I've been playing Bytro games since 2009, and what has been done recently is heavily against the players.Another "balance" update, but it's actually about reducing the number of units on the maps. A very simple way to fix optimization issues and to use increasingly cheaper servers.The 100-player x4 map with reduced resources. Increasing unit costs... then research costs, and now increasing the prices of all units. On small maps, the game ends after 8 days... and sometimes it's the same on historical maps. Where will these changes be utilized? Nowhere. It is just a PLAIN LIMITATION OF UNITS ON THE MAP TO SAVE ON SERVERS AND POOR OPTIMIZATION.
No regards.

I wonder what will it do. Usually as Panasians i built Artillery lvl1 early and then switched to tanks, so i dont waste goods but this playstyle got heavily nerfed. Axis has nice melee early game units but upgrading them is still expensive if they are damaged so they are nerfed as well.

Isn't it buff for Allies and Comintern then? Just play safe early game and scale to later stages. It sounds perfect for Comintern which spams artillery and will preserve most early game units. Allies obviously will access those cheaper higher tier units before other doctrines so pretty nice for them.

Experienced players: please correct me if I am wrong. But here are my initial thoughts

Let's take a look at the four doctrines and see how they are affected by this update (ranked by my previous preference)

Pan Asian seems to be the least affected here, as their units aren't inherently weaker/stronger than average, so having less of them would not seem to be a big deal. (They do have less HP but usually deal more damage so it's close to a wash). I am not sure how the update affects early game rushes for them yet. Overall I think they are slightly nerfed.

Axis seems buffed quite a bit here. Let me explain with an (exaggerated) example . Let's say that you are axis and your opponent is comitern. There is a 25% damage and production cost difference. is it going to be easier to win with 20 axis units vs 25 comitern or 100 vs 125? Axis is just going to be harder to overwhelm with limited units and less damage output. This is not even mentioning that late game units (which axis has plenty of) got buffed overall. Those axis MTs are looking unstoppable about now.

Comitern just got trashed. big time. Your numbers advantage is greatly reduced, it is gonna be just about impossible to survive in the early/mid game with a like this. you don't even have too many late game units to help. Just MTs (that are inferior to axis) and sp rocket rt.

Allies got way better with the update. They are a mid/late game doc so the unit prices right away aren't that big of a deal. you can research faster so it won't be long before you have doom stacks of sp rt, TDs, SP AA, and ACs. commandos are good too.

My new (tentative, I have to play before I say for certain) doctrine rankings.

Axis
Pan asian
Allies
Comitern

I disagree with Axis and Comintern. Axis has a lot of early game units that are melee, therefore it will cost them way more than before to expand quickly and they will have to compromise building industries. But they will be able to spam more RRGs later.

Comintern likes early game cost increases bcs they will be able to afford all their units anyway and they have buffed production times which is often the issue - to build all the units they can afford in reasonable time, maybe they can save now on not doubling production buildings. It will be easier to survive untill having SPRA, SPAA and recently buffed HTs.

Later on i can see reduced costs being the issue, when you need a lot of production buildings on high level to even spend your resources.

Generally seems like quick expansion will be affected the most while those passive players waiting untill their neighbors start fighting will get rewarded even more. Also way more fighting bots since it will be more difficult to take out inactive players before bots take over which is pure pain.

Those "recently buffed HTs" are still sub optimal in most cases. The problem is that the docs with HT buffs (axis and comitern) are the same ones with MT buffs.

Axis will be just fine with the update because their early game units can still kick everyone else around, and late game they have MTs, SPAA, rocket fighters, and RRGs.

Axis MTs got trashed by Comintern HTs which cost about the same, not to mention other Comintern units like ATs and Artillery. Comintern has very strong SPRA when paired with SPAA is countered only by Axis RRG so the only late game unit that Axis has is RRG which comes in quite late and if u want to have the economy to build them you will struggle balancing even more expensive early units that wear off and building industries.

I think this "balance thing" will cause people to use more boosters and gold. ( biggest effect is in the beginning )

For anyone who needs the concrete cost values:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u…Oy4jcjUmUNYx8sh3cMnc/edit

Looking at the update this rewards highly aggressive players and actually benefits Axis the most.

First day won't be the problem until a player finished using their starting resources. At that point your army will be 1-2 units smaller than the old economy.

The ratio of new units vs Starting units is now smaller so starting unit strength becomes more important & Axis has more powerful units overall.

second factor is the reduced manpower requirements. Whenever I play axis my hard limit is how much manpower I have. I can conquer territory and get resources with the capture bonus but there is no equivalent boost for manpower.
I also can't get manpower on the market.

This resource cost increase and manpower decrease rewards fast and hard expansion.

100% agree. axis and allies are both going to get stronger from the update.

Interesting take. Your right, manpower may become a bigger factor. Need to try Axis on a new map and see how it works after a few days.