sdsanft wrote:I have black riders in some of my decks. I like it for when my hunts run out but i still have buttloads of coin.
Tbh black riders are really bad to send if you're not germany. It's a big risk to take to send them, because they cost 1000g and need 1 min to come on the field. On the other hand, what do they bring you ? Goons with no range resist instead of your 30% (or 20% on ep) range resist dragoons, as france ? Goons just do a better job than black riders in ranged fights, they're more cost effective.
Black riders are essentially war wagons, but with a good shooting animation. Approx same attack, same cost, same hp. That's why you send them as germany, because they can kite so much better than wws, while not really presenting any significant drawbacks compare to those. And also because you get 2 free blackriders instead of 3 free uhlans, which is ofc really, really good. But when you're not ger, then they don't do a better job than goons, and you don't get any extra blackriders, so no reason to take the risk to send them tbh.
Jerom wrote:Well royal mint is honestly the first card Id cut from that list for a tech card. But not on water maps because those games tend to go into lategame more often. Tbh I feel like 95% of games, if not more, is decided by the time hunts and mines run out because one player will be able to secure the last hunts and mines, in which case royal mint and refrigeration become extremely situational cards. Id rather just put in a mill card in age 1 or age 2. Eco theory is basically the same shipment too so thats also a potential replacement which you run anyways.
But maybe my playstyle is a bit more aggressive due to playing dutch which is a civ that cant really do well in the ultra lategame stage where you have mills and plantations (and actually have a strong timing before that because they dont need to get plantations).
Well, royal mint gives +25% boost, while refrigeration gives +20%. Also when you switch to plantations in age 3, you only have 1 upgrade and it's really bad (600 res for 10% lol... Don't even research it tbh), so the +25% really makes sense. It's a real 25%. On mills, you already have 130% gathering rate (because upgrades are cheaper and available in fortress), and you go up to 150% with refrigeration, which is effectively a 15% boost, much worse than 25%. But then, it all depends on your civ, if you're really heavy on food then yeah refrigeration is better. But if you do 60% food/40% coin on mills and plantations, I think royal mint is better.
I doubt 95% of the games are decided by resources btw. Probs less than half. Just check the tourney games, how many times do you see people fighting over the last hunt/last goldmine, or even just doing an all-in timing push to break a forward base when they're out of resources ? Do you see so many times people switching to crossbows because they have no gold, or people pushing with both army and vils at the same time to take the map because they have absolutely no resources in base ? When it happens, everyone actually says "WOW this was really a gg, so much action, so intense" - because it doesn't happen so often. Most of the time, it's just people losing fights, regardless of where they're gathering.
Putting a mill card or plantation card has nothing to do with royal mint or refrigeration. What makes those cards interesting is that they affect all food and coin, which means you can send it early because it will affect your hunts/gold mines, without thinking "god they will become useless when I run out of resources". It's why it's not just lategame cards, but eco cards, like you can send 4 vils in age 2 or sth.
