Searching balance: Most underused/overused options

Well, I'm planning to do a balance mod anytime soon, based on the BNW Fall patch and want to see from other players experiences what they find is near useless or abused, at any scale. Any game aspect will help. This is my conclusion from my personal game experience:

- On resources, science and growth is overused.
- On social policies, tradition and rationalism are overuser, honor and piety underused.
- On great people, great merchant is underused.
- On great people options, planting a manufactory and a customs house is underused.
- On buildings, windmills are underused.
- On building priority, NC and universities are top priority no matter what.
- On army diversity, melee troops in general are underused, should be the backbone of an army but they are just damage soakers. Catapults and Trebuchets are underused.
- On air warfare units, bomber line is dominant.
- On wonders, can't really say, Hubble is overused, but Petra, and GL and would be overused if they weren't so hard to get on higher diffs.

My 5 cents and suggestions:
I really like the resent changes and the game in general but there are some things that need minor tweaks.

Scientific buildings - They are all to strong (especially uni.). Tip would be to remove one scientist from uni and slighly nerf the numbers. This has to compensated with a slight decrease of overall tec.-costs. This way you can take other ways thorugh the tec tree and don't fall behind too much.
NC - To important. Perhaps split the bonus with Oxford or just reduce it.
Ranged units - Give a penalty for attacking damaged units or cities. This makes sense because fewer units left = harder to hit. It also increases the need for melee units to finish the units damages by ranged units. This penalty could be proportional to the number hit points left.
Siege units - Free cover promotion would fix them.
Early conquest - To difficult to benefit from. Perhaps some way to get happiness for wide empires early.
Piety - Needs and early source of culture like the other 3 trees. Perhaps +1C to shrine and temple on opener.

Good luck with your modding

Kennan said:

Ranged units - Give a penalty for attacking damaged units or cities. This makes sense because fewer units left = harder to hit. It also increases the need for melee units to finish the units damages by ranged units. This penalty could be proportional to the number hit points left.

Click to expand...

Interesting idea.

Thanks for the comments Kennan the comments about ranged and sigue units... Yeah, I feel exactly the same, but I don't want to alter too much the game, only provide more viable options.