Hey guys Spirit of the Law here
In this video we'll take a look at the top 5 best civilizations in Age of Empires 2
Now of course, best is a subjective term and normally there's no way to take everything into account
since civilizations thrive on different maps and different settings
Really, the safest answer to the question has always been to just say "it depends"
And there's definitely some truth to that
So that's why I'm not gonna give you a list I've come up with off the top of my head
Based on speculation or personal experience
These are the best civilizations according to science
By that I mean this list is based entirely on their actual 1VS1 win percentages online
Across all ELO ratings and maps
It's based on over a 100 and 50.000 recent games
All collected and analyzed automatically on a fantastic site set up by a member of the community
Which I'll link in the description
So we've all heard the opinions
But let's find out which civilizations the numbers and results say are the best in practice
At number 5 is the Vikings
The fact that so many people play with random civilizations
Means the majority of these wins are probably from land maps
Now Vikings aren't necessarily amazing right out the gate
With the fourth slowest feudal time on average
And actually perform below average in games ending in under 20 minutes
They make up for it though, in games ending between 30 and 45 minutes
That's right around the late castle age into early imperial aged timeframe
When they're able to get berserk, arbalest, and siege rams onto the battlefield
The most obvious explanation for their top tier win rate is their strong economy
Set up by free and Instantaneous wheelbarrow and then handcart techs upon advancing
Not only does that boost the collection rate of your villagers right away
But you're also saving the cost of those techs
And freeing up your town center's time to make even more villagers
Looking at peripheral stats tells a similar story as well
With an economy score and villager number lead in the mid game
If you ever needed an example of how far a great economic bonus can completely carry a civilizations
Look no further than the Vikings
Next at number 4 is the Huns
Perhaps not surprisingly, they're the most popular civilizations to play
Having a consistent edge right from the short games straight through to the hour plus marathons
Their peak is in the 20 to 30 minute range, though
Which covers either late feudal or the castle age
Now, the Huns have always been considered a strong civilizations
With their house bonus, cheap cavalry archers and faster working stables
Now personally I've been pretty skeptical of their house bonus from an economy perspective in the past
And the stats reflect that the Huns don't really have an economy edge in the early to mid game
So then why are they winning so much?
The data doesn't say anything about army composition
But I would suspect it's largely down to their flexibility
Scouts, crossbows, knights, cavalry archers, Huns can do it all
And in a natural progression where each new unit counters what you were sending against the last one
You made spears against the Hun's scouts
Great, they'll go for archers
You make skirmishers to counter those
Great, by the time you have them ready, the Huns are already gonna be transitioning towards knights
So you switch back to pikemen, but pretty soon they'll hit and run by cavalry archers
It's hard to play against, as they're always able to transition to the next thing
Combined with bonuses helping some of those units out, it always makes them feel just 1 step ahead
You could see the Huns strong booming potential as well
With their higher villager and economy numbers in the late game
This is probably when the housing bonus is actually making its largest impact
Both because of the saved wood but maybe just as important
Is that the player's concentration isn't being regularly broken
By needing to switch their attention to building more houses
Ever so slightly edging them out in terms of win percentage though, at number 3 is the Incas
Now they have the 3rd slowest castle time and great results in sub 20-minute games
Implying a lot of the time they're going more heavily into feudal age aggression
If a 1VS1 featuring an Inca player ends that early, there's a roughly ⅔ chance the Inca player won
That's pretty impressive
Naturally, it makes sense that they also have on average some of these shortest games
You might think those quick wins are from tower rushes
At some very well might be, as they do have a stone discount
But upon closer inspection, the stone collected in Dark Age is only slightly elevated
And nowhere near that of the Koreans for instance
The big advantage I see them having, is in terms of food and villager number
If you think about it there are quite a few things going into that
First and maybe most important is their free starting llama
That counts for way more than just 1 extra sheep
It means they have a more consistent start of always knowing where their initial food is coming from
And are less impacted by unlucky starts or bad scouting
Every time they can start taking food right after finishing house
That's an immediate food bonus
They also have houses that support 10 populations instead of 5
Which is a nice immediate wood bonus as well
The eagle scout is also objectively superior to the scout cavalry when it comes to exploring the map
Which also gives the Incas a sizeable scouting advantage early on as well
There's a lot going on here that's easy to overlook because individually they're all small advantages
But add up in dark age for a clean and efficient early game
Now as the game drags on they do start to lose that advantage
Probably because they specialize in cheap counter units
which are eventually overwhelmed by some of the more powerful late-game civilizations
Good example of one of those coming in at number 2 is the Slavs
A couple of years back this is a civilization that would never have made this list
But they've had a recent revival thanks to a boost to their farming rate
Just looking at their food collected compared to the average civilizations tells you a lot about their economy
Which translates to more military, a higher villager population and even a research edge as well
All of these things of course work in a positive feedback loop
Like the Huns, the Slavs are also another strong cavalry civilization
This time with the threat of discounted siege as well
Their game plan is essentially to go for powerful units, pass go, collect 200 food and repeat
In the late game they spam halberdiers with splash damage, pass go, collect 200 food and repeat
You can even see the switch from quality to quantity in their kills VS game lengths
As they switch from powerful and expensive cavalry units with great kill to death ratios
Into halberdiers, hussars, or elite skirmishers without bracer
Which all yield a significantly worse ratio
This also corresponds to a return to a roughly average win rate in our + games when the gold starts to run out
Maybe partly because of that late-game weakness, there's still a slightly higher win rate
Before we get to number 1, though
there are a few civilizations that you might be expecting that won't be showing up there
and I want to include them as honorable mentions as they're just outside the top 5
First of all, there's the Celts
which are a solid civilization in the number 8 spot
They perform considerably above average in games of any length
Powered by their wood bonus, fast infantry, unique unit and top tier siege
I find it interesting that their worst matchup is actually against the Vikings
With just a 39% win rate
I'm picturing epic berserk VS woad raider battles where the berserks narrowly win and then completely heal up
Next, there are the Mayans which came in at number 7
Like the Incas they performed well early on
Though maybe surprisingly they have a steeper drop-off in the mid game
That might seem a bit odd considering their strong plumed archers in castle age
Though upon closer inspection they lack behind in food and villagers
Maybe partly because of their focus on archers
Though, I think their slower working farms are also a factor there
That also translates into a worse economy score in the late game
Though, even with a weaker economy their strong eagle warriors and cheap plumed archers
Let them get a lot of value from the resources they have
I still think they're a great civilization
But in the real world, they're losing consistently to the strongest ones on the list
I also want to give a quick mention to the Aztecs who come in at number 6
They start out strong in the early to mid game with their militia rush
And faster working military buildings
Again, they have a great economy, this time combined with some truly impressive relic gold stats
Similar to the Mayans, It's not so much that there's an obvious weakness here
But just that they fall a bit short in practice
When matched head-to-head against the civilizations that come in above them on this list
So who do you think is 1st? the American civilizations are out
So would it be Burmese with their arambai?
Malians?
Indians?
Maybe the Japanese?
Nope
And more than 60% win rate number 1 is the Franks
Trust me, I know, I spat out my coffee too
To be frank, I've never thought of them as a top tier 1VS1 civilizations
But assuming the data is correct and there's no french judges here being bribed and skewing the results
That's what they are
Looking at the numbers they have 1 of the fastest castle age times on average
Which is also the period where their knights left them dominating
in 1VS1 games ending between 20 and 30 minutes, the Franks come out on top about ⅔ of the time
Considering all the one-sided matchups from a rating perspective, that's a really impressive number
They follow it up with the 2nd fastest imperial age time as well
so what about the Franks makes them so powerful?
Well they start with 25% faster berry collection rate gives a great boost to their dark age
That lets them advance quickly and open with scouts
You're able to get them out more easily, plus remember they now have extra HP
After a bit of harassment, they can follow that up in castle age by using those same stables
And any upgrades they picked up to make their famous knights
Of course there are even more bonuses dedicated to helping them do that
Including essentially free bloodlines, extra line of sight and later on faster working stable thanks to unique tech
They also have free mill upgrades to help you get the most out of their farms in the mid-game
Food is the most important resource early on and it's interesting that 4 of the top 5 civilizations
Have a direct bonus giving them either more food in the dark age or a boost to their farming
And in the Franks case they have one of each of those
So those are the top 5 civilizations in Age of Empires 2 at the moment
The biggest takeaway for me looking at the list
Is really the importance of a food bonus and the superiority of cavalry
especially in the mid-game
Remember this is all just for 1VS1, which don't have trade and tend to be where more open maps are chosen
Emphasizing a particular set of civilizations that excel in that situation
Still, I hope you enjoyed the breakdown and maybe had a few surprises along the way
I know I definitely did
That's all for this one though, Thanks for watching guys and I'll see you next time