u/TopHatHat

Rant start.

I'm a relatively good player, I play 3v3s. Ulufeli regularly make me stop playing this game for the day. Players use them as a crutch.

They have

- High health

- High area damage against anything

- Cost slightly more than a Soldado

You can't use infantry, they die.

You can't use falconets, they die. Gatlings are alright but nation specific.

You weirdly can't use cav, I find only Spanish lancers at guard level with the home city card even trade with them. That's relying on the other two players not making anti-cav.

I once managed to win a game about 6 months ago using German Jaegers with the mercenary home city card and age V politican, with the cost reduction church upgrade, with an entire economy dedicated to gold, behind walls. The Otto player never changed his comp and died.

They just seem like a punishment for going late game. I've seen players I recognise play other nations and they are suddenly awful because they've learnt literally nothing from using them. The new stacks of 3 Otto players are starting to make me move on to other games.

Rant over.

Through all of the update dramas I can see a theme.

1. Adding of new things in the PTE (I.e. The "Sneak" ability, resupply through vehicles)

2. Simplification of those things from the PTE (I.e. Sneak was a sniper only mechanic, resupply required you to actually store those supplies in vehicles)

3. Compounding by a poor foundation (I.e. Dysfunctional vision tool makes sneak ability more frustrating for opponents, how can a T-90 sneak? When can I spot it?)

Ironically I think the PTE was misused by testing a bunch of new things, iterating them, then turning around and half-baking and compromising them onto the main version.