Age Of Empires 2 Civilization Strengths And Weaknesses

I know there are like 100 guides stickies above, but they all list fairly specific strategies. Can somebody point me to a list that looks like thisbut instead has general strengths, weaknesses, and preferred tactics for each civ?I want to see something likeBritish: economic civ. Good for booming, vulerable in the early game.

Strong naval shipmentsSpanish: good rush civ, lacks bonuses in the late game, strong infantyI'm surprised there isn't anything posted like this already or else I missed it.AuthorReplies. Um yeah.when you buy the game, the disks come with a manual. You can find that info in there. While it doesn't specifically say 'good booming civ' or 'good turtler', it does implicitly imply such.e.g. Well, I'm not the best of players, but I've been at this game for quite a while. If you were looking for slightly more detail, this is what I've tended to find from my personal experience.British:A good, well balanced civ all around.

You'll want to use your civilizations strengths to overcome any weaknesses. Don't go focusing on cavalry as an infantry civ, unless you know what. What is the weak civilization in Age of Empires 2? There is no 'weak' civilization. The game designers designed the game so that every civilization has strengths and weaknesses. It all depends on.

Capable of rushing with the ability to recover any lost economic advantage through manor house booming. Can have fairly strong early attacks thanks to the Longbowmen units.Its ability to boom and its solid and diverse military make it a strong civilisation later in the game, especially with the powerful Red Coat musketeers coupled with the Thin Red Line research, fantastic bread-and-butter units.

Its Longbowmen however don't quite match up to late-game skirmishers.French:Probably the most powerful civilisation, due to its strong villagers which can fuel any early attacks, or sustain a strong economy later in the game. It has a slightly more diverse set of troops than the british, though not as good at booming.Powerful late-game military, including voltigeurs (skirmishers) and gendarmes (we've all heard of the gendarmes), but quite expensive.Dutch:Fairly Weak early game due to its need to build expensive banks, though it can still hold its own with the early age 2 skirmishers. Once its economy is established (late age 2/age 3) it becomes quite a solid civilisation.Its cheap ruyters and 50 villager population limit can give it an overwhelming advantage in age 3, especially with a falconet/ruyter combination. Its army (and villagers) mainly count on gold which comes in vast supplies with the Dutch, making them the best turtling civilisation in the game, with little need for map control.Its military however is not very diverse and its units, though slightly cheaper, are fairly weak when compared to the French and British. However, the Dutch are capable of massing a larger army (especially when spamming ruyters) but its economy will be subject to overheat if not played right later in the game.Russians:A very interesting civilisation.Born rushers. It has a weaker economy than most other civs, and relies heavily on map control in most games. Its cheap units more than make up for its weak economy, and allow the russians to conduct very early, large scale attacks, or grind down foes in the later-game.They are also very good boomers, with 3 TC's pumping out tripple batches of villagers, they rival even the portuguese, but are handicapped by the inability to ship in a second factory.The beauty of the Russians isn't their incredibly cheap units, but the speed at which they can summon them.

It is this which gives them the ability to overwhelm the enemy with vast numbers of troops (however weak they are), and can replace one fallen army with and another in seconds.Oprichniks are an incredible unit, which the Russian player must rely on in later-game struggles. Nothing will take down factories, break through walls or massacre villagers faster than these horsemen.Coupled with the ability to spawn armies out of nowhere, Russian players can wear down 'stronger' civilisations by splitting up their forces. While one army of weak russian units is getting destroyed in one location, another can be simultaneously spawning at another.I'd say the dutch probably have an advantage over most other civs against the Russians. Ruyters are the best defense against oprichniks as you can have so many of them, making it easier to catch these pests out. The dutch also find it easier to split up their 150 pop army, or use it to counter the seemingly endless line of russian infantry coming its way.Dutch skirmishers will also overcome any russian-class infantry. Adding cannons protected by ruyters into the equation usually end up in a very one-sided bloodbath. Essential linguistics freeman pdf.

The Dutch are also the hardest to raid due to its very compact capital-based economy.Ottomans:Rushers. They have very strong units, available in early game. However, the incredibly slow villager spawn rate can make them lag behind if they fail to cripple/destroy their opponent early on.They nearly always require trade posts to support their powerful but expensive units in the early game, this is where the extra wood crates the ottoman start with come into play. The Silk Road card is also what will be helping the Ottoman player maintain his powerful early attack.The fact that villagers are free and spawn autonomously also adds to the strength of these early attacks, with likely increased micro and a lower opportunity cost for troops.Late-game they have a decent economy, and powerful troops, but the cost of these troops can start to wear the player down. Despite a few sweet late-game abilities such as cheap-janissaries and allowing jans to build forward bases, I find the Ottoman are crippled buy their inability to quickly mass troops, simply due to the long time it takes to train them.

Paired with their not-very-diverse range of units, it makes it harder to adapt to what your opponent is doing.Portuguese:The weakest civ in the early-game. The absence of a 3 villager card immediately makes the Portuguese lag behind in Age 2. However, due to the free TC with every age, they can quickly make up for lost time once their economy takes hold and they can start pumping out a decent amount of units.They're units are powerful. They have the toughest ranged-cavalry in the game which becomes an incredible anti-cavalry asset, able to fight off cuirassiers or take down raiders.Cassadors are also the most powerful ranged/gunpowder unit in the game, but their ridiculously low hp means you have to look after them, or risk losing all of them in a moment.Organ Guns are incredibly effective against troops. Two of these will help you take down any number of ranged infantry with low casualties. However, like the cassador, these also have very low hp, and are prone to be lost to any player with good enough micro, making them a risky investment.They have a strong economy late-game, but the units become quite macro-intensive.The Portuguese also have a very powerful Fast-Fortress, with organ guns able to tear through any infantry ( and harder to take out in the earlier-game) and dragoons that will take out any age 2 cavalry, not to mention cassadors, and usually supported by incredibly tough Mameluke mercs. The downside to this FF is that it is prone to rush, as the Port economy is very weak in the early stage of the FF.

Once the 3 TC's start booming, the economy picks up very quickly.Germans:Incredibly gold-intensive, you'll find by the end of age 2 you'll have no more mines left on your side of the map. The German units, though incredibly powerful, are very expensive.Despite their Settler Wagon units, they have no real kick in the early game other than cavalry, which makes a German player fairly predictable in most games.Spanish:Good early on, supported by shipments. Incredible fast-moving anti-cavalry in the early-game.Basically, the Spanish peak in age 3, then go downhill as the fight drags on. They have an incredible fast-fortress ability due to the fast shipments. In the late-game though, both their military and economy lack any real give that is to be found in other civs.I appologies if I seemed to have rushed the ending of this. It is getting very late. Hopefully this helps in some way or another.

I also appologies for any typos you're likely to find on the wayThis message has been edited by ArcticArrows (edited @ 06:06 AM). Ottos: Incredible civ all around. Whether it's a pure jan rush, jan/abus rush, Native Rush, Jan/shipment Fast Fortress, Silk road Fast Industrial, schooners boom, or any other build you feel like playing, you'll have an easy time winning games with this civ. Just don't play them on bayou.Spain: Their all-in style Fast Fortress is widely considered to be the best build in the game. Very few people have played against a well executed Spain FF and won.Germans: Xbow/pike/uhlan colonial is great.

Their fortress age is also really good. They lack muskets and dragoons (the two most spammable units), so they can be a little difficult to play with.France: Easy to manage economy. Great openers that provide a good economy with the ability to be aggressive. Great lategame too.Dutch: Probably the hardest civ to play. Banks are expensive, but allow for great booming. Great midgame.

Try to hit fortress age with 3-4 banks. Then go ruyter/skirm or ruyter/falc.Russia: Rush with them. I don't like this civ.Ports: Great schooner boom.

Decent Fast Fortress. Not the best civ on land. Mamelukes make this civ playable.Britain: Great manor boom. Terrible Fortress age. Often times it's not even worth aging to forts. Musk/huss/longbow until the game is decided.

Article written byAroPublished on; updated on Tags:Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and The Conquerors Expansioninclude a variety of civilizations from throughout the entire world.Each civilization gets it's own bonuses, making it unique and morepowerful in a certain aspect of the game than others.