To promote more early aggression and therefore a more interesting early game, what if petards were available in feudal age from the town center? The threat of a feudal petard bust would be very good in my opinion as a walled player would need to make actual military units to feel secure rather than being comfortable behind their palisade walls. While having petards available one age earlier may seem strong at first glance, remember that the natural trade-off for a player training a petard is that they'd be behind by one villager since both vils and petards train in the same time, so if they went that route they'd need to make it count with damage in the opponent's base.
Good idea? Terrible idea?
Good idea? Terrible idea?