I have already started working out how Mongolia could be buffed. But because their redesign involves some intended changes I'd like to make as a whole concerning medieval units, I didn't touch them for now.
Mongolia currently has two major problems:
1. Not destroying China
2. Not expanding into Western Asia and Europe.
They should be easily capable of crushing China from start, their army is usually big enough and the new UP even helps them further. The problem is that the AI doesn't seem partial to simply crush them, and wastes time in its barren core lands until it's out-teched. I'll try if I maybe can add in some scripting via AI-warplans.
To drive them to the west more, I already considered flipping Merv and Samarkand to them. Also there could be some kind of "conqueror" event for them ... upon meeting Russia, Arabia or Persia, they could spawn a rather large army coupled with a scripted declaration of war.
Yay to unit redesign!! =)
I have some unit suggestions in general (haven't thought them out by any means, nor have i the slightest idea how they would affect balance or AI unit strategies).
-Chariots I feel played a much larger role in history than in RFC. I feel like they should be made much stronger, and a bit more expensive, so they become the super unit of the ancient age (almost like how knights currently dominate the middle ages). Maybe they could have 4 str, immune to first strikes with +50% attack vs warriors, archers, spearmen and axemen.
-Spearmen should be made weaker, cheaper, fodder and essentially become the mainstay of an ancient army supplemented by other units. Maybe their maintenance cost could also be significantly lower (or even nonexistant) compared to other units'.
-Defender units (such as archers etc..) should increase their first strike capabilities. This will further reward using immune to first strike units against them.
-Something should be done about horse archers in general. I think there should be a "Horseman" unit, representing historical units such as Greek companions, Roman equites in addition to mounted warriors of the Steppes horse archers currently represent. The Horsemen would be available a bit earlier than Horse Archers currently are (maybe make that tech cheaper) and in general act as Horse Archers do now, but at an earlier, more useful time.
Historically Mongols made extensive use of horse archers but currently in the mod at their spawn time, horse archers are too weak and only play a secondary role to heavier cavalry. I think there are two easy possibilities. One is to have the Mongol UU be some sort of special horse archer that replaces Horse Archer(old)/Horsemen and be something like 7 str with a ridiculously, super high withdraw rate (to represent Parthian tacticxs) and ignores terrain movement costs. 7 str isn't exactly enough to conquer Middle Ages cities alone, but the really high withdraw rate would mean the Mongol UU can substantially weaken an opponent before sending in heavier units such as Knights to finish off the job. This way Mongols can rely on two units, their UU and knights, as their main tools for conquest rather than just Keshiks alone. Asian knights also have a cool graphic
A second possibility might be to have a Horse Archer(new) in addition to the Horse Archer(old)/Horsemen that is available to all civs with a later tech. This horse archer(new) in general would be strong enough to compete with Medieval age units. In this situation it wouldn't really matter whether the Mongol UU replaced the Horse Archer(old)/Horsemen or Knights. The only thing I wonder is that whether it would be necessary to come up with the stronger Horse Archer(new) in the Middle Ages since no other major civ represented in the mod made extensive use of them other than Persians (though in this mod they represent more Achaemenids rather than Safavids).
-Longbowmen/Musketman and Pikeman combo. I'm not really sure how to change game rules to make this combo use more appealing. Limiting knights to certain civics does seem like it helps.
One possibility is to sort of adjust and reverse roles crossbowmen and longbowmen have in the mod. Change crossbowmen to fill the role longbowmen currently do as city defenders (during most sieges, historically crossbows were preferred since it was more accurate and rate of fire didn't matter as much). Then change longbowmen to 5 str, 3 first strikes, +80% unit attack against melee units, and archery units. Musketmen could have something similar, 7 str, +50% attack against melee units and archery units. In both these cases, players will need to use Pikemen to protect their powerful offensive longbows and musketman against mounted units.
-Galleys should have faster movement than most primitive sailboats in coastal areas. Caravels could be faster than galleys overall since they get double ocean movement bonus, but I feel in coastal areas, especially the Mediterranean, winds were never that great and sea powers preferred galleys over sailboats initially.
-Have Jaguar warrior replace axeman for Aztecs since they don't have cool axeman graphic. Give Jaguar warriors alone the unique ability to enslave units. (respawned Aztecs in 19th century shouldn't still be allow to have the practice of enslaving defeated units). Then this also frees up something else interesting to do with Aztec UP. Also give Aztecs some swordsman on their spawn to help them with their city conquests (and cuz unique graphics included shouldn't be wasted). Have Amerindian civs face a mix of barb and independent Holkans, Archers, Dog Soldiers and Jaguar Warriors. Change stats of Holkans to 4 str, 2 mvt, +50% str vs archery units and +100% city attack(I'm assuming you're planning on taking out Mayans). Change stats of Dog Soldier to 5 str, 1mvt, +50% str vs melee units, -50%str vs archery units. This will prolly add a bit more excitement to NA cuz Aztec and Incan players will have to micro a little bit by bringing out their infantry (Jaguars, Quechuas, swordsman...) against Holkans and archery units against Dog soldiers. Have NA barb spawns be replaced later with mix of Dog soldiers, Horse Archers(old)/Horsemen, and Mongol UU or Horse Archers(new).
-Raise the upkeep cost of certain units. Knights & catapults & ships >> lighter cavalry > special infantry (swordsman) > fodder infantry/cavalry counter (spearman). I think in general most armies shouldn't be all based upon swordsman (which were typically nobles throughout history) and should include a lot more fodder units such as spearmen.
