My Franks concept goes in a similar direction, but not with flat values - I also want to change Chivalry as in my opinion Franks can’t have both faster production and super HP cavalry. Especially as I think faster production should be given to another cav civ without paladin.
Ofc the Chivalry Paladin spam is kinda “iconic” but also quite franky because it was always kinda broken. It’s super expensive but if you get it down many opponents just collapse under the Paladin flood.
I also think that Franks with their tendentally heavy gold army should get a gold trickle like burgs and vietnamese which will be their 2nd UT. They would otherwise be way too dependent on their gold income and fall off a cliff once it is exhausted. This all is compensating by losing the berry bonus, making franks actually slower in the early game. However with the better timing bonusses, so they get something more fitting into the meta, explicitely a tweak to hopefeully bring them back to see some tournament play again (outside the berry maps).
Franks
- Berry Bonus removed
- Bearded Axe Removed
- cheaper Castles bpnus reset to flat 25 %
- Cavalry base HP Bonus increased to 25 %
- CA UT moved from imp: Chivalry: changed to Increases Cavalry HP by another 12 % (total +40 %), tech cost reduced by 50 %
- TA +1 Range in Castle and Imp, get 1 PA. Elite +10 HP. Bonus vs Spearmen: 2 (3) Training Time reduced to 12 secs
- New Imp UT: Manufactures: working villagers generate a trickle of Gold (slower individually than vineyards / paper money, but in sum a bit better on a balanced eco)
- [Shieldmen throw a Francisca (30 sec Charge)]
Explanation
Franks have 2 eco bonusses which both are not timing oriented. They can be ok with only maintaining one of them if their timing potential is boosted accordingly. I decided to take away the berry bonus. It’s the minor one with only a limited boost during feudal on most maps. It also boosts them unncessarily on specific maps that have a lot of Berries and are open. Franks with their cavalry focussed Design already can do well there - I like to free that Bonus for a future civ, potentially an Infantry civ which could really use that bonus on a map type that usually doesn’t favor infantry.
In compensation Franks get the shieldman with a francisca charge which should be very neat in feudal - especailly as they may allow to skip adding an Archery Range. And their Cav HP Bonus is increased to 25 %, which basically means that they can tank 1 more hit from almost all feudal units. Their Castle age Timing potential is also increased with having again the full discount on their Castles and ofc 125 HP Knights that can be even brought to 140 HP with the Uniquie Tech. Also TA receive a Buff.
With all this Franks might be a little bit slower, but they will be brought back closer to their former identity of scouts into Knights with then having again the undisputable best rushes again. Whilst we lately had Civs like Lithuanians, Georgians or Wei with potentially even stronger Knight rushes I think it’s time for Franks to reclaim that Spot. Their general design with skipping the cost of important upgrades makes them ideal candidate for the best Knight Rush whilst these other civs actually have a lot of other stuff going for them and don’t need to have a better Knight Rush to remain relevant.
Finally I want to give Franks some longevity with a new imp UU “manufactures” which is referring to a late eceonomic tendency in france which then even was fostered by their kings (albeit after the aoe2 timeframe) to increase the economic power of “la grande nation”. As the potentially final army comp will be cav + TA they will need a lot of gold. Cause even with +40 % HP their Light cav would only end up with 84 HP. So they need to be able to still mix in a few Palas to stay competitive in the super lategame.
Spoken of which, they will alsoe be undisputedly be the best ones with 224 HP. But not produce faster as they do currently with chivalry. Which is also an effect I would like to see on a different civ instead. It’s just too potenitally oppressive to have one of the best Palas which also produce super fast. It’s better if they are just stronger but at least not as easy to replace. And faster production would be an ideal tech/bonus for a civ that is designed around not having the best gold cav. But spammable.