Let's Talk about Militia-Line

In the current meta, Militia-line has a quite limited use, mostly for drush/M@A and in post-imp as trash busters. They are rarely used for anything else.

The problem comes from the fact that Champions are not that easy to HARD counter, but are more-or-less countered by everything but trash units.

Not pop-efficient against heavy cavalry.

Trampled by Elephants.

Converted by monks.

Decimated by any sort of archer, even more by HC and Scorps.

Too slow to reliably reach Onagers before being flattened.

However, Champions have overall well-rounded stats, so buffing them too much won’t be suitable as it could make them too strong against most things. They need subtle changes. Here are the ones I would consider suitable.

1/ 1s instead of 40s men-at-arm upgrade time at Imperial Age. It is just a minor convenience, but would make a bit easier to transition into them at Imperial Age.

2/ +1 melee armor, from longswordsmen (applicable also to 2HS and Champs – Champs ending with 2 melee armor). It would make them better counter against Light Cav and Pikes and a tiny bit better overall.

Maybe also good for various Champion-like UU. Bersekers and Jaguar already have 2 melee armor, so +1 melee armor wouldn’t be suitable. 2 pierce armor for Berserks would be great combined to their regeneration abilities (die skirms cowards!). +5 hp for EJaguars would be OK too.

3/ +1 damage for longswordsmen only. Longswordsmen are currently crap in castle age. (I can already feel the joy of Persians :-) )

4/ My personal favorite : add an imperial age upgrade for Siege Tower. Something like 320HP, 110 pierce armore (mostly against BT), 1 extra Rams armor for 600 Food. It’s a 2 for 1 buff as ST don’t really have common use for the moment, but seeing more Champions + Siege Tower would be fun. 1.3 speed + resistance to arrows is not a joke.

Might not be available to all Civs, as Mongols (Drill) or Teutons (Iron Clad + filled with teutonic knights) upgraded Siege Towers could be a bit OP.

Or just lower Siege Tower Cost, or replace 200W + 160G per something like 260W 100G (Wood is only “cheaper” than gold only at Imperial Age, so it would be an indirect Imperial Age buff.)

** Side-Note :** Condottiero are another problem which makes Champs even less useful. Condottiero should be nerfed. Their main problem is that they can be created far sooner than Champs. I think Condottiero should require Chemistry to be created. This would address their early imp pike while preserving their ability to be created for no cost (as chemistry is likely to be researched at some point). Condotierre is anti-gunpowder so it would make sense that they could be created only when a civ start to understand a bit about gunpowder technology.

So do you think Militia-line could be buffed a bit too ?