I’ll be short here. USA is a very creative civilization but when one of the most diverse “euro” civilizations. While we are used to the same pattern I can’t really “accept” the same with USA. Simply because there is a lot of work dedicated to their development. Twice.
Overall, their last patch (which reworked them) fixed a lot of issues but some things persist. I took my time to express my point of view below because in supremacy nothing changed although the devs worked hard for it:
New Hampshire
Factory is just too good
We just need to admit that an early Factory is just too good. There is a reason the two factories cards are in 100% of the decks for over 10years in Industrial Age (which most players don’t even bother reaching it). Factory is just too good. Period.
Why wouldn’t it be a “must” one age early + with fast XP, even if it cost food and wood ? USA has four other good Federal States completely overshadowed by that. Even after their latest patch. Can we finally replace New Hampshire Factory with another thing?
Virginia
Can we give another chance to the others?
National assembly card being moved away from Virginia State was a good move, but it’s still a must have because it guarantees FF and 1 automatic shipment.
I wonder if moving this card to Fortress Age would be more balanced (perhaps even replacing New Hampshire Factory)? Or instead of giving 1 free tech just reduce their cost by 90%? I mean they are basically imperial Upgrades available in the Commerce Age, but fast age up tech is the only option.
Talking about Virginia State:
The one card that gives 2 cards is good, but take it with the fact that Virginia National Assembly is boundless then it’s still a must have.
Perhaps if Virginia State received an outpost wagon and Rhode Island received military wagon players instead, there could be a shift in the power?
Gatling Guns
It doesn't even make sense having a SMG hit all bullets to their targets, specially in the 18th century
Long text. I know I’ll get disagreements.
Although not overpowered on paper in practice these guys are insane. It literally shuts down infantry and it’s much more effective in nullifying infantry than any other siege weapon in Fortress Age.
Why? Because it’s essentially an aimbot submachine gun that bounces from target to target.
GG shines because it reduces the HP needed for your units to take down theirs in a very short window of time. Falconets do AOE in a much confined space in a much slower rate of fire. So the enemies can fight back or spread and shoot back because they still have HP left.
The unit itself isn’t broken, the whole issue is that when we add ranged infantry along with them, nothing stands in the way (GG is literally a forcefield to reduce enemy’s HP in their FOV). As GG shoots, damage and HP coming from opponent drastically fall, giving the upper hand to USA. It doesn’t happen with Falc because it targets one unit/ area at time with much slower pace. So more units are alive Ina trade off (albeit with much less HP). Against Falcs you can suicide Hussars, you can kite with skirmisher and musks, but the toll of doing that vs GGs is much bigger.
There was a reason these folks were exclusive through Revolution. Gatling Guns need to have some sort of randomized accuracy the longer they shoot. I don’t know what kind: accuracy slightly reduces through time? Accuracy slightly reduces with range as you shoot? Accuracy slightly reduces as it bounces from target to target? Damage decreases as magazine decreases? I don’t know. Any -15%chance if missing on their final shots would be welcome.
Randomized accuracy was removed in DE but it’s definitely needed to GGs.