Quote:The rule of saba is on a delicate balance.Any additonal limit will make it weaker than most greeks.Nabatea still has some methods to defeat saba.I am looking forward to fighting against hami again.Parthia has been weaken too much and lost the ability to fight with saba.
Pretty much this. Maybe, in hindsight, we could have weakened it slightly more. I think you guys are making saba out to be more powerful than it actually is, though. The HA have been an interesting addition the whole tournament for Saba, but the reality is that if you take the HA, your infantry will consist of exactly four good melee units (4 mas gaat) + 1 swordsmen which is like average at best for the cost. Yes, the cataphracts are good, but I really think that they can be planned for and eliminated in most matchups.
There will always be certain counters to factions in the CoN, even if the overall balance is pretty good (which I think it is). That's just because some factions lack the tools to deal with specific units, so no matter how well u balance the matchup, it will still be pretty tough. For example, probably the biggest example is Kush. Although they are generally balanced or strong vs many factions, they will always, no matter what, struggle vs eastern factions, because they have no HA, no good missile units, and no good cav unless you spend a fortune on the Kushite Royal Guard (and even those units will not do great vs elite eastern cav). That's life in the CoN. There is inevitably a fair amount of luck involved. Not really with the faction you get, as I said, every faction will have counters and good matchups, but more so in the opponents that you face along the way.
Maybe the result of that Epirus-Saba game seems like proof enough, but in my opinion I am very confident there are things that Epirus can do to win against Saba. I am 100% sure that Parthia can win against Saba. Just because people aren't winning those matchups, doesn't mean it cannot be done, using a different theory, or better execution, etc.
I really don't think the CoN format / faction rules should be changed. Like, is it fair? Not really. But in the end, it DOES produce good matches and an exciting finish, often because it does have an element of faction disadvantage, which means better players with more average factions have to perform better to win against players with "good" factions. But if we look back at the past winners, it's hard to argue for many of those CoNs that the player who won wasn't playing the best in the tournament.
If you're looking for totally fair and balanced tournaments, the rest of the year has many fun and exciting tournaments which are more or less 100% balanced, since the faction selection isn't restricted to one faction like the CoN. Due to the history of the CoN, it is the most prestigious, so of course more people will play, and there's more hype or whatever, but balance has never really been the aim. We can try to improve it, as I'm pretty sure the stats about what factions advanced to playoff stage would help show (a wide variety of different kinds of factions), and we can continue to improve it in the future (maybe
) but total balance across 30 factions is not possible. But we still get a good show.
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