Hey Kael, I'm a first time poster, long time lurker.
Absolutely love your mod, the stuff that you and the team have been able to do to improve on Civ 4 is staggering. It's quite simply the best mod i've played, period.
I'm in the middle of a Normal Doviello Emp game, and I'm fighting a furious (losing) war with an OO Keelyn. However, I've realised the enraged promotion is giving Keelyn's troops +40% str instead of -40% when defending.
One of her macemen has Combat 1, Enraged, Iron, Mutated, Crazed, Mobility and on grassland. I would think that maceman should have a -20% Str modifier and not +60% when being attacked by my Skull Catapult. Can you check if this is a genuine bug, or if it's just me.
Since I'm at it, do you think Doviello could get buffed a little? I'm finding it harder than normal to survive with them. Now that everyone can use weapon rules, Doviello main perks are limited to 1) being able to equip without a forge, 2) not requiring any military buildings for some troops and 3) battlemaster training. Oh and +50% tundra defense, that I’ve yet to have the fortune of using =).
However, I'm not sure the first two perks are good in light of the extra cost for most units. No need for forges is good for early rushing, but in the middle game, any decent civ will have forges in all their unit producing cities. Against the production bonus from forges and cheaper units of opposing civs, Doviello can’t really win wars of attrition (which is actually their philosophy: continuous raiding and warring). By the late game, the whole first perk is irrelevant for mithril – but the extra cost still remains.
Not requiring buildings for some units is ok for mass witch doctor spam, and there’s the time saved from building the training yard (though offset by loss of happiness via nationalism and the 1xp great with Apprentice/Conquest), but that’s where the benefit really ends. Doviello (with Charadon) have an edge in their skull catapults, chariots, and cavalry. But buildings are required for all these. It’s questionable how beneficial not having archery ranges are in light of the loss in city defense and higher unit costs.
Wow, this post is growing with the telling, sorry if it’s a bit long, I’m going to just wrap it up. Battlemaster training is ok, and I can see it working with Mahala, though in my current game with Charadon, I’m having trouble having enough gold to boost my research for getting something that can stand up to Keelyn’s mutated crossbows, much less spend 200 a pop for +2 str and shock.
Great job and thanks for the mod, it’s got so much style. Well done on the BtS and the interview =). Keep up the good work.