Civ Concept: New Steppe Civ

Okay so I always want to do civ concepts but I simply do not have the history knowledge to do it properly. Timurids? But of course that's probably Tatars isn't it, hence the name of the UT. Anyway. I decided to do like a blank civ, maybe someone else can fill in the history. The idea is for a civ based around visibility and mobility. A kind of whack-a-mole civ who can reboom and strike all over the map, with an emphasis on forward bases and a nice archer rush which tails off through the ages. I do worry that the crossbow into CA pipeline is a bit too similar to Tatars but maybe not!

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- Foot Military Units can garrison in houses.

I think this will be annoying and encourage fun micro but not too broken, since houses go down very quickly these days after the loss in melee armour. Good in some situations, simply not used in others. Synergises with the archers and would be annoying to play against but ask yourself: what else are this civ really good at? I think it's fine to let them have this strength.

- Villagers don't need a lumber camp to drop off wood.

Okay so this is Khmer farming but for wood. I think it ties in to the forward base, catch-me-if-you-can theme. Villagers can just go where they please and start chopping, and you have to find them.

- Villagers +1/+2/+3 damage against cavalry.

Something else to make the civ more resistant in general to being raided. Doesn't work against meso civs but hey, not everything works against everything and it's not such an essential civ bonus that being without it will kill you. Is there a way to maybe allow villagers to automatically defend themselves as well to include in this?

- Villagers build Outposts and Palisades 100% faster. Outposts cost no stone.

As you'll see below, they get no stonewall so this is more of an early game bonus with the outposts leaning into the visibility/mobility aspect. My one worry is that this could encourage laming/walling shenanigans but frankly Palisades already build fast and usually res gets walled in from within the fog of war so I think it makes it faster but not much more dangerous. And that kind of heavy laming is a very dangerous and hit and miss strat.

- Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, Bracer free.

This is strong! It's an early Feudal power spike and means you can start doing damage with archers fast. However people will normally get Fletching pretty quickly anyway, so realistically it's a power spike which lasts about 1 minute or two. Is that long enough to be OP? For me, no. I think it's fine in Castle and Imp as well. A nice little bonus which saves money and enhances archer power spikes, a bit like Tatars with their free Thumb Ring and Parthian (shit and I coming too close to Tatars again?). I considered infantry armour for this which would be less strong but wanted to lean into an archer identity. If you hate it, imagine they're swapped.

UT 1: Steppe Lancers replace gold cost with wood. 500f 400g

Trash Lancers! I've discussed this with people on other threads so it's semi-stolen. I like it! There won't be an Elite upgrade and there will also be some Blacksmith techs missing for balance. I want it to be stronger than a Hussar (and so it should be, it's more expensive) but still lack utility as a frontline unit except as a meatshield. Price is half an Imp so might not be taken in Castle very much but you still see Szlachta Privileges and Corvinian Army.

UT 2: Enemy Building LoS reduced by 5. 400w 400f

This is a funny one, you don't get many "nerf the enemy" techs in AoE 2 but I am inspired by the change that was made to Atheism which affected enemy relic collection. I think this totally fits in with the outpost/visibility theme and at worst just forces people to research Town Patrol which is often missing anyway. Price is cheap cos it's probably not that strong. Maybe could be even cheaper or have a greater impact?

TB: Gold Piles visible at the start (1 tile).

So I don't believe this can be used to locate enemy bases at the start because I only want one tile from each pile to be visible. Maybe once they start being mined later on it will be visible, but that's fine, you should have scouted your enemy by then anyway. Another link to the re-boom, nah-nah-you-can't-catch-me identity.

UU: "Heavy Skirm"

Again I'm missing a name here because I don't know the history but what we have here is a Ranged Melee infantry unit with increased speed and solid pierce armour. It is intended to be more of a raiding/anti-archer unit and not stand up to a straight fight with cavalry. It can hit-and-run infantry but won't have a huge damage output. I'm calling it a Heavy Skirm because it has some sort of shield and throws a huge javelin. That would seem to give it a niche not filled by the Gbeto (anti-infantry, high output low health) and the Throwing Axeman (anti-infantry, medium output, medium health).

I haven't provided any stats, sorry. I just know I'd get them wrong! I think in Castle Age I want them to lose 1v1 against a longsword without micro, be roughly similar to a light cav, beat a crossbow, probably similar to a Cavalry Archer, lose to a knight.

I wonder, should it have a minimum range? I think probably not. That would make it far too vulnerable to cav. I think it should be a food and gold unit that's relatively cheap and quick to mass (comparable to militia line).

Tech Tree

This bit is the hardest bit for me so it may well be wrong, totally open to corrections here on balance, which is almost impossible to test so it's all just guesses right now.

Blacksmith: Missing Plate Barding Armour.

Barracks: Missing Halb. FU Champs available to help against Meso.

Range: Missing Arbalest. So the crossbows don't scale, but they get FU CA.

Stable: Missing Paladin, Elite Steppe Lancer and Hussar. This makes the UT more valuable for lategame trash wars and encourages taking it.

Siege Workshop: Missing SO, Heavy Scorp, BBC. They do get Siege Ram though.

University: Missing Stone Wall, Fortified Wall, Bombard Tower*. I have a worry that BBT might be too strong in synergy with their Imp UT. But maybe that would actually be a super fun and unique strat to build them outside of LoS (is that possible? I haven't done the maths) and then have them appear when they start shooting. I do want them to have Keep though because I think the style definitely lends itself to towers. I let them keep Masonry and Architecture to make the palisades beefier.

Dock: I don't play water maps, absolutely no idea. Do you think they need to have a stronger dock to balance everything else out? Answers on a postcard!

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Okay, thanks for reading, I'm sure there are bits of it that aren't balanced but I've tried to go for unique ideas and a unique playstyle. Balance can always be fixed, but identity is the important thing for me!