Why do Celts still have paladins?
TLDR: Replace the Celts Knight line with Celtic Chariots?
Since legacy, Celts got the weirdest paladins in the game. I can find a good use for every paladin, even the byzantine. But not for the celt one. Only Hera could make them work, as he did on hidden cup 11... No, seriously, when we compare the woad raider of next patch to the one back then, they will have received +15 hp, more speed and +2 attack. It even has the same pierce armour of their paladin. All that while costing much less, so the unit got even more useless.
Why not replace it with something useful? Celts have so many holes in their tech tree and so many weaknesses. They did get a bit better against archers after gambesons and receiving the last archer armour. But still struggle against them on maps where they don't have time to mass their siege, mainly versus britons. Another thing they struggle a lot with on open/semiopen maps is against strong infantry, especially from civs that have bombard cannons or other ways to snipe celt ciege.
Though their own infantry is good because of the speed, they loose against infantry from civs that have melee bonuses. The only counter they have on non-boomy maps are scorpions. Which are great, but not always practical on open maps and when the opponent has access to bombards... Also, other civs have 2, 3 or 4 infantry counters. Why can't celts have 1 more?
IMO they should get a unit that counters infantry and is decent against archers. They could have the knight line removed and instead receive a hybrid of Knight with Cataphract. A unit that is decent against archers, though not as good as the knight line; weak against other cavalry; and strong against infantry because of bonus damage, though not strong enough to defeat halbs like the cataphract. Maybe some kind of chariot like celtic armies used in britain. Or just some mounted lancer or "scottish cavalry".
TLDR: Replace the Celts Knight line with Celtic Chariots?
Since legacy, Celts got the weirdest paladins in the game. I can find a good use for every paladin, even the byzantine. But not for the celt one. Only Hera could make them work, as he did on hidden cup 11... No, seriously, when we compare the woad raider of next patch to the one back then, they will have received +15 hp, more speed and +2 attack. It even has the same pierce armour of their paladin. All that while costing much less, so the unit got even more useless.
Why not replace it with something useful? Celts have so many holes in their tech tree and so many weaknesses. They did get a bit better against archers after gambesons and receiving the last archer armour. But still struggle against them on maps where they don't have time to mass their siege, mainly versus britons. Another thing they struggle a lot with on open/semiopen maps is against strong infantry, especially from civs that have bombard cannons or other ways to snipe celt ciege.
Though their own infantry is good because of the speed, they loose against infantry from civs that have melee bonuses. The only counter they have on non-boomy maps are scorpions. Which are great, but not always practical on open maps and when the opponent has access to bombards... Also, other civs have 2, 3 or 4 infantry counters. Why can't celts have 1 more?
IMO they should get a unit that counters infantry and is decent against archers. They could have the knight line removed and instead receive a hybrid of Knight with Cataphract. A unit that is decent against archers, though not as good as the knight line; weak against other cavalry; and strong against infantry because of bonus damage, though not strong enough to defeat halbs like the cataphract. Maybe some kind of chariot like celtic armies used in britain. Or just some mounted lancer or "scottish cavalry".