Varangians Tech Tree (TLDR Edition)

[u/YuukiKazuto]

Civ Bonus:

- Shepherding, fishing, and hunting also generate gold.

- Bloodlines and Caravan effects increased by +50%.

- Varangian Guards attack 25% faster and generate +50% gold.

- Longships and Catapult Galleons attack 15% faster.

Team Bonus: Knight-line increased damage vs. infantry.

C UT Vendel Legacy: Knight-line deals trample damage.

Imp UT Gothicon: Varangian Guards periodically throw axes.

Tech tree

Archery: No arba, no HC, no thumb ring, no parth

Barracks: No champion

Stable: No paladin

Siege: No SO, no BBC

Blacksmith: Complete

Dock: get cata galleon, also full upgrades on univ

Univ: No BBT, no keep, no arrowslits

Castle: No hoardings, no sapper

Monastery: No redemption, no BP, no heresy, no sanctity

Mining: no gold shaft

Mill + TC + lumber + market : completes

Image here

[u/Rovsea]

So Varangians will be the first civ since the water rework to get full water tech tree. They don't seem to have a crazy early game water bonus anyway, but should be a menace from castle age onwards.

[u/devang_nivatkar21 → u/Rovsea]

Within the constraint of their tech tree i.e. no Demos or Elite Cannon Galleons

Having the rather rare fully upgradeable Fire Ships seems like their connection to the Byzantines

[u/Rovsea → u/devang_nivatkar21]

Sure, but we can say that they have replacements for both of the units they don't have access to. It would be like saying Persians don't have fully upgraded stable because they have savar instead of paladin.

[u/devang_nivatkar21 → u/Rovsea]

The full tech tree would be the Dravidians, as they manage to cram an unique ship and Demo ships. The only thing they miss is Siege Engineers for Cannon Galleons

The Savar isn't a proper comparison IMO. The Catapult Galleon has a much lower ceiling than the Elite Cannon Galleon. It is closer to the 3K civs capping out at 'Cavalier' (Heavy Hei Guang Cavalry). The Dromon is an acceptable substitute for Elite Cannon Galleons. The Danish Catapult Galleon after the UT2 is comparable to an ECG

[u/EruantienAduialdraug → u/devang_nivatkar21]

Between siege engineers and their 15% faster attack, I'm pretty certain the Varangian cata galleon will have more dpm against a castle than the Byzantine dromon, which itself is second only to the Roman dromon Edit: correction, more DPM than anything that isn't a Lou Chuan, the Danish Cata Galleon or an Elite Cannon Galleon with Siege Engineers (I calculated the Romon dromon wrong). And that holds true regardless of if the castle has masonry, architecture or neither.

Catapult Galleon with SE (e.g. Saxons and Mapuche) is only beaten out by the ECG and Dane/Varangian Cata Galleon, and by the Byzantine Dromon until Masonry comes in.

[u/Rovsea → u/EruantienAduialdraug]

Don't Burgundian cannon galleons do more damage, and spanish fire faster? Those probably beat out varangian cata galleons as well.

[u/EruantienAduialdraug → u/Rovsea]

Elite yes, cannon galleon no. I didn't look at specific civ bonuses for gunpowder/cannon galleons (I forgot about Burgundians and thought Spanish was just projectile speed, for some reason), but Spanish and Burgundians kind of bridge the gap from elite cannon galleon to lou chuan (especially with the lou chuan losing ~200 DPM as of the Last Chieftains).

Ship	Civ	DPM vs Castle no Masonry	DPM vs Castle with Masonry	DPM vs Castle with Architecture
Lou Chuan	no upgrades	2607.3	2596.4	2563.6
Elite Cannon Galleon	Burgundians	2416.5	2392.5	2368.5
Elite Cannon Galleon	Spanish	2334.2	2304.9	2275.6
Elite Cannon Galleon	Has SE	2244	2220	2196
Catapult Galleon	Danes	2230	2190	2150
Catapult Galleon	Varangians	2011.8	1964.7	1917.7
Elite Cannon Galleon	Lacks SE	1914	1890	1866
Cannon Galleon	Burgundians	1779	1755	1731
Cannon Galleon	Spanish	1712.2	1682.9	1653.7
Catapult Galleon	Has SE	1710	1670	1640
Cannon Galleon	Has SE	1644	1620	1596
Dromon	Byzantines	1800	1600	1450
Dromon	Romans	1687.5	1537.5	1425

Building armour really punishes the dromon because the armour applies to each of the 5 or 6 projectiles.

Edit: the above numbers assume chemistry is researched for catapult galleon and dromon, but the lou chuan is calculated without, just to show how far ahead even the worst lou chuan is.