AOE2 community knows Dravidians as a Civ needs quite a few improvements to be playable on Land maps. They have a poor tech tree and unit composition to respond to knights. I have tried to make Urumi and Elite Urumi counters to Knights and cavalier. The inspiration was a Sandy peterson interview where he said Unique Units were supposed to overcome a particular handi-cap a civ had.
Here is a new Urumi 2.0 based on feedback from @Pulikesi25 on cost, melee attack and raiding potential :
Urumi sword was a weapon of choice to fight multiple opponents. It was primarily used by skilled martial artists as a self defense weapon. It took years of training on other weapons and only the most proficient were trained on the Urumi steel blades. So AOE2 Urumi unit should be very good at defending themselves. Either they should be heavily armoured or have some kind of shrivamsha shield. One infantry unit that I have seen hold its own against multiple high DPS units like Knights is the teutonic Knight, I believe the Urumi should have similar stats.
Urumi 2.0 is based on the base version Teutonic Knight. Urumi should be similar to teutonic Knight in the sense that when 1vs1 it should be able to counter Knights. The costs have been adjusted to be equal. Urumi however sacrifises hit points for speed and a charge atttack. Elite Urumi kinda has the same upgrades in reduction to charge attack time, base damage, bonus damage and no armour upgrades. So upgrade cost is not modified.
Training
Cost : 85 Food 40 Gold [**CHANGE**] Cost equal to teutonic Knight
Training time : 12 seconds [**CHANGE**] +3 seconds. Same as teutonic Knight.
Statistics
Hit points : 55, 65 (Elite)
Melee Attack : 14, 16 (Elite) [**CHANGE**] +6 attack. Same as teutonic Knight for base Urumi.
Attack bonus : +2, +3 (Elite) vs Cavalry [**CHANGE**] (Changed from Eagle)
+3, +4 (Elite) vs Siege [**CHANGE**] (Changed from Building and +2 added)
Rate of Fire : 2
Melee armor : 7 [**CHANGE**] Armour equal to teutonic Knight
Pierce armor : 2 [**CHANGE**] Armour equal to teutonic Knight
Armor class : Infantry, Unique unit
Speed : 1.15 [**CHANGE**] 0.1 Buff
Line of Sight : 3
Ability : Charges its attack by 3 times over 24 (20 Elite) seconds and
dealing a blast attack of 50% strength in 0.75 tiles radius.
[**NEW**] The charge attack recharges only when Urumi is not attacking.
[**NEW**] Once charge attack is made on enemy unit, Urumi armour both melee
and pierce will stop working. Armour again starts working when the charge is full.
Unit evolution : Elite Urumi Swordsman
Upgrade cost : 900 food, 450 gold
Upgrade time : 45 seconds
Urumi 2.0 will have the same cost, damage output and armour as a teutonic knight. But less hit points and more speed. This shows how valuable Urumi unit is and its self-defence capabilities.
Urumi gets bonus damage against cavalry and Siege. This guides the players to decide on exactly what to use the Urumi against given its very high costs.
The charged first strike has been bumped to 3 times the normal melee damage. The 3 times amount is to assist stack black-smith upgrades into the attack. The charge attack does not recharge if the Urumi unit is attacking an opponent. It only recharges when moving about, patrolling or standing still in no attack mode and not attacking. When attack animation starts, recharging pauses.
Compared to current stats, Urumi 2.0 doubles the damage it currently does. This is vital for the use of Urumi as a shock troop unit. The very high charge damage during first attack can make Urumi act like a slightly faster petard against Siege and very fast raiders like light cav, steppe lancer and Shrivamsha riders.
The armour is for self-defense only and switches off when Urumi starts attacking an opponent. Once Urumi unleashes first strike on an opponent, the high melee and pierce armours stop working. Urumi heath reduces for every damage received like a unit with zero melee and pierce armour. Thus making Urumi armourless and completely vulnerable and open after the first strike. This will be the most unique feature of the Urumi and its ultimate weakess when used as an offensive unit.
The armour does not start working again till the charge attack is full. Intermediate periods of rest does help recharge, but will pause if interrupted by attacking opponent. So micro helps a lot if Urumiâs charge attack and self-defense shield need to be maximized. With proper micro, against high DPS units like palladin and cataphract, Urumi can run away in no attack stance, recharge to full and turn back to deliver a devastating charge attack. Urumi swordsmen armour is a proxy for their high self-defense skill.
The charge damage and armour mechanism makes Urumi a better defensive unit than an offensive unit. The costs too justify such a capability. With this change, the Urumi will be tied with Teutonic Knight as the costliest infantry unit.
The idea is to defend against skirm/archer+knight push or monk+siege push with a combination of Skirm + Urumi defense. Urumi is made into this unique shock troop unit which takes out points of pressure like siege as well as defend against Knight raids.
One on one, Knight and Urumi should take each other out in 7 hits and whoever engages first should win. Thus be a soft counter. Cavalier will be better than Urumi But Elite Urumi should equalise it.
Light cav without bloodlines are not good counters to Siege push when siege is protected by archers. Urumi should be able to snipe siege even when Siege is protected by archers like Knights do conventionally. I have worked the charge mechanism to take out mangonels and onagers in 1 hit.
With these changes, Urumi is not a very snow-balling unit to be used only in mass battles because of high cost. They can be used individually in defensive and offensive roles. They can be massed if cost is not a concern. Massing Urumis might become a win condition as well for a Dravidian player like palladin is for frank players.
