Hey guys Spirit Of The Law here, this civ overview is all about the Bulgarians
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Now they're an infantry and cavalry civilization with, fittingly, an infantry and cavalry unique unit
On top of that, they also have great siege and a unique defensive building that packs a lot of punch for its cost
Bulgarians offer a lot of really powerful options
Especially in the late game, somewhat comparable to I think either the Teutons or the Slavs. Unlike both of those civilizations though
They also have a strong power spike in the early feudal age letting them be played in a very aggressive style as well
So far they sound pretty good. Let's check them out
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To start with their team bonus, Bulgarians and their allies all have 50% faster working blacksmiths
Which means every minute of research time for a normal civilization
instead just takes 40 seconds. That can be nice for taking advantage of reaching a new age, or when tech switching into a new
type of unit. In total that gives the potential to save up to just over 4 minutes of research time for some civilizations
It's not the most exciting team bonus, but comes in handy
Especially for Bulgarians considering their unique unit needs both infantry and cavalry techs. But speaking of saving time on upgrades
The next bonus is that they get the militia line upgrades for free
Now there are a few implications for that with the earliest being for their men-at-arms rushing potential
not only does it save a hundred food and 45 gold while giving your militia 5 extra HP and 2 attack but you also save
The 40 seconds of research time by getting it instantly when you reach feudal age
Mid fight and without warning your opponent can be suddenly up against much more threatening units at no cost to you
On open maps where it's easier to rush that can help balance the playing field when you're up against
civilizations with good eco bonuses
That said it can also be convenient in the late game to have those free techs in case you want to suddenly switch into two-handed swordsmen
Not only are they great against Eagles with +8 attack, but they also do well against pikes and light cavalry
Don't forget in definitive edition
The swordsmen line is better than ever with the new tech "Supplies" lowering their food cost.
To add to that Bulgarians also have access to a unique tech that makes them even better, which we'll take a look at a bit later
The trade-off is that they're missing champion
Which means they miss out on another 10 HP and end up being weaker to ranged units.
Overall, though it's a solid bonus saving a hundred and sixty seconds and over 800 resources staggered between Feudal to Imperial age
I think it's safe to say that infantry is always a good option for Bulgarians at any point of the game
The next bonus is that their Town Centers cost half the normal stone
Reducing the wood and brick composition of your buildings in favor of wood, what's the worst that can happen?
I'm sure it'll be fine
It ends up being a nice flexible bonus that you could use to free up stone for defensive buildings or walls
Keep in mind that most civilizations can only make two additional Town Centers with their starting stone
Whereas Bulgarians can make four, expanding your options on a closed map like Black Forest
Likewise it can also help out in less obvious ways, like allowing you to make a second Town Center after building a defensive tower
Without collecting additional stone, that's something that's only possible for Bulgarians and Incas
You can also make two town centers and still have enough left over to stone-wall a choke point
But I think you get the idea
The point is that the total savings themselves will probably only be 100 to maybe a few 100 stone at the most
But it can still be handy in a variety of ways
One of the things you might in fact decide to use your extra stone for is their last civ bonus the Krepost
I've looked at it in depth before and in nearly every way it could be thought of as a smaller version of the castle
it has about half the HP and is faster to build
but at the same time it has nearly the same damage output they may be small
But they're feisty. In fact, I'd argue as a defensive building
It gives quite a bit better value than towers or castles and is a contender for the title of the best
Defensive building available to any civilization at the same time. It doesn't end at the castles whole career
Its production is limited to only their unique unit
Whereas the castle has the ability to research technologies, including two that directly help the unique unit
Give value over the long run. You also need a castle to create trebuchet
So in practice, I think it's still always worth making a castle at some point for those reasons
especially for the unique tech "Stirrups"
After the first Castle though additional Kreposts start to look like a more cost efficient way to defend
Strategic areas of the map or put pressure on your opponent. So those are their bonuses so far
It's easy to see why they're in infantry civilization, but also one that lends itself to a defensive minded booming strategy
It's easy for Bulgarians to add in more Town Center's and defend themselves with many castles that can spam their unique unit
Speaking of which let's move on to their iconic unique unit the Konnik
I've talked about the unit in depth before but to summarize into a quick overview
It has the unique feature of having two lives one is a mounted unit and a second as an infantry.
In Castle age the mounted version is arguably better than a knight for five gold less, and you even get a slightly weaker long swordsman afterward
for free giving quite a lot of long-term value
In Imperial age the mounted version is comparable to the Cavalier, plus something slightly weaker than a two-handed swordsman
Again, theoretically that's good value if you consider the cost of those units
And practically speaking as well having the infantry unit appear in the middle of a fight can be a big edge when matched up against anti
cavalry units it's enough that they can end up trading reasonably well against a larger group of halberdiers. For example
Which is not something the knight line can say the fact they switch types mid fight means that by their nature
They're a difficult unit to properly counter without using a combination of anti cavalry and range support units
That is unless you have samurai or one of the few other very specialized units
Now all of that said they do come with a few drawbacks the most important I think is their large upfront cost
They need both infantry and cavalry upgrades which can add up quickly in addition to that
The mounted version secretly has quite a slow attack rate compared to the Knight line
It really needs their unique tech "Stirrups" to be effective in combat that tech can only be researched at a castle
So going straight for Kreposts into Konniks has the built-in disadvantage that the Konniks don't perform nearly as well
All together getting their combined upgrades through to Imperial aged costs about the same as upgrading paladins
And they're still a gold intensive unit after that as well as one that needs to be created from stone buildings as opposed to stables
another drawback to the unit besides the high cost to upgrade and create is that it doesn't survive arrow fire quite as well as the
Paladin even when you factor in the HP of the dismounted version, it only takes 45 shots as opposed to the Paladin 60
So when raiding or against strictly ranged units, I think the Paladin in that particular case is the better choice
So that's their unique unit
They're a big investment more so than the average unique unit
But also offer important advantages especially against infantry or Camel civilizations next
We'll take a look at the unique Tech's the first we've already seen and that stirrups which lets their light cavalry and Konniks attack
33% faster I want to stress again exactly how much better this makes their conics and that it's worth building a castle just to
Prioritize it Konniks gave good value after but not necessarily before stirrups. So it's always an important tech for them
Keep in mind though
This also affects their light cavalry including the hussar who end up beating all other civilizations' Hussars one-on-one
Of course
There are lots of different types of bonuses that affect Hussars and a one-on-one test doesn't necessarily show they're the best in every situation
Tartars are better against ranged units Cumins are created faster and
Berbers are cheaper just to list a few but in head-to-head matchups Bulgarians should consistently come out on top
To add even more strength in melee situations the Bulgarians Imperial age unique tech adds melee armor this time to their militia line
Now the regular champion does start with one more melee armor, which the Bulgarians are lacking
So in practice instead of adding +5, it's more like +4 melee armor in exchange for -10 HP and -1 attack
it's pretty expensive considering they only end up slightly better than
Champions in melee combat roughly on the same level as the Viking champion while at the same time
Their less HP means they're weaker to ranged units
the time this unique tech shines is
against low attack enemies where Bulgarian two-handed swordsmen take 1/3 the damage the champions do against halberdiers, for example
But let's not go overboard and say they're challenging the Teutonic knight. In fact, they get schooled pretty bad
the thing to remember is after the tech Bulgarian two-handed swordsmen end up being better at melee fights than the champion and
Worse against ranged units. Also don't forget to pick up supplies if you're going to be making a lot of them
So that's the Bulgarians unique unit and techs at this point
hopefully you can see why they're also a cavalry civilization and that you're being pushed toward a combination of
Swordsmen and either the Konnik or another stable unit to get a more complete picture of other choices available to you throughout the game
Let's take a look at the tech tree starting with the archers right off the bat
I don't love lacking an early economy bonus for the archers and that's followed up by also missing the crossbowmen
Which is pretty awkward like the spanish you can maybe do a surprise archer rush, but it's not a great long-term play
They're also missing the hand cannoneer and even the final armor upgrade meaning their elite skirmishers will lag a bit behind because of that
on the other hand
The cavalry archers are actually pretty solid only missing the last bit of armor though in general I think
Bulgarians already handle melee units quite well and you won't really need a lot of archer support the cavalry archers save it enough to be
A C+, but in most games I'd say you're probably better off just avoiding the archery range
Next up is the infantry, now they are missing champions
but I'd argue they're five extra melee armor on two-handed swordsman more than offsets that if you can afford the upgrade
Considering their free militia line upgrades
I think there's a lot of utility to the swordsmen line in both the early game and late-game
I'd say it's an A - for infantry really just held back because there's so much competition with other civilizations who have some really amazing
Infantry bonuses on top of also having a champion, of course moving on. Let's take a look at the cavalry in this case
there's no direct early economy or cavalry bonus so they can be out competed when going for Scouts or early Knights as
The game goes on though
They have arguably some of the best Hussars available on top of paladins and the Konnik which holds up really well against the normal
cavalry counters if left,
you properly boom and prepare they're top-tier in what they can field but there's a window before that where they can seem downright
Average at the stable I'd say it's an A for cavalry
But with the caveat that it's more like a C+ early on and takes a while to reach that potential moving on
Let's take a look at the siege overall
It's a really solid tech tree just missing the bombard cannon only 11
Civilizations have access to the siege oneger and only eight have access to that and siege ramp
So they're immediately in an exclusive group again. There's no direct siege bonus here
But I'd say it's an A - just based on the openness of the tech tree and siege engineers next up
Let's take a look at the Navy early on again. There's nothing really here to help them out
They do have access to the fire and demo rafts, but that's true of just about all civilizations
I'd say it's a C early game on the water
But the late game they're also missing a lot of techs which might not be critical to holding water, but can certainly be helpful
I'd say again
It's a C in the late game for a C overall
You have galleons with bracer and that's about it
taking a quick look now at the monks up until now they've had a lot in common with the Slavs and I think this is
Where they set themselves apart with their monastery actually being pretty weak in comparison
Sanctity gives monks 50% more HP and block printing gives them three more range. So missing both of those isn't ideal
They do have redemption to convert enemy buildings and siege, but between that and again a complete lack of relevant bonuses
I'd say it's an average ish B-minus for monks moving on
Let's take a look at their defenses not having fortified walls, arrow slits and bombard towers sets a bit of a negative tone
But the Krepost is definitely a help especially in replacing towers
They also save some stone with they're cheaper Town Center's making it easier to wall and build defensive structures
I also like the Konnik as a defensive unit that can be created to counter units either weak to cavalry or infantry
I'd also include the free militia line upgrades here, which can be helpful in spamming sword units during an emergency
I'd say they're a solid defensive civilization
But you need to meet them on their own terms and make use of their unique building and cheaper Town Center's to control the map
Overall, I'd give them a B-plus for defenses though
I know a lot of people aren't going to like their lack of fortified walls and finally taking a quick look at the economy
I know it's come up a few times. But again, the early game is fairly weak
The only direct economy bonus is their cheaper Town Centers and arguably that just helps make defensive structures at the same time
They're missing Two-Man saw and Guilds which weakens their late-game a bit
I'd say it's a B- for the economy
Considering their particularly strong Hussars
I wouldn't say they're in a terrible position for the late game though
And they have the potential to get some pretty good value out of the units that they make so that's the Bulgarians tech tree
infantry and cavalry aside
I think siege is also something you really want to make use of given their large variety in terms of good strategies to think about
When playing bulgarians, the foremost is a good men at arms opening
They don't excel at many of the other
standard openings like their Scouts which are pretty generic and their archers which are not a great long-term investment considering the lack of
Crossbow in Castle age there is some potential to a light cavalry and stirrups combination given how much better Plus 33% attack rate
Really is but there's also nothing wrong with playing it safe and going for something more conventional like Knights or transitioning into Konniks
Even if you're not going for Konniks
I think Kreposts can be a good standalone option either
Defensively or as an alternative to a castle drop to put pressure on your opponent if you are going seriously into Konniks again, though
I think you really want a castle to pick up these stirrups tech early as
You can see Bulgarians have quite a few solid options to pick and I think they hold their own on just about any land map
Given a bit of time to tech into their powerful units they can become quite difficult to counter
But those are my thoughts on the bulgarians
I appreciate everyone who's been requesting this video and hopefully it gives you a few ideas to try in your next game special
Thanks to Samantha, Benjamin, Jean-Paul and everyone else on patreon for generously helping support the channel. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time
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