Figured I'd toss my 2 cents in.
Avian: my main problem with avian is not that it's out of balance (I'd need to see sims to know) but that it feels like its identity has shifted somewhat away from the "fast attacker" to the "burnout attacker". When I read its bonuses and penalties, my first reaction isn't "nice, I could see building a composition around avian speed", it's "holy **** avians are gonna burn out faster than a single parent working 3 jobs". The primary focus, intentionally or not, has seemed to shift toward their increased casualties, including a direct penalty, the gains penalty which is a penalty to casualties per gains, and balancing around bloodlust, which vastly increases casualties (yes I know the -gains is to offset the ambush protection but the point still stands). I'd prefer to see them stay as the fast attackers that fill in their land quickly but can't muster as much offense due to no horses. Also, seems like BL has needed to stay on them to let them keep up with the huge offense of orc, so I'll propose orc tuned down so avian can take a break from BL
-20% attack time
+20% BR
-20% military training time
+10% ME
-50% ambush losses
no horses or stables
-10% gains on attacks
8/2 elite 9nw 900gc
fanat, gp
Dwarf: just far too weak to be played. They need an elite that lets them keep up at least some, but also lets them tank up as is their way of things. I also like the idea of them having resistance to ops a la CS/RM, but especially with no WT it doesn't seem like they're actually that resilient. I'd also like to nerf faery further by keeping CS/RM out of their hands, so I'll propose this adjustment
+20% Building Efficiency
-40% Building Construction Time
-50% Building Raze Cost
+25% Building Credits from attacks
20% of enemy spells and ops fail
+100% food consumption
8/4 elite 10nw 1000gc
GP, IA
Elf: seems reasonable in general, but +10% ME and +1 dspec is way too much early age. I moved the 10% ME to avian to keep the dspec here. Also going to add GP to make up for that (worth discussing if elf should have casting on mates AND gp, but whatever)
+1 Mana Recovery per Tick
+1 Defensive Specialist Strength
Can Cast Self Spells on Others
+15% explore cost
8/3 elite 9nw 900gc
GP, MF, MA, Chastity
Fae: fine as is. Got buffed realistically but I'm removing CS and RM from it and going to tune BL down, and it also can't pair with +1 ospec warrior anymore.
Halfling: I just generally don't like the halfling no hospitals but it has attacker bonuses but a significant bonus is to homes which you don't normally want to run much as an attacker and also that means more troops to get the same military, but all those losses and having to retrain weaker per unit troops generally. End of run-on sentence, but yeah generally just doesn't feel like it has a clear identity of how it's really supposed to work its bonuses all together. I'm just gonna leave it alone other than to say I'm moving 2/2 soldiers to orc to go along with free draft.
Human: Not sure what +10% defensive TPA does, but in general human feels underwhelming. In order to keep up, without the warrior pairing, i think they either need +1 ospec back, or +1 ponies. -25% wages seems to be the go-to econ buff for them, which is fine so that they don't have insane eowcf. And science is a fine bonus too, but I'd like to move SI off of cleric over to human and force people to pick hu/cl if they want broadly applied SI.
+1 horses
+15% scientists generated
+15% books produced
-25% wages
-1% mana/tick
4/7 elite 9.5 nw 1000gc
QF, SI
Orc: Orc looks pretty nuts right now. It was already pretty solid last age, arguably the strongest attacker, and it definitely got buffed while other comparable stuff got nerfed (human for example). Its offense is just plain too high, especially with that extra 5% pop which feels pretty out of place. I'd move bloodlust back over to orc as well as tone it back down to its old values (10% OME, 10% enemy casualties, 15% own casualties), which again is an indirect nerf to faery too, which is probably needed. Could also see 8/3 elite here along with bringing back +gains.
Free draft
2/2 soldiers
+15% enemy casualties
20% spells and ops fail
+15% enemy spell and op damage
9/3 elite 10nw 1050gc
Bloodlust, aggression
Undead: Dunno how they will fare without seeing sims, but I just don't really like the conversions/can't train elites design. It forces spec penalties so it's not too broken early age, but that forces something like pop bonus so it's not garbage mid-late age, and in general it's just hard to reason about its balance. If people like it as is, then keep it like this, otherwise take out all of that and have something like the below. Also, not sure if prisoners decay into soldiers is a bonus or a penalty :shrug:. It's interesting flavor, but does it actually work well gameplay-wise?
-35% casualties
No food needed
Spreads plague
basic theivery only
-15% sci effect
10/3 elite 10.5nw 1100gc
AD, Chastity, Vermin
Artisan, heretic, mystic, rogue seem roughly ok (no idea about artisan, really but I'm not spending time on it).
Tact: Mostly seems fine, but I'd like cleric to be the pitfaller and war spoils seems like it naturally fits with tactician who can use the faster attack times to judiciously use WS when it can be lower risk.
-15% Attack Time
+20% Building credits (or just more siege sci?)
Accurate Espionage
+25% Siege Science Effectiveness
800 solds/creds
fanat, War spoils
Cleric: Not sure what this little bit of valor sci is doing there, but I kind of want to move it to WH anyway. SI is moving over to human and I'd like PF to land here and have cleric sort of own the casualties world in the personalities and leave science to artisan/human. I'd really like to put a touch more magic stuff like +guilds or channeling, or even add shielding here, but that's up to the devs whether they want that direction.
Immune to plague
-35% casualties
Support spells
800 solds/creds
IS, Wrathful Smite, PF, DS, AD
War Hero: Wow this seems super strong. But it seems a little weird that war hero has some strong sustain with extra credits and conversions, but then warrior gets a ton of training speed, which is oriented around sustain. I'd like to make WH the reload boss and warrior back to more hulk smash. Valor and heroism give extra ability to pop out troops quickly, as does PI, and +1 ospec is a nice base offensive bonus that doesn't feel too OP on WH because you're converting them either to offensive elites which you'd want already anyway instead of the ospecs, or to defensive elites which hits your offensive capabilities pretty hard. This also makes for a good dragonslayer personality (so maybe dragons might need +10% HP to compensate / make those capabilities that much more valuable). Also leaning toward removing honor bonus since it's so volatile on an attacker personality
+1 ospec
+30% valor and heroism sci
+20% spec creds in war
conversions
800 elites
PI (renamed to Hero's Inspiration)
Warrior: feels very weak in its current form. Sure you can train fast but the things you're training aren't strong enough with just this. I'm more inclined to make warrior the hulk smasher a la
+15% OME
+15% gains on massacres
full conquest access
-25% casuatlies on conquests
800 solds creds
Not sure if any spells land here
