hey guys Spirit of the law here in this video we're going to take a look at the unique
units for the brand new Roman civilization in Age of Empires 2. now exploring two fairly
complex units with brand new mechanics is a lot to cover but by Design the two are really meant to be
combined explicitly in a way we've never actually seen in the game before in fact it's hard to even
talk about one without discussing both as the presence of centurions has a dramatic effect on
the strength of your legionaries as we'll see we'll touch on legionaries a bit later in the
video and for now let's start off by looking at the Centurion which is the Roman Castle
unique unit right away you might be tempted to link Romans and byzantines and assume this is
similar to a cataphract but I think that would be a mistake as centurions lack the cataphract's
bonus against infantry resistance to Spears and camels and trample damage though admittedly
they're both expensive unique units requiring an expensive Imperial age Tech so in that way
at least they are similar instead probably the most natural comparison to make in Castle age
is to the Knight and here we can see the Centurion is a strict upgrade with more HP attack and Pierce
armor not captured here if centurions have a bit slower attack rate than the Knight but it's not
enough to really change the story in fact seeing as they're better than the knight in all major
categories I think arguably the best Castle Edge comparison is the Cavalier where again it seems
they might actually be a little better especially against crossbows thanks to plus one pierce armor
right off the bat they seem to be pretty great but there is a catch their cost per
unit is significant making them not just more expensive than Knights but more expensive than
even cataphracts or mamelukes of course the other drawback is a unique unit is requiring
a castle locking them behind a 650 Stone building combined with a relatively slow training time of
24 seconds while that is technically faster than a knight and might not sound terrible it's actually
quite slow compared to other Cavalry unique units with for example the cataphract and latest taking
20 seconds to train the conic at 19 magyar huazar 16 coustillier and Boyers at 15 and tarkens at 14
seconds to give a few other examples while this can be sped up with unique Tech presumably it's
also a historical nod to the fact that centurions were infantry commanders and not intended to be
your core unit to give a general sense of their effectiveness in Castle age one-on-one against
a fully upgraded Knight they end up with about a third of their HP left over even adjusting for the
night's cheaper cost balancing 10 centurions against 12 Knights the centurions still win
pretty handily maybe even more impressive is against crossbows they stand out even more
having close to double the knight's resilience to Eros assuming you have all upgrades which I'd say
more than justifies the centurion's higher cost notice that even without bringing legionaries
into the conversation the Centurion in Castle age already seems worth the price assuming you
have the castles to create them but what about the Imperial age considering they were very
similar to a Cavalier in Castle age it might not be surprising that that the elite Centurion looks
remarkably similar to a paladin with one where melee armor and attack but 5 less HP the downside
here again is cost not just paying more per unit but also their upgrades are quite expensive first
you have an elite upgrade at 1100 food and 900 gold which isn't that out of line with paladins
but they also add an important unique Tech called comitatenses speeding up their training time from
24 to 16 seconds and adding an extra charge attack doing plus 5 damage every 20 seconds usually front
loaded damage from charge attacks can quickly snowball and shouldn't be ignored though this
is nowhere near the level of the coustillier for example which has a charge attack that's five
times the size notably comitatenses also applies to your Nightline and legionaries so it's maybe
not fair to attribute its cost here entirely to the Centurion but it's still part of a growing
pattern that Romans are just expensive to play in Imperial age the main point here though is there
a clear step ahead of Roman Cavaliers and their cost reflects that but are they worth that high
cost well let's look at a few examples first off with balanced resources against generic Cavaliers
they went pretty handily with about a third of their HP left in this example even against Roman
Cavaliers with their charge attack there's no question the elite Centurion more than offsets its
higher costs through its stats in fact as we saw already they're quite similar to fully upgraded
paladins and not only do Elite centurions win that fight one-on-one but even accounting for cost and
balancing resources the fight can easily go either their way paladins also make for a nearly perfect
comparison against range units as well taking almost an identical number of arrows and many more
than the Cavalier so far though we've been looking at the Centurion purely as a night alternative and
for the most part it seems to hold up quite well and justify its higher cost over time that's not
its only role though as the Centurion is actually unique for having an aura effect increasing nearby
militia line units movement speed by 10 and increasing their attack rate by 25 both of those
numbers also improve with the elite Centurion upgrade to 15 and 33 giving your militia line the
combination of the Celts and Japanese infantry bonuses this works on your militia line units
within a 10 tile area increasing to 12 tiles for elite which is actually pretty far when you look
at it the idea is your infantry units fight better with their commanders nearby and makes
a few centurions worth including even without considering their impressive stats let's move on
now though and take a look at the legionary both with and without a centurion nearby which as you
can probably imagine is going to make a pretty big difference to start this is an imperial age only
unit for the Romans as a unique upgrade to The Swordsman replacing both the two-handed swordsman
and Champion compared to just The two-handed Swordsman the upgrade is nearly triple the total
cost but when you throw in the cost of champion upgrade as well it's actually a bit of a deal and
also faster to research than the combined total of both tags similar to the Centurion there's a
bit of an issue with the cost per unit As Romans are lacking supplies putting more pressure on
their food Eco than most infantry sieves in the late game would deal with so again acknowledging
they're a bit more expensive the question then is whether or not the cost is ultimately worth it at
first glance I have to say it's debatable they have slightly more HP than a champion but one
less attack though two more melee armor and the same Pierce armor as a two-handed swordsman or
Champion with gambesons they're a bit tougher but also don't seem to hit as hard Spike the champion
they also have Plus 8 against Eagle Warriors and plus 4 against buildings but one hidden advantage
in the legionary's back pocket is an extra plus 4 against infantry meaning they actually do plus 12
against Eagles when you combine their bonuses in fact maybe instead of seeing them as a champion
it's better to see legionaries as a mix of the champion and Elite Jaguar Warrior which
also seems to match up better in terms of HP and armor and similarly has an extra advantage against
infantry legionaries aren't quite as extreme in that regard but they're also cheaper than Jaguar
Warriors and created at the barracks like the champion so they take some of the best attributes
from both on top of this again once you research the admittedly expensive committed tense days Tech
at the castle legionaries gain a plus 5 charge attack and Train 50 faster giving them almost
a bit of a goth-like quality at the barracks one thing actually helping out your upgrade
costs as well is keep in mind Romans have only two infantry armor upgrades but get double the effect
from each giving you something better than the final armor upgrade without having to pay for it
to put all of this into perspective and give a sense of their strength without comitatenses or
a nearby Centurion putting them really in their worst light one-on-one against a generic Champion
the legionary wins with about a quarter of its strength left over in fact adding in community
tenses we get the same result and the majority of the time it probably won't change how many attacks
you need against an individual Target that said I will be giving it to them in these next tests as
I want to see legionaries at their best the next question though is how much can we expect any of
this to reasonably improve if we add a centurion nearby to start adding in a non-elite centurion
to shout strategies and encouraging words we immediately see the legionary goes from 27 to 41
of its HP left against a champion with remember its attack rate being boosted here by a quarter
and also having 10 faster movement upgrading the Centurion 2 Elite gives an even greater effect on
the legionaries attack rate letting them end in this case with over half of their HP left
even if you correct for Romans missing supplies legionaries without a centurion are still strong
enough to beat but are otherwise some of the tougher militia lines cost effectively with
Slavs and bulgarians here as a couple of examples clearly even without a centurion and outnumbered
the legionary's anti-inventory bonus lets them perform fairly well at least against infantry
that said if you're up against a really top tier infantry civilization like Japanese or Goths and
we balance resources Baseline legionaries aren't quite strong enough to come out ahead against
those Champions we do have to assume here your opponent has turned their cheaper units into a
numbers Advantage but shows it without a centurion they're not quite on the same level as if you have
very specialized infantry civilizations that flips though if we add an elite Centurion nearby where
legionaries win against both civilizations though maybe that shouldn't be surprising
as again they're gaining the Japanese faster attacking bonus for themselves either way properly
upgraded and supported it's pretty clear that legionaries can handle anyone's Champions maybe
most impressively though with balance resource sources legionaries backed up by Elite centurions
trade about evenly with Elite Jaguar Warriors carrying their own plus 10 anti-infantry bonus
maybe more than any other test so far this shows that legionaries are looking pretty great as an
anti-infantry Choice easily up there with the best and in case you're wondering they don't even take
anti-samurai bonus damage though centurions do in fact maybe the one exception to all of this is the
Teutonic Knight who can win with equal resources even with a Roman Centurion nearby though I have
to admit it's pretty close and I would go as far as to say it's still an impressive showing by the
legionaries that they're able to make the fight this competitive just as a final illustration of
how much better they are against infantry than the regular militia line here outnumbered 10-6 by Hal
Bader's generic Champions and with 44 of their HP left which is a reasonably good engagement but in
contrast legionaries without a centurion end with 70 remember the Scorpion is also a common pairing
here given the Romans lack of bracer and Buffs to their scorpion line which altogether makes
infantry a unit type that Romans really shouldn't have a problem with at least in the very late game
with trade especially I should also note in case you're wondering the Centurion has to be your own
to get the effect and there's no benefit to an Ally's militia line or you can imagine how crazy
your Allied Japanese Champions might get even a Roman Ally can't get the benefit of another
Roman player's Centurion so every Roman player will have to make their own if they want the
aura effect that said if you manage to convert an enemy Centurion you do get the benefit for
your swordsman line meaning for Japanese you could have up to 78 faster attacking champions
but now let's see how legionaries fare against Cavalry while they can beat Cavalier with similar
total resources and when given a numbers Advantage they're not population efficient
so 10 verse 10 for example the Cavalier wins pretty comfortably that's even true if we add a
centurion nearby though in that case obviously the legionaries will perform a bit better the point is
just that while legionaries hold it well to even things like Teutonic Knights that's because of an
anti-inventory bonus and can't be generalized to all melee units that said with an elite Centurion
and balanced resources to reflect their lower cost they can beat paladins just barely which really
isn't a bad result even if it is discounting the importance of the Paladin's population
efficiency and Mobility overall I wouldn't say they counter Cavalry but properly upgraded and
supported the legionary can't put up a decent fight but finally how do they hold up against
ranged units well remember that even if Romans lack gambesons their legionaries have the same
pure summer as Champions with that Tech meaning they take virtually the same number of arrows this
is definitely still a weakness despite their large looking shield and famous resilience to
archers so instead of look to your other options like scorpions skirmishers or even centurions to
deal with archers rather than legionaries who are infantry and can't be good at everything after all
so that's a look at the Romans unique units and personally I think both work well in the broader
context of legionaries being the anti-infantry complement to the Centurion whether that be
enemy spear units Eagles or infantry unique units for its part the Centurion adds in a way to match
enemy heavy Cavalry head-on or deal with enemy Siege and your discounted faster firing scorpions
add in an extra response to archers and infantry now while the unique units with a focus here I
should point out that these are both largely for the late game and you won't see centurions and
legionaries every time but hopefully this gives you a better sense of what to expect from both of
these quite strong unique units when the situation calls for them that'll do it for this one though
big thanks to Seb jockster Justin Samantha Woodruff Kyle James Stephen Admiral Zircon
and everyone else on patreon for their continued support thanks for watching I'll see you next time