Hey guys Spirit Of The Law here, in this video
we're going to take a look at this little box. All-techs you say? Does that mean lasers,
transporters, flying cars, GMO's, Nuclear bombs, Portal guns and all other
technologies that can possibly be conceived of by man, woman or Wookie?
Unfortunately, no it just means all the medieval technology is already present in the game
which you played with hundreds of times already.
Except for a bunch that get taken away. More accurately
we should rename it - 'some techs'
objectively more than you normally have access to, but also missing some of your favorites and probably makes your civilization weaker,
but so is everyone else's so everything is more balanced than ever... Or is it..? this video is all about answering that last question.
Let's check it out!
To state it simply,
'all-techs' gives you access to the entire
tech tree. From Eagle Warrior and Paladin to Bombard Tower and
Battle Elephant. That probably sounds pretty good to people who like to mix and match with different counters,
though on the other hand it comes with the criticism that it makes all of the civilizations start to feel exactly the same.
Adding to that and to prevent things from getting out of hand, It's balanced by taking away all civ
bonuses and team units like the Genitour,
Imperial skirmisher and Condottiero. That means no economy, military or team bonuses of any kind.
That might sound like all civilizations are identical and picking a civilization is just choosing your favorite
architecture and voice acting. That's not quite the case though
and it's still worth thinking about your choice.
The first reason is your scout is based on your civilization. As I've talked about before, the Eagle scout has some
significant upside in terms of 'line-of-sight' and scouting rate, so the American civilizations automatically have an early advantage.
Another factor in a way is that (the) Incas also still get their slinger instead of the hand cannoneer. Remember the slinger is available one age
earlier, costs less and has more accuracy than the hand cannoneer. Though it also has a lower based attack
Likewise, the Spanish still have their Missionary, the Vikings have the longboat and Koreans have their turtle ship. Probably the most intriguing one like
that though, is the Indians still get the Imperial Camel at the stable.
They're missing the +1 camel armor and extra attack against buildings,
so in most cases you'll probably stick with the Paladin.
But, it never hurts to have the option of an extra upgrade. The most blatantly unfair
advantage for a civilization that I've found, isn't actually a unit though. It's the fact that the Portuguese still get the Feitoria.
If the 'all-techs' game mode ever picks up in popularity,
I'm pretty sure this one's going to get patched out relatively quickly.
Of course, ignoring those civilizations that managed to hold on to a special unit or building, the main difference between the
civilizations is that even though we use unique [techs] and bonuses are gone,
unique units are still there. This opens up the possibility for
speculation about how a full tech tree is going to interact with each of those units. For example,
let's think about the Britons. This means you now have to face Elite Longbowman with thumb ring. The big catch
is that they don't have their 12 range anymore, since that was thanks to a civ bonus.
They actually revert to having a generic nine range,
basically becoming a slightly better version of an Arbalest. Don't feel too badly for them, they've had this coming for a long time.
Just ask the Siege Onagers!
It's a similar sort of thing for other civilizations like (the) Franks and their Paladins. They do get Bloodlines,
but they also lose their extra HP bonus. So they actually get worse and are now identical to everyone else's.
Aztecs also now get Halberdier, but without their +4 infantry attack. There's lots of other examples,
but I think you get the idea.
Really, we should think about it in terms of who has the best unique unit that doesn't rely on a civ bonus. Now
that's still an interesting question. The Persians come to mind since the War Elephant is technically the
strongest unique unit by stats. It loses a bit of speed from lacking a civ bonus,
but you can pick up 'heresy' now, undermining their intended weakness to Monks.
The Byzantines are an interesting one since they normally lack 'Blast Furnace' and 'Bloodlines', so their Cataphracts arguably
improve from 'all-techs', though it's not clear-cut
since it's at the cost of their trample damage. Both 1v1 and in larger, more compact groups, the 'all-techs'
Cataphract wins, even without trample damage. Bear in mind the upgrades are also much cheaper, giving you a better unit for less. On
the other hand some great unique units suddenly become... not so great. Mangudai lose
their faster attack bonus from being cavalry archers, Huskarls
can't be built at super speed from barracks, Plumed Archers are significantly more expensive and Janissaries and Berserks both lose a lot of HP.
Overall I see the majority of unique units
take a bit of a hit in some way. Considering they're often the target of unique techs and benefit from bonuses in one way or another.
In the end, I think we can say that some all-tech civilizations are better than others, but overall the differences between
civilizations is minimized. Any comparison between
civilizations just becomes a comparison between unique units or the result of
oversights about a unit or building that wasn't taken away. In my mind the biggest winners from all-techs are; Portuguese,
Saracens, Spanish and (the) Incas. The biggest losers from all-techs are (any)
civilizations that lose their great bonuses that normally put them in the top tier. You can consider the Huns or (the) Aztecs in that group. Other
civilizations that lose out are ones with a particularly great
combination of their unique unit and strong economy. Like the Mayans or the Mongols. One last thing about all-techs
I want to mention is
I was playing around in a scenario editor and saw the full tech tree option. If you enable that option, you actually keep the bonuses
and
(the) expanded tech tree. Which means you can get those fabled Frank Paladin's with Bloodlines, or any of those other overpowered unique unit combinations
I speculated on earlier.
If you save a scenario with that feature enabled, it even works without selecting all-techs in the game settings.
Personally, I find it interesting how rarely people play [all-techs]. Sometimes
it's nice to mix things up and see unusual combinations, like
Eagle Warriors and Hand Cannons, even if it's just for novelties sake. What I'm trying to say is,
consider trying an [all-techs] game next time you're online.
That's all for this one. Thanks for watching guys, I'll see you next time!