Everybody rates them at the middle of the pack. I don’t know anybody who thinks they are really bad on closed maps.
They aren’t. Bengali ele archers trade evenly with skirms on total cost. Dravidian elephants are only slightly weaker than that. I’m talking about FU units in imperial age.
I’m perfectly chill my dude. However, I don’t have a problem calling out people when they phrase things in a particular way, repeatedly. I saw all your comments on both threads. That malay and portugese comment isn’t how it came across initially to me.
Okay, why don’t we make a civ with just villagers, halbs and siege with no eco bonuses then. Nothing else, no crossbow, no knight, no monks. Not everything needs to be viable, right?
Now, that’s an extreme example, but it is useful. The point is, all civs need certain core strategies to be viable.
Also, this is just a repeat of a conversation I’ve had a dozen times. So, I’ll just link that here.