Barrack techs ALSO produce 2x the intended effect - Long swords spam can start much earlier in castle age.
Supplies changes to gold infantry costing -15 food in general with some other civ units’ costs re-adjusted and Barrack techs impact all military units except monks and siege. So archers will be very good after squires, elephants will benefit from supplies and be cheaper, urumi swordsmen might be a little less niche.
A larger mid game bonus - either trickle of one type of resources from another like wood from farms or food from lumberjacks or something else creative. Like a building that boosts work rate within its range. This would keep them a fast paced civ like Vikings that can age up much earlier and the risks of falling apart before getting to the infantry/arbalesters point is low.
The very obvious option but the one a lot of people won’t like because it changes the civ design - make a slightly weaker version of Shrivamsha riders a regional unit for these 3 civs. Similar to Battle elephants for ROR civs where each civ gets a special bonus on them, Gurjaras could have their current version which is stronger than the new generic, Bengali ones could maybe attack faster or take less bonus damage, Dravidian ones could be generic but get benefitted from both of their UT.
Maybe their age up bonus should be improved.
From 200 Wood flat to:
200 → 400 → 600 Wood in Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
That would help them a little in early Castle where they now just get 200 more Wood.
The additional 400 Wood in Imperial Age shouldn’t make that much of a difference anymore though.
That is actually a pretty good idea. 50% faster Barracks techs would mean they have better timings in multiple stages of the game.
So -30 Food from supplies, +4 attack against buildings from Arson and +20% speed from Squires?
This would make Celts look bad that “only” get 15% faster Infantry.
They are very very powerful. It’s just the civilisation behind them is very weak.
Just inflates their power further on water while not being much impactful on land. At a bare glance 400 extra wood in castle age might seem like a crazy strong bonus but its still a power spike for a civ with no proper military units on land. A long lasting mid game bonus is the right way to push them ahead.
Knights, husbandry, 20% faster shooting siege and a much better eco, fast moving unique unit. And yet you can still argue for a minor buff to Celts because they are a weak civ on most open maps as well.
I don’t know who said that but obviously they’re wrong. And I don’t understand how could anyone consider a 0 p.armor, not so fast, super expensive melee unit as even strong.
Make any ranged units and they’ll melt. Its not tanky, its not fast, its not cheap, it has no utility whatsoever compared to a very cheap and easy alternative in champions or halberdiers for Dravidians. Every “good” unique unit offers a special property that makes them worth the extra effort and investment into castles.
What, there were a couple - from changing Medical Corps with some suggestions, even faster firing Skirms/EAs, and/or having Barracks techs research 50% faster on top of being cheaper as well.
Their problem is simply that you need a Castle, so they don’t come into play when Dravidians are at their weakest. Dravidians have no problems late-game, IMO.
Are you kidding? They’re fast enough for a melee UU (as fast as Berserks), it costs 65 food 20 gold so I don’t get where your ‘super expensive’ is coming from (you don’t need Wootz Steel with them, but it will help a lot), with the AoE attack that has them win all melee fights. Their only problem is that they’re squishy to ranged fire. And you have great Skirmishers to back them up.
Lumberjacks generate 10%,15%,20%,25% food in dark, feudal,castle and Imperial age would be good bonus for Dravidians since they are dependent on food heavy army.
Siege Elephants, Elephant archer, Infantry, Skrimishers all cost food so it might be a great addition.
I think that bonus is very nice but it should be reserved for a different Civilisations.
It would probably work perfectly with some North American civilisation.
Had this in mind as the primary bonus for the Haudenosaunee in my North American concepts.
I have a better idea (copied from AoE3):
Elephants trickle wood.
Just passively.
Since they cost a lot you won’t actually make them to get wood but as long as you have some in your army you will have a small passive income.
Elephants were used in the Wood industry so it makes sense thematically.
It would become their Castle Age UT while the HP generation becomes a Civilisation Bonus.
Thematically Wood would be more fitting.
I thought about making it Food instead too.
Giving them 0.2 Food/second would mean that Archer Elephants pay back their Food investment in 6.67 Minutes, Battle Elephants in 9.17 Minutes and Siege Elephants only in 10.83 Minutes.
Not sure how long those units usually live but I don’t think they would make their investment back in most cases.
But it would give players a constant food bonus in long lategame battles if they manage to keep their elephants alive.
definitely NOT for American civilizations. They have eagles and giving them a powerful economy will just make the eagle spam impossible to stop.
Very strong mid game economy is needed for civs with a lot of weakness, tech tree handicaps and which rely on infantry other than eagles. Civs like Celts, Vikings, Dravidians and Bengalis. Amongst these Dravidians are the only one which don’t have a good mid game bonus.
The trickle from military is just a small benefit and is useful when the units themselves are cheap like Keshiks. When its an expensive unit like elephants, you can neither mass nor constantly force fights to take advantage of this as a long lasting bonus.
If they have 85 hp and 1 p.armor or 65 hp and 2 p.armor sure. But they have ZERO p.armor and 65 hp. Typically fragile units can have some purpose if they’re fast like Shotels.
That’s a LOT of food for the mid game and the same amount of gold as champion despite being a lot more fragile for the late game. Its a super expensive unit for its stats. 65 food 20 gold is ok or even cheap for something like Obuch.
That matters a lot for a civ with no cavalry. And when you want some infantry to pair with skirms, champions are a much better choice for Dravidians. No need to waste a ton of time constructing castles.
The Dravidians have the worst stable in the game by design. On top of that, as an Indian civ, they don’t have access to knights (do you really want knights with no bloodlines or husbandry, and last armor?)
I think they might be in a good place with their Elephant and Infantry units (they’re not as bad as other civs, they’ve even been used in some tournaments lately)