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here in this overview we're going to be taking a deep look at the Romans
now Romans are in an interesting spot at the moment typically high win rate civilizations
are among the most popular as players overall prefer to play Stronger civs and yet despite
their performance on the ladder since release Romans are consistently among the least often
played the term Hidden Gem I think could apply here and in this video we're going to cover
their bonuses unique units and Tech Tree to see how it all fits together let's check them out
starting with their team bonus Romans and their allies have reduced minimum range on
their scorpions dropping that from two tiles to one of course they're still incredibly vulnerable
to Cavalry or Eagle Warriors that manage to close the distance given they have no melee
armor and instead I've actually found this most often comes into play against a large mass of
archers or cavalry archers players will sometimes try to get too close to scorpions for them to fire
but having less minimum range means there's almost always still an enemy unit far enough
away to Target making that particular tactic surprisingly ineffective against Romans or their
allies moving on to their Civ bonuses the first is that Roman villagers gather build and repair
5% faster admittedly it's not the most creative bonus in the world but completely on its own I'd
argue makes Romans a very flexible civilization opening up just about any strategy in the early
game by the time you click up to feudal age for example you're functionally one villager ahead
giving you an extra 40 to 50 resources while aging up compared to many other civilizations doing the
exact same build it then scales with your economy so that by the late game having 120 villagers for
example it's like having six more that are not only free but don't take up pop space in
case you're wondering the devs even remember to scale how fast Farms generate food so the cap on
late game Farmers is bumped up proportionally now while extra resources are the obvious benefit here
building speed can also help in many small ways meaning any houses that first stable in feudal age
early walls and even Castle drops are all going to be just a bit faster better repair speed can
also come in clutch when someone's trying to Treb down one of your castles and in a lot of
ways this bonus is not dissimilar to the effect given to villagers from playing the game with
105% handicap in fact one could argue it's the most flexible Eco bonus in the game as it starts
to help immediately with collecting sheep and is still helping at the 2 hour Mark if the game goes
that long impacting all the resources es you're gathering with villagers moving on their next
bonus is that the galley line and dromon have an extra of each type of armor armor usually isn't
that big of a deal on Naval units thanks to a lot of unblockable bonus damage and for context means
in a feudal Galley battle Romans take 13 instead of 12 shots basically working as a tiebreaker in
Castle age though you can combine this with unique Tech and at that point the two together start to
be a little more impressive hitting the high water mark of the Roman Navy in Imperial age
they lack bracer putting them eventually behind a good civilization like Saracens for example
though you do also have to factor in your faster working villagers the dromon on the other hand is
quite a bit more squishy than the galleon to begin with though an extra one armor means it takes one
more shot from galleons while they aren't unique to the Romans they're being buffed in the patch
coming out this month and just to give a sense of what they offer against buildings they have
one less range than a Canon galleon which could potentially bite you against toing castles for
example they also deal less bonus damage than Canon Gallants to buildings as well but fire 25%
faster making them actually very comparable to non-elite cannons unlike cannons though
they can also hold their own against galleons one on-one though they are considerably more expensive
the point isn't that they'll save you against a superior Fleet but considering they're slightly
cheaper than Canon Gallants don't need an elite upgrade don't require chemistry fire faster and
move faster they feel quite a bit more flexible in every major way with the trade-off of having
slightly less range next up their third bonus is really what makes Romans an infantry civilization
and is that their infantry received double the effect from blacksmith armor upgrades while
notably only having the first two techs available to give a bit of context in feudal age this lets
them take 50% more shots from archers and of course a little extra from enemy men at- arms
or Scouts as well this alone makes a men-at-arms opening a very popular way to play romance keeping
your opponent focused on trying to save their buildings and villagers while you safely expand
your economy back home with equal resources your Roman men-at-arms should win against an
equal number number of enemy men-at-arms and even a balanced number of Scouts making them hard to
fight head-to-head and even Archer CS can have trouble with them since they arrive quite early
man at arms can then be combined with either Towers to apply more pressure on things like
wood lines or combined with other counter units like skirmishers or Spears and remember Roman
spearmen are also getting the extra effect from armor following up in Castle age picking up the
second armor upgrade then gives Roman long swords five melee and pierce armor compared to the usual
three this doubles their usual resistance to crossbows Town centers and skirmishers making
them incredibly annoying to deal with they do lack supplies so they're not necessarily getting as
much cost efficiency in melee as you might expect against something like Knights for example losing
with equal resources but between pikemen also having +4/+4 armor or monks you can still usually
come up with an answer to mass Knights instead Cavalry archers and large numbers of crossbows
are probably the biggest threats at that point and that's where their next bonus is going to
come in just to finish up on this one first though in Imperial age they actually end up losing a bit
of their Edge compared to other infantry as their missing techs start to add up somewhat making up
for that is their unique legionary upgrade which we'll break down in a moment but the main idea
here is that their armor bonus peaks in Castle age with long swords taking two damage from crossbows
and Town Center fire one thing that shouldn't be lost here is that pikemen are also benefiting
though they still take unblockable bonus damage from skirmishers and crossbows making the effect
of high armor not quite as noticeable as it is for long swords I did mention a potential weakness to
crossbows and Cavalry archers though which leaves Romans in need of a good support unit against
those especially as they hit a critical mass and that's where their final SI bonus comes in
giving Roman scorpions a 60% gold cost reduction as well as benefiting from the tech ballistics
while 60% is a huge discount saving 45 gold per unit I actually think the ballistics effect can
be just as impactful since scorpions otherwise have virtually no chance of hitting moving targets
while you can use this bonus to mass a ton of scorpions and that can be tempting against Archer
civs that also leaves you vulnerable to mangonel and later onagers or bombard cannons keep in
mind even two or three well-positioned defensive scorpions can prevent a lot of damage by simply
turning away an enemy raid with Ballistics they can't even really be dodged like Mega nail shots
as their projectile moves almost twice as fast by default and can then track moving targets while
they're still quite weak to Cavalry scorpions are clearly intended to address the Roman infantry's
general weakness to range and lack of Mobility playing a similar role to skirmishers but with
considerably more damage output so that's the Romans bonuses and while the 5% villager boost
means you could recently play them as a Cavalry or Archer into crossbow civilization as is your
preference there's also a lot of incentive here to lean into infantry and scorpions if you're
open to a more non-standard play style now having already alluded to one of them let's switch now to
take a look at their unique units and More Death we'll start with the legionary which for Romans
replaces both the two-handed swordsman and the champ Champion side by side with a champion their
stats are actually pretty similar with just a couple of small differences like more armor and HP
though this comparison hides the legionary's real advantages first their upgrade cost is cheaper
and faster to research considering it's only one upgrade instead of two and this is on top of not
needing the final armor upgrade or gambesons to end with comparable armor those savings together
partly offset the cost of their imperial unique Tech comitatenses after which they gain an extra
plus five charge attack letting them get out some extra damage in the first few seconds of any fight
one of the other extra advantages of the legionary is it has bonus damage against all infantry units
on top of the Champions regular bonus against Eagles and buildings that allows them to go
toe-to-toe with even top tier Champions keep in mind this isn't even their final form though as
they also benefit from the Roman's unique unit at the castle the Centurion with the two units
having one of the most symbiotic relationships in the game just like the legionary the Centurion is
quite strong on its own with pretty similar stats to the Knight and Castle age and basically the
same stats as a generic Paladin after their Elite upgrade though also having that plus five charge
attack thrown in by the earlier mentioned unique Tech they are slightly more expensive than the
night line at 15 more food and 10 more gold each but are considerably cheaper and faster to upgrade
than going Cavalier into Paladin so calling them more expensive than paladins is only really true
when comparing large numbers of them of course you have the bottleneck of needing castles as the
main drawback that makes it tricky to mask them compared to Knights or paladins but the point is
they're actually a functional heavy Cavalry unit in the late game completely on their own their
unique effect though and the major reason to make at least a few of them in many games is to power
up nearby legionaries giving them a movement and attack speed boost when within 10 or 12 tiles that
makes them harder better faster and stronger than just about any infantry they encounter beating
even Japanese Champions with supplies which also works particularly well considering how the two
units protect each other's weaknesses legionaries Excel against infantry like halberdiers while the
Centurion gives the mobility to deal with things like siege that legionaries have trouble chasing
down on their own you can't help but feel romantic about how much better the two units are together
than apart one thing I should note is it doesn't matter how many centurions you have 10 nearby give
the same or effect as one so don't feel like you need to mass or even fully upgrade them if your
main focus is infantry throw in some scorpions against archers and something anti-b building
like SE or tree and you have the classic Roman death ball on closed maps with a lot of synergy
between those unit types with the unique units out of the way though now let's quickly look at
their unique texts at the castle doing even more to beef up your core Army the first is ballistas
letting your scorpions fire 33% faster as well as giving plus two attack to the galley line
This cement romance is having among if not the best scorpions in the game they're not
as fast as Mongols or sturdy as Celts but have better damage output than Khmer Chinese or Celts
against a large group and don't forget they're also massively discounted while also being able
to track moving targets as for the gal line effect the plus two attack combined with one more armor
means even with missing bracer they're still about 15% more effective against other Gallants it's not
quite as impactful as the Saracens 25% faster firing for example but is a notable Improvement
in late game water battles against more generic civilizations there other unique Tech coma tenses
we already saw with its effect on both legionary and centurions gaining a small charge attack and
it also does the same thing for the knight line as well another effect it has is to let those
units also train 50% faster now I don't want to oversell the effect of a onetime plus five
attack at the start of combat which often won't technically change how many attacks you need
to defeat an enemy unit but even for the faster creation time alone it's probably worth picking
up eventually if you have the gold certainly in a team game I would strongly consider it especially
if you're massing centurions though in 1v1 games it's a trick your call as it has the same gold
cost as 40 legionaries pricing it right on the edge of where it may not be worth it so that's
their unique units in techs and while there's a clear Direction you're pushed in for your late
game Army composition with two synergizing unique units and the Scorpion now let's step back and
take a broader look at their Tech Tree starting with the archers here things get up to a nice
start with 5% more resources collected that is until the crossbow line basically Fizzles
out with no arbalester thumb ring or bracer those missing techs also majorly hold back the Cavalry
Archer and leave you with decent but not great skirmishers I don't mind an Archer opening for
Romans in theory but after feudal age the archery range is pretty underwhelming worth maybe a c
next up for infantry you have a great opening with double the effect of armor upgrades making Romans
one of the most viable infantry civs in the early to mid game even with a handful of missing techs
including supplies The Swordsman line is still a great choice made even better by a centurion the
spear line is also helped out with more armor and i' give them an a as a very strong infantry Civ
only held out of the top tier by the fact that so little is happening for infantry passively
if you're slow to get upgrades they can actually get overshadowed by SS like Japanese or gods in
my opinion moving on to Cavalry I actually think Romans function completely fine as a
Cavalry civilization you have a strong start into scouts or knights with Bloodlines leading into
fully upgraded Cavaliers adding in a unique Tech giving them faster creation and a charge attack
you also then have the Centurion as an alternative if you need even more punch in the late game and
in a team setting I'd actually lean toward Roman Cavalry over infantry or archers to start I might
not call them top tier as they're missing hussar and Paladin but it's enough for a b and Cavalry
can definitely play an important role in raiding and dealing with hand caners or Siege which their
infantry can otherwise struggle against speaking of which next step for their Siege the bombard
Cannon would have been amazing to support your scorpions against onagers but understandably
Romans lack that unit other than that though it's pretty good including getting Siege Engineers it's
honestly amazing how many bonuses and techs it requires to make scorpions attractive but Romans
are probably the Civ best set up to use those overall I'd say it's an A minus for Siege moving
on to the Navy early game you get out to a pretty nice start with a good economy and passive armor
boost on the galley line Romans are missing the demo line entirely as part of their no gunpowder
rule but early game I still like it enough for a b with enemy fire G I being the obvious threat late
game they're then missing dry do for some extra ship speed as well as importantly bracer on their
galleon between having plus two attack from a unique Tech and the extra versatile dromon I don't
think they're sunk and it's another good but not great B in the late game for a B on water overall
taking a quick look now at the monks Romans are fairly unusual for missing the extra HP from
sanctity though they still have the essentials with Redemption and block printing as the two I
look for first monks actually have a few helpful roles here against particularly Knights which
can otherwise run around Roman infantry or as a response to onagers which are a constant threat to
scorpions I'd say it's a B+ and keep them in the back of your mind as a less obvious but definitely
useful unit to mix in next up for defenses unlike Romans in aoe1 Towers aren't really a specialty
here missing heated shot arrow slits and bombard Tower you're also missing hoardings and treadmill
crane so while they do build and repair Faster by default a with all upgrades can actually end up
as better Constructors personally I think Romans are better played aggressively with men-at-arms or
cavalry to keep the pressure on your opponent and Castle dropping to keep piling it on so altogether
I give Romans just a B for defenses and finally wrapping up with trash units while the legionary
or scorpion can be very cost-effective answers to trash units and are pretty light on gold if we
restrict things to just the goldless units Romans have some pretty obvious gaps lacking bracer for
skirmishers and the hussar the halberdier does have plus one melee armor compared to usual but
this isn't really the Roman strength though it's not terrible either and I'd say it's a B minus so
to give some closing thoughts between requiring their own DLC and pushing some generally off
meta units I definitely understand Roman's lower play rate but in my opinion they're still a bit
of a Hidden Gem at the moment with two totally viable game plans depending on your preference
the first is to take the 5% faster villager work rate and run with them as a Cavalry civilization
going Scouts and knights in a very standard way with that solid eco bonus behind it incorporating
other Roman Specialties if needed archers or skirmishers can also work early on as well but
require transitioning away to something else as you're on a bit of a timer for those things to
fall off a cliff the other way to approach Romans is on their own terms as a premier
infantry Civ fully embracing the men at arms and long sword play on the back of your economy plus
their better armor combined with either Siege or counter units that seems to be how The devs
envisioned Romans being played on maps like Arena Hideout or enclosed where your infantry's lack of
Mobility is harder to exploit and Castle drops are more crushing I think it really pays to lean into
their unique identity with those being among their best maps online basically you can play it safe
with the usual Cavalry meta and that old Rodeo or get a bit wild and go down the Infantry and
Scorpion route if that kind of freethinking wild card attitude sounds like you why not stop by for
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a website or domain so that's a look at the Romans and with that this overview series is
finally caught up again though there's definitely some old overviews I'd still like to revisit and
update that'll do it for this one though thanks for watching guys and I'll see you next time