For instance, the Rus civilization could exploit a bug to infinitely duplicate gold-generating artifacts, giving them an unlimited source of income that no one else in the game had access to. The patch also introduces fixes for a few of Age of Empires 4’s more game-breaking bugs. Spearman, a very cheap unit and the counter to mounted units, got buffed so they do more damage to cavalry, which should make French knights easier to stop. The French’s other major strength was their cavalry, which got a slightly less direct nerf. The French Hulk ship - an extremely powerful naval unit that it gets before every other civilization in the game - has been nerfed by reducing its armor significantly.

The update’s most anticipated changes are huge nerfs to the French civilization, which has been the strongest in the game since it was released last month. The patch went out on Monday, along with a huge patch notes post that details each of the update’s new changes. On top of balance, developer Relic Entertainment also used this patch to fix some of the game’s biggest bugs. Age of Empires 4’s first balance patch is finally here and it’s bringing dozens of changes to the game’s most powerful (and annoying) units.

Civilization 5 community patch