PATCH NOTES RELEASED!!!

[Sporting_Lisbon]

I like the changes to the Iroquois, but I think aenna may be a little too powerful now. With the warchief aura and their plethora of cards and base stats now rivaling those of the cetan bow (and a cheaper cost and better age 2 shipments), I think these guys may be a little too strong.

You're kidding right? Their card (+15% to 10% combat to toma, aenna and mantlet) got nerfed and they get -5% hp from aura. 100f may seem cheap but it also helps running out of hunts faster. Aenna should work somewhat like mace will do now.

About sioux, they got no boost for their eco and they got a HUGE nerf - war dance, siege dance, wakina, wc, no more axe riders braking the counter system. Plus the -100w to slow them down. The only boost was the raids, but the cav got slower too :\

About iro ff it will be different (no more fp spam, more kanyas and tomas) but I think it still breaths.


About port, I think the RI nerf was an indirect boost to them. They won't suffer much from it because you already had to have goons along with caças.

[KingKaramazov]

Yea, the Port FF was one of the few FFs that actually got stronger, IMO.

[Roger_The_Rogue]

A noobish question - which of TWC civ will be the most OP of all. Still Sioux or not?

[Sporting_Lisbon]

Aztec imo.

[luukje]

I think Japan and India will be strong. Aztec and Otto are the most difficult to tell. Might be OP, might be UP.

Im gonna play aztec and otto. I always love to try new stuff.

[luukje]

I got a feeling there will be more different strats around, so that should be a good thing. And that civ A will be good vs B, but then again not so good vs C. So an end to the 1 civ with 1 strat owns all (spain FF, dutch bank FF, China FF, french xbow spam,...).

Players will need to adapt more, micro more and that will always favor the better player.

[RascalJones]

Oddly, for the first time ever, I want to try to play the Ottomans. They've always seemed so one-dimensional to me. I don't even know WHY I want to try them now.

Of course, I'll still probably stick with India for a little while too, gotta at least TRY them after the patch.

[KingKaramazov]

India is going to be better off after the patch for a number of reasons.

Japan will be better but not by a whole lot, but it benefits from other civs becoming weaker.

Of the TWC civs, the Aztecs will clearly be the strongest, at least in the Colonial age. Whether they are still decent in the Fortress Age and beyond remains to be seen, especially since Eagle spamming won't be nearly as useful (OP).

I think the game is definitely going to be a lot better balanced and I wouldn't be surprised if none of the civs really stood out too much. India will probably be strongest but it's a very difficult civ to master and even when it's strong it doesn't have any strategies that are easy to copy and lame so only the best players will be able to take full advantage of their strength.

Personally I'm probably going to play Spain and Germany after the patch, maybe some France as well.

The changes to Ottoman interest me somewhat but I think overall the Ottomans will still be a lot weaker since their vill speed upgrades don't make up for their still slower economy and Silk Road got nerfed a lot. We'll see.

[I__CHAOS__I]

I see spain and ports as potential top civs (without being really OP)
sioux is a bottom one

Germany has the potential to become the new sioux, uhlans are OP raiders now

[KingKaramazov]

I don't think Sioux will be THAT bad Chaos. Germany won't be the new Sioux, but they will be stronger at least.

I think the new "top civs" will be much less distinguishable as such.

[Sporting_Lisbon]

Sioux FF got killed. Club rush won't be as effective due to pet nerf and xbow boost. What else remains then?

[KingKaramazov]

Clubs are still fast and aren't hurt that much by the xbow "boost." Cetans and AR will now be much better against Crossbows anyway, so it's not a problem.

Sioux will still be decent in Colonial against many civs, especially the crossbow civs which now will have to focus more on making Hussars in order to counter AR / Cetans instead of just massing xbows with some pikemen for support.

As I see it, the super cheap Sioux FF was simply made weaker since Wakinas won't be as easy to mass in Age 3, and they also won't beat anything that moves early on.

The Sioux will still be a strong civ, they just won't be totally nooby and completely easy to use as they were before.

[36drew]

I just re-read all the comments in this thread -- and i'm thinking there won't be a super OP civ at all.

[KingKaramazov]

Yea, exactly. And even the stronger civs won't have any strategies that are incredibly easy to copy and duplicate...so you'll have to be skilled to do well with the stronger civs. All that means that most likely, from the looks of the patch, things will be pretty good in terms of balance. It will probably be reasonable to do well with any civ that you want to focus on, so worrying about which civ is the strongest might not even be that important.

[DrWho42]

I am interested to see how this will play out for India. The extra villager will help keep villager production going in discovery. While one less food crate will probably mean that India will age to colonial at about the same time as before (or a few seconds slower), but with a better economy going into colonial.

I guess enough people complained about the Howdah being "OP" that they had to adjust it slightly. It still counters what is is supposed to.

It looks like they are trying to fix the flailiphant. I have rarely used these units because they were so weak (although I once drove 15 of them into a mass of yumi archers- stomp!). I suppose if there will be longer colonial battles, the Indians need some sort of seige. Bringing the cost down and boosting the hitpoints might make it worth building a few in the right circumstances (the "2 team flail" card might be good too).

It looks like they heard enough wimpering about the Gurkas to give them a card for an extra x1 versus HI. This will make Gurkas very effective, and they might begin to live up to their real-life reputation. Too bad it will be attached to the worthless "royal green jackets" card. Has anyone gotten any value from that card in the past?! Oh well, now every India player will have to find room for it in his deck.

Cheers