hey guys spirit of the law here in this video we're going to compare the various scouting
units in age of empires 2. now i've actually looked into this topic in 2016 but there's been
some notable changes to the eagle scout since then and there's also the brand new camel scout
recently added with the good jars so i figured it could use an update i'm going to be comparing the
units in three main categories scouting ability which is just how quickly they uncover the map
combat ability in both dark and feudal age as well as how upgrading and bonus damage with
the camel rider work and finally briefly touch on their board luring ability so with that let's get
started with their scouting this really comes down to two factors the diameter of their line of sight
and how quickly they move while their line of sight is approximately a circle over the
long run what they're uncovering is more like a rectangle albeit maybe a snaking one but figuring
out how quickly they're uncovering the map is a very simple calculation for line of sight in dark
age something you may have noticed before is the eagle scout has a slightly larger diameter than
the mounted scouts by one tile in every direction why someone standing on the ground would have more
sight than someone mounted i'm not quite sure but maybe they're just eagle-eyed individuals at the
same time they move about eight percent slower and when you combine those things it turns out
eagles scout a little over 12 tiles per second while camels and scout cavalry uncover a little
under 11. i should point out this is different in definitive edition than in previous versions
where eagles had one more range than they do now putting their scouting at over 14 tiles per second
so while they're still the best it's not by the same margin that they were before of course always
the exception you have to remember the mongols who with their team bonus actually have technically
the best scout at over 15 tiles per second now confusingly a lot of things automatically change
in feudal age behind the scenes first of all eagles gain even more line of sight in every
direction going from an 11 to 17 tile diameter the scout cavalry and camel also gain some
line of sight though camels benefit a bit less as they're limited to the camel rider's line of sight
in castle age something else you may have noticed before is your mounted units move about 30 faster
as soon as you hit feudal age again scout cavalry benefit a little more from this than camels and
if we crunch the numbers it turns out that the scout cavalry is now the best at revealing the map
followed by the eagle scout with camels doing the worst of course mongols shattered the competition
with over 26 tiles per second revealed in feudal age compared to about 20 for the generic version
altogether in terms of scouting ability if we ignore mongols who are the clear number one it
seems eagle scouts are the best in dark age giving american civs a passive advantage with the scout
cavalry taking the lead in feudal meaning so far camels are looking the worst but now let's switch
to their combat ability there's no way to separate the fact that their jars are the only camel scout
civ and have plus 50 bonus damage so essentially that becomes a feature tied to the unit that needs
to be considered that said there's actually no bonus damage in dark age for any of these units
you can see their stats vary quite a bit in terms of attack and hp with the camel standing out is
having especially high health but very low damage having them all fight each other head to head the
result is that eagle warriors are strictly the best in dark age with about 30 hp left against
either mounted unit for their part scouts and camels are basically even though the camel
actually takes one more hit if you crunch the numbers so if they both go in with full health the
camel scout should win every time with either one or four hp left again just to emphasize the point
despite being a camel vs horse matchup there is no bonus damage at play here given their extra hp you
might expect camels would also excel against town center fire but they actually have the
lowest pierce armor and town centers also have a hidden one extra damage against camels in practice
despite their high health they actually hold it the worst to town center fire and eagles end up
being the best though their slower speed can give them trouble actually dodging arrows also worth
noting is that in dark age only the eagle warrior can actually beat a villager with loom one on one
and the camel scout does the worst considering the villagers one armor negates half of its attack
moving on to their combat ability in feudal age things again get quite a bit more complicated
both cavalry and camels gain plus to attack automatically whereas the combat ability of
the eagle scout is unchanged the camel also gains bonus damage against cavalry enhanced
by the guijar's bonus so they do 10 damage to scout cavalry while scout cavalry only do
5 in return for its part the eagle scout still has no bonus damage against cavalry and i think
this is a point of some confusion they actually don't gain anti-cavalry bonus damage until they
reach castle age trying all of the different matchups the results almost completely flip in
feudal with camel scouts now being by far the best and eagle warriors the weakest while in feudal
age camels may be the worst scouters you can see they have a consistent combat edge over the others
at least head to head against villagers arguably the scout cavalry is the best since its greater
attack means the villager is picked off faster though the camel ends with more hp so you could
also make an argument for them also just a quick point in castle age they upgrade automatically to
camel riders more than doubling their bonus versus cavalry and increasing their hp and
base attack while they're much more expensive to train than the others in feudal age the point is
they turn into a solid castle age unit the moment you advance altogether for combat dark age really
goes to the eagles but in feudal age it goes to cavalry especially the gurjara's camel scout
and finally the last category we'll look at is boar stealing or luring if you're on a map like
islands where you don't care about your scout's hp here the fact that eagles move slower is actually
a bit of an advantage since you don't have to weave as much to keep the boar following you
and staying in its line of sight the trade-off is scouts can more easily chase them down and
try to interfere with eagles but i still think the slower speed for at least casual players makes it
much easier to pull off interestingly some bonus damage has also been worked out behind the scenes
so they all take five hits from a boar in dark age as well making things fair in that respect and the
camel's extra hp doesn't actually give them a leg up so to put it all together in answering who has
the best scout by design i don't think there's a clear winner in all situations after mongol scout
cavalry the eagle warrior is arguably the next best as it's better than the generic scout line
at revealing the map and leads in combat ability in dark age though it pretty clearly falls behind
in futile as for the new camel scout it's very similar to the scout cavalry in dark age though
it should win one-on-one fights against that unit later turning into the best fighter but or
scouter in feudal age that'll do it for this one though and hopefully that helps put the unit's
differences into a bit better perspective thanks for watching guys and i'll see you next time