Balance Ideas for the Sicilians and Burgundians

Hey y'all, I've never posted on this sub before, but I've been thinking of some ideas to balance the new civs out a bit and make them feel more in line with other cultures in the game, without them losing their unique traits. Here are the changes I'd make:

Sicilians:

Civilisation Bonuses:

• Farms upgrades provide +100% food > Farm upgrades benefit existent farms, and grant +50% food

This would mean that a Sicilian player could place down farms early and delay getting farm upgrades, without having to worry about them expiring, as they could just get Horse Collar/Heavy Plow right before the farms expired and it would grant existing farms the extra food. This would be a stronger economic bonus than the current one, which takes a while to really come into effect.

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• Land military absorb 50% of bonus damage > Cavalry units absorb 50% of bonus damage

I feel this change is better than just weakening the existing bonus to 33%, as the bonus specifically applying to cavalry would nicely reflect the power of Norman heavy cavalry.

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• Town Centres and Castles are constructed 100% faster > Villagers construct Town Centres and Castles 66% faster (starting in the Castle Age)

This change is fairly self explanatory. It's really important for nomad maps that the Town Centres aren't constructed fast at the start, and the current 100% bonus for Castles is too much, allowing one Villager to build a Castle at the speed of four generic ones.

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• (TEAM) Transport Ships +10 anti-ship armour, +5 carry capacity > All ships +1 ship armour

The current team bonus seems a bit too similar to the Saracen civ bonus and it feels right that the Sicilians should have a bonus affecting their naval units at large, rather than just Transport Ships. This new bonus would allow the team's FU Galleons to survive an extra hit from enemy FU generic Galleons. It would have a more noticeable effect on Fire Ships which have high ship armour.

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Unique Technologies:

• Scutage ((TEAM) Receive 15 gold per military unit > Receive 150 gold for each Castle currently owned and for each subsequent castle constructed) (400 food, 300 wood)

This change would make Scutage less like paper money, as it would no longer affect the whole team, and synergises nicely with the changes to First Crusade below, just as the current versions of these two technologies work well together aswell.

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• First Crusade (each Town Centre spawns 10 Serjeants > Serjeants can construct Town Centres and Castles) (800 wood, 400 gold)

This bonus would better reflect the building of fortifications and castles by Crusaders in the Holy Land during the First Crusade. Serjeants would not be affected by the civ's construction speed bonus and would build slower than Villagers. A tab for flicking to the next page could be placed where the Serjeant's Donjon button currently is, and the buildings could all be put there, as they wouldn't all currently fit on the Serjeant's first page.

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Tech Tree: can now research Thumb Ring and Ring Archer Armour

This change would compensate for the armour bonus no longer affecting Archers, and allow the Sicilians to try other strats rather than just Donjons/Serjeants or Stable units.

I know that the stats of the Serjeant and the Donjons could be slightly altered in some other ways as well, but these are all the major changes I would make to the civ.

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Burgundians:

Civ Bonuses:

• (NEW) Foragers generate gold whilst gathering (around 1 gold for every 10 food collected from Forage Bushes)

This bonuses would give the Burgundians a nice little boost early on, as I don't think the early eco techs alone are good enough to make them strong on open maps. This helps the Burgundian player go for Militia/Man-at-Arms. Also this fits in with the whole gold and food theme the civ has going.

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• Stable technologies cost -50% > Stable technologies cost -40%

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• Economic technologies can be researched an age earlier
• Cavalier can be reasearched in the Castle Age
• (TEAM) Relics provide +0.33 food/second

These three are cool. Especially the first one.

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Unique Technologies:

• Vineyards (Food swapped for gold at 2:1 ratio, Farmers slowly generate gold > Farmers slowly generate gold) (300 wood, 150 gold)

The food to gold swapping thing could be too strong in some situations, and it isn't necessary imo, as the other effect is unique enough on its own. With this change the technology still has a strategic element, as you have to think about whether the technology will pay for itself in the long run; just like with collecting Relics.

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• (NEW) Mons Meg (gunpowder units +25% attack) (600 food, 300 gold)

I think Flemish Revolution should be replaced because it's either not useful or it's too powerful and imbalanced, being able to completely swing a game into one player's favour in an otherwise even matchup. This change would make a nice little historical reference, as Mons Meg was a massive bombard cannon constructed on the orders of Philip the Good. Alternatively, the gunpowder bonus could stay as a civ bonus, and Flemish Revolution could just turn all your Spearmen/Pikemen/Halberdiers into Flemish Militia instead.

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Unique Unit (Coustillier):

I'm not that sure about how to balance this unit, but maybe by reducing Charge Attack to +15 (+20 for Elite), but increasing Base Attack to 10 (13 elite). Also by removing all bonus damage against archer units, at least for the charge attack.

Alright, that's all! Let me know what you think!