Starting Units in Beta3

[KGB]

I'm on my 3rd game now and I have a couple of observations about the new starting units concept. Twice I've bought a hero on turn 1 and once I didn't and used the extra gold for better production.

Things I like:
I like the idea of getting multiple units (3 or 4) to start.
I like the idea of getting initial gold to buy a hero/production as the player wishes.

Things I don't like:
I don't like the idea that it's really biased towards spending 500 on the hero (because you get an extra unit - the hero and because Piranha raised the minimum gold cost for a hero from 200 to 350).
I don't like the idea that the amount of gold left to spend virtually always is used to buy the best available unit (Giant in a medium income and Pegasi in a high income).

So instead what I'd propose is that you:

1) Set the initial number of armies for all players to 1-2 instead of 3-4.
2) Allow the player to buy the hero for 500.
3) Allow the player to buy production. With the difference being that each production unit you buy immediately adds 1 unit of that type to your initial starting armies.

Now you can potentially buy 4 extra units on turn 1 if instead of spending your gold on the best unit (Giant or Pegasi) you buy a bunch of low/average units . You also are now not penalized for not buying a hero on turn 1 because if you instead buy a Pegasi (as I did) you'd get a Pegasi on turn 1 instead of having to wait till turn 4 to get your first Pegasi.

I think this will produce a much bigger variation of initial spending of the gold. Because right now it's pretty much going to be Hero + Giant (Hv Calv) production on medium incomes and Hero + Pegasi production on high incomes.

KGB

[Pillager]

I quite like these ideas, I think they might work nicely....

But, you have to be careful that you don't end up penalizing those who choose to take a hero, by favoring large starting armies.

I suppose 500 doesn't go that far when buying production (a light cav and heavy inf), so it seems like a hero will still be a solid choice.

Buying a starting hero also opens the door for unbalanced heroes....do you take the crappy cheap hero or the expensive powerhouse? At the moment the dreadknight seems to be a cut above (+1 attack is so very useful) and might rate a higher purchase cost.

[SnotlinG]

Good feedback.
We wont add this to Beta3 though as the launch is imminent

What we have done is randomize starting res to between 500 and 1700 in all games. This should open up for a little bit more of variety until we can put some real work on the starting units area