I am not an expert by any means but I feel I can still chime into this discussion and I agree with nearly most of what people have said
Firstly, Karambits:
Their main problem actually isn't the 0.5 pop. It's their freaking creation speed and cost. Imo it should cost 30f 15g take as long as samurai to make and have -1 attack. Samurai still two hit them and they can't push into mass hc/slinger/catas/boyar/ETK/Ejag/EBerserk but those are UUs which not many have. Making them one pop takes their uniqueness away and Shotels would basically be the better choice.
Karambit spam is worse than Goth spam of champions yet I consider Goth spam balanced because champions without platemail have such an easy counter and they don't move as fast. If they take up 0.5 pop they should be as good as 0.5 pop. Right now they are as good as 0.75 pop. Fun fact: they take up 1 garrison pop spot.
Next Arambai:
This unit is a ridiculous, the castle age variant is not that OP (but still a problem) but the Imperial one hits like a truck and after the UT gets a bonus vs buildings. They are fine in small numbers but when massed they're just unstoppable. The advantage over Conqs is they cost wood not food and they have half the accuracy of a Conq and less pierce armour overall. But once you have a mass of Arambai + 1 armour + Bloodlines + Husbandry you can just slaughter xbows/elite skirms/Pikes and even Knights. Of course it has UU which it gets slaughtered by notably the Camel Archer but having UU counter UU and having no other viable answer of a unit means the unit needs a nerf. At least with conqs. Mass halb/Skirm with rams work. Arambai seem to still demolish that and they get a better Spanish lategame combo with their battle elephants and also get siege engineer meaning Arambai and 9 range Onager and may be some hussar/elephant make them pretty unstoppable.
On the topic of burmese:
50% monk tech is pretty ridiculous, probably the biggest gold save of any bonus. I feel like it should cost 50% less only in imperial and somewhere 30%+ in castle age. It rips off the Chinese bonus a little but the Burmese smush on Arena is too strong and any noob with 1600 hd micro can push with this. So the cheapness of monk techs need to be lowered. Staggering it per age seems like the only decent option in my mind.
Now battle elephants:
Notably Burmese and Khmer right off the bat have the better battle elephants. Malay miss +2 armour and unless vs pure melee units aren't that great even if cheaper and Vietnamese with extra hp only purely better vs Halbs and Camels. Regardless of each civs elephants. They are too good for what they offer in a team game negating the benefit of Paladin entirely.
Elite upgrade should be 1400f 1100g, the fact they are made from stables is also ridiculous as you can add forward stables and if you lose them, so what? If Persians loses a castle. Your elephant production hurts. You see where I'm going with this? Forward castles can be lost and elephants are not as fast as cavalry but The fact these civs can make them from stables negate that. The Khmer and Burmese death ball is crazy strong. Something needs to be addressed about this and I think you guys have pitched in enough.
Condotierros:
There are a few ways to approach this one.
Drop their attack and increase their bonus vs gunpowder by the amount dropped. (I.e drop 2 attack give 2 bonus damage to gunpowder)
Decrease MR to 1.15.
Give the current condo an elite upgrade and the condo variant we have now worse stats than longswords and even worse MR and creation time. However much this elite upgrade cost is up to you guys. 0/0 armour non elite too.
Give it an armour class where Knights, Champs, UU infantry and UU Cavalry get a small bonus vs them like +2 or something. Slingers to also get some bonus vs them.
As for team bonus stacking with civ infantry bonuses. I'm on the fence with this one. It should stay if all of the above were added.
Slinger:
Of all unit that needs a nerf. It's not this guy. After Thumb Ring for both and Ballstics xbow actually win. Mass xbow also can focus fire significantly better and Slingers suck worse vs Cavalry and Skirms than xbows do and xbows already can't deal with ESkirms on equal terms. Them dropping infantry like flies is fine imo the Incas need this. Fast units that close the gap can abuse their min range if they aren't massed enough and they cost food (albeit very little) it's really only great vs infantry and maybe in imp okay vs a few archers but archers still get a way better trade because thumb ring does not make Slingers fire faster. If you really want a nerf. Only give them +8 infantry bonus castle age and +10 imperial otherwise this unit is fine tbh.
Camel Archer:
Fine unit imo but a hp reduction wouldn't go a miss.
The new (sixy) eagles:
It's funny now everyone says the castle age variant is good now (before they didn't) but you were wrong to say they create faster than EEW it's only 32s vs 35 of six on castle age. If you mean feudal eagles. 60s is slow and they don't get +3 attack or bonus vs cav till imperial. A double rax investment is huge.
And in TG as pocket vs a Knight pocket the upgrade cost is fine. What may be strong 1v1 isn't strong TG. You can make knights faster than getting all eagle ups and pop for pop bloodlines or not knights will beat eagles. They also create faster than castle age eagles. Eagles only win the cost battle. Castle Age eagle warriors are not a big problem in team games. Besides castle eagles finally getting a use is nice to see. Mass xbows kill them faster than a +2 BL knight though. Xbows create way faster. But the new eagles stand up way better.
Civ bonuses and minor stuff:
Ethiopian free halb, oh man I knew this day would come. But I think they should have Halb upgrade at least 50-75% off and keep free Pikemen. Their civ identity shows their stable is crap (worse camels than byz) and it's not even cheaper, no champion, UU is very fragile expensive champion substitute, Arbs firing 18% faster, best siege line in game. They suck vs meso lategame and Goths/Malians if they don't do enough damage maybe wont be problem 1v1 but TG those civs can kill them. Their 1v1 combo to deal with anti archer counters that also kill infantry is their biggest threat. Malian champskarls totally shred them. From the way the civ is designed from a glassview perspective the free pike/halb was made with good design and intention but at least it's not Malian Halbs. Nobody remembers how broken they were. Alot of experts only seemed to play expansions after all the civ nerfs. Pre Raja release. Remember how strong even Malay harbour rush was? I digress but I am really on the fence with this bonus.
With that said wakko idea of 50f 50g feudal 100g/f castle and 150f/150g is amazing idea.
Drop fire bonus by 10% at least in feudal
Turks gold mine bonus:
Koreans also mine stone 20% faster :lol: but idm if Turks mine 25% faster gold.
Chinese cheap tech bonus: 20% all ages. Give them guilds and up to you guys if they deserve BC. Since China is now surrounded by Asian civs who have Siege Engineers. Let that sink in. Chinese to get Parthian Tactics maybe? Or minus -185f start? So many ways to address Chinese can't find a real perfect solution. I'm sure you guys can.
Persian castle UT:
Need a rework, really useless. Even celt castle age UT in terms of overall DPS better and that is also useless.
Berserk vs Champion: Now that Chieftains affects all infantry (which is a good change coz Viking Pikes are somewhat decent now) Most will still choose champion.
I feel Elite Berserk should move as fast as current Condo create -3 faster after elite and should regen HP 1s faster both with and without the UT. Also needs more bonus damage vs Eagles (+3 to +6) or raise Elite Berserk hp to 80.
Regular non elite Berserk fine if given either +1 attack or +1 melee armour. Because every other infantry UU civ goes their UU over champion and if you don't agree with me I will say two words Daut says that he loves.
"CELT GAME"
so yea elite berserk need an incentive over champion and with those buffs I still think people will go Champs. Because all a berserk is right now is a slightly better champion and it takes time to get a good number out for a unit that is only marginally better. It's like people don't really want them or want to make them idk. Also berserk really on their UT so much it is a really high upfront investment cost and infantry in the current meta are well .... you know.
Viking lategame water: not a huge deal but upon reaching imp or playing death match, their ships should create as fast as civs who have shipwright.
Oh yea give them guilds too.
Malians wood bonus:
Fine bonus TG. Could be OP 1v1 I don't think it needs nerf. Everyone tells me lategame Malian is awkward with no real pushing power. I think it's fine. They got enough nerfs recently.
Portuguese Organ Gun:
Spread damage to do more than just a crappy 1 damage. Should get a bonus vs spearline units at the very least.
Imperial Camel:
-10 hp and if you know me. I love camels. And even I agree Indian needs some nerfs.
War Elephant vs Battle Elephants:
Elite war elephant should be created a bit faster.
Huns:
Should get cannon galleons back
Arrowslits:
Hardly ever researched anymore. Who even does guard tower or keeps anymore :lol: it's still crazy strong but the civs that lost arrowslits could have used them the most. Only Korea Japan Brit Celt Teuton can benefit from it and I guess Incas. But They have way better options.
Slav Infantry bonus:
Slav is an infantry civ but feels more like cavalry. Free tracking only helps for spearmen defence to deter scouts and early game is not too significant. Druzhina is rather expensive for infantry which never get used alot in TG beside Halbs and Boyar has way better use in TG than some splash damage champs and man splash Halbs are great for siege the UT costs too much.
Koreans: team bonus to be restored, they went from #1 SO to #3 and their deathball got nerfed. War Wagons take more damage now and die like flies to a Camel Archer geneose xbow etc. The castle UT should be replaced with mangonel min range and instead turtles should move the 15% faster by default. If you can make turtle ships without a castle now. Why do I need a freaking castle to make them move like molasses to still slow af? Even TK got a speed buff for free and ofc it's still slow. Someone tell me I'm making sense here? And the fact turtle is still 180w 180g.
Spanish missionary:
Small thing. Make their heal rate as same as a monk. Possibly affected by Husbandry too.
Incas team bonus:
Idk think of a good farming related one. 50% faster build and farmers carry +2 per farm tech? :lol:
Firstly, Karambits:
Their main problem actually isn't the 0.5 pop. It's their freaking creation speed and cost. Imo it should cost 30f 15g take as long as samurai to make and have -1 attack. Samurai still two hit them and they can't push into mass hc/slinger/catas/boyar/ETK/Ejag/EBerserk but those are UUs which not many have. Making them one pop takes their uniqueness away and Shotels would basically be the better choice.
Karambit spam is worse than Goth spam of champions yet I consider Goth spam balanced because champions without platemail have such an easy counter and they don't move as fast. If they take up 0.5 pop they should be as good as 0.5 pop. Right now they are as good as 0.75 pop. Fun fact: they take up 1 garrison pop spot.
Next Arambai:
This unit is a ridiculous, the castle age variant is not that OP (but still a problem) but the Imperial one hits like a truck and after the UT gets a bonus vs buildings. They are fine in small numbers but when massed they're just unstoppable. The advantage over Conqs is they cost wood not food and they have half the accuracy of a Conq and less pierce armour overall. But once you have a mass of Arambai + 1 armour + Bloodlines + Husbandry you can just slaughter xbows/elite skirms/Pikes and even Knights. Of course it has UU which it gets slaughtered by notably the Camel Archer but having UU counter UU and having no other viable answer of a unit means the unit needs a nerf. At least with conqs. Mass halb/Skirm with rams work. Arambai seem to still demolish that and they get a better Spanish lategame combo with their battle elephants and also get siege engineer meaning Arambai and 9 range Onager and may be some hussar/elephant make them pretty unstoppable.
On the topic of burmese:
50% monk tech is pretty ridiculous, probably the biggest gold save of any bonus. I feel like it should cost 50% less only in imperial and somewhere 30%+ in castle age. It rips off the Chinese bonus a little but the Burmese smush on Arena is too strong and any noob with 1600 hd micro can push with this. So the cheapness of monk techs need to be lowered. Staggering it per age seems like the only decent option in my mind.
Now battle elephants:
Notably Burmese and Khmer right off the bat have the better battle elephants. Malay miss +2 armour and unless vs pure melee units aren't that great even if cheaper and Vietnamese with extra hp only purely better vs Halbs and Camels. Regardless of each civs elephants. They are too good for what they offer in a team game negating the benefit of Paladin entirely.
Elite upgrade should be 1400f 1100g, the fact they are made from stables is also ridiculous as you can add forward stables and if you lose them, so what? If Persians loses a castle. Your elephant production hurts. You see where I'm going with this? Forward castles can be lost and elephants are not as fast as cavalry but The fact these civs can make them from stables negate that. The Khmer and Burmese death ball is crazy strong. Something needs to be addressed about this and I think you guys have pitched in enough.
Condotierros:
There are a few ways to approach this one.
Drop their attack and increase their bonus vs gunpowder by the amount dropped. (I.e drop 2 attack give 2 bonus damage to gunpowder)
Decrease MR to 1.15.
Give the current condo an elite upgrade and the condo variant we have now worse stats than longswords and even worse MR and creation time. However much this elite upgrade cost is up to you guys. 0/0 armour non elite too.
Give it an armour class where Knights, Champs, UU infantry and UU Cavalry get a small bonus vs them like +2 or something. Slingers to also get some bonus vs them.
As for team bonus stacking with civ infantry bonuses. I'm on the fence with this one. It should stay if all of the above were added.
Slinger:
Of all unit that needs a nerf. It's not this guy. After Thumb Ring for both and Ballstics xbow actually win. Mass xbow also can focus fire significantly better and Slingers suck worse vs Cavalry and Skirms than xbows do and xbows already can't deal with ESkirms on equal terms. Them dropping infantry like flies is fine imo the Incas need this. Fast units that close the gap can abuse their min range if they aren't massed enough and they cost food (albeit very little) it's really only great vs infantry and maybe in imp okay vs a few archers but archers still get a way better trade because thumb ring does not make Slingers fire faster. If you really want a nerf. Only give them +8 infantry bonus castle age and +10 imperial otherwise this unit is fine tbh.
Camel Archer:
Fine unit imo but a hp reduction wouldn't go a miss.
The new (sixy) eagles:
It's funny now everyone says the castle age variant is good now (before they didn't) but you were wrong to say they create faster than EEW it's only 32s vs 35 of six on castle age. If you mean feudal eagles. 60s is slow and they don't get +3 attack or bonus vs cav till imperial. A double rax investment is huge.
And in TG as pocket vs a Knight pocket the upgrade cost is fine. What may be strong 1v1 isn't strong TG. You can make knights faster than getting all eagle ups and pop for pop bloodlines or not knights will beat eagles. They also create faster than castle age eagles. Eagles only win the cost battle. Castle Age eagle warriors are not a big problem in team games. Besides castle eagles finally getting a use is nice to see. Mass xbows kill them faster than a +2 BL knight though. Xbows create way faster. But the new eagles stand up way better.
Civ bonuses and minor stuff:
Ethiopian free halb, oh man I knew this day would come. But I think they should have Halb upgrade at least 50-75% off and keep free Pikemen. Their civ identity shows their stable is crap (worse camels than byz) and it's not even cheaper, no champion, UU is very fragile expensive champion substitute, Arbs firing 18% faster, best siege line in game. They suck vs meso lategame and Goths/Malians if they don't do enough damage maybe wont be problem 1v1 but TG those civs can kill them. Their 1v1 combo to deal with anti archer counters that also kill infantry is their biggest threat. Malian champskarls totally shred them. From the way the civ is designed from a glassview perspective the free pike/halb was made with good design and intention but at least it's not Malian Halbs. Nobody remembers how broken they were. Alot of experts only seemed to play expansions after all the civ nerfs. Pre Raja release. Remember how strong even Malay harbour rush was? I digress but I am really on the fence with this bonus.
With that said wakko idea of 50f 50g feudal 100g/f castle and 150f/150g is amazing idea.
Drop fire bonus by 10% at least in feudal
Turks gold mine bonus:
Koreans also mine stone 20% faster :lol: but idm if Turks mine 25% faster gold.
Chinese cheap tech bonus: 20% all ages. Give them guilds and up to you guys if they deserve BC. Since China is now surrounded by Asian civs who have Siege Engineers. Let that sink in. Chinese to get Parthian Tactics maybe? Or minus -185f start? So many ways to address Chinese can't find a real perfect solution. I'm sure you guys can.
Persian castle UT:
Need a rework, really useless. Even celt castle age UT in terms of overall DPS better and that is also useless.
Berserk vs Champion: Now that Chieftains affects all infantry (which is a good change coz Viking Pikes are somewhat decent now) Most will still choose champion.
I feel Elite Berserk should move as fast as current Condo create -3 faster after elite and should regen HP 1s faster both with and without the UT. Also needs more bonus damage vs Eagles (+3 to +6) or raise Elite Berserk hp to 80.
Regular non elite Berserk fine if given either +1 attack or +1 melee armour. Because every other infantry UU civ goes their UU over champion and if you don't agree with me I will say two words Daut says that he loves.
"CELT GAME"
so yea elite berserk need an incentive over champion and with those buffs I still think people will go Champs. Because all a berserk is right now is a slightly better champion and it takes time to get a good number out for a unit that is only marginally better. It's like people don't really want them or want to make them idk. Also berserk really on their UT so much it is a really high upfront investment cost and infantry in the current meta are well .... you know.
Viking lategame water: not a huge deal but upon reaching imp or playing death match, their ships should create as fast as civs who have shipwright.
Oh yea give them guilds too.
Malians wood bonus:
Fine bonus TG. Could be OP 1v1 I don't think it needs nerf. Everyone tells me lategame Malian is awkward with no real pushing power. I think it's fine. They got enough nerfs recently.
Portuguese Organ Gun:
Spread damage to do more than just a crappy 1 damage. Should get a bonus vs spearline units at the very least.
Imperial Camel:
-10 hp and if you know me. I love camels. And even I agree Indian needs some nerfs.
War Elephant vs Battle Elephants:
Elite war elephant should be created a bit faster.
Huns:
Should get cannon galleons back
Arrowslits:
Hardly ever researched anymore. Who even does guard tower or keeps anymore :lol: it's still crazy strong but the civs that lost arrowslits could have used them the most. Only Korea Japan Brit Celt Teuton can benefit from it and I guess Incas. But They have way better options.
Slav Infantry bonus:
Slav is an infantry civ but feels more like cavalry. Free tracking only helps for spearmen defence to deter scouts and early game is not too significant. Druzhina is rather expensive for infantry which never get used alot in TG beside Halbs and Boyar has way better use in TG than some splash damage champs and man splash Halbs are great for siege the UT costs too much.
Koreans: team bonus to be restored, they went from #1 SO to #3 and their deathball got nerfed. War Wagons take more damage now and die like flies to a Camel Archer geneose xbow etc. The castle UT should be replaced with mangonel min range and instead turtles should move the 15% faster by default. If you can make turtle ships without a castle now. Why do I need a freaking castle to make them move like molasses to still slow af? Even TK got a speed buff for free and ofc it's still slow. Someone tell me I'm making sense here? And the fact turtle is still 180w 180g.
Spanish missionary:
Small thing. Make their heal rate as same as a monk. Possibly affected by Husbandry too.
Incas team bonus:
Idk think of a good farming related one. 50% faster build and farmers carry +2 per farm tech? :lol: