Bohemians were perfectly nerfed (AoE2) 

The Monestary thing reminds me of Goths in 2020: April: 2020 Free Loom November 2020: downgrading it to Instant Loom instead, still costing normal resources A pinch of resource saved early game, can make a mountain of a advantage.

I havent been playing aoe for 4 or 5 years now, but still watching SOTL's vids. Can't explain, but still, I''m here enjoying good stuff.

That's a really impressive nerf, and worth covering in a video. Too many games try balance changes and totally, categorically miss the mark entirely, making the situation worse or throwing it down the line by over-nerfing.

A 2D visualization putting closed map win rate and open map win rate of different civ onto two axes could be nice as well, I think

Something that has consistently impressed me with AoE2 over the decades is how seemingly tiny, insignificant differences can mean a world of difference, as those differences are magnified by how the game is set up, and affected by individual player skill. I don't think I'd ever notice the Houfnice change, but I'm not really a very skilled player. I imagine in the hands of people who know what they're doing, it's enough to be noticeable, but not so hugely that it's disappointing.

The monastery cost nerf makes a lot of sense since the cheaper cost really stacked if you wanted to build many monasteries. Now it’s not so easy to slap down 4+ monasteries and flood our monks.

Houfnice is a crazy unit. When you increase or decrease multiple aspects of a unit's capabilities, there is a multiplicative effect. The Houfnice is basically twice as good as a regular bombard cannon despite each individual buff being smaller.

I don't know if Spirit will read this, but it would be cool to have a short video explaining who has the best bombard cannons, since there are a couple of civs that have specific bonuses to the unit. Example: Turks, Burgundians, Hindustanis, Spanish, Portuguese, Bohemians...

The most important thing is, that Houfnice still looks awesome!

I think u forgot to point one crucial thing in your "arena bonuses part of the video". Spearmen line with bonus damage are incredibly good to protect monks and houfnice.

As a Poles player I am sweating buckets.

One of the few creators I click immediately no matter what. A little age of empires statistical analysis is like morning meditation for me lol

It's awesome that the devs managed to nerf a specific playstyle without affecting another. That's usually really hard to do. Well done.

Please continue the "Aoe2 vs history" series as well

I used to main them hard before the nerf, it was super small but noticeable, castle into instant 2 monasteries and castle drop was insane lul

The Moral of the Story : DONT GET INTO TOP 10 CIV OR YOU WILL GET NERF

*Pole player smiles while blinking frequently with “HELP ME” written on their eyelids.*

As a fan of modern RTS games, I looooved the Bohemians, cause they had 'tanks'! And the destructive power of the Houfnice was mind-blowing! And the Jan-Siska campaing was amazing too! But I also tend to steer away from gunpowder in general, since I like to also keep my medieval games... well, medieval! Arrows and swords ftw! But the Bohemians came as favourites for me in a second, and I can respect the nerfs. I usually play with friends, not online 1v1, but I could tell how absurdly strong the Bohemians were... In Black Forest I would just force a fight in a chokepoint with the wagon-tanks-thingies... And then wipe ALL the enemy army with Houfnice fire... And then push for the win easily. So competitively, a solid nerf, which I find okay. But I'm glad the nerf was just, and not civ-crushing

Ok so Bohemians couldn't take Pole position Fine...

Spirit of the Law is the only channel with videos that i instantly like before i've even watched

I guess the chinese Zhuge crossbow (Chu Ko nu) could do this, but i wonder how increasing the hussite wagons attack spead would affect the secondry projectiles, does the reload time only start once the final projectile has been fired, if so, does that give it a limit to it's rate of fire if it could be affected by thumb ring's attack speed bonus, iirc you found that the tower only starts the timer till it's next attack when the final arrow is shot, but does that also happen with the chu ko nu and the hussite wagon? Hell, i think it could be an interesting video idea to look at what tech and/or units have odd or unexpected interactions with the 256x mod/cheat. Hussite wagon may need to be edited in the editor to check if it's secondary projectiles will put a hard limit on it's rate of fire though.

I never play online but find these analysis eps fascinating

That thumbnail is just pure perfection

Possible nerfs I can think of for the Poles would be to either increase the cost and training time of the Obuch, or have the magnitude of Szlachta Privileges bumped down to -50% or even 40% other than that nerfing other bonuses might make them too weak perhaps...

When you do the Bohemian Civ Overview, I know you're gonna shout out to Squarespace again by claiming that Bohemians are arguably the best civ to use Box Formation. Hussite Wagons work better with that formation than any other unit, though that doesn't mean it's practical to do so.

NIce to see some game devs know how to balance their game

More stuff for the future, Can you update the civ overviews which are severly outdates like the turks?

hey Spirit 2nd time asking for a vid on "who has the best champions" love ur work. also a slav civ overview update?!?!?!?

What is so impressive about this is that they managed to nerf only a very small portion of their gameplay, specifically the one that was too strong, without touching the rest.

Finally, been waiting for this one lol

Plus basicaly free monastery upgrades means that e.g. coversion resistance saves a lot of gold you can spend on better things

In the standard arena Meta, you will drop 1-2 monestaries and 1-2 TCs as soon as hitting castle age. the extra 100 wood basically allows you to drop a TC earlier, its basically like the Britons cheaper TC Bonus in that situation. When hoitting castle age, you usually want rto have and spend as much wood as possible, so yes, this is quite big

There was a video where one civilizations stats (if forgot if it was part of a list or if the video was about one civilization) was largely driven by one person. Which video was that?

Just wondering about the name of your channel, is it a reference to Montesquieu?

@Spirit Of The Law My friends and myself are at battle. Which is the fastest creating unit? Can you make?

ok man, I gotta be real with you this vid gets an instant thumbs-up for that thumbnail alone peace

Well made, spirit.

Love this!

Hey Spirit, how do you know it is not just 'regresssion to the mean'?

I have a feeling the free gold from polish stone mining is going to be drastically cut, perhaps by half. I think it would make more sense if the bonus were reversed, getting 25% free stone from gold mining. You will obviously find lots of stone if you are mining for gold, but you might not find any gold if you are mining for stone.

Have you ever played Rise of Nations? I've always been interested in your opinions on AoE2 Adjacent games.

2:30 What were the stats for their win rates in april alone? Were they about the same as the average since november?

Spirit, How do you determine the error bars? I thought the win-rate was a fully certain number.

But how do you stop their wagons? I really want video on that. Mangonel doesn’t seem like an option - too much micro needed. Something practical

Please talk about the Caravanserai, unique's hindustanis building

I was watching de Wattan Arbalest comparison and I miss a little bit that serires were you compare the unique units with their basic counterparts PD: uwu

I would be happier if the wagons were like towers. Small attack of their own, but when garrisoned, much more. And when garrisoned by spears, resistant to cav

Poles: Are we next? Stalin and Hitler: No no no, not at all... ...

I haven't been able to put the "Spirit of the LaHire" out of my head.

Amazing video. To me, this says that the devs really know what they are doing! They not only saw bohemians overperforming but were also capable of understanding the reasons.

I’ve been watching for quite a while now, but where did the name Spirit of the Law come from?

I don't think it was so perfect. Bohemians are already pretty weak on ANYTHING but arena imo. This takes them from super niche but strong arena civ to meh arena civ and almost trash tier on anything else. Like many times before, they flew too close to the arena sky and now pay a heavy price everywhere for it.

Fantastic work, in conveying how well the Bohemians were nerfed. I'm under a rock, so what makes the Poles so incredibly good? o:

Your thumbnail almost made think this was a Hera video

Too but I really love the civ alot but at least I don't have to experience the nerf until a couple of more months to come

Make a video about Castle Age balance for all the civs.

interesting love the videos

Follow up: Is the Houfnice upgrade worth it? :)

Hey, I have an idea that although it is easy against the AI, in a multiplayer game it is not easy, can you manage to play with the Byzantines, and create a "Constantinople"? To make it difficult, I think the requirements would be to have a coast, a double layer of stone walls, and yes, also a wonder, to be the cherry on the cake.

They should have given the bohemians a compensatory buff for open maps.

hey, the first syllable in "houfnice" sounds kinda like 'hoe' (gardening implement) anyway keep up the good work 💯💯

I think the more important question is that can they still do a rhapsody?

What's the most average civ?

Roses are red Dora's monke is boots Help crusaders are attacking our trade routes!!

is that a ggplot2 default plot I see?! YAY!!

Has anyone ever told you that your videos glitch out on a Roku? It's only your newer vids that do this, and only on Roku for me. Weird

Black desert needs this lessons about "nerfs"

I mean they are really trash on water or open maps so I don't know if it was that bad that they were S tier on closed... but I understand that it was not fun to play against.

I love the Poles, but I don't really play Arena, if it shows up cool if not, eh whatever.

Unable to read comments but now I am interested in this French kiss.

The HOU in houfnice is read like HO not like HOO. Like in uncle Ho, but its uncle Ho-fnice.

Hey Guys, what is the website he is using for stats?

2:18 and also halbs dealing %25 more bonus damage

I don't even play AoE2DE anymore, but I love seeing how the nerf and buff changes in recent patches xD Guess poles next!

Any ideas why franks are not nerfed?

I miss the intro

I'm scared they will nerf Poles now without giving them something back 😅 making therm even worse on open maps

We'll done to deva

Houfnice !

3:27 isnt this the same graph?

I dont think you can tell all that much from win rate with civ picking being common on arena

make more AOE 2 online and make a vid out of it i love those

2:16 False!!! The Bombard Tower didnt Move Faster Maybe it is a Gulitch?

guess you could say it was their rhapsody

can someone explain to me why poles are that good on closed maps?

Is SOTL a Canadian?

I wonder why poles are the most popular civ on arena.

Im pretty sure howfnice destroyed trebs in 2 shots before nerf

❤️❤️

Those game mechanics are really realistic... ✅✅✅

Can't wait for Poles to get nerfed, hate those stupid Hussars and Obuchs.

I think the bigger question is how are Portuguese having such a high win rate?!!?! It has to be the Fetoria swap of gold and wood generation. 1.0 to 0.7.

I personally think that Urumi swordsman and Leitis should be nerfed like ignoring 50% Armor rather than ignoring full Armor .... I mean it just hurts when you spend upgrading your troops (like paladins , Cavaliers, Boyars, TKs etc) They cost tons of resources and countering them (Leitis especially) with fully "fragile" ranged army is still not good alternative.

Can you please change the thumbnail to say: “Why Bohemia’s nerf was perf”

Next stop “poles” 😌

Why portuguese are last in arena?

I really want to see Poland's castle age get nerfed while getting it's imperial age buffed. Poland is currently a consistent top 5 civ on many maps that end in castle age, but their design feels horribly flawed in imperial games imo. I'd like to see the privileges tech dramatically nerfed from 60 to 30 or 25%. As a trade off Poland gets the paladin in imperial. They're still missing the final armour so they aren't as strong as other Paladins but they still get a discount. Having the Paladin with its extra pierce armour and HP will make a big difference to Poland's cavalry against archers. I really don't care that I get cheap Cavaliers if they get shredded by enemy archers before they can even get close. The devs seem to be aware of the Poles late game weakness to archers as they added siege engineers to give their onagers more range as a counter to archers, but it doesn't fit Poles who historically are a more defensive than aggressive civ and in game the Poles are not a siege civ anyway. I'd also remove the final infantry armour to and add the halb to the Poles. It's crazy that Poles don't have halbs. They're literally the only civ in the game that doesn't have halbs but also doesn't get camels or a bonus to their pikemen. Instead the devs seemed to make the obuch this tanky all rounder unit with very high HP and armour. Removing the final infantry armour would nerf the obuch a little and would justify the halbs inclusion for a net positive imo. Oh, and give Poles hand cannoneers. It makes no sense that Lithuania has them and Poland doesn't, and it really shouldn't make any balance difference when Poles have perfectly usable Arbalests.

With all the new villager diversity with Dynasties of India coming out, would we be able to get a break down on who has the best sappers? You have armour, cost, speed, and even population space to talk about there.

This video is about "bohemians nerfed"

why do we have 2 comment sections now?