Update 61213

[EliteRifleman]

https://www.ageofempires.com/news/age-o ... ate-61213/

[duckzilla]

So... the Quechua tech now only gives +10% infantry speed and Deccan has only one trade route.

[Kaiserklein]

Gotta love all the random China buffs. The civ was in a fine spot and they're just buffing it. Especially the German consulate buff which was pretty good already doesn't make any sense

[iCourt]

Deccan has only one trade route.

Looks like it's treaty mode specific.

[Plantinator]

Gotta love all the random China buffs. The civ was in a fine spot and they're just buffing it. Especially the German consulate buff which was pretty good already doesn't make any sense

Well i think adjusting the coin trickle to what it is for other civs is fine. The Rest feels really random tho and some of it is clearly just pandering to the Chinese market to sell more copies.

[gibson]

Well it’s obviously to try to make other consulate options outside of Brit viable, along with the consulate card in age 1 could make some tp cons strata interesting

[a forum ghost]

See how things gonna be with those China buffs.

My first thought is that you can do the 3 villager -> northern refugees build more comfortably now with the goat having more food, as you don't need too much food treasures to have a decent age up time. Maybe even 3 villager -> northern refugees -> tea export and get the food trickle from the German consulate (Maybe french consulate even) to accelerate even more.

Other interesting card is the Koxinga (Iron Troops shipment and improved rate of fire). Although, the problem that I found when I tried Iron Troops on the past was that I don't know what banner army I suppose to make to synergizes with them, still persists.
The best option I found out was the forbidden army (Cav army). But still it's not that great. But I try and figure something out.

And also there are this tiger year card, that could be useful in prolonged age 2 fights where is not uncommon to train and lose a lot of disciples. Or maybe useful in some stupid disciple rush =p

Other cards are meh, honestly.

The mexico changes are worrisome thought. As their buff the mexico eco (That they nerfed last patch), nerfed a bad unit (Soldado) and buff the age 2 stealth skirm which is the problematic unit. It makes it's looks like they don't know what heck they are doing when comes to balance the game.

Inca nerfs where quite good thought, nerfs it considerably that bolas FF they have it.

Still sort of want to see a nerf to the Strongholds attack. It's so silly that Inca can just put a Stronghold down and basically forces you to go Industrial and get mortars. With that ridiculous amount of attack is basically impossible to push it with infantry and cavalry, specially with units popping in and out getting volleys on you after you troops throw the torches, and you being unable to throw a volley back at their units, cause they just hide into the fort.

Also, there is not excuse for those strongholds to kill falcs. Either that cards that increases their range has to go, or they need a bigger damage nerf against artillery.

And like, even if you have mortars sometimes you can't push into stronghold -> huaraca/chimu runner, because Inca just trade their huaraca/chimus for your artillery and you basically can't push into their base anymore.

[gibson]

The goat is probably the biggest buff, the consulate stuff might make age 2 more viable and the iron troop thing might be good in team, but most of the stuff is just irrelevant.

[I_HaRRiiSoN_I]

yeah the goat is to alleviate early game macro issues. as there isnt an asian 50food crate buffing the goat was the next logical thing. 1g oat buffed to 1 semi fattened goats alleviates any scaling issues extra livestock have.

[Kawapasaka]

ye at the risk of sounding massively biased the goat seems like the only consistent buff here
only a first impression of course

[MCJim]

A massive update, indeed. Many AI updates, which is awesome for the many single player lovers. Sadly no multiplayer interface updates and still no friendlist improvements...

However, thanks devs! I'm curious about the new game mod

[dansil92]

goat and consulate wagon are the big buffs, the rest is pretty tame. iron troops card is really cool but chinas anticav kinda sucks so hard its probably only useable in team games as anything more than just a good fi shipment

[Thrar]

The consulate wagon sounds interesting to tinker with but I don't see it as a straight up buff. Maybe there are some builds where it can replace Northern Refugees, but you'd be giving up eco in favor of whatever it is you're getting from it. And since you still have to pay full price for the alliance, you spend the 100 export straight away and probably don't have enough to ship anything before age 2.

The goat is good, but 70f at 2x the hunting gather rate is really just 35 food. Seems like a pretty minor boost to me.

Overall sounds like good update again, I'm really happy with the ongoing and consistently good support.

[kevinitalien]

i think the consulate wagon is just a superior card, even for ff cuz for exemple the card save 200w from 700w which you make a village instead + you have your musk at 7 min with your batch of old han from the wonder and then your opponent can't really timing + you are never outpopped early age 3, and yet i do not even know half of possible build

[Garja]

tp + chop for 2 villages. Send cons card card and ally with french to get 300f crates, then send 700g 300xp and get 500w crates (if rushed just switch to brits and get redcoats).
Same old FF but just better.

[helln00]

tp + chop for 2 villages. Send cons card card and ally with french to get 300f crates, then send 700g 300xp and get 500w crates (if rushed just switch to brits and get redcoats).
Same old FF but just better.

why 2 villages? surely if opening with the consulate card then no reason to get the second village.

[harcha]

Yeah the chinese buffs seem really unwarranted. The only thing that had to be done is blockhouse cost reduction, which they didn't copy from EP for some reason... Maybe castle+flamethrower card was good to help a bit in age II mid-late game.

Also I don't get why they had to fk with french consulate, it was good before because of the flexibility, and it also affects India. Now there is less of that.
I think the consulate card will be the new go-to.

[I_HaRRiiSoN_I]

Yeah hoping they revert the French cons tbh

[Kanoo]

Are y'all happy with the Russian cons buff?

[helln00]

Yeah I still want the old french consulate back.

[harcha]

Are y'all happy with the Russian cons buff?

No, the buff is bad. The BH should be 150e as in EP. That way it can be afforded without the new 100e card. Also it shouldn't train artillery, that's too strong.

[yurashic]

The best build with the new card I found is to ally with Russia and get the blockhouse after you reach age 2. It helps you to defend against raids and early agression, gives 5 pop and trains artillery, so you might skip 700 wood cause you already have a consulate and a barracks anyway and you don't need a market too much (you didn't send 2 vills, so you don't have too many vills). So you can send units or export as your second card in age 2.

French and German consulates seem too expensive and British are useless early on.

[jesus3]

The best build with the new card I found is to ally with Russia and get the blockhouse after you reach age 2. It helps you to defend against raids and early agression, gives 5 pop and trains artillery, so you might skip 700 wood cause you already have a consulate and a barracks anyway and you don't need a market too much (you didn't send 2 vills, so you don't have too many vills). So you can send units or export as your second card in age 2.

French and German consulates seem too expensive and British are useless early on.

So you don't send northern refugees? Do you build two villages or start TP then?
You could do the same if you go TP, 2 villagers and the Consulate rickshaw

[helln00]

the russian consulate now reduces vil cost, I think its better as a first card if you go for it since you want that bonus as soon as possible.

A good second card is actually trade empire I find or the monastery wagon since you almost send the shipments back to back and can get even more shipments

[jesus3]

the russian consulate now reduces vil cost, I think its better as a first card if you go for it since you want that bonus as soon as possible.

A good second card is actually trade empire I find or the monastery wagon since you almost send the shipments back to back and can get even more shipments

But how does it weigh up to the 2v? You lose the time of those gathering in exchange.

Both consulate wagon and tp wagon seems too slow judging from Mini's attempts yesterday. You don't actually get to hold the line afterwards. Maybe in a few specific MUs.