hey guys Spirit of the law here in this video we're going to be talking about scorpions there's
really two reasons this unit is gaining some attention lately the first is the heavy scorpion
was improved last patch with more HP and the second is the newest civilization that was added
specializes in them it seems the devs are quietly encouraging all of us to use scorpions more now
admittedly scorpions aren't always a beloved unit they're slow bulky have minimum range
and are especially vulnerable to magonels and Cavalry in contrast their strengths are against
Mass infantry with low Pierce armor archery range units of all types and they even have some hidden
bonus damage against elephants that's easy to forget that is unless you're an elephant for
more than one reason their main selling feature is that scorpions offer a cheaper alternative to
mangonels at roughly half the price and unlike mangonels they don't hurt your own units with
friendly fire so they can pair especially well with melee units now throughout this discussion
I'll refer to two specific tests that I conducted to compare the various attack bonuses and texts
with at least a little bit of rigor the first test was against goth halberdiers which tells
us how they stack up against weak low armor and HP units seeing how long they take to defeat the same
group of them can give us a baseline to compare the different bonuses and damage output against
weak targets the second test is against fully upgraded paladins whose hype Pierce armor takes
some of the sting out of the Scorpion's attack and this will highlight scorpion bonuses that give a
bit more punch against High tier units which can be especially useful in team games we'll start the
list with an honorable mention for Portuguese they have a 20 Cold discount on their scorpions but
notably lack heavy scorpion which is eventually kind of awkward if you want to mask them arguably
even a generic heavy scorpion civ is better but technically it is some help in Castle age
for Portuguese and I want to acknowledge I did not forget them for the list they just didn't make it
instead opening things with number 10 goes to the bulgarians while the Scorpion itself is basically
generic for them bulgarians have a Tech Tree Hole in their extremely weak Archer line that
the Scorpion can help fill especially given their extensive use of Cavalry and infantry which can
benefit from range support the heavy scorpion upgrade is also half the usual food cost which
altogether gives at least a bit of extra incentive to make scorpions now and then and distinguishes
them from the other generic scorpion civilizations next up at number nine we have dravidians with a
33 wood discount but no Siege Engineers for the extra plus one range discounts are always nice and
33 sounds like a lot saving 25 Wood per unit plus remember scorpions rely on getting to a critical
mass at the same time they already have faster firing skirmishers as a decent response to archers
and their Cavalry is so weak you don't really run into spear units as often as say a decent
Cavalry civ wet you could combine them with their good elephant archers to deal with their counters
though in that case enemy onagers start to feel like a problem usually I'm a big fan of discounted
units but in this case I don't think scorpions really bring that much to dravidians and combined
with lacking Siege Engineers puts them near the bottom of our list moving on at number eight we
have the students here we have a Cavalry/infantry civ that is at times in search of a good range
support unit backing bracer and arbalester so the Scorpion is an option to fit that bill the First
Advantage students have is conversion resistance one-on-one other civilization scorpions are
converted by monks effectively at a 100 success rate while in reality you're more likely to focus
fire the monks down it's pretty easy to lose scorpions to conversions whereas teuton's extra
conversion resistance makes them more likely to win that encounter their other more significant
Advantage is the tech Ironclad giving plus 4 melee armor depending on the unit this can increase the
resistance in Castle age by anywhere from 25 to nearly 200 percent and units with low melee attack
in particular are impacted the most with enemies dealing Pierce damage of course being unaffected
it's a similar story in Imperial age where again it depends on the matchup but in general you'll
get two three or even four extra hits if your scorpions happen to get caught by enemy units
in a vulnerable position at the end of the day though I think we have to admit that while a bit
of extra armor is nice it just doesn't change the utility of the unit that much as it's not
meant to be a damaged sponge I see the tech more as a bit of insurance for those moments when a
group of hussar or halberdier get too close for comfort and it's a good moment to point out as
well that if you are expecting a bit of melee fighting with your scorpion you should put them
on stand ground so they continue firing at enemy targets instead of trying to run away next up at
number 7 we have the Slavs with a bonus giving a 15 cost reduction with good Cavalry and weak
late game archers the Scorpion again has some potential use cases whether it be to give some
range support for your druzhina infantry against Arch range units or as an anti-spear defense for
your knight line or hussar so it's not difficult to find situations where scorpions would Thrive
admittedly 15 isn't that big of a production at just 11 wood and gold per unit but it adds up over
time and unlike Ironclad this is completely free and passively available at the start of Castle age
moving on to number six we have the Chinese their major advantage is the unique Tech rocketry giving
the Scorpion plus 4 attack on top of its benefits for the chu ko nu once you factor in the Chinese
discount it costs 637 wooden gold which isn't necessarily cheap and Chinese also lacks Siege
Engineers for the plus one range but in the right situation that plus 4 damage can be significant in
fact it makes them the hardest hating scorpions per attack doing 40 more damage against paladins
with every shot making them technically the best out of every civilization scorpions in the Paladin
test on the flip side against low armor enemies the results are underwhelming barely having any
effect at all against goth halberdiers trying to look at the bigger picture the lack of plus
one range and unimpressive damage against their common targets holds them back for me personally
along with the fact that Chinese are already a bit weak to onagers which going heavily into
scorpions would make you even more vulnerable to combining chu ko nu and scorpions is basically
writing a love letter to your opponent asking them to please make a onagers while you do have
to respect the extra damage against High Pierce Army units especially in team games I'm happy
to leave Chinese just out of the top five next up at number five we have the Ethiopians they
also have an imperial age unique Tech helping scorpions this time with torsion engines it's a
very expensive Tech but for scorpions against very bunched up groups of units it makes a surprisingly
large difference they in fact do the best in the healthier test beating them 66 faster than
a group of generic scorpions do the reason is torsion engines gives their bolts extra width
so every shot reliably passes through more enemy Targets in fact torsion engines may be undervalued
in this regard as their Siege onager gets most of the attention with its enhanced blast radius given
its more dramatic and obvious while the Scorpion is not what most people think of with this Tech
but maybe that should be reconsidered on the flip side like Chinese there is an argument that since
you already have good archers Ethiopians aren't struggling as much as some civs to find a range
support unit against units that have even a modest amount of spacing out as well the
larger projectile width can have no effect so the first test may have been overselling
them slightly in the right situation there's no question they can look amazing but also keep in
mind this is a very late game and expensive Tech and taken together there's still four civs that
I think come out looking better now I'd argue the next three civ you could arrange in any
order but I'll give you my ranking and my personal justification at number four we have the Mongols
again a unique Tech is to thank here this time with drill giving Siege workshop units plus 50
speed all other Siege instantly become more fun to use including seat Rams and Siege onager but
we're just going to focus here on scorpions this text single-handedly almost lets you micro to some
extent against onagers or bombard cannons and hit and run against anything slow moving that alone
makes them number one in fun value even if they're totally generic in terms of damage output now you
might argue the manga die already gives you all the Pierce damage you need and the two compete for
the same resources but I think the Scorpion does enough to differentiate itself it has five more
Pierce attack a hidden bonus against elephants and buildings the manga die doesn't have and also has
pure summer with no extra damage taken from skirmishers so I think you can find situations to
combine them and where that makes sense especially in team games scorpions also combine well with
hussar which Mongols have a bonus for making them a regular feature in their late game Army again
if there's one thing holding them back it's just that drill is an imperial unique Tech and at the
same time every other civ in the top six actually perform better in both the halberdier and Paladin
test they're just faster and fun to use in the very late game moving on to number three we have
the Celts immediately in Castle age they have two advantages the first is they fire 25 faster and
second they're created 20 faster considering scorpions need to be masked and do best when
just standing and firing those are two immediate advantages and in Imperial age you can also add in
a unique tech for 40 more HP that happens to be enough that their heavy scorpions can survive a
direct monitor shot and in fact they're the only civilization who can say that against onagers the
fact they're late game archers are also terrible missing our Blaster ring Archer armor and bracer
means scorpions have a useful role to fill against enemy infantry and archery range units
though onager is probably chosen a little more often as it also benefits in all of the same ways
now admittedly it may not be everyone's opinion but I'm putting them the tiniest step behind our
number two civilization the Khmer Khmer have two advantages the first is their double crossbow Tech
which adds a second half strength projectile given how many secondary projectiles in aoe2 only do one
or two damage this can fly a little under the radar while the secondary projectile is weaker
it adds enough that khmer and Celts actually end up nearly indistinguishable in both the helve deer
and Paladin test meaning they're doing about the same damage over time instead their major
distinguishing feature from Celts is a passive plus one range which personally I value slightly
more than HP in a vacuum remember heavy scorpions have one less range than an onager whereas with
this bonus plus Siege Engineers you can flip that around too often match or even sometimes
out range enemy onagers part of why I don't think everyone would put Khmer scorpion so high is that
they're Often outshined by the ballista elephant which almost acts as a de facto scorpion unit as
well with similar pass-through damage but the heavy scorpion still has more range so
it gives something a little different while addressing the halberdier's thick mirrors so
often run into yet another Factor here is that from Mongols and Celts their onagers benefited
from all the same advantages so when you take Khmer as a whole their scorpions aren't as good
in isolation but also work particularly well for Khmer specifically until recently I'd have said
they felt the best though again that's debatable of course number one to me without question is
the newest addition to the ab2 family the Romans right away you have the best scorpion discount
in the game with a 60 reduced gold cost I've been amazed how often this lets me sneak out an extra
scorpion that I normally couldn't get as Scorpions so often compete with other gold units like long
swords crossbows or Knights Romans are also unique for having their scorpions benefit from ballistics
meaning even if they look comparable against static units that doesn't capture all of the
other civ's wasted shots which Romans can avoid in a chaotic fight third their ballista's unique Tech
and Castle age increases their firing rate by 33 percent meaning they fire faster than Celts with
the second best results in both the halberdier and Paladin test in fact Romans probably would
be number one in practice if we took all the missed shots into account that happen in a
real situation finally they even have their minimum range cut in half from two towels to
one thanks to a team bonus and obviously a Khmer Ally can also be thrown in giving them plus one
range making them stand out even more adding to all of this you have to think about what
the Scorpion brings to Romans specifically in the late game it's really meant to function as
their Archer line dealing with mass infantry and enemy archery range units even before that though
Romans have made castle age scorpions viable in a way no other civilization has before and at least
in their current state they're the clear number one but those are just my thoughts on scorpions
and how I would rank them big thanks to Seb James jockster Kyle Justin Woodruff Stephen Samantha and
everyone else on patreon for their amazing support thanks for watching and I'll see you next time