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• Balance Team's Comment: Hoplites could use some help tanking in the frontline and protecting the ranged units in the back. This change should help them slightly with locking down flanking Cavalry units.

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• Balance Team's Comment: The original Balance Team increased the population count of all Age IV Siege Units in the Summer Update of 2012, but we feel like this has made units like Ballistas see less play. We're trying to negate this with this change.

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• Balance Team's Comment: Hippikons got a massive DPS Buff to 30, from 24 in a previous patch. This proved to be a little too much for them so we are dialing back a bit.

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• Balance Team's Comment: This change is aimed to help Egyptian players get their priest play going on a little easier than before.

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Greek Ballista".

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• Balance Team's Comment: We are observing Asabaras overperforming especially in the lategame. This change is aimed to mitigate Asabaras' lategame performance, but we will be closely monitoring this change and will make further adjustments as needed.

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• Balance Team's Comment: Mounted Archers are supposed to be Anti-Cavalry Units but we are seeing them being used in nearly every situation, particularly in the lategame. We are trying to make them more specialized by decreasing their damage against non-Cavalry Units.

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• Balance Team's Comment: We feel like Snare could have more impact in the game than it currently does. We are trying to do this by increasing the Snare amount on units that already have it, meaning that they will slow down their targets more than before.

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• Balance Team's Comment: Champions have received many buffs in Champion Mode over the course of time, to the point that we think that they are overperforming for their cost right now, so we are increasing that a little bit so that Celts don't get as cost-effective trades as they previously could.

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• Balance Team's Comment: The Celts have been dominating the Sea in Age II with their extremely powerful Swanships, despite not having a good Navy overall. We are toning down their Swanships' health a bit so that other civilizations have a chance to compete for the water, particularly civilizations that do not have Triremes or Longships (Persians, Babylonians and Romans)

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Persian Mounted Archer"

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• Balance Team's Comment: This upgrade made the Babylonian Mounted Archer a little too powerful, especially when backed up by other lategame upgrades such as Total War, so we are toning it down a bit.

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• Balance Team's Comment: After lots of nerfs to the Babylonian Siege Tower, we are slowly trying to make them see more play by buffing them in small amounts. We will make further adjustments to this unit as needed.

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Persian Sparabara".

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• Balance Team's Comment: We currently don't see Throwing Axemen used in the Silver Age very much, and this change is aimed to help them remain viable after the Bronze Age and throughout the later stages of the game.

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• Balance Team's Comment: Berserkers, despite being extremely expensive and powerful units, don't seem to be doing too well in the current stage of the game. We are making them a bit more survivable to see if they see more play now. We will be closely monitoring this change and will make further adjustments as needed.

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Norse Berserker".

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Greek Ballista".

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• Balance Team's Comment: This buff to Scouts is aimed to help dealing with those pesky Wolves on the map easier, as well as making it easier to kill Boars and Wild Elephants for you to hunt using your Villagers.

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• Balance Team's Comment: Currently the metagame revolves heavily around Spearman rushes and we don't see much fast Age II for Archery Range plays or similar strategies. One way of helping players reach there is to buff the defenses of the Town Center.

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Persian Sparabara". This change is aimed to mitigate the Snare change on Villagers only. We are also buffing the Research Time a little bit so it matches the Training Time of a single Villager.

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Persian Sparabara".

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• Balance Team's Comment: We previously nerfed Saddle Bags, but this upgrade had remained untouched for these three civilizations. We are nerfing this upgrade to match Saddle Bags, but will be making further adjustments as needed.

Experimental Speed Changes
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• Balance Team's Comment: At the current stage of the game, we see that games often come down to who makes the biggest Stable Army and runs around the map doing as much damage as they can, making non-mounted Unit compositions very difficult to use. We are toning down the Movement Speed of all Mounted Units, alongside Ulfhedinns and Woad Raiders so that other units will have a better chance of keeping up with them, particularly in the lategame. We realize that this is a fundamental change to the pacing of PvP and will be making further adjustments (or a complete reversal) of these changes. After these changes, every civilization with the exception of the Celts will have exactly one 9.5 Speed Melee Cavalry unit by Age III, and no more than that.
  • We are also considering increasing Archery Range, Barracks and Priest units' Movement Speeds either via Upgrades or baseline. But these changes - should they happen - will come at a later patch.

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Experimental Speed Changes".

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Experimental Speed Changes".

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Experimental Speed Changes".

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• Balance Team's Comment: See "Experimental Speed Changes".

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

You can also see the entire Champion Mode Tech Tree (for all civilizations) here!

Feel free to discuss the changes below!