Dr. Greg Street, Conquerors Lead Designer:
Thumb Ring and Bloodlines were designed mostly to help out the sorry Cavalry Archer. The Britons don’t need Thumb Ring. The secret to the Longbowman is its great range, which is even better in the Xpack. Bloodlines improves Hussars and Cav Archers a great deal, but is almost trivial for Paladins.
We made them train a little faster and handled the rest by giving them three new upgrades. Thumb Ring improves Cav Archer accuracy more than any other unit: from 60% to 100%. Bloodlines gives them the extra hitpoints they need to run around towers or Town Centers. Parthian Shot, which improves their armor by +1 N / +2 P, is a must.
Does this mean players can make armies of Cav Archers the way they can Paladins or Champions? Probably not. In Castle or early Imperial, Cav Archers can still kill lots of villagers, but in late games, they lack the ability to hurt buildings (though Saracens are better). Cav Archers also require 14 upgrades! (That’s 6 at the Blacksmith, 2 at the Archery Range, 2 at the Stables, Ballistics and Chemistry from the University, the upgrade to Heavy, and Conscription. This doesn’t even count Heresy or Faith, as no one ever tries to convert Cav Archers.) It is not necessary to get every upgrade in every case.
So, unless you are Saracen, don’t make an army of late-game Cav Archers and expect to compete with Paladins, Arbalests and Champions. However, if you have some expensive units, like Siege Onagers or Scorpions, Cav Archers are great at providing defense. They are good Halberdier-killers for Huns, Persians or anyone else making a Paladin-heavy army. And, if you play against someone who avoids walls, towers or Castles, Cav Archers can kill plenty of villagers even in Imperial. Remember, they outrange Town Centers now!
It's interesting to see what the ES Devs thought about balancing the CA (expensive and difficult to use in the late game, but good raiders early), and what effect it really had.
Bloodlines made large armies of CA harder to counter with Onagers once massed, and even bulkier against Melee Units. At the same time civs without Bloodlines and/or thumbring can never properly use CAs. Bloodlines and +6 PA also makes Archers/Scorps significant worse against CA.
I'm curious what you think was the right approach to the "CA-Problem"? Are you happy with the position of CAs and cavalry + bloodlines vs non-bloodline cavalry in AoC/the expansions?
Or if for example weaker Bloodlines (+10 HP only), but stronger base stats for CA (more base accuracy, little bit less Delay, but more expensive again) would have been better (more fun and/or balance)?
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