The Kushites start their games with an healer, the Mauryas with an elephant. The Spartans were known for their superior hoplites; this patch gives them one champion infantry at game start, to make them feel a bit different from other factions. It won't suddenly make them win games, although it could help a bit defending against very early raids.
To be clear, Spartans still need to be in the city phase to be able to train more.
Somewhat relevant forum threads: https://wildfiregames.com/forum/topic/35419-differentiating-civs-spartans/ and https://wildfiregames.com/forum/topic/22868-rethinking-the-meta-with-sparta-a-historical-approach/?tab=comments#comment-338125
Details
- Reviewers
wraitii Palaxin - Group Reviewers
Balancing - Commits
- rP24693: [Gameplay] - Let Spartans start with a Champion.
Agree this is an improvement.
Diff Detail
- Repository
- rP 0 A.D. Public Repository
- Lint
Automatic diff as part of commit; lint not applicable. - Unit
Automatic diff as part of commit; unit tests not applicable.
Event Timeline
Build is green
builderr-debug-macos.txt ld: warning: text-based stub file /System/Library/Frameworks//CoreAudio.framework/CoreAudio.tbd and library file /System/Library/Frameworks//CoreAudio.framework/CoreAudio are out of sync. Falling back to library file for linking. ld: warning: text-based stub file /System/Library/Frameworks//AudioToolbox.framework/AudioToolbox.tbd and library file /System/Library/Frameworks//AudioToolbox.framework/AudioToolbox are out of sync. Falling back to library file for linking. ld: warning: text-based stub file /System/Library/Frameworks//ForceFeedback.framework/ForceFeedback.tbd and library file /System/Library/Frameworks//ForceFeedback.framework/ForceFeedback are out of sync. Falling back to library file for linking. ld: warning: text-based stub file /System/Library/Frameworks//CoreVideo.framework/CoreVideo.tbd and library file /System/Library/Frameworks//CoreVideo.framework/CoreVideo are out of sync. Falling back to library file for linking. ld: warning: text-based stu
See https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/macos-differential/2942/display/redirect for more details.
The only way i see this being used is to send the unit over to the enemy right away and cause guaranteed idle time. Kind of like the briton war dog just with less mobility, more hp and higher damage output.
I like this actually. It's a fair resource bonus and kind of original. The slow speed makes this not completely OP I think. Can probably be used efficiently to cut off the enemy from an area with nice resources too.
As the author of one of the forum discussions you mentioned in the descriptions, I like that change, too.
If it turns out to be OP (what I do not expect), we could e.g. remove one of the citizen spearmen at start for exchange.