Unit Rebalancing General

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron Raptor]

EDIT: So someone sent me a list of stat changes made. Some are good, some are quite odd:

• Armenian/Numidian Legionaries: Morale 4 -> 8 (Good)
  
• Foot Skirmishers/Peltasts: Range 50->65. Lethality 1->0.75 (Changing missile lethality had no effect in original, not sure if it has here, if it does then this is a poor change)
  
• Heavy Spearmen: Morale: 4 -> 6 (Good)
  
• Libyan Infantry: Attack 5->7. Morale 4->6. Cost 400->450 (Good improvement, but cost increase unneeded)
  
• Skirmishers (Carthage): Secondary attack 3->5. Armour 0->1. Cost 180->220 (Actually a nerf, nonsense)
  
• Iberian Infantry: Morale 4->6. Armour 2->3. Cost 240->260 (Good changes, but no need to make this trashy unit more costly)
  
• British Light Chariots: Cost 500->620. Morale 12->7; Upkeep 170->180 (Good to see this OP unit nerfed)
  
• British Heavy Chariots: Cost:580->680. Morale 12->9 (Meaningless nerf since the much more deadly Warlord's Chariot is untouched)
  
• Pontic Light Cavalry: Cost 370->400. Upkeep 110->100 (Bad move, This unit was fine as it was, now it will just encourage Pontus to spam chariots more)
  
• Cappadocian Cavalry: Cost 870->770 (Great move, well done. This unit is terribly underused in MP. Though scythed chariots still remain the better choice)
  
• Chariot Archers: (Pontus): Morale 10->7 (Good with a nerf for this OP unit, but should have been nerfed much harder)
  
• Eastern General: Heat penalty 1->0 (Kinda pointless since games are played on grassy flatlands generally)
  
• Pharaoh's Bowmen: Heat penalty 0->2 (Kinda pointless since games are played on grassy flatlands generally)
  
• Nubian Spearmen: Lethality 1->0.75. Cost 230->200 Upkeep 100->150 (Useless unit becomes more useless)
  
• Desert Axemen: Cost 370->450. Weapon upgrade cost 40->60 (Useless unit becomes more useless)
  
• Pharaoh's Guards: Cost 600->700 (Good change. Egypt being able to afford everything is why they were so strong, so making their best infantry costlier helps countering that)
  
• Egyptian Chariots: Morale 10->7 (Good change. Makes the Egyptian lineup more costly)
  
• Egyptian Chariot Archers: Morale 10->7 (Good change. OP unit nerfed)
  
• Egyptian Chariot General: Morale:10->8 (Not a unit used so changes nothing)
  
• Greek Cavalry: Given good stamina (Good)
  
• Scythed Chariots (Seleucid): Morale:10->8 (Ok change, but Pontus Scythed Chariots should be nerfed too in that case. Overall a price increase would be best nerf to Scythed Chariots as they provide a more cost-effective alternative to cavalry)

Overall, the changes are positive as they mainly nerf Britannia and Egypt, the two factions most in need of nerfing. The buffing of the foot javeliners is quite lackluster and could have been greater.

Apperently there have been no overall changes of combat mechanics. That is probably for the better.

For reference I leave my old feedback here at the bottom of the thread:

Here are my suggestions for what to do and not do:

This is looking at it from the multiplayer perspective where any changes will have the most impact. And it assumes players are facing each other according to the standard setup of R1TW multiplayer. Namely, on grassy flatlands, at 15k denarii, using the CWB ruleset (no art/ele, max 6 same unit, max 8 cavalry, max 8 missiles, max 2 chariot archers/horse archers, max 2 zerks). List is not intended to be all-comprehensive.

Archer and slinger missile attack ratings
Archer and slinger attack ratings should as they are (relative to the armor and shield stats of units of course). In the original it was balanced so that they do almost no damage to heavy infantry from the front, but completely butchers them when firing at their right flank or rear. That is right and proper. Increasing it or decreasing it would dumb the game down. (The only change that could perhaps be motivated is a slight reduction of their ammunition, but probably best to leave it as it is)

Horse Archers and Chariot Archers
Horse archers are overpowered as a unit, but they are a feature of those factions who can field them, so they need to stay overpowered in the interests of general faction balance. Assuming that the CWB rules are followed that is. Otherwise, spamming chariot archers is pretty much the best thing you can do for your money. Best solution here seems to add unit caps to the game.

Foot Javeliners
In the original, these guys did no more damage than archers, while having shorter range and less ammunition. And since they only cost a little less, they were essentially never used by anyone. So, this is really the only unit type where a radical change is motivated. To be worthwhile their missile attack would have to improve substantially. +50-80% might be a good start. Alternatively make them AP (as AP in Rome 1 just ignores 50% of armor, not 100% like in later titles), but the effects of that would be rather unpredictable so better just do an increase of the base stats.

Mounted Javeliners
These should not be affected by the upgrade to foot javelins as these units are already very useful in the archer war. Only if other light cavalry (like Greek cavalry) were upgraded, could a small buff to some stats be motivated.

Low tier close combat infantry
Except for the low-tier pikes, there is little reason to ever field any of these as elite infantry chews through them without barely taking casualties. That dynamic should be kept, but they should a bit more morale and defense skill so they can at least act as a speedbump.

Faction balancing
Should overall remain the same. R1TW had an asymmetric balance. Most factions countered a few other factions, and were in turn countered by another set. This made for the best team battles in the series as allies had to work closely together to make up for each other’s weaknesses. Since I hope that experience stays the same, I am just advocating changes to those few factions who does not fit into that asymmetric balance. Namely: Egypt, Gaul and Spain.

Egypt hard counters all factions. Except Carthage and Greece. Those can fight pretty evenly with Egypt due to having elite slingers (flat trajectory means missiles can easily hit chariot archers even if they are using cantabrian circle) that can cover among elite hoplites in loose phalanx (since the phalanx forcefield instakills chariots). Otherwise, Egypt is in fact so overpowered that few players ever used them, as doing so was considered dishonorable. Reason for Egypt being so overpowered is of course that they not only have non-amoking chariots, chariot archers, decent infantry, and the best archers in the game, but because they are also able to field full numbers of all those units simultaneously due to how cost effective they are. So, the most logical nerf to Egypt would be a 10-20% cost-increase across the board and making their chariots amokable, like those of other factions.

Gaul and Spain are the opposite of Egypt. They are pretty much useless factions that lose to all other factions, while it is debatable who beats whom of the two. Personally, I consider the Gauls the worst of all as Spain at least got a strong missile line.

Problem with the Gauls is mainly that they have the lest cost-effective heavy cavalry in the game and the most overpriced archers. Barbarian Noble Cavalry could safely be given a modest buff as none of the factions sharing that unit is particularly strong. The Forester Warband is outrageously expensive at 960 denarii, it could cost half as much and Gaul would still not be a great faction.

As for Spain, their main problem is their infantry. Bull Warriors cost 1150 denarii, but are at most worth 700 denarii. Scutarii are so flimsy that they are essentially just a glorified missile unit. So their infantry is either unaffordable or ineffective. Even if they got amazing medium cavalry in the Long Shields, these can still not go head-to-head with real heavy cavalry. Meaning, all an enemy needs to do to beat Spain is to click charge. To fix this Bull Warriors must be made much cheaper so a player can afford fielding them, and the Scutarii must be sturdier for there to be any reason using them.

The above are the main three factions that are the ones that would be the most motivated to fix. Other factions that could potentially need minor buffs would be:

Dacia and Thrace: Both factions are simply very mediocre. Both could benefit from a buffing of Falxmen. Falxmen is actually a fine unit, but since it is shared by two mediocre factions it should be made an excellent unit.

Germania: It has a niche as a Rome counter, but gets destroyed by any faction with phalanxes or chariots (so that would be most). That might be fine, but Gothic cavalry could be stronger (I suggest raising the melee attack from 12 to 15 as that buff best fits their theme, and would help against cataphracts). Also, Germanic spear warmand is a cool unit never used because it is far too expensive (I suggest dropping cost from 520 to 400). Now, chosen archers are far too expensive for Germania to afford, but changing those is not really an option as that would buff Scythia (Radical suggestion: drop chosen archers from roster and replace them with archer warband. Then Germania would be a top faction. But that would be a faction redesign).

Numidia: The strongest of the weakest. +2 morale for Numidian Legionaries and it is a competitive faction.

[Get Donked On]

i heard in a stream that hoplite formations are slightly less imprenatable so militia hoplites cant hold a bridge against 200 chariots anymore and chariots are now i think not insta melting

[Get Donked On]

also i agree that javelins either need more damage or a lot more ammo. they are supposed to make it so units with shield struck by them had a giant piece of extra weight on their shields and most times had to drop them so an ap value wouldnt be too out of place.
an ap value and high damage was the main reason they had an edge on arrows in medieval 2. in rome it does feel like the javelins sucked at the one job they were made for:

harrasing phalanxes

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron Raptor]

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

i heard in a stream that hoplite formations are slightly less imprenatable so militia hoplites cant hold a bridge against 200 chariots anymore and chariots are now i think not insta melting

Oh that is very interesting, but that means they changed the physics of the game since phalanxes instakilling chariots had little to do with the stats. It was due to phalanx formation creating a kind of a anti-cavalry barrier, like a mobile version of the stakes from later TW games. Which is why they also killed friendly cavalry.

Did they also change that chariots destroy cavalry then? Otherwise that change makes chariots almost unstoppable.

But that is a bit worrying, since if they changed the fundamental physics, then that might apply even when using original stats.

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

also i agree that javelins either need more damage or a lot more ammo. they are supposed to make it so units with shield struck by them had a giant piece of extra weight on their shields and most times had to drop them so an ap value wouldnt be too out of place.
an ap value and high damage was the main reason they had an edge on arrows in medieval 2. in rome it does feel like the javelins sucked at the one job they were made for:

You are probably thinking of pila there, but even for those the idea of them disabling shields is just a theory AFAIK. Either way, the shield stat is separate from armor, so giving them AP has no effect on shield values.

For realism's sake, it does not really make sense to make them AP, since they would be even more deadly against light troops. But yeah, for gameplay it could be interesting.

[Get Donked On]

Originally posted by |Sith|Galvanized Iron:

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

i heard in a stream that hoplite formations are slightly less imprenatable so militia hoplites cant hold a bridge against 200 chariots anymore and chariots are now i think not insta melting

Oh that is very interesting, but that means they changed the physics of the game since phalanxes instakilling chariots had little to do with the stats. It was due to phalanx formation creating a kind of a anti-cavalry barrier, like a mobile version of the stakes from later TW games. Which is why they also killed friendly cavalry.

Did they also change that chariots destroy cavalry then? Otherwise that change makes chariots almost unstoppable.

But that is a bit worrying, since if they changed the fundamental physics, then that might apply even when using original stats.

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

also i agree that javelins either need more damage or a lot more ammo. they are supposed to make it so units with shield struck by them had a giant piece of extra weight on their shields and most times had to drop them so an ap value wouldnt be too out of place.
an ap value and high damage was the main reason they had an edge on arrows in medieval 2. in rome it does feel like the javelins sucked at the one job they were made for:

You are probably thinking of pila there, but even for those the idea of them disabling shields is just a theory AFAIK. Either way, the shield stat is separate from armor, so giving them AP has no effect on shield values.

For realism's sake, it does not really make sense to make them AP, since they would be even more deadly against light troops. But yeah, for gameplay it could be interesting.

i mean ye pila were specifically designed to hinder shield use but at the end of the day pilum are just javelins that are heavier and have their shaft break off so they cant be thrown back.

i mean realisticly slingers are more dangerous than arrows but some changes for gameplay have to be made and lets be real an iron age bow should not be doing more damage than a big piss off javelin thrown into your lorica segmentata. also javelins thrown from horseback are historically able to fly further and hit harder due to momentum from the horse but engine limitations and balancing require some sacrifice id just like javelins to be good for what they were made to well. harras phalanxes if that due to game mechanics requires some ap that seems pretty reasonable to me

[Powellinho.72]

the only thing ive heard is that cav was different but still strong. but no confirmations or stats to look at, i havent seen any....

[BurakaLwlCack]

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

i heard in a stream that hoplite formations are slightly less imprenatable so militia hoplites cant hold a bridge against 200 chariots anymore and chariots are now i think not insta melting

I watched HeirOfCarthage's early game Vids and he had a hoplite unit get diddled head on from a roman bodyguard unit , It pushed in taking losses but once it broke the formation the rape was on .

[Get Donked On]

Originally posted by DeepSancagal:

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

i heard in a stream that hoplite formations are slightly less imprenatable so militia hoplites cant hold a bridge against 200 chariots anymore and chariots are now i think not insta melting

I watched HeirOfCarthage's early game Vids and he had a hoplite unit get diddled head on from a roman bodyguard unit , It pushed in taking losses but once it broke the formation the rape was on .

bad news thats not something new that is pretty doable in base rome too as long as it isnt a phalanx pikeman and you arent playing on medium or lower unit scale

[Ultrabot]

Heavy cav could always break through.
Play Seleucid, you'll soon find that out. (you'll be attacked all sides, they'll be heavy cav)

I found out the hard way haha ^
Thought my militia hoplites were doing great till then.

[BurakaLwlCack]

I suppose it was the way worked through then overcame or maybe just being able to see the detail with the updated graphics with the frontline being forced to go sword as the back spread apart and followed suit , ♥♥♥♥ me release this ♥♥♥♥ already

[Sad but Packin']

I agree that jav infantry needs a big buff, and I dont know if all of them should have AP, but at least the elite ones and the overpriced Roman ones would benefit from that. Also, since Germania and Gaul don't have cheap archers, a considerable increase to the range and ammo to the Skirmisher warband would be great, so that the elite archers don't need to spend as much of their very valuable ammo killing cheap enemy archers.

I'd say jav cav could use an increase in range tho, just so that their skirmish mode and cartabrian circle abilities work as intended.

About faction balancing, I've never seen your name before, but I know Sith is a very old clan, and I imagine you've probably not played RTW in many years, wich is probably why your take on the faction balancing might be a bit off, so, I'll make some observations based on the current meta:

Egypt is indeed OP at medium and low money battles, but it's not alone there, Britania is in the same boat, they dont have as good foot misiles or infantry, but their Warlord Chariots can beat Egyptian Chariots even in 2v1 situations, and the Head Hurlers will incinerate any heavy infantry if given the opportunity, they can also help out in the skirmish phase as some sort of super peltasts. I dont think the chariots of this 2 factions should run amok like the scythed ones, but instead, the factions that don't have pikes, should have more means to counter those chariots. Giving greater range, morale and damage to the javeliners is a good start, but far from enough. Spear (non-phlanx) infantry could be much more effective against chariots, this could be done by giving them a special, extra big bonus against chariots, or they could be resistant to chariots morale hit.
Spearmen as a unit class in general need a buff TBH.

Gaul is indeed the weakest faction in the game, and I agree that Foresters could have the same price as Cretan Archers, and still not be too good for their price.

However, Spain is considered to have about the same strenght as Thrace, Numidia, Germania and Dacia, and just somewhat below Greece, each with their own strenghts and weakensess of course. If I were to buff Spain, I'd do the same to all the aforementioned facs, and this is what I'd do:

Buff Barbarian Cav, Barbarian Noble Cav, Round Shields, Long Shields, Numidian Cav, Numidian Cammels, Falxmen, Bastarnae, Naked Fanatics, Swordsmen, Axemen, Warband, Scutarii and since Numidians were supposed to be expert javeliners, what about giving their legionaries much greater pila damage and range?

I'd either greatly buff or greatly reduce the price of Bull warriors and Foresters, give pila to Chosen Swordsmen, give access to Barb Cav to Thrace, give access to Balearic Slingers to Numidia, either give Spain some decent spearmen, or give them acces to some overpriced hoplite mercs or something (to protect from chariots), Increase the melee capabilities of Chosen Archers, add the Theban Sacred Band to Greece roster (wich I think should have similar stats to the Carthaginian SB, but better morale) reduce the attack but give AP to Night raiders and furhter increase their stamina, increase the running speed of Chosen axemen, reducing the price of the Spear warband is probably not a bad idea.

And what about, instead of increasing the attack of Gothic Cav, they get less attack but are given an AP axe as secondary weapon? giving them just enough damage to defeat Praetorian Cav. That would help a lot against Catas and Rome and some other strong factions, while not making them way too much against the weaker, less armored factions.

[Get Donked On]

Originally posted by MockThePunk:

I agree that jav infantry needs a big buff, and I dont know if all of them should have AP, but at least the elite ones and the overpriced Roman ones would benefit from that. Also, since Germania and Gaul don't have cheap archers, a considerable increase to the range and ammo to the Skirmisher warband would be great, so that the elite archers don't need to spend as much of their very valuable ammo killing cheap enemy archers.

I'd say jav cav could use an increase in range tho, just so that their skirmish mode and cartabrian circle abilities work as intended.

About faction balancing, I've never seen your name before, but I know Sith is a very old clan, and I imagine you've probably not played RTW in many years, wich is probably why your take on the faction balancing might be a bit off, so, I'll make some observations based on the current meta:

Egypt is indeed OP at medium and low money battles, but it's not alone there, Britania is in the same boat, they dont have as good foot misiles or infantry, but their Warlord Chariots can beat Egyptian Chariots even in 2v1 situations, and the Head Hurlers will incinerate any heavy infantry if given the opportunity, they can also help out in the skirmish phase as some sort of super peltasts. I dont think the chariots of this 2 factions should run amok like the scythed ones, but instead, the factions that don't have pikes, should have more means to counter those chariots. Giving greater range, morale and damage to the javeliners is a good start, but far from enough. Spear (non-phlanx) infantry could be much more effective against chariots, this could be done by giving them a special, extra big bonus against chariots, or they could be resistant to chariots morale hit.
Spearmen as a unit class in general need a buff TBH.

Gaul is indeed the weakest faction in the game, and I agree that Foresters could have the same price as Cretan Archers, and still not be too good for their price.

However, Spain is considered to have about the same strenght as Thrace, Numidia, Germania and Dacia, and just somewhat below Greece, each with their own strenghts and weakensess of course. If I were to buff Spain, I'd do the same to all the aforementioned facs, and this is what I'd do:

Buff Barbarian Cav, Barbarian Noble Cav, Round Shields, Long Shields, Numidian Cav, Numidian Cammels, Falxmen, Bastarnae, Naked Fanatics, Swordsmen, Axemen, Warband, Scutarii and since Numidians were supposed to be expert javeliners, what about giving their legionaries much greater pila damage and range?

I'd either greatly buff or greatly reduce the price of Bull warriors and Foresters, give pila to Chosen Swordsmen, give access to Barb Cav to Thrace, give access to Balearic Slingers to Numidia, either give Spain some decent spearmen, or give them acces to some overpriced hoplite mercs or something (to protect from chariots), Increase the melee capabilities of Chosen Archers, add the Theban Sacred Band to Greece roster (wich I think should have similar stats to the Carthaginian SB, but better morale) reduce the attack but give AP to Night raiders and furhter increase their stamina, increase the running speed of Chosen axemen, reducing the price of the Spear warband is probably not a bad idea.

And what about, instead of increasing the attack of Gothic Cav, they get less attack but are given an AP axe as secondary weapon? giving them just enough damage to defeat Praetorian Cav. That would help a lot against Catas and Rome and some other strong factions, while not making them way too much against the weaker, less armored factions.

i mean biggest problem with barbarian cav is that roman cav is way too good for a heavy infantry focused faction.
idk any good away to fix it but yeah especially gaul needs their skirmisher warband to be better germania can win most battles vs barbarian with the spear phalanx and then smack rome with beserkers and chosen axemen so they arent in super desperate need of buffs altho gothic cav i beleive was some of the scariest cav of the time together with cataphract so some buffs there wouldnt be too werd

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron Raptor]

Originally posted by MockThePunk:

I agree that jav infantry needs a big buff, and I dont know if all of them should have AP, but at least the elite ones and the overpriced Roman ones would benefit from that. Also, since Germania and Gaul don't have cheap archers, a considerable increase to the range and ammo to the Skirmisher warband would be great, so that the elite archers don't need to spend as much of their very valuable ammo killing cheap enemy archers.

I'd say jav cav could use an increase in range tho, just so that their skirmish mode and cartabrian circle abilities work as intended.

About faction balancing, I've never seen your name before, but I know Sith is a very old clan, and I imagine you've probably not played RTW in many years, wich is probably why your take on the faction balancing might be a bit off, so, I'll make some observations based on the current meta:

Egypt is indeed OP at medium and low money battles, but it's not alone there, Britania is in the same boat, they dont have as good foot misiles or infantry, but their Warlord Chariots can beat Egyptian Chariots even in 2v1 situations, and the Head Hurlers will incinerate any heavy infantry if given the opportunity, they can also help out in the skirmish phase as some sort of super peltasts. I dont think the chariots of this 2 factions should run amok like the scythed ones, but instead, the factions that don't have pikes, should have more means to counter those chariots. Giving greater range, morale and damage to the javeliners is a good start, but far from enough. Spear (non-phlanx) infantry could be much more effective against chariots, this could be done by giving them a special, extra big bonus against chariots, or they could be resistant to chariots morale hit.
Spearmen as a unit class in general need a buff TBH.

Gaul is indeed the weakest faction in the game, and I agree that Foresters could have the same price as Cretan Archers, and still not be too good for their price.

However, Spain is considered to have about the same strenght as Thrace, Numidia, Germania and Dacia, and just somewhat below Greece, each with their own strenghts and weakensess of course. If I were to buff Spain, I'd do the same to all the aforementioned facs, and this is what I'd do:

Buff Barbarian Cav, Barbarian Noble Cav, Round Shields, Long Shields, Numidian Cav, Numidian Cammels, Falxmen, Bastarnae, Naked Fanatics, Swordsmen, Axemen, Warband, Scutarii and since Numidians were supposed to be expert javeliners, what about giving their legionaries much greater pila damage and range?

I'd either greatly buff or greatly reduce the price of Bull warriors and Foresters, give pila to Chosen Swordsmen, give access to Barb Cav to Thrace, give access to Balearic Slingers to Numidia, either give Spain some decent spearmen, or give them acces to some overpriced hoplite mercs or something (to protect from chariots), Increase the melee capabilities of Chosen Archers, add the Theban Sacred Band to Greece roster (wich I think should have similar stats to the Carthaginian SB, but better morale) reduce the attack but give AP to Night raiders and furhter increase their stamina, increase the running speed of Chosen axemen, reducing the price of the Spear warband is probably not a bad idea.

And what about, instead of increasing the attack of Gothic Cav, they get less attack but are given an AP axe as secondary weapon? giving them just enough damage to defeat Praetorian Cav. That would help a lot against Catas and Rome and some other strong factions, while not making them way too much against the weaker, less armored factions.

Way to sound like you disagree and then end up agreeing on most lol. I am aware that the Brits are good. In fact I was among the first persons to do so back in like 2004-2005 when I 2-1'd the gamespy world champion Proximo who had no idea they were so potent. But even then, they are still not comparable to Egypt who has an edge over more factions than Britain got. For example, I could still make an unconventional special army with Rome to even odds with Brits (the exact contents of that army is my secret), cannot do that against Egypt.

But you are right I have not played much in last few years, but largely due to only finding 31k games when logging on. Still I am sceptical about viewing Spain so highly, for example Spain could do nothing against a pure charge of German infantry and Gothic cavalry. Even if the Long Shields are excellent. But overall I think we see eye-to-eye as we agree that Gaul is the worst.

And overall I agree with most of your suggestions, but they are perhaps changing a tad bit more than I had in mind. I was having more incremental changes in mind. As for the Gothic cavalry, I do not support giving them axes since having studied the Goths intensely, I know they literally never used axes and the kontos was their main cavalry weapon. Still, you could just give their primary spear the AP effect, it would not really change anything, since charge damage is mainly determined by mass (not like head hunting maidens have an exceptional charge for example).

Also, thanks for pointing out the spears, I completely forgot about them. The only ones that really see any use are indeed the triarii in Roman anti-Parthia builds. I think they are probably difficult to fix, so just making them cheaper may be the best idea.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron Raptor]

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

Originally posted by MockThePunk:

I agree that jav infantry needs a big buff, and I dont know if all of them should have AP, but at least the elite ones and the overpriced Roman ones would benefit from that. Also, since Germania and Gaul don't have cheap archers, a considerable increase to the range and ammo to the Skirmisher warband would be great, so that the elite archers don't need to spend as much of their very valuable ammo killing cheap enemy archers.

I'd say jav cav could use an increase in range tho, just so that their skirmish mode and cartabrian circle abilities work as intended.

About faction balancing, I've never seen your name before, but I know Sith is a very old clan, and I imagine you've probably not played RTW in many years, wich is probably why your take on the faction balancing might be a bit off, so, I'll make some observations based on the current meta:

Egypt is indeed OP at medium and low money battles, but it's not alone there, Britania is in the same boat, they dont have as good foot misiles or infantry, but their Warlord Chariots can beat Egyptian Chariots even in 2v1 situations, and the Head Hurlers will incinerate any heavy infantry if given the opportunity, they can also help out in the skirmish phase as some sort of super peltasts. I dont think the chariots of this 2 factions should run amok like the scythed ones, but instead, the factions that don't have pikes, should have more means to counter those chariots. Giving greater range, morale and damage to the javeliners is a good start, but far from enough. Spear (non-phlanx) infantry could be much more effective against chariots, this could be done by giving them a special, extra big bonus against chariots, or they could be resistant to chariots morale hit.
Spearmen as a unit class in general need a buff TBH.

Gaul is indeed the weakest faction in the game, and I agree that Foresters could have the same price as Cretan Archers, and still not be too good for their price.

However, Spain is considered to have about the same strenght as Thrace, Numidia, Germania and Dacia, and just somewhat below Greece, each with their own strenghts and weakensess of course. If I were to buff Spain, I'd do the same to all the aforementioned facs, and this is what I'd do:

Buff Barbarian Cav, Barbarian Noble Cav, Round Shields, Long Shields, Numidian Cav, Numidian Cammels, Falxmen, Bastarnae, Naked Fanatics, Swordsmen, Axemen, Warband, Scutarii and since Numidians were supposed to be expert javeliners, what about giving their legionaries much greater pila damage and range?

I'd either greatly buff or greatly reduce the price of Bull warriors and Foresters, give pila to Chosen Swordsmen, give access to Barb Cav to Thrace, give access to Balearic Slingers to Numidia, either give Spain some decent spearmen, or give them acces to some overpriced hoplite mercs or something (to protect from chariots), Increase the melee capabilities of Chosen Archers, add the Theban Sacred Band to Greece roster (wich I think should have similar stats to the Carthaginian SB, but better morale) reduce the attack but give AP to Night raiders and furhter increase their stamina, increase the running speed of Chosen axemen, reducing the price of the Spear warband is probably not a bad idea.

And what about, instead of increasing the attack of Gothic Cav, they get less attack but are given an AP axe as secondary weapon? giving them just enough damage to defeat Praetorian Cav. That would help a lot against Catas and Rome and some other strong factions, while not making them way too much against the weaker, less armored factions.

i mean biggest problem with barbarian cav is that roman cav is way too good for a heavy infantry focused faction.
idk any good away to fix it but yeah especially gaul needs their skirmisher warband to be better germania can win most battles vs barbarian with the spear phalanx and then smack rome with beserkers and chosen axemen so they arent in super desperate need of buffs altho gothic cav i beleive was some of the scariest cav of the time together with cataphract so some buffs there wouldnt be too werd

Well it gets dabbed on by Cataphracts and Headhunting Maidens, but sure it is like third best. Anyway I totally agree with you on making the Gothic Cavalry badass, they are among the first people to actually do a full gallop charge, whereas Roman cavalry was generally just skirmishing

[Get Donked On]

Originally posted by |Sith|Galvanized Iron:

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

i mean biggest problem with barbarian cav is that roman cav is way too good for a heavy infantry focused faction.
idk any good away to fix it but yeah especially gaul needs their skirmisher warband to be better germania can win most battles vs barbarian with the spear phalanx and then smack rome with beserkers and chosen axemen so they arent in super desperate need of buffs altho gothic cav i beleive was some of the scariest cav of the time together with cataphract so some buffs there wouldnt be too werd

Well it gets dabbed on by Cataphracts and Headhunting Maidens, but sure it is like third best. Anyway I totally agree with you on making the Gothic Cavalry badass, they are among the first people to actually do a full gallop charge, whereas Roman cavalry was generally just skirmishing

I meant more for the time period not ingame especially in campaign theyre a waste of time as theyre not significantly better than barb noble cav.
also trairii not fighting in phalanx always got on my nerves its one of the few unit edits i made in my rome campaigns

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron Raptor]

Originally posted by Get Donked On:

Originally posted by |Sith|Galvanized Iron:

Well it gets dabbed on by Cataphracts and Headhunting Maidens, but sure it is like third best. Anyway I totally agree with you on making the Gothic Cavalry badass, they are among the first people to actually do a full gallop charge, whereas Roman cavalry was generally just skirmishing

I meant more for the time period not ingame especially in campaign theyre a waste of time as theyre not significantly better than barb noble cav.
also trairii not fighting in phalanx always got on my nerves its one of the few unit edits i made in my rome campaigns

But my comment on Gothic cavalry was about the historic ones. Gothic cavalry was indeed among the first chargers. Well at least if you can believe Procopius