​

Greeks:

Ballista Trireme:

• Cost increased to 400w/250g, from 200w/150g. Population count increased to 5, from 4.

> Balance Team's Comment: Siege Ships are one of the most powerful tools available to 3 of the 6 civilizations in the game, providing significant amounts of pressure on enemy structures from a very safe distance. We felt that this advantage came with too little of an investment so we decided to make them costlier to better adjust to their power level.
​

Egyptians:

Spearman:

• Training time increased to 10 seconds, from 9.

> Balance Team's Comment: Barracks play has shown itself to be one of the best, if not the best playstyles for the Egyptian civilization. But we feel that currently this style's power level is a little too much compared to what other civilizations can do to counter it, so making every Egyptian Barracks unit train slightly slower is our first step towards remedying this situation.
​

Axeman:

• Training time increased to 9 seconds, from 8.

> Balance Team's Comment: See "Spearman".
​

Axeman Champion:

• Now increases Axemen's HP and DPS by 10%, from 15%. Still grants Area Damage.

> Balance Team's Comment: See "Spearman".​

​

Slinger:

• Training time increased to 11 seconds, from 10. Gold cost increased to 25, from 20. Wood cost reduced to 20, from 25.

> Balance Team's Comment: See "Spearman".
​

Chariot Archer:

• Movement Speed reduced to 8, from 9.

> Balance Team's Comment: Egyptian Chariot Archers are one of the highest damage units in the game. They are able to deal massive amounts of damage from a safe distance, but their high movement speed makes them difficult to catch and kill with Cavalry units, so we decided to reduce their movement speed slightly to make them easier to deal with, using proper counter units, making their movement speed more in line with their Babylonian counterpart.
​

Catapult Trireme:

• Cost increased to 400w/250g, from 200w/150g. Population count increased to 5, from 4.

> Balance Team's Comment: See "Ballista Trireme".​

​

Persians:

Immortal:

• Gold cost reduced to 40, from 50. Population cost decreased to 1, from 2. Base Health reduced to 300, from 380.

> Balance Team's Comment: Immortals are one of Persia's most important units. Being the only unit in the game possessing both a melee and a ranged attack, they are a very flexible tool available to the Persian Empire. But at their current state, we felt that Immortals were not being used in Age III as often as we'd like. This change makes immortals much more viable in Age III, while leaving their Age IV power level relatively intact. We realize that this is a very significant change in how the unit functions and we'll be keeping a close eye on this change to make further adjustments as quickly as possible, should the need arise.
​

Immortal Champion:

• No longer grants -1 Population or -20 Hitpoints, but instead grants +20% Hitpoints. Upgrade cost reduced to 800g, from 1000g.

> Balance Team's Comment: See "Immortal".
​

Immortal Camp:

• Cost reduced to 175w, from 200w.

> Balance Team's Comment: See "Immortal".
​

Mangonel Galley:

• Cost increased to 400w/250g, from 200w/150g. Population count increased to 5, from 4.

> Balance Team's Comment: See "Ballista Trireme".​

Celts:

Gold Mine:

• Stone cost removed, from 50s. Wood cost increased to 175w, from 150w.

> Balance Team's Comment: Celtic Stone Mines are a very useful building, providing safe gold gathering and more importantly, granting Conservation, allowing the Celtic Villagers to extract an extra 750 gold from every Gold Deposit. Having a stone cost on the building, however, often worked as a discouragement for the players, making them forget (or purposefully neglect) building them. This change should help make building Gold Mines seem more appealing and hopefully increase the frequency at which we see players make Gold Mines.
​

--------------------
Babylonians:

Royal Guard:

• Bonus Damage vs Infantry increased to 2.5x, from 2.0x

> Balance Team's Comment: Royal Guards have been moved to Age 3 in Balance Patch #8 to help Babylon's Barracks/Archery range compositions (particularly against Civilizations like Norse and Celts), and they have been performing just as intended; however, we feel that they are still somewhat underperforming in their intended role, which is hard countering Infantry units while still being vulnerable to Archer type units. This change should help with that.
​

Lancer:

• Hitpoints increased to 440, from 430. DPS increased to 16, from 15.

> Balance Team's Comment: Lancers are performing quite well after getting their Champion upgrade, but we felt that they are quite lackluster before reaching that stage. This change should help with that considerably.​

--------------------
Norse:

Raider Champion:

• No longer grants Bonus Damage vs Villagers, but instead grants +30% Pierce Armor. Snare resistance bonus reduced to +50%, from +75%.

> Balance Team's Comment: Raiders are a key Norse unit, providing them with map control, ability to harass the enemy economy with great effectiveness and overall map presence. However, in straight-up fights they proved to be a little underwhelming, while their harassment capabilities being a little too good, specifically in the lategame after all Armory upgrades have been researched. These changes are meant to reduce their raiding capabilities while increasing their in-combat effectiveness.
​

Ulfheddin:

• Now also Snare enemy units by 0.90, reducing their movement speed by 10%

> Balance Team's Comment: Ulfheddins are one of the best anti-Ranged units in the game, dealing upwards of 108 dps to Ranged units after researching their Champion upgrade, but at their current stage we feel like they get kited by Chariot-type units a little too easily for them to be able to get enough value for the investment players make into training them. This change should make them a little better at locking down and killing high-speed Ranged units, such as Chariot Archers or Mounted Archers​

--------------------
Global:

Ram:

• Melee-Infantry Armor reduced to 0.20, from 0.30

> Balance Team's Comment: Lately we have been seeing more and more usage of Rams in the lategame, often distracting the opponent or in some cases doing significant amounts of economic damage. We feel that while this is a very good thing, killing Rams with infantry units takes a little too long considering the investment the defender has to make into training units to defend against Rams. This change is aimed to address this issue.​

Merchant Transport Ships:

• Population Count reduced to 1, from 2.

> Balance Team's Comment: Merchant Transports are underused in PvP. They can be used as a secondary gold income on maps with lots of water available, such as Big Island or Treasure Island, however we felt that having them each take 2 slots of population made them seem like too much of an investment. This change should help make building them seem more appealing to players.​

--

Remember, as always, these changes affect Champion PvP mode ONLY and do not affect Quests, Skirmish Mode, Crete or Geared PvP!

Feel free to discuss the changes below!