This is my interpretation of how Leitis are fundamentally flawed in their design in conjunction with their role within the Lithuanians tech tree. This is not so much a critique on their state of balance, my approach here is to argue that Leitis cannot work within the framework of the Lithuanian civ because they are ultimately redundant, and they would need a complete revamp to properly fit in.
What happens if your civ already specializes in a strong post imp standard unit, like paladin ? Well you can't simply design the UU as an improvement over the standard unit, as you would only be making an OP paladin. Instead, you give the civ a UU who has a vastly different role, be it Infantry, archer, cav archer or light cavalry.
Of the 8 civs who have access to FU paladin, 5 don't have a heavy cavalry UU, Huns have a discount version of paladins, and Persian war elephants are expensive to the point of being irrelevant. Outside of maybe Huns, none of these civs have to choose between going paladin or UU, as they each have vastly different roles.
That leaves us with only Lithuanians.
Leitis are, for all intents and purposes, a heavy cavalry UU. A higher damage but slightly less durable variant of paladin. Which means, a post imp Lithuanian player always has to choose between Leitis and Paladin. With both having such a close role and usage, odds are very high that one will overshadow the other.
Leitis is a unit whose twist is that it ignores melee armor, making it a high damage heavy cavalry. The problem however, is that the role of high damage heavy cavalry is already filled by the knight line for Lithuanians, given the existence of the extra attack per relic bonus
In order to ever appear useful, this extra attack UU has to powercreep not just any paladins, but paladins who already have up to +8 attack. That's how we end up with a unit with the highest dps in the game : it's the only way for it to ever be useful, given that it's in direct competition with a more versatile standard unit that already has insane dps.
And here is my takeaway : Leitis in their current form and Paladins with extra attack cannot coexist in the same tech tree. It's like having Teuton Paladins with Boyars : the standard unit is so strong and similar to the UU that UU will either be useless or OP.
The current approach for Leitis is akin to giving Franks a UU whose defining trait is that it's a higher HP variant of paladin. It simply doesn't work, and it never would.
There are a couple of ways of trying to fix this design issue :
That would allow to rein in the Leitis' strength, as instead of competing with Paladins they would be doing so with the much weaker cavaliers.
However, there is a problem : cavaliers with extra attack are already a thing for Malians, and the presence of Paladin is a civ defining trait that greatly impacts the identity of the civ. Lithuanians wouldn't be the same without paladin.
If we accept that the gimmick for the unit is to have high damage, then the heavy cavalry aspect needs to be changed. One way to address that would be to make them a glass cannon units : quick to produce, high damage but low survivability unit. Picture a shotel on a horse, if you want. This can be achieved by reducing HP and armor for example.
But the key takeaway here is that it's not a small tweak, it has to be big changes. Leitis cannot remain a straightforward heavy cavalry unit.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
1. A not so unique unit
What happens if your civ already specializes in a strong post imp standard unit, like paladin ? Well you can't simply design the UU as an improvement over the standard unit, as you would only be making an OP paladin. Instead, you give the civ a UU who has a vastly different role, be it Infantry, archer, cav archer or light cavalry.
Of the 8 civs who have access to FU paladin, 5 don't have a heavy cavalry UU, Huns have a discount version of paladins, and Persian war elephants are expensive to the point of being irrelevant. Outside of maybe Huns, none of these civs have to choose between going paladin or UU, as they each have vastly different roles.
That leaves us with only Lithuanians.
Leitis are, for all intents and purposes, a heavy cavalry UU. A higher damage but slightly less durable variant of paladin. Which means, a post imp Lithuanian player always has to choose between Leitis and Paladin. With both having such a close role and usage, odds are very high that one will overshadow the other.
Leitis is a unit whose twist is that it ignores melee armor, making it a high damage heavy cavalry. The problem however, is that the role of high damage heavy cavalry is already filled by the knight line for Lithuanians, given the existence of the extra attack per relic bonus
In order to ever appear useful, this extra attack UU has to powercreep not just any paladins, but paladins who already have up to +8 attack. That's how we end up with a unit with the highest dps in the game : it's the only way for it to ever be useful, given that it's in direct competition with a more versatile standard unit that already has insane dps.
And here is my takeaway : Leitis in their current form and Paladins with extra attack cannot coexist in the same tech tree. It's like having Teuton Paladins with Boyars : the standard unit is so strong and similar to the UU that UU will either be useless or OP.
2. Finding a niche
Leitis will never be both balanced and relevant if they stay in competition with Lithuanian paladins. People may try to argue in favor of cost changes, training time increase, altering a couple of stats. But these won't fix the problem, that's trying to fight the consequences of a fundamentally flawed design. And it won't work. The moment Leitis become harder to produce, they will be completely dropped in favor of +8 attack paladins, as they were at the start of DE. It's because they don't have a niche outside of "heavy cavalry with extra attack", which is already covered. Either this role should be cleared for them, or they should serve another purpose altogether.The current approach for Leitis is akin to giving Franks a UU whose defining trait is that it's a higher HP variant of paladin. It simply doesn't work, and it never would.
There are a couple of ways of trying to fix this design issue :
- Removing the extra attack on knights.
- Removing paladin
That would allow to rein in the Leitis' strength, as instead of competing with Paladins they would be doing so with the much weaker cavaliers.
However, there is a problem : cavaliers with extra attack are already a thing for Malians, and the presence of Paladin is a civ defining trait that greatly impacts the identity of the civ. Lithuanians wouldn't be the same without paladin.
- Completely changing Leitis
If we accept that the gimmick for the unit is to have high damage, then the heavy cavalry aspect needs to be changed. One way to address that would be to make them a glass cannon units : quick to produce, high damage but low survivability unit. Picture a shotel on a horse, if you want. This can be achieved by reducing HP and armor for example.
But the key takeaway here is that it's not a small tweak, it has to be big changes. Leitis cannot remain a straightforward heavy cavalry unit.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.