HockeySam18

Dúnadan

posted 05-24-15 03:09 PM CT (US) 29 / 619 By the way, while adding the new Indian Gates, I noticed that the "/" orientation (namely GTAX2 and GTAX3) build in 30 seconds rather than 70. This is still the case in 3.9F. Interesting. Passed it on Balt palisades are still considerable inferior to stone walls at any given time, but you may have a point there. Doesn't matter. It's still way more convenient to wall with Palisades as they cost only 2 wood as opposed to 5 stone. Stronger palisades make walling in the early game even stronger than it already is. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons that we scrapped the palisade wall upgrade in AoF back in 2012 or so (you can find the building in the editor and in some scenarios still).



Re specific units, some of my feedback may not apply, given that I know nothing about their specific bonuses and the civ's tech tree. The Ayrudzi looks way too strong for that cost, but then again massability is an issue. Missing Bloodlines and Husbandry is a huge blow to the viability of their Knights and Scout-line, though, even with their bonuses. I'd almost certainly go Crossbows in Castle Age instead.



Any UT that adds just +1 attack is fundamentally flawed due to the fact that it's usually just not worth the cost. Blacksmith techs do more and cost less. Range (see the Briton, Magyar and Indian UTs) is a different story as outranging your enemy is so crucial. I'd beef up the effect of the UTs that add only +1 AP to certain units. Greek Phalanxes were quite effective against heavy infantry, but late Swiss Pike formations and their copies tended to be countered with swordsmen, especially two-handers. Greek Phalanxes were the heavy infantry. The name Hoplite (the soldier-type of which Phalanxes were comprised) itself derives from the large amount of equipment they carried. The combination of being well-equipped and disciplined allowed smaller Greek armies to defeat larger Persian forces, for example, the majority of whose protective armor amounted roughly to tinfoil. Late-Medieval Pike Squares were countered not by swordsmen (the range of the pikes and their close formation would shred forces of swordsmen in most cases) but by the emergence of the "pike and shot" combined arms tactic that would dominate the battlefield for a good while.



Skirms do not solve the issue of vulnerability to archers, and this is why:



Imagine two armies facing off. One is comprised of units A (Archer-line) and B (Knight-line) and the other is comprised of units C (Pike Square) and D (Skirm-line). The array is like this:



AB | CD



Ranged units are hardcoded to autofire at the enemy unit closest to them. This means that the archers (A) will be shooting at the enemy Pike Squares (C), while the Skirms (D) will be shooting at the enemy Knights (B). Naturally, this will result in many kills for army AB and next-to-no kills for army CD. By the time the armies actually get to a melee fight, most of the Pike Squares will be wounded or dead and the combination of Archers and Knights will kill off the Pike Squares and then the Knights shred the Skirms. It's partially for this reason that the Crossbow-Knight combo is used in Castle Age over the Pike-ESkirm combo (and because the Crossbow upgrade is so cheap, while the ESkirm upgrade is so expensive).



The better Imperial combo for Helvetians will likely end up being Pike Square - Halb - Siege. Rams in front can tank arrow fire, while Onagers and Scorps will mow down infantry/archers and the spear units beat cavalry. The Celts operate under a similar philosophy. In a similar vein, the Kamayuk-Onager combo for Incas and the Genoese Xbow - Onager combo for Italians is hard to counter without Bombard Cannons. Besides, an infantry killing infantry that dies horribly to archers seems so... Aztec. Agreed. It's a shame that Jaguar Warriors rarely appear unless as a counter to EEW raiding or Goth infantry spam, and even in these cases Champs are better (though either way Goths will win cost-effectively and production-wise). I'm interested to see how people end up using Levy. The Khmers aren't blessed with strong versions of those particular units, and the gather points can't be used except to garrison in the production building, so I'm not sure how strong it really is. Interesting. You should talk to Daniel Pereira about the .exe edits required to fix the gather points, to polish up the feature a bit. It appears the Tufans will need another set of nerfs.

They have essentially nothing helping them until the Castle Age, and not too many options besides their cavaliers. No crossbows, no bloodlines for their camels and light cav, and fast monks will now take some investment. Give them bloodlines, remove the free cavalier bonus, and give them an eco bonus early on. Even without Bloodlines the free Cavalier in Castle Age would be way OP. Every game would go Drush-wall-FC-Cavaliers- gg. Free cavalier upon hitting Imperial might not be too OP, but reduced cost of all stable techs is probably the way to go.



Even with the heavy cav archer discount, nobody would ever use HCA when lacking both Bloodlines and Bracer. Cavalry Archers are underused anyways because they cost too much except for Huns (for whom they are OP). Note that when I talk about Cavalry Archers I mean the Cavalry Archer-line, not the UUs classed as Cavalry Archers.



EDIT: Just noticed this: · Coinage, Banking Free Dispense with this bonus and send it to the bowels of oblivion - slinging is way too strong already and this bonus will turn the Helvetians into slingers every TG. ~ Forgotten Empires ~



Storm on the Steppe | Galderton Hill RP | Proud member of Stormwind Studios



"Deyr fé, deyja frændr, deyr sjálfr it sama; ek veit einn at aldri deyr, dómr um dauðan hvern." - Hávamál 77. [This message has been edited by HockeySam18 (edited 05-24-2015 @ 03:11 PM).]