Age of Strategy Forums

I just want to know how it is justified that elves have by the far the weakest mounted scout - the one that is really almost completely useless in battle and is killed by all other mounted scouts if they happen to face off in an early skirmish. It is especially causing unbalance in a small game with 4 starting units, as for example your orc and human enemies start out with a unit that is really dangerous for your archers and workers (and later, druids and wizards) with their double strike while yours is just a scout. similar for undead.

I've seen now that the scout has a high dodge counter, but I think meele units are not really a serious target for light cavalry with low hp, low attack and no armour . What you want is archers, casters, workers, throwers.

Unicorn Town watch
64 HP
12 Attack
1 Action
6 Speed


Orc Scout
88 HP
15 Attack
2 Actions
6 Speed
(can be upgraded twice)

both have no armour and same sight.




And it can't be its speed, all other scouts execpt headless horseman and dwarf have the same speed but have more attack power.
Maybe one justification is the speed of other Elven units so you need less scouting from specialised scouts anyway.

Okay, the dwarf scout is the next in the line, with one speed less and 6 attack more. Dwarf generally is overtaken in early games in terms of expansion by all other races, but of course slow, expensive units are the dwarves' flavour.

Well, personally, I do not particularly use scouts for military operations, they are needed mainly to capture city centers at the beginning of the game, the main thing is that he does not die from 1 turn of the attack of an enemy scout (and he can die from a rider on a raptor), after which he help must be made by a spearman who will protect him. His life is also less than that of all elves.

Actually, I think in elves case the speed for this particular unit should be increased a little, anyway elves will later get a bit more 3 turn cavalry plus 1, 2 turn scout cav.

The 3 turn cav are:

Deer mount swordsman
Deer mount spearman
Deer mount archer

Meanwhile, the 2 turn one is the deer mount town watch.

The elven mounted units' speed is based on their mounts (all elven mounting unicorns, for example, get 6 speed).

The stats are decided using specific criterias (every mount add a certain amount of hp and attack).

The town watch should also be affected by the elven dodge techs.

Remember to compare it mostly to the human variant (human light cavalry) ad elves are meant to have some hp less of the human version (it is like that for every elven unit). In general humans are the one use as a reference for other units so always use them as a comparison.

human light cav has a bit of armour, more hp and two attacks.

but also elven cavalry have evasion

evasion doesn't kill enemies.

But it does help in living longer.

Unicorn town watch is mainly used to capture TC's similar to how the headless horseman is, fighting is only secondary.

Later elves will get an additional 3 more 3 turn cavalry too plus a 2 turn scout as well, that in mind this unit is fine in terms of stats.

Really? I find it to be just fine.

Unicorn town watch is supposed to be a scout and tc conquer unit, not a direct assault unit.
For that role if we will take in mind elven dodges and other unique specifics of elves (lembas and 6 techs to get bonus attack which results in +18 attack) this unit is fairly balanced. Yes early game he is outclassed by literally every light cav unit apart from dwarves in terms of attack and survivability. But elves have speedier archers with higher base range who can support this light cavalry better than similar units from other races.

It is always wrong to compare units with similar units based on raw stats and without taking in ming strengths and weaknesses of whole race.