Age of Strategy Forums

The Mermen are an excellent feature for the Elves, one I have long awaited. Unfortunately I feel as though they are underpowered. Mermen live in the water and are unable to come on land. I feel they should have an advantage in the sea against other sea units including merlocks. Right now, merlocks are much stronger than mermen. Merlocks however are anphibious, more like jack of all trades while mermen are not. In this sense, I would prefer mermen are strong vs sea units and weak against land units while merlocks are average vs both land and sea.
Perhaps raise the build time of mermen by 1 and give them an advantage against all sea units?

Ideas?

We are planning to add a tech to give the merman a ranged skill (elves are less strong in melee than orcs) and take into account that you already have the support from elven archers with a range of 9 and 9 damages (elf tech pack is already in the dev version) and that the merlocks requires 2 upgrades (elves have got a good advantage in the early game). The merman is basically an anti-ship unit born to fight against human ships in open sea, so if its bonus against ship is low we can raise that (it should be able to kill more or less all ships in 2 attacks).

A ranged attack would be good for balancing out the Mermans strengths however it should be noted that the Merman is not an elf, he is his own spicies and has allied himself with the elves. Perhaps an upgrade for the Merman could be suggested, or having less of a disadvantage against other sea creatures. The Merman is afterall the Elves proper sea unit.
I still believe the Merlocks are overpowered. They are as strong as Ork warriors on land and stronger than any other sea unit per cost. Would it be possible to increase their cost or reduce their strength?

I tested in some games and they are balanced. Like the orcs warrior they ate strong but they suffer a lot against ranged units and sea units, and also they require upgrades.

I suggest you to test the game after the elven teck pack is in. If merlocks are stronger than mermen (that aren't elves but they also are part of a race that is generally weaker than orcs) we can compensate in other ways.

With units with a range of 9 merlocks are hardly a problem and mermen are more than enough to keep some control over the sea.

I'll open a topic about their ranged skill tough, that should be more in line with the race and should compensate for their inability to reach land.

Another potential skill could be a legged form that can allow them to walk the land like merlocks.