Well, first of all, I agree that Isengard is possibly the strongest faction right now.
However, I don’t think the -50% upgrade discount is the problem with Isengard. Sure, having this much of a discount is very strong, but it kicks in rather late in the game (you need eco lvl 3 after all) and Isengard – as the most “industrial” faction in the game – is, imo, supposed to be very strong in the lg, but weaker in the eg and mg.
So I think the problem with Isengard it that it is so super strong in the mg already. This as a couple of reasons, I’d like to talk about:
First of all, the
minions of the white hand (even tho I don’t think they are the biggest problem):
This spell is very good in the mg (when you first use it) because of the sheer mass of units it gives you. Later in the game, once you opponent got a larger army and heroes/upgrades, it’s much weaker, but in the mg it is definitely very good.
To nerf it I would suggest to lower the number of riders in each battalion of the cav summon from 15 to 10. With this change the cavalry summon could still do a lot of damage vs an unprepared enemy, but at the same time the cav can be killed faster.
Also I think the building damage of the wildmen summon might be too high. This spell, combined with the Palantir, allows you to attack and most of the time destroy enemy outposts (such as the exile camp, Dol Guldur/Minas Morgul, Dunedain etc.) without much chances for your enemy to defend against it. If he doesn’t already have cavalry standing next to the outpost to charge the wildmen immediately they will most likely end up killing the outpost. This means I would like to see the wildmen’s damage bonus vs buildings decreased from 50% to maybe 30%-20%. In order to not nerf them too much I could imagine to change their damage type from SLASH to URUK, to make them a bit better when it come to fighting enemy units in the later game.
The other two points, which are, imo, mainly responsible for Isengard’s OP-ness, are the
very good eco combined with the very cost efficient units.
I think it’s safe to say that Isengard has the best economy in the game. The main reason for that are the four spellbook powers industry, devastation, the central spell and the summoned lumbermill, even tho the latter two aren’t used a lot.
Also Isengard’s units, the uruk hai, are probably the most cost efficient units in the game (except for Mordor orcs, I guess
). They are better than normal standard units (such as Gondor soldiers, thrallmasters or Lorien borderguards), but they don’t really cost that much more, thanks to the mineshaft discounts. In fact, pikemen and crossbows even cost less than Gondor spearmen and archers, once you got the mineshaft discount (and uruk swords only cot 10 more than Gondorsoldiers). Now you could of course argue that you can discount Gondor infantry as well (with the taxes and townhouses), but that’s not realistic in a competitive game. I have never seen anyone go for the townhouse discount for normal units, unless combined with Denethor (and even then I doubt it’s worth it).
These two points combined mean Isengard as a over-average economy and at the same time over-average cost efficient units. The logical consequence of this is, that Isengard is op.
Now there are a two ways we could try to fix this issue:
1) Nerf Isengard’s economy.
2) Nerf the cost efficiency of Uruk Hai.
Nerfing the economy would definitely make sense, but we also have to keep in mind that a strong economy is one of the core-aspects of Isengard as a faction. Just like Mordor has the free orcs and the centralised levelling system with Sauron, Isengard has a strong economy and cheap upgrades.
I personally would prefer the second option, nerf the Uruk’s efficiency.
Here’s my suggestion:
Uruk Hai (swords pikes and crossbows) should be made more expensive (400, 500 and 500), but at the same time get better fighting stats.
On paper Uruks (swords) are already 50% more expensive than their Gondor (or other faction) counterpart while only being slightly better stats-wise (Uruks have, as far as I know, 15% more hp and damage), but this difference in cost gets pretty much nullified by the discount. However, if Uruks were even more expensive on paper, then they also would be actually more expensive than Gondorunits, for example.
So to summarise my suggestions:
1) summoned cav battalions from 15 to 10 men each
2) summoned wildmen’s bonus damage vs building from 50% to 30% (+maybe changed damage type)
3) Uruk’s cost from 300, 400, 400 to 400, 500, 500
4) More hp and damage for uruks (if they now have 15% more than Gondorsoldiers I could imagine giving them 30% more than Gondorsoldiers)
What are your thoughts on that?
Best regards,
Seleukos