Thoughts on balancing MA Man

[Xietor]

We have seen radical changes to Mictlan and Ulm, both who needed help more than MA Man. But MA Man imho, while not a broken race, does have more shortcomings than any other MA land nation, especially on large maps.

MA Man does have strengths. And it begins with the Crone's magical diversity, and strong air power which translates into good quick powerful evoc spells.

Man also boasts longbowmen, and the Knights of Avalon, who get a magical attack and recuperation.

But each of the strengths has drawbacks, which we can examine. My suggestions:


I. The Crone. Remove its Old Age.

Is it thematically possible that Crones, who have no fire magic, and who have abundant n magic, live long lives, but do not suffer old age? The Crone's evoc skill is Man's best hope to stave off an early attack, but they end up with 7 hps, and severe old age with no way of stopping it.

Pythium can take take 4n on its pretender, and slap a shroud on their capital only mages, as can Ermor. Abysia has boots of youth. Shinuyama has death magic, which lowers the chance of afflictions, and high hps.

I have seen a crone die within a few turns of being bought.
Of course, if possible, you can try to only buy them in the spring.

But it would help balance Man, make a race most new players tend to play 1st more enjoyable by eliminating the micromanagement of extreme old age, and be thematically sound as well.

In no way would giving Man crones that that started a a few years below max old age thrust Man into a MP power nation.They would still be close to the bottom, but would be more fun to play.

II. Knight of Avalon Commander

Makes sense to have a commander that has map move 3 and forest survival 3 to lead the knights of avalon. That would also give man a decent thug commander. (warden... Pleaseeeeee).

III. Reduce the gcost and resource cost of the KOA.

Man does not get any scale points to work with. And the KOA's are resource hogs, and also cost 75 gold each and are not sacred.

That is a double whammy. First it is hard to accumulate KOA's because of the high resource cost, and when you compare them to LA Arcos.' Agema's 31 resource cost it is just hard to justify. And if you do take a high production scale and buy a few, you will soon find it is hard to pay the upkeep cost on the KOA's.

KOA's are Avalon's magical knights. They come from the Forest of Avalon. Give them the same gcost and rcost as a normal knight. That is still quite high, but it is a reduction.

IV. Pretender Selection

Man's pretender selection seems a bit thin. To take advantage of the longbows, flaming arrows is nice. Maybe another pretender or two that starts with fire, like the Forge Lord?

Man does, however, get a couple of unique pretenders, the Lord of the Forest being one. And while more is always better, I would like to see the Lord of the Forest made more appealing. There are numerous ways to do that. Some very easy ones:

We can start with his spear. A spear is nice I guess, as he can hunt Boar with it, but could it not be a magical spear?
I mean even those dead gods with shattered souls have magical spears.

And since he is the Lord of the Forest, one would assume he hunts. A really cool magical bow would be thematic. Longbow of Avalon! Graphic does not have to show the bow, as it is likely slung when not in use.

Finally, great hunters typically have birds that help them hunt. A Lord of the Forest no doubt would command a pretty impressive hunting bird. One who would put a serious hurt on anyone foolish enough to incur his wrath.