User blog:Papermaniac/Posible bonuses for Age of Empires II still not used by any civilization part 2: Monks and Defenses

In this part, I will analize posible bonuses that are still absent in the game regarding Walls, Towers, Castles, Monks, miscellaneous bonuses and bonuses to respective upgrades that benefits the Defensive strategies. I will also analize proyectile bonuses here since those apply to tower and castles and not just archers however I will include notes on how these proyectile related bonuses may affect Archers an some other ranged units as well. In part 1 I already covered the economic bonuses, many of them having a posible impact on the defense of an hypothetic civilization, ( like stone gathering related bonuses, resilience for economic units, Repairing etc.). Bonuses regarding counter-units such as the spearmen line, Skirmishers etc. which in some way can count as defensive bonuses, will be covered on the thirth part of this blogs as part of the military bonuses.

I invite to all the readers of these blog posts to comment and discuss this ideas and speculate about posible future civilizations not just for age of Empires II but also for the other games of the Series

August 30 Update: Since Dawn of the Dukes is now here and there were several big changes to some civilizations; several bonuses are now eliminated from the list, while some new others based on the mechanics the new expantion has bringed to us are now added.

Bonuses Regarding Monks, Monk related technologies and Monasteries

1. Being enabled to create monasteries in Feudal age and train monks, but they cannot pick relics until Castle Age and their Conversion ability is slower than in Castle age: We have seen two instances of getting a unit earlier than normal, once with the Cuman Rams and once with the Burgundian Cavalier; this is the exact same concept applied to the monk; but unlike the other units Monks as they are can be an overpowered Feudal Age unit; so in order to balance this out any civilization that may have a bonus like this should not be enabled to pick a relic on Feudal age and probably the monk should also be weaker in Feudal age in some way. Of course monks in Feudal Age can still be countered by Eagle Warrior or Scout Cavalry but it also provides and advantage for healing units and performing a monk rush earlier than normal.
2. Having many Monastery technologies an Age earlier: Considering the previous bonus it is posible that an hypothetic civilization in addition to earlier monks may also be enabled to research some Monastery technologies an age earlier than normal. Posibly if a civilization can make monasteries on feudal age it may also be enabled to research Herbal Medicine which increases healing inside buildings and Sanctity which just adds some hitpoints to the monks so it does not increases the convertion performance of the monk just its resilience. The other Castle Age Monastery technologies should still be researched on Castle Age, and then some ( or all) Imperial Age Monastery technologies may be enabled at Castle Age.
3. Having a Ship that perform Conversions: This can be made for a unique ship, probably instead of saying they " convert" its ability should be named "Boarding"
4. Monks move faster: Fervor currently is the only way to have monks that move faster than normal , but probably having monks that move 15% faster + fervor enabled to research can be a nice bonus; of course we already have the Spanish Missionaries which is a unique unit that can count as a faster monk and it can also be considered a " cavalry monk"; but we can imagine a normal monk in the middle ground in this regard. Also Missionaries have less range than monks asnd have more hitpoints than normal monks so a normal monk with faster move speed will not be the exact same as a missionary
5. Making the Spanish Missionary a semiunique unit for other civilizations and apply bonuses to it: The idea of semiunique units existed since the Conquerors with the Eagle Warriors, and as we have seen each civilization that has a semiunique unit has a technology or bonus that makes it slightly different from the others; probably the Missionary can become a semiunique and of course that could mean that the best converter Missionary should be the Spanish one because of inquisition.
6. Monks with better conversion range. Teuton Monks have already better healing range which enhances its role as a support unit; but , What about a possible civilization that their monks haves a better Convertion range so it can be better for a Monk Rush? A similar bonus existed in Age of Empires I with the Egyptians which ther Priests have +3 conversion range. Maybe a civilization with more conversion range for their monks in AOE II should state the bonus like this " monks have +1 conversion range in Castle age and +1 in Imperial ( for +2 total)" and still need to research Block Printing to get a maximum of +5 range.
7. Monks that regenerate, This may seem useless at first glance since Monks can heal ech other; but a bonus like this may reduce significantly Monk microing after performing conversions against small armies reducing the posibility of monks to be killed while retreating or after depleting their faith.
8. Monks Faith only drops 50% instead of 100% after a conversion: Dark Paladin X proposed a bonus like this for his Tibetan civilization concept made as a unique technology. This is an interesting posibility since what that means is that each monk can immediately be used for converting a second unit after converting a unit. This is of course a pretty agressive possible bonus.
9. Monks are much cheaper: Portuguese have already Monks that are 20% cheaper out of their generalistic bonus of " all units cost less gold" however it can still be possible to have even cheaper monks since the Portuguese bonus is a generalistic bonus and not an specialized one. Perhaps having a civilization which its monks are 30% cheaper in Castle age and 40% in Imperial or so.
10. Monks regain faith faster. Of course we already have Illumination qhich is the technology that does athat but a bonus that furthers this up could be usefeul.
11. Monks are improved in some way for each relic gathered ( possibly 4 relics at maximum). This idea could be similar to the Lithuanian Cavalry bonus applied to the conversion, healing or the other traits the monk has. It also is a synergical bonus since in this case what you need to improve monks is another monk that goes for the relic.
12. Each new monastery spams one healer unit ( or one monk). If applied to monks as they are this can be potentially overpowered since monks costs 100 gold each and monasteries just 175 wood and monks are enabled to take relics heal and convert; but supposing there is a civilization with a unique unit which only heals ( probably healing better than a monk) this bonus should be considered.
13. Monks are created much faster: Lithuanian team bonus makes monasteries to work 20% faster but it applies to technologies and the monk, maybe a good bonus for a Monk focused civilization could be to be enabled to create monks 50% faster or probably more.
14. Having a set of monastery technologies for free: Teutons since Definitive Edition already have Herbal Medicine for free which is a technology that is not related to monks but makes healing inside buildings better. This idea can be applied to the other MonasteryTechnologies but of course not all the technologies at the same time on the same civilization since that can be overpowered. Probably a civilization with free Atonement and Redemtion can be interesting since their monks will be ready to convert Buildings, Siege Units and other monks as soon as they are created, another interestin option could be a civilization with free Faith since that is a very costly technology that aids on defending against monks, or a civilization with free Heresy.
15. Monasteries have an area of effect that heals friendly units: Many people may think this can't be programmed and doesn't make sense, but they are incorrect since there is another game that has this kind of area mechanics and uses the Genie Engine ( Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds); also it makes sense to have a bonus like this since in medieval era sometimes monasteries served as hospitals and medieval medicine was studied by priests, Imams and monks. Another option that can adress a similar idea for representing how early hospitals were in many places monasteries is to have monasteries that can garrison / ungarrison units like the Town centers, Towers and Castles and giving the building a good healing ratio better than the other buildings offer.
16. Monks more resistant to Bonus Damage: This can be a good idea as a unique technology and can be used for making monks more resilients against its natural counters : Eagle Warriors and Light Cavalry. Sicilian Monks already are 50% more resistance against the bonus damage of these units but we can imagine a civilization which their monks are even better on this.
17. Monks with much better pierce Armor: One way to counter monks is with ranged units, Slavs Orthodoxy technology already gives monks +3 pierce armor ( along with +3 melee armor) but it is possible to imagine a civilization in which their monks have Huskarl like armor but still be very weak against melee attacks
18. Monks enabled to have an attack while recovering faith after a conversion: this bonus may enable monks to defend a bit better but the attack they should get just need to be suffitient and not a big amount of damage.
19. Monks enabled to be created at another building; posibly the Castle, University and Town center: in a case like this the player still need to create the Monastery for the technologies and hold relics.
20. University can hold Relics: This can be a minor bonus probably good for a Team Bonus
21. Eah technology researched brings a monk: Monks are a costly unit that takes 100 gold, Monastery technologies also costs gold so this can be a great monk bonus that may enable to save a lot of gold if the players goes heavily on monks. This bonus has been proposed by Krakenmeister in his Civilization Builder page.

General and miscellaneous defensive bonuses

1. Buildings autorepair : The idea of autorepairing buildings already exist in Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III. In Age of Empires II an autorepair bonus might be something like "Stone Walls, Towers and Castles slowly regenerate hitpoints for free" or can be implemented as a unique technology. Of course in order for this bonus to be advantageous it should not take any resource unlike villager repairing but the regeneration of the building should be much slower than if repairing normally.
2. Buildings have more Armor: In Age of Empires II resilience against attacks comes in two forms, the first is by having a high amount of hit points and the other is having armor that reduces de amount of damage an item receives from an attacking source. Regarding buildings Byzantines already have the Hit point approach of making the buildings more resilient by giving them more hitpoints, but it is posible to have another approach to this by giving buildings more building armor, more melee armor or more pierce armor than they normaly have; or giving them bonus armor in these armor classes: Building , Standard Building or Stone Defense.
3. Houses and military buildings ( Barracks Archery ranges and Stables) can pack/unpack: This can be an offensive bonus since the player may create their barracks, archery ranges or stables near their Town Center and then pack and send those to the frontlines for attacking an opponent; but this may also be a very defensive bonus since the player may also be enabled to rearrange the position of these buildings in order to wall itself ( and this is why houses may also be considered for a bonus like this). Of course the buildings should not be enabled to train units while packed. This kind of bonus may be ok for a " nomadic" style civilization.
4. Town centers are enabled to rapidly train a badge of a special defensive units that slowly lose hitpoints and cannot be healed but can be called more than once: This idea already exist in Age of Empires III with the Militiamen and in age of Mythology with the Egyptian Mercenaries, but still can be made something similar for Age of Empires II; posibly the bonus should be stated like " Town centers can train badges of militiamen as a rechargable ability for X cost". Much like the treason technology of the regicide game mode it should be like a technology you can research more than once but unlike treason this button should have a timer like the monk conversion or the coustilier ability so the player can't abuse it. We can see the Sicilian First Crusade technology a variation of this idea but it is only one time use, it gives a muster to 5 town centers at once use and of course the Serjeants don't lose hit points so it is not exactly the same.
5. Military units being enabled to repair Buildings. Sicilian Serjeants can already repair Donjons but this repairing ability is restricted to only the Donjon. It can be an interesting bonus if for example the Militia line could be enabled to repair Walls, Towers and Barracks.
6. Being enabled to create buildings on certain water terrains and all shallow type terrain with some types of ships: I already used this concept largely in my Micronesian civilization concept. To many this may sound farfetch but it isn't since in the middle ages several cultures and civilizations around the world learned how to build artificial islands ( like the chinampas in Tenochtitlan), how to gain terrain to the sea ( like the Polders and Dikes in Holland) or to build on top of a reef or a mangrove ( like in many parts of Oceania and South East Asia) or transform a sinking city into a functional city with water canals ( like that happened to Venice). Of course a bonus like this would be much more useful for island type maps, and we can throw here the posibility of make the Sea Walls and Sea Towers unique buildings for a civilization in which buildings on water fit with them ( like Micronesians since they built the City of Nan Madol that was made on top of a reef). It can be a very defensive bonus for water maps since the player may be enabled to shelter their navy and fishing ships from attacks.
7. Proyectiles travel faster: This idea has ben proposed several times on mods. The proyectiles are programmed like a unit in the game so technically arrows, bullets, spears etc. have their own movement speed. A civilization which haves faster moving arrows for example could be a very potent archer and defensive civilization sice this means better accuracy for archers, castles and towers without having to research accuracy technologies and even with those technologies the target will be killed faster.. If applied to other proyectiles this type of bonus could largely benefits navy and siege.
8. Military buildings such as Archery Ranges, Barracks and Stables being enabled to Garrison / ungarrison units, and gain an attack if Archers or villagers are garrisoned: The Khmer already have a similar bonus houses can garrison 5 villagers each but house unabled to attack, Teutons as well can garrison more units on towers and town centers; still it is possible to imagine a civilization that can garrison its units on military buildings. A bonus like this may be complemented by giving some attack to these buildings if Archers or Villagers are garrisoned inside since they cost more than houses but of course their number of Arrows and its attack should be lower and with less range than the attack of Towers and Town centers since these buildings still only costs wood. This Idea may also be applied to the Dock and in this regard only the Galley line may add attack the dock but its attack should also be weaker than the attack of a Malay harbor, the advantage here is that this effect can be available in Feudal Age and without using a unique technology.
9. All buildings have more Line of sight ( +1 probably +2 at most) along having Town Watch and Town Patrol: This can be a minor base bonus, we already have similar bonuses applied to specific buildings like the Team bonuses of the Malay and Ethiopians. Being enabled to see earlier the opponent army is always useful for preparing your own army.
10. Skirmishers increase the number of arrows if Garrisoned on a Tower or a Castle: Among the Archer units the Skirmisher is the only one that does not provide arrows when garrisoned, since it is cheaper than Archers of course the number of extra arrows they may provide should be lower in order to keep some balance. This idea may also be applied to the Eagle Warriors since the only civilization that can make Infantry to shoot Arrows inside buildings ( the Teutons) don't have acces to the Eagle Warrior. This idea may also be applied perhaps to the Scorpion by having a bonus like " Scorpions can garrison on Castles and increases the number of Arrows". Another posibility is to just having a bonus like " archers garrisoned on a building add more arrows than normal".
11. Buildings deal 50% more damage if placed on elevation: This is a concept similar to the Tatar elevation bonus but applied at buildings, it may be a good situational bonus specially for maps that have lots of cliffs and elevations
12. Enemy Units on lower terrain deal 50% less damage to your buildings: the way Terrain bonus damage works in the game may enable for a bonus like this which can be very useful on maps with lots of elevations and cliffs
13. Town Centers, Towers and Castles deal extra bonus damage: Before Definitive edition Persians had Boling Oil as a technology that enabled Castles to deal a +9 bonus damage to rams, since this bonus attack was not very useful and very specific it was removed in favor of Kamandaran. However what if a civilization states something like " buildings deal bonus damage against all siege units" that could be a real useful Bonus if the bonus damage output is sufficient for better defend against siege units in general.
14. Buildings with an effect area that increases armor: Like with the Monastery idea mentioned in the previous section in point 16, this can be actually programed since Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds did something similar. It may sound Farfetch but there are ways to justify this kind of bonus by things like " these people loved their city so much that they resisted a siege for years" or other things like this.
15. Town Centers fire faster: we already have Town centers with more range, with more Attack, Town centers that fires more arrows but still there is room for a Town center that fires faster.
16. Units heals faster on buildings while having Herbal Medicine: this may enable to recover faster after a battle.

Technology Related Defensive Bonuses

1. University enabled at Feudal Age, several University technologies one age earlier: The idea of having earlier improvements may be applied to the university technologies as well as enabling the university earlier but for make a bonus like this balanced the earlier improvements should be limited to a set of them, for example having Masonry, Ballistics and Treadmill Crane at Feudal Age; and Arrowslits and Architecture at Castle Age. The idea of earlier improvements may also be used for some other defensive technologies outside of the university like Hoardings for example which is available at the Castle
2. Fletching, Bodkin Arrow and Bracer are free. These three blacksmith technologies of course benefits both Archers and Stone Defense Buildings so any civilization that may have this bonus could be a very potent Archer and Defensive civilization enabled to pull out Feudal Age Archer rushes or Tower Rushes.
3. A set of Univeristy Technologies are free: Turks already have Chemistry for free, Teutons have Murder Holes for free and Koreans have Tower upgrades for free. However this idea can still be applied to technologies like Masonry, Architecture, Heated Shot, Arrowslits, the Fortified Wall improvement, Ballistics, Siege Engineers and Treadmill Crane. While not being a University upgrade Hoardings is a defensive technology and the idea of having it for free is also still available.
4. Having better versions of defensive Technologies. The Sicilians have a similar concept applied to a set of economic technologies ( farm upgrades) probably this idea may be applied to technologies such as Masonry and Architecture for example by increasing its effects a bit.

Walls

1. Having the Stone Wall Available at Dark Age: This can be an overpowered bonus however if this bonus states something like " stone Wall available since Dark Age but builts slower at Dark Age" it may be a good defensive bonus. In the case of its upgrade the Fortified Wall it should still be a Castle age upgrade but however maybe the civilization who has earlier stone Walls may also have the Fortified Wall upgrade for free or at least cheaper than other civilizations.
2. Having a third stage of the Stone Wall in Imperial Age. This can be implemented via Unique Technology, whatever the case a Third stage of the Stone Walls can enable a player to defend heavily a location
3. Being enabled to upgrade Palisades to Fortified Palisades. The Closest thing to this bonus currently is the Cuman Team Bonus, however it is possible to think to have Fortified palisades at Feudal Age and probably having the improvement at the Mill or the Town Center.
4. Walls reducing the damage of player units and/ or buildings behind them: Dawn of the Dukes bringed us the Hussite Wagon which is a unit that haves the ability of reducing the damage of the player units behind the Hussite Wagon by 50% within a certain range. Maybe this mechanic can be applied to walls as a bonus or unique technology, and maybe a bonus like this for walls may apply its effect on buildings and not just units.

Towers

1. Outposts don't cost stone: The outpost is one of the least used buildings on the game since its only purpose is to provide Line of sight and it costs 5 stone each and 25 wood. this bonus may be good for a minor Team bonus and may enable a player to increase the sight he or she has on the map.
2. Outposts enabled to garrison units and shoot arrows when Archers or villagers are inside: Of course the attack should be much weaker than a tower with much less range
3. Towers with bonus attack vs different types of units: For example giving them attack against cavalry may make cavalry raids more difficult
4. Being Enabled to create the Fire Tower: The Fire Tower is currently an unconstructable building available at the scenario editor that shoots fire like the Fire Galley, maybe if the price for building it is right, and with some tweaks to its stats it can be a good bonus to being enabled to create them. Similarly this idea can be applied to the Fortified Tower ( Formerly Sea fortification) but this is unlikely because this Tower is pretty similar to the regular tower line but with upsides and downsides: more range but less hit points and slower fire rate than a Keep.
5. Having the Keep Upgrade at Castle Age: Having early Keeps may aid in Castle Age defense. why only having the last tower upgrade earlier and not the other towers? because the Tower Rush has being an issue since Age of Kings so having earlier Watch Towers or Guard Towers is too overpowered, at least for having the Keep in Castle age you will still have to make a university and research two upgrades.
6. Having a fourth stage of the Tower line: Maybe for this a fourth stage tower should have more hit points than the keep but not as much as a byzantine keep, more range than the keep but less range than a Korean Keep and overal better stats
7. Towers cost less Stone and Wood at the same time ( but 10% less in both resources and the discount increases with each age): Incas have a 15% stone discount in all buildings, Malians have 15% wood discount in all buildings, both bonuses are descentralized so it is posible to imagine a civilization that have overall cheaper towers maybe even including the Bombard Tower in this which costs Stone and Gold, probably the bonus should state "Towers costs 10%/15%/20% less in Feudal/Castle/Imperial ages. of course a civilization with this bonus may be enabled to pull off tower rushes and later in the game it may use this bonus for gaining map control by placing cheaper keeps and Bombard Towers.
8. Bombard Tower with better Firing Rate: currently Celts have a Unique technology that increases the Towers and Castles firing rate but they can't access Bombard Towers so this can be a nice bonus
9. Having an Upgrade for an Imperial Bombard Tower: The Tower of course should be overall better than its predecessor.

Castles

1. Having an upgrade for an overall better castle: Teutons have Castles with more range due to Crenellations, Celts Have Castles with Better firing rate due to Stronghold, Byzantines have castles with More Hit Points; but what about a bonus that may make an " Imperial Castle". Of course this concept should be for a Unique Technology; posibly the resulting "Imperial" castle should have better attack with +1 range so the Teuton castle should still be the longest ranged castle; Better Hit Points than normal but less than a Byzantine Castle, a bit more building armor and why not more garrison room and a bit better workrate but not as much as having Kasbah.
2. Enemy Castle locations revealed to the player in a similar fashion enemy first Town centers are revealed to vietnamese: not much of a " caslte bonus" but still castle related bonus, a bonus like this may help to better raid in Middle to late game by avoiding Arrow Fire from castles.
3. Castles enabled to Garrison /Ungarrison Siege units
4. Castles deal heavy bonus damage vs buildings: This bonus can be great for Castle drops or for defending against one.
5. Castles having a lot more Hitpoints while having Hoardings: Byzantine building Hitpoint bonus is generalistic, so considering that there is room for having a more specialist bonus regarding hitpoints applied to Castles.