Dude, they miss out on all late game techs including Gold shaft mining. So they can’t bank up gold for a push later. They don’t have treadmill crane to build faster. So going on the offensive and buildings forward is also not feasible. Dravidians don’t have architecture to have strong buildings to withstand enemy push. So the civ is not a late game powerhouse like Bohemians.
The civilization is historically old enough to have pre-dated all AOE1 civs. Since ancient times, they were a farming and sea-faring people. In AOE2, they don’t get crop rotation or any ship based technology discount. Using Siege wood discount to make them a late game powerhouse will not be possible or thematically correct. If Armoured elpehants had battle elephant speed and were not nerfed to dustbin level continuously, people could have eventually figured out good late game play with the civ.
I can’t believe people are talking about nerfing Bengalis. The civ is a meme. They survive under cover of walls or other natural defenses like woodlines. They are a civ with little or no power spikes on land till imperial age.
I see no reason to nerf Bengali Elephant archers. The unit and its counter system are incorrectly designed. The civ is not to be blamed. Skirms should counter archers, But not Elephant archers in current form as a food heavy unit. Its like skirms having a bonus vs steppe lancer. The food cost should be made to gold cost and gold cost to wood for Elephant archers. The counter for Elephant archers should be Mangonels. The negative cavalry archer armour should be brought to zero. Mangonel line and Petards should get “War elephant” armour bonus against elephants. Black forest dominance will be nerfed by Mangonel line bonus damage.
All non-unique unit elephants like battle elephant, Elephant archer and armored elephants should have 250 HP or any other same value and have same speed. The idea that Armoured elephants are reskinned Rams should be changed. They should be treated like battle elephants with a Siege specialization. Bengalis access to Siege Engineers should be removed.
If these changes are done, Bengalis will be good on Arabia type Maps with their strong Elephant monk push in castle age. They don’t have to build a castle to make a squishy unique unit to match Knights. When they fail against Knights and skirms, research a unique tech to get 20% faster attack. But still don’t find any difference in gameplay.
IMHO, if they can’t balance Elephant archers. They should make Ratha unique unit of all dynasties of India civs except hindustanis. Indian history and vedas tell of chariot usage by all non-Muslim kingdoms. Elephant archer should be made unique unit of Bengalis from castle thus preventing their spamming potential. Give some new unique naval unit that resembles cannon galleon but shoots in a straight line doing melee damage. They should have some power spikes on water too. To prevent overbuffing, fast fire or galleon can be removed.
PS:- To fix elephant archers on closed maps. Mangonels and Bombard cannons should get bonus damage against “War elephant” armour class. The negative cavalry armour value should be brought to zero. Bengalis contrary to all opinions should be made viable on arabia too.