Age 84 Proposal

Mostly keeping it pretty simple since this age wasn't too bad balance-wise, although I'm tuning personalities up across the board just a little bit to flex in some interesting things.

General changes:

EOWCF: loser gets 100% of median size in build and spec credits. Remove 2x explore cap up to median acres. This will help deep chained provs recover a bit easier.

Mercs/prisoners to 7. They're a little on the low side now yeah?

Buff amnesia, now heretic only. Amnesia isn't really used from what I see. Buff it and make it heretic only so you have to spend a slot on a heretic to get it.

Support spells: add rev and fok, both at 15% effect to give some more flexibility of strategy. Also scattering them around some more to diversify strategies with elf and cleric.

BL: Removed

Artisan sci should include raze cost reduction as well.


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Races
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Elf
+1% mana/tick
can cast self spells on mates
+2 dspec

12/8 elite 8nw 850gc
Spellbook: MA, IA, Chastity

Elf is fine

Halfling
+10% pop
+30% TPA
train thieves with credits
-20% troop train costs

-10% battle gains

10/10 elite 8nw 875gc
Spellbook: TW, Vermin

Just tweaking halfling to have +10% pop instead of the homes bonus, which I think lets them explore A/T a bit more than having to rely on homes for their bonus to be any good.

Human
+15% income
+15% sci effect
+2 ospec

-1 mana/tick
+20% rune cost

8/12 elite 8.25nw 1100gc
Spellbook: QF, IA, FoK

Slight adjust down for human. Lower sci effect but FoK is slightly stronger. Lower income but get IA so EOWCF isn't quite as OP but overall their sustained income vs wages is a little better during war.

Orc
+20% Battle gains
-50% draft cost
4/4 soldiers

+15% enemy sabotage and spell damage

15/6 elite 7.75nw 975gc
Spellbook: Aggression

Slight adjust to orc. Loses BL but +1 elite offense, so it goes from 18.7 mounted elite to 18. And loses the honor penalty since combining with wh isn’t so broken with these changes, plus dropping the credit penalty.

Avian
-20% attack time
+25% birth rate
-20% military training time
-50% land lost on ambushes

cannot use stables or horses
-10% BE

15/5 elite 8nw 850gc
Spellbook: TW, fanat

Avian felt just slightly undertuned this age, so giving it just a touch of extra attack time to make up for that while dropping the elite def and birth rate slightly.


Dwarf
+25% BE
-50% construction cost
-50% raze cost
+1 ospec
+1 dspec

+100% food needed
+30% wages

13/8 elite 8.25nw 950gc
Spellbook: MA, Gluttony

Dwarf seemed solid last age. Bumping up the wage penalty which really manifests as a slight ME nerf. Good lever to adjust overall power.

Faery
+30% self spell duration
+30% WPA
Access to all racial spells

-1 general

7/13 elite 8.5nw 1000gc
Spellbook: All Racial Spells

Fae loses BL, and I'm also moving ToG and RM off them, so they get a reduced cost elite compared to last age and drop the pop penalty. It's possible they still need -5% pop but I'm not gonna spend the time on the sims.

Undead
-25% casualties
-25% damage from fireball, MS, and storms
no food needed
spreads and is immune to plague

-15% sci effect

14/5 elite 9nw 900gc
Spellbook: AD, Chastity

I still just don't like undead having conversions and all the bonuses and penalties that have to come with it to balance it. Tuning it back to something more simple and straightforward: no food, plague, low casualties, good raw offense, but less scaling due to sci penalty, with a little extra spice of resisting some magic-based control. Undead can hit hard and sustain well, as well as plague hard-to-bring-down opponents, opening them up for a better chain.

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Personalities
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Mystic
+150% guild land effect
+50% channeling science
+20% instant spell damage
+20% rune production
+20% combat spell duration

Spellbook: MS, Blizzard, ET, MF
Starts with: 800 wiz

Giving mystic a little spice with combat spell duration (MS should be considered for a base duration reduction to compensate), letting it provide some particularly nasty duration spells beyond just its standard MS bot use.

Assassin/Rogue
-30% thief cost
+75% TD land effect
+50% crime science
+1 stealth/tick
Enhanced NS: send up to 20% more thieves for up to 20% more damage
Access to GA, AW, Prop

Spellbook: Invis, ET
Starts with: 800 thieves

A little adjustment to rogue. Removing the SWH (over to bandit) and giving it an NS bonus. This lets it still be a very strong superthief, but also lets it explore a bit in the A/T direction and be focused more on NS for thief damage when you don't have the TPA to land AW and prop.

Bandit
+50% TD land effect
+25% income and crime sci
+25% gains on plunders, robs, and kidnaps
-75% merc cost
Mercs and prisoners are +3
Prisoners convert to thieves over time
Kidnap, NS, and free prisoners capture some of affected troops as prisoners
Access to GA, SWH

Spellbook: Gluttony, Vermin
Starts with: 400 solds and creds, 400 thieves

Bandit is my proposal for an A/T personality. Mainly bonuses to stealing stuff and mercs. Prisoners converting to thieves lets you TPA sustain while growing to some extent. Plus you can fill your dungeons using kidnap, ns, and free prisoners as well!

Heretic
+100% guild land effect
-75% thieves lost on failed ops
wiz don't die on failed spells
+35% channeling, crime, cunning sci

Spellbook: NM, FG, Amnesia, Revelation
Starts with: 400 wiz, 400 thieves

Heretic is the only T/M retaining rev as it needs the most sciences out of all of them. Gets a buffed amnesia

Cleric
+50% guild land effect
-25% casualties
Immune to plague
cast support spells on mates
+25% channeling, shielding, and invocation sci

Spellbook: GP, AD, DS, IS, CS, RM
Starts with: 400 solds and creds, 400 wiz

Move a lot of spells off cleric that don't make as much sense there and instead give it a little bit of a caster and sturdiness bonus with extra shielding, extra guild effect, and the addition of CS and RM. Really hard to break down a cleric and it’s a support and light caster a/m too.

Tactician
-20% attack time
+30% training credits
-33% gains on ambushes
Accurate intel

Spellbook: War Spoils
Sarts with: 800 solds and credits

Giving tact more tactical options with WS, and bumping up its attack time to match the across the board increases at the expense of PF and CS and match it up with avian like this age (might also have to lose some of those spec credits for balance). WS is generally a pretty underused spell, particularly in war where it tends to just be a noob trap, opening a province up to a devastating chain. On tact it could potentially find more traction with lower attack time allowing a tact to judiciously use WS when opponent return times don't give them the opportunity to land a strong chain.

Engineer/Artisan
Immune to income penalties
Immune to blizzard
+15% econ sciences
-20% damage from raze, tornadoes, arson, and greater arson

Spellbook: ToG, Ghost Workers, SI
Starts with: +1 scientist

A bit of a rework of artisan toward all-around power and buildings stability instead of just better econ. Somewhat of a hybrid of old sage and something more buildings-focused. I could also see building credits or construction time sticking around along with this but I don't have the time to sim it out.

Warrior
+10% OME
+20% tactics sci
+15% Massacre damage
-25% casualties on conquest attacks
improved conquest range

Spellbook: Wrathful Smite, Pitfalls
Starts with: 800 solds and creds

Moving the casualties bonus to warrior into its spells and giving it some extra spice with lower losses on CQ and better mass damage, making it a real T/M killer. Also upping its raw power with some tactics sci bonus letting it scale even better into late age.

War Hero
+50% Honor bonuses
Elites are +1/+1 and +0.5nw
Convert specs to elites
+35% valor and heroism sci

Spellbook: Hero's inspiration (PI renamed)
Starts with: 800 elites

Adjusting war hero to be more of the "reload" attacker personality. Conversions, bonuses to draft speed and training speed plus PI, let it reload its offense very quickly throughout war, and also give it a very fast start. Focusing the military bonus on elites rather than a raw OME boost makes conversions a little more attractive for defensive elite races. Tuning down the honor bonus a little bit to compensate since +1/+1 elites is pretty strong. Also loses its dragon immunity but can transition more into a dragon slayer with the sci bonus.

I don’t get the Bloodlust hate, especially since taking it out completely nullifies Faery as an attacker (which is not a popular option, granted, but you could still run a decent faery/WH).

I also find this Undead to be pretty boring, but I do enjoy the not-straightforward Elite training so that’s probably a difference of style, more than anything.

Kidnap shouldn’t capture some people as prisoners – even with the other Bandit bonuses, I go for kidnaps when I need peasants and wouldn’t want to end up with a substitute that fills 66% less jobs and can’t increase my birth rate.

I’m also not sure about giving ToG to Artisan – it works fine with Faery since they have less population, an expensive elite, and the need to use mana in other things. Putting ToG in a personality means you can combine it with dwarf (who can feasibly run max banks from mid-age onwards, especially since Artisan also gets a tool bonus), Elf (+1 mana) or Halfling (+10% pop, dirt cheap military). This would make ToG pretty overpowered.

I also like the halfling house bonus. Yes, it’s not a single straightforward, but that’s the point – forcing you to use houses and get a bonus balanced by how well can you deal with having more land devoted to housing instead of other buildings.

specifically regarding kidnap, the op takes more peons than it returns to you. The prisoners would come out of the group that were not returned to you so you'd still get the full peons, just additional prisoners.