Age IV was very well done!
The concept, the balance, the strategies involving capturing sacred sites… in short… everything was very well done, a concept from someone very intelligent. This made me, a player from the 90s, come back to playing AOE.
But a bold update that drastically changed the dynamics of certain unit types was added in Season 9, which made the game less attractive.
Basically, the late game became unbalanced. Too much emphasis was placed on cavalry units and ranged units, which completely disrupted the game’s balance dynamics.
They literally ruined the siege weapons and especially springald died.
As if the game didn’t have a siege weapon that works as an anti-siege weapon, archers now work as destroyers of siege weapons, which makes advances in the game more difficult.
And one of the goals of the update was to make the games not turn into a stalemate, which was a failed goal. With the siege so fragile, long battles with many resources became more exhausting.
Another big mistake in the update was giving extra advantages to the cavalry in the library in late game. Which does not match at all what the history of medieval battles was like in the 15th century.
I have already made several posts explaining how cavalry declined in all civilizations, especially France, which entered the 15th century with an army mostly composed of melee infantry and cannons.
My point is. Players who usually play with infantry will be disadvantaged in the late game.
But now the difference is 5%, 25% for cavalry and 20% bonus for infantry. Even so… when players accumulate thousands of resources a cavalry army will always beat the pikemen, cavalry has always been the strongest melee unit in the game, so the extra bonus for cavalry is not rationally explainable.
All the problems would be solved if we went back to season 8, it was the best season because it hadn’t gone through such drastic changes in the game balance.
And when they released update 9, they thought it was going to be a very positive thing, but it ended up being a total disaster with the forum being flooded with complaints.
The latest update tries to fix what happened, but honestly it would be much more efficient to simply cancel the season 9 update.
Make the library and siege weapons go back to what they were in season 8, that’s my only request!