I personally think the high deleay is actually okay.
It’s a melee ranged unit, i don’t want it to be played as an archer type unit.
Franks don’t really need that anyways and if… then they should get arbaletrrier.
What they could get though is potential pierce armor (as they are comparably weak to longer range units). And I also think a bonus vs spears could be quite usefuel. That’s the units franks should be most afraid of. And as they get HC already the strength against standard infantry is kinda an overlap here. I think they don’t need ro be stronger in that department. But to make TA more useful for franks a Bonus vs the Spearman line (and potentially a bit against camels aswell) could be an interesting tweal.
I have some ideas for improving the armies of the older civilizations in AoE II—such as the Britons, Franks, Celts, and Teutons—since, as many people here have pointed out, some of them have fallen quite far behind compared to the newer civilizations and their unique units.
We begin with the Yeoman Warder, which would replace the standard English halberdier line. Yeoman Warders are slightly faster than the base halberdiers of other civilizations and possess the “Guard’s Protector” ability, which absorbs damage taken by your other military units. It is worth noting that these infantry units were created in the mid-15th century, fitting perfectly into the Age of Empires II timeline, which concludes in the year 1600.
Next is the Frankish Paladin, which replaces the standard Paladin line; this cavalry unit boasts superior attributes and HP, making it the cavalry unit with the highest health in the entire game. It features a charged ability called “Lance Charge,” which allows the Frankish cavalry to launch a powerful assault that deals area-of-effect damage to enemies.
Thirdly, we have the Scottish Highlander, which replaces the Champion line at the Barracks. This unit possesses the special “Schiltron” ability, granting Highlanders a new military formation. This formation provides increased combat effectiveness against archers and reduces the damage inflicted by them, turning your Highlanders into true archer-annihilating machines.
Finally, there is the Teutonic Rider, which replaces the standard Riders line at the stable. While this unit possesses no special abilities, its status as armored cavalry gives it slightly more armor than the standard Riders of other civilizations; this makes it a powerful cavalry unit in the early game, though in the long run it ends up on par with standard Paladins, being only slightly stronger against archers in later stages.
Britons - Billmen as a 2nd UU - Barrack Unit - Can be a replacement to halberdiers.
Franks - Gendarmes as a 2nd UU - Stable Unit - Replaces Paladin upgrade. Has a well rounded 200hp with the Franks bonus.
Celts - Gallowglass - Champion replacement. Unit with charged attack like Cousteliers.
Teutons - Swiss Halberdiers as a 2nd UU and upgrade in the Baracks. - A spearman that cannot be converted. and/or Ritterbruder - Paladin upgrade at the stables. - Paladin that cannot be converted.
The civs above can have Manors as a regional building. They would be a food drop off point that would be able to produce the unit line for their 2nd UU.
So apparently Saracens are doing sorta poorly on Open maps so I figure it’s not a major change but it could help: give them camel scouts. What the HP bonus coming into effect in Feudal and beyond of course and it +17 HP from 25% is too much lower it to 20 or 15. It’s still a low damage camelry unit but frontlining for your archers and countering scout play is never a bad thing.
Not having any reference to their invention of chain mail is disappointing. Sheep stealing bonus is a random 1999 bonus that is still in 2026 for no reason other than laming opponent in nomad style maps due to treaty area. Old Stronghold was so bad that it could be generic tech pre requisite for Arrowslit. New effect is also not a game changer either and I wanna avoid aura bonus as much as possible. They have both the fastest militia line and the fastest infantry UU in the game, making the fastest militia line a total waste after MAA. I think old stronghold UT should be free bonus replacing sheep stealing. New UT can be barrack units +1/+1 armor making their Champion a distinct unit from their UU as well as a representing Chain Armor.
I’d probably scale this bonus. So it’s more 11/22/33% faster RoF and maybe 20/30 regen instead? Even start at 10 in case of regicide or other start with castle maps
Although this means some real tower civ out there has one less bonus option for one day
If it is a free civ bonus, I think 25% in Feudal is fine. There will still be a lot of better tower rush civs. And if Celts is bound to have a tower related bonus, Why not Arrowslits is free?
That still puts onus on the fact being a stonks trader isn’t an ideal situation to be in. It could work but camels as well would patch up a lot of early woes
Imo it’s mostly the market bonus that makes saracens better for higher level players.
If we wanted to compensate that somehow we would need to give them some easy to use bonus to stuff that isn’t used too much on higher level.
Unfortunately a bonus to the militia line would only solve it for lower elos, not for mid elos. Knights might solve the issue, but idk if saracens should have strong knights, camels AND mamelukes…
the more i think about it, the more sense makes access to camel scouts to me, though they shouldn’t be better than gurjaras.
I managed to get an 18+2 fast castle on arena, it’s very hard and you don’t really have a strong follow up. Based on my tests, it’s about as easy to get the 18+2 as it is the 17 pop fast feudal using the market. I’m gonna try one more build order (edit: didn’t work).
Generally speaking, pro level favors versatility, mid Elo favors power units, and low Elo favors unit spam. Infantry really isn’t that strong for low Elo, it’s just “infantry civs” nearly always have a strong economy making unit spam very easy or just have a very spam-able unit.
