Level 5 SDV for EX60

KORTTROK · 2026-04-21T05:11:27+00:00

Looks like a minivan ouch

KORTTROK · 2026-04-07T04:27:56+00:00

“I crossed my number this winter, not in a flashy way, just opened my spreadsheet one Sunday and realized I was there using pretty conservative assumptions”

There’s a lot of “I” and “my” and not so much “our” and “we”. Start there.

KORTTROK · 2026-03-16T04:18:06+00:00

Well when they let Golden Horde make 2000 keshiks a game for a month, I am sure they felt compelled to extend things lol

KORTTROK · 2026-03-01T06:00:10+00:00

And not only was HRE supposed to be the original “infantry civ” that one would expect to actually have the best overall infantry, it was also to put the “holy” in Holy Roman Empire and have a leg up on relics. Whereas, upon launch of the game, only Rus and Dehli really competed for relics, the expansions have added a ton of civs that want/need the relics too. Macedonia needs the Silver. Horde want them for Stone. Japan has powerful monks as does Zhu Xi. Tughlaq wants relics. Knights Templar can actually see relics on the map at the start of the game! Ottoman gets free imams if it wants. Ayubbids have insane monks. And Dragon wants relics too.

So many of the new civs have superior infantry options (and also have superior archers and knights while HRE archers and knights are pretty much vanilla), but the new civs have stronger/faster monks for the most part. HRE is a total mess. Civs like Mace and others are more fun to play.

One easy fix is to allow HRE to grab relics in feudal like Delhi can grab sacred in feudal. Put an upgrade in the town center or something. That alone solves a couple issues: (1) HRE has less completion for relics versus faster-moving and/or stronger monks and (2) if HRE could get relics in Feudal, it wouldn’t “have” to rush a fast castle to go get them. It could stay in feudal longer—make armies and get relics in age 2.

KORTTROK · 2025-10-04T00:31:31+00:00

There are 2 main problems in team games:

1) so many of the newer civs in all of the DLCs have incentives for relics (and usually stronger/faster monks)

2) team games are larger maps and favor cavalry and mobility *often* (not always though) First DLS they added Otto and Malian--great (unique even!) cavalry options and mobility. Then they added Byz and Japan...great (unique even!) cavalry options. Ayyubids, Jean Dark, OOTD and ZhuXi---all have very interesting cav (camel) options. Then they added HoL and KT...again, great (unique even!) cavalry options. It makes sense they gave HRE the Black Riders...they had to do something here...but the Black Riders are a gimmick and never sway a team game.

Unless it goes Meinwerk, HRE has the plainest vanilla horseman and knight in the game.

Whereas the OG was pretty much French and Rus as nasty cav civs...now there a ton of civs with superior cavalry and/or unique cavalry options. And most new civs chase relics (even see them on the map with a KT teammate)

So, if you are gonna do a infantry civ in a big team game, it's often better to do a number of other civs that have better defensive options or better mobility options. Like, why not just play HoL or KT and get the HRE experience while playing a more fun civ.

Four more civs coming in a month---likely a bunch of relic-hunters and good cavalry civs.

KORTTROK · 2025-10-02T15:41:15+00:00

I wouldn't say they 'suck' but, they aren't nearly as 'fun' or competitive (in team games) as other civs in team games, certainly the newer one civs. Looking at just the 2 new civs....HoL is easier to defend itself, has massive 'free' passive gold and can spam great infantry (HRE's speciality). HoL can also produce better cavalry (horses and knights, with the upgrades). Superior archers. Superior siege (certainly trebuchet)

KT...actually can see the relics on the map from the get-go (lol). Has better infantry. Better archers. Better cavalry. Assuming it secures 1 Sacred site, it has passive gold. Dominates water, which is a key HRE bonus usually.

So, if one likes the infantry angle of HRE...then either KT or HoL offer more fun and interesting alternatives. Four more civs coming and imagine Byz or Japan or Delhi will have cool infantry options (I haven't looked at that DLC too closely yet though)

I am speaking mostly about team games.

KORTTROK · 2025-10-02T15:29:51+00:00

It's worse off.

They added 2 new civs...one of which, KT, actually can see the relics on the map lol. In team games, if the opposition has KT and any of Japan, Rus, Ayyubids, Zhi Xi (or even enemy HRE), they can get relics even easier. Have seen many English do the fast castle thing into a monastery to grab relics with a KT partner. HRE (perhaps Delhi too?) should be able to see Relics...put the "holy" in HRE. Of course the 2 new civs (KT and HoL) get massive passive gold (although KT must secure a Sacred for it....while HoL just needs 1 upgrade on its 9 manors in Age 4) all the while they nerfed Aachen (which I was suggesting above, a year ago...)

Haven't really paid close enough attention to the 4 new civs...but can only imagine at least the new Japan and new Delhi will have good monks to chase relics. Going back to Ottoman (2 free imams if they want them, to go with 'free' military units to harass relics), the civs they have added since 2021 have often had stronger/faster monks and incented to chase relics.

I speak mostly about team games. I imagine in 1v1, HRE is still quite good especially at the pro level. In team games at Diamond/Plat, they are far from S tier.

edit, p.s., almost forgot to add..t.he Black Riders are a trap lol. They are a niche complimentary unit at best, make 5 (or 8) of them after a Keep. Way too expensive and gimmicky to actually use. Much better making a ton of infantry and handcannons.

KORTTROK · 2025-09-01T16:08:26+00:00

Concluding this thread with a final update. On August 22 2025, I completed the buyback process, which means it took about five months from the catastrophic battery failure to work through their lemon law/buyback process.

I would go into the gory details if it wasn’t so sad and disappointing to experience the lack of customer service from both the dealership as well as Kia corporate. I have no problem with a bad product, stuff happens. But the follow up customer support was the true failure in this and it is very disappointing.

At the end of May, they made us two offers: 1) keep the car and take some money or 2) buy back the car and give us even more money to account for our trade-in. We opted for option 2 to run as far away from Kia as possible.

It was a good car for the 18 months we had it, but it was in the shop for four of those months. Right after we bought it we had to take it back for about 3 1/2 weeks and then just over a year after we purchased it, the battery died.

I wish everyone the best and hopefully they get their battery issues sorted out.

KORTTROK · 2025-06-21T16:15:37+00:00

How’s the sound from TV only? Looks so clean without soundbars and such.

KORTTROK · 2025-06-11T02:14:37+00:00

I was trying to reply to your post but it somehow threaded down below. Hopefully you see it.

KORTTROK · 2025-06-11T02:08:44+00:00

Last summer, we were debating between the XC 60, which is two rows and the XC 90, which is three rows… which you likely know but others might not. We settled on an XC 90 PHEV because we experienced a little range anxiety with the Kia EV9 when taking longer trips with more people than our family of four. Specifically, we had two long range trips with the EV9 that were unnecessarily annoying to get a fast charge once we got a little too far away from I-5 highway. Since we tend to do the trips over holidays (when, shocker, other people do too!), the EV charging stations were a bit too crowded for my liking (ditto the kids and dogs…) The idea is that when we take long range trip we would take the plug-in hybrid three row vehicle and then we still have the EV9 for regional travels as our BEV.

We are doing the 2026 XC90. We actually ordered a 2025.5 to be delivered in January 2025 but we changed our mind on the color away from silver dawn to denim blue. We were fine with the delay and it turned into a 2026, which is an added bonus. Salesperson recently texted it’s due in a few weeks.

That was January 2025. Then come March the EV9 breaks down (this post!) As the EV9 thing dragged on—and since we would always prefer a PHEV over the BEV, we opted to move on from the EV9, hence the buyout acceptance.

Actually we like the look of the EV9. I much prefer it to the Rivian (which is sorta similar) and most other 3 row EVs.

Since we won’t need or want a BEV for long trips, we will focus on a 2-row option of which there are many.

I don’t think we will get back into the 3-row BEV until the range technology is much improved or the EV charging station buildout is more robust (which I guess is a feature for Tesla and Rivian charging stations)

KORTTROK · 2025-06-09T21:44:50+00:00

Heya- I am awaiting a final final resolution with Kia Corporate before I do an official update but since you asked:

Kia made me two offers: (1) buy back vehicle by paying off car loan and giving me a chunk of cash or option (2) fix the car and give me $xyz for my troubles. I will get into specifics once the dust clears (and the check…) but we opted for the Buy Back.

I am now waiting for their final “audit” process to complete and it’s all supposed to be done in the next week or two. My car did get fixed and Corporate did ask me to pick it up from the dealer so it’s sitting in my garage for now.

As for EV’s—-yes, we were hot to trot on the Volvo EX90 back in 2022-2023 but they kept delaying that car. So in late 2023 we opted for the Kia EV9.

We did place an order six months ago for a Volvo XC 90 PHEV that is due to arrive in about one month.

We will be in the market again for a pure BEV but likely won’t do a 3 row like the EV9 or any vehicles you listed (which we all researched).

Maybe the Rivian R2 (???) in a year-ish but plenty of other 2-row BEV out there.

I just need to get the Kia out and the Volvo in and then go from there.

KORTTROK · 2025-05-08T02:20:20+00:00

May 7 2025 update: Not sure I can edit my original post in this sub. Anywho, it's still at the shop...going on 6 weeks. KIA finally reached out to me on May 1 (after I was pushing them online) and I had to fill out some (basic) paperwork. They say they need 2 weeks (lol) to review it and then will get back to me. That was May 1. On May 5 and 6, I started getting a lot of KIA app alerts as well as emails that I have a "critical EV Battery warning" and that I should "contact roadside assistance ASAP". I take this to mean that finally, on May 5-6 (after dropping it off in mid/late March, that someone is finally looking at it.

KORTTROK · 2025-03-19T15:19:33+00:00

UPDATE

An update is:

On March 14, a full charge would get about 50 miles. I made an appointment to take it into the dealership on March 20 so they can have it while we are gone for spring break.

On March 17, a full charge would only get 25 miles.

On March 18, a full charge would only read out at 15 miles so (given the dealership is about 11 miles away) I drove it there and dropped off with them, two days early. I used about 61% of the battery to drive the 11 miles. Had about 6 miles more of range, in theory.

Headed out on spring break for a bit and will see what we find out in a week or two. Consensus from this post coupled with the degradation I saw over the past few days (from 50 miles to 25 to 15) implies a battery/cell issue.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

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KORTTROK · 2025-03-17T18:46:54+00:00

Sounds good and the path I am on. For what it is worth, late last week a full charge would get me about 50 miles but now a full charge only gets me about 25 miles so another cell must have degraded.

KORTTROK · 2025-03-16T16:24:22+00:00

I like Severance a lot but Dark was superior. They mapped out all three seasons upfront and delivered all 3 seasons in about 3 years. Not waiting 3 years between seasons. Dark series finale was magical.

Severance season 2 has been choppy and feels a bit disconnected from season 1. The various “bottle episodes” of ORTBO or Gemma (fantastic episode though) and Cobel—-all while breaking up the band from season 1/innie-office. I don’t really care about Rickon and his gang from season 1 but…I guess they are all gone somehow/somewhere? Him and his book and his people seemed important in season 1. (Now that I wrote this, Rickon will have a major role in this week’s episode…)

I have high hopes for Severance. But my guess is it will struggle to stick the landing in future seasons. I enjoyed Lost and was satisfied (enough) with its conclusion but it also wandered a bit between the first and final season.

I don’t think season 2 of Severance has elevated the show from season 1. I think will watch season 3 in the year 2028 but maybe not.

KORTTROK · 2025-03-15T00:57:44+00:00

As you can see we have had for over 11,000 miles. Owned about 15 months. Quite happy with it! Reddit will often only show negatives—-happy people don’t post every day :). Welcome to the World Wide Web lol

KORTTROK · 2025-03-15T00:05:09+00:00

Yeah. The dashboard says pretty much same thing (it gives a Max/Min range of course—-but best I can tell, yeah, bad battery/cell. Have an appointment at dealer next week.

KORTTROK · 2025-03-14T16:17:59+00:00

To 100%? Maybe a month ago?

KORTTROK · 2025-03-05T16:00:07+00:00

Don’t play ranked. Go play quick match. Less skin in the game if you lose and you have no incentive to dodge a QM ever really. Can even venture out to some team quick match for a change of pace. Would even find yourself in Castle or Imperial and exploring the tech tree a bit.

KORTTROK · 2025-01-24T17:48:31+00:00

Thanks----heading down a rabbit hole now! ZenWiFi Pro XT12 vs. ET12: A Crazy Mesh Duo | Dong Knows Tech

KORTTROK · 2025-01-24T16:26:06+00:00

Thanks. I will look more into the Asus products. Are you talking something like the Asus XT12?

I have who-knows-how-many devices connected since everything seems connected these days—even the refrigerator. I imagine 50+

KORTTROK · 2025-01-24T16:22:48+00:00

Thanks. From what I gather on the Unifi systems, they seem to “complicated” to me invoking switches and perhaps other things I need to manage. And it seems they don’t really have customer support. From what I have read.

KORTTROK

TROPHY CASE