Units die too quickly: Melee units have too little armour

[Grautvornix]

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a simple and single answer. Different strategies can be used that lead to success or to failure. It is you who need to decide according your preference and according to the game situation: which civ you play and which opponents you have  - also different if you fight against AI or human opponents. As an example, spamming units fast (rushing) while ignoring the economy can be risky. Turtling and not moving forward quickly enough for proper defense can also cause failure. Focussing on champions only is not a guarantee to win either.

There seems to be no single strategy that is guaranteed to win - and that is actually great as it allows differnt playstyles.

[Gurken Khan]

Just wanted to say that I, too, think units die too quickly in this version. Taking way more losses capturing CCs for example than I used to.

Spoiler

Guess it's a case of "be careful what you wish for": I wanted buildings to be able to target units instead of randomly shooting (insignificant) stuff...

 

[Deicide4u]

@Gurken Khan I have just finished a game with Romans. Just ignoring sieges until you have a good siege unit helps a ton (in the case of Romans, it's the Siege Catapult). Also, Marian Reforms turned my army of weaklings into around 150 champions led by Maximus. Needless to say, the Carthage was screwed.

So, I guess the answer to my question is indeed: it depends on the civilization. Also, the performance was much better after some tweaking of graphics. I had average of 45-50 FPS during the large battles.

Edited March 31, 2025 by Deicide4u

[TheCJ]

Well @Deicide4u, according to my experience, the strategy that works most often is just making as many citizen soldiers as possible, until you reach 200 pop for the first time, then you can start "sprinkling in" champions (as many as possible) and fill "the rest" of your pop with citizen soldiers (if your units die fighting and you cant replace them entirely with champs).

That works pretty well in games with up to decent players. You wont win against real pros with that, and I have no idea about the AI, though

[Deicide4u]

On 01/04/2025 at 4:41 AM, TheCJ said:

That works pretty well in games with up to decent players. You wont win against real pros with that, and I have no idea about the AI, though

The AI tends to overproduce citizen soldiers, so it's quite easy to win by war of attrition. Champion spam in the late game wins nearly all the time, but requires a lot of preparation.

Using a lot of upgraded CS + siege also works. I don't play multiplayer in RTS games, so I can't attest to that. 

[Souldbyt]

I think a significant speed buff to melee units could help counteract the ranged units. Also a say 25% health increase and 25% damage increase would make them more viable. Alternatively, make ranged units have a minimum attack range like towers to incentivize placing melee units in the army

[Deicide4u]

1 hour ago, Souldbyt said:

Alternatively, make ranged units have a minimum attack range like towers to incentivize placing melee units in the army

I think this will lead to micro plays where someone sends one melee unit into a line of ranged units just to shut them down. If the opponent is distracted by macro, he will most likely forget to reposition his archers, leading to justified frustration when he finds out that 50% of his army just stands there while the other part dies.

It's too unforgiving. Melee units already got a buff, while ranged unit damage was nerfed. Also, you can easily kill ranged units using melee cavalry. 

Edited May 4, 2025 by Deicide4u

[ChronA]

5 hours ago, Deicide4u said:

I think this will lead to micro plays where someone sends one melee unit into a line of ranged units just to shut them down.

Historically that is how light infantry seemed to react in that situation. Relevant:
https://acoup.blog/2025/05/02/collections-why-archers-didnt-volley-fire/

[Deicide4u]

After playing alpha 23 and alpha 22 for a bit, I'm glad that units got their armor lowered.

Pikes with 10H/10P armor were nigh unkillable. This is without upgrades and aura bonuses.