A new mod enters the ring - Introducing "Close to Home"

[Tarkeel]

Germany: I'd leave it as-is. It's still in a good position for a game that you expect to go long, like 66.
Korea: Earlier Uni sounds good, and no requirement is in line with other CtH UBs (like Citadel). Melee-targeting on Hwacha sounds very powerful.
Portugal: Main issue is that the base building is too expensive to build in most games, especially as it comes when many players are going Merc. I like the idea of doing something with Harbor, +2XP for Naval could work.
Russia:
Aztec: While powerful, you need to be running slavery (and have good food surplus) to get the most out of the UB; which in practice means SPI for slavery dance. Good points on how to use the Jaguar though; Woody3 is an underappreciated promotion.

[civac2]

8 power ballista elephants are probably not broken but would instantly catapult the Khmer back into the top 3 among civs. Amicalola chose Khmer in PB66. I also think they are playable already with an Exp leader, particularly on a dry map. Not opposed to buffing them slightly but +1 power on their UU is too much.

[pindicator]

So how is an 8 strength war elephant that much stronger than an 8 strength swordsman? I would think the Praetorian is still stronger, but am I missing something? I would consider the UBs for Khmer and Rome to be similar in strength.

[Mjmd]

There is a reason the next version includes nerfing the praet. But Ballista elephants still have the mounted unit targeting and in general elephants have a longer shelf life.

[pindicator]

That works too

[Mjmd]

Just for clarification it is a hammer nerf at the moment to the praet to 50 vs 45 vs str decrease. I would not be sad for the hammer cost to go to 55, but I had to fight quite hard to get it to 50 hammers as is.

[pindicator]

In that case I would still question why not strength 8 for ballistaphant. Praetorians at strength 8 have a crazy longevity; before we played modded MP games we'd see them regularly have use into the Renaissance era. The fact that people aren't rushing to play Rome makes me wonder if we aren't over-hyping strength 8 elephant as a UU. (Or under-hyping strength 8 swords.)

[Amicalola]

In that case I would still question why not strength 8 for ballistaphant.  Praetorians at strength 8 have a crazy longevity; before we played modded MP games we'd see them regularly have use into the Renaissance era.  The fact that people aren't rushing to play Rome makes me wonder if we aren't over-hyping strength 8 elephant as a UU.  (Or under-hyping strength 8 swords.)

I would guess that rome is the most commonly picked civ throughout CtH. People seem pretty keen to play them to me.

[Mjmd]

Khmer was pretty much a constant until the nerf and mind you with the nerf it gets picked quite a bit. Now if you want to join the Praet should be 55h club with me you can.

[Charriu]

Germany: I'd leave it as-is. It's still in a good position for a game that you expect to go long, like 66.
Korea: Earlier Uni sounds good, and no requirement is in line with other CtH UBs (like Citadel). Melee-targeting on Hwacha sounds very powerful.
Portugal: Main issue is that the base building is too expensive to build in most games, especially as it comes when many players are going Merc. I like the idea of doing something with Harbor, +2XP for Naval could work.
Russia:
Aztec: While powerful, you need to be running slavery (and have good food surplus) to get the most out of the UB; which in practice means SPI for slavery dance. Good points on how to use the Jaguar though; Woody3 is an underappreciated promotion.

Regarding Korea: I would probably move the UB to Philosophy and also keep the extra 10% science. I would keep the library requirement. Reason for removing the requirement on Citadel was, because you could obsolete Walls and therefore deny yourself the ability to build Citadels.

Regarding Portugal: Well the cost for the UB is already reduced to 120 hammers from 180, because the base building was reduced. Would you say that it is still too expensive?

As for the continued discussion about Khmer. As others have already said the compared Roman UU will already be increased in cost. Instead of Moving the Ballista Elephant back to 8 strength I digged back into the elephant discussion back in this thread. There I proposed to have elephants at 7 strength but with 70% vs mounted instead of 50%. With that the odds against mounted units would be back to BtS levels. I could implement this for either all elephants or just the Khmer UU. This in addition to the aiming ability would make Ballista Elephants an excellent defensive unit against mounted units and especially against knights. Keep in mind that the aiming ability does not work against units inside cities, so it's use isn't as big on the offensive.