring. Without the decision making of one Special Tech.
Thumb Ring is actually useful for Skirmishers, it can even make them weaker.
So if you only want to build Skirmishers you should not research Thumb Ring.
The +1 attack is nice but both Thracian Imperial Age UTs are for skirmishers. if you choose the other tech then you Infantry will reduce enemy armour and there for increase skirmisher damage. Skirmishers suffer a lot more from enemy armour then most other units in the game.
