hey guys Spirit of the law here in this video we're going to be taking a look at the Italian's
unique team unit the condottiero this unit's had an eventful Journey at one point being considered
much too strong then being heavily nerfed and then improved again in Definitive Edition since
then I haven't really heard complaints one way or the other so presumably it's pretty well balanced
for what it's intended to do as an officially anti-anti-infantry infantry or to put it more
simply an anti-gun powder infantry of course Italians are a relatively unpopular civilization
and not necessarily one push toward infantry in the first place so the real interesting question
for me is whether condottieri are worth making when you're an ally of Italians we'll start by
looking at the unit compared to generic Champions and which types of matchups you might prefer one
unit over the other and then we'll finish up with some discussion about civilizations with other
very good bonuses benefiting their condottieri or Civilizations for whom the unit can make up
for what they otherwise lack in infantry options to start with their stats side by side with the
champion the condottiero looks a little more bust with 10 more HP and one extra melee armor though
notice the champion has three more attack that's slightly misleading as the condottiero attacks
about five percent faster so it's not quite as big of a difference as it seems at first
in fact the units at a glance are remarkably similar and notice they both end with the same
five Pierce armor though the condottiero here is benefiting from a unique Tech with its own extra
cost to consider that Tech gives both this unit as well as their Genoese crossbows some extra
armor so they are slightly better than a generic condottiero for another civilization looking at
their individual cost though is where things start to diverge the condottiero is 50 food
and 35 gold while the champion is 60 food and 20 gold though that can potentially be brought down
a bit with supplies which Italians have access to that means the champion is potentially costing 25
percent fewer resources but critically about half the gold per unit going a bit deeper into some
hidden stats they have a similar creation time at the barracks though technically the condottiero
is created about two and a half seconds faster after conscription the condo hero also moves
faster actually by quite a bit in fact you can see they're almost as fast as Elite Eagle Warriors
moving on to their hidden attack bonuses this is where the condottiero's anti-gun powder reputation
partly comes from they have plus 10 attack against all gunpowder units which actually includes quite
a few units these days including hand Cannon ears the Champion's bonus damage on the other hand is
actually specialized toward Eagle Warriors and we'll check later if condottieri are even a good
counter to Eagles at all both of these units also have a small bonus against buildings as well and
especially after picking up arson both are pretty great at shredding buildings with Champions being
technically a bit better in addition to their attack bonus differences there's also some
interesting hidden things going on with their armor as well the condottiero actually resists
10 anti-infantry bonus damage which fully negates the hand cannoneers bonus and of
course that is the first unit that probably comes to mind theoretically this should affect other
anti-infantry units and a few years ago it did work that way but now the Slinger plumed Archer
Jaguar warrior in cataphract have a specific extra bonus against condottieri added in to restore
their usual bonus in practice that just means the hand cannoneer and the Canon Galleon are the only
units whose damage they possessed for a bit of perspective in the end the elite plumed Archer and
hand cannoneer are roughly as effective against condottieri at a distance whereas with regular
Champions the hand cannoneer is very effective here bringing went down several seconds faster
as for upgrades it's about what you'd expect being improved with arson Squires infantry
blacksmith upgrades pavise for more armor and for Italian allies most infantry focused techs
you can think of like Garland Wars and Druzhina affect them as well note that supplies does not
affect the condottiero though of course probably their biggest advantage over The Swordsman line
is that the condottiero doesn't need a series of upgrades and comes out of the box and Imperial age
ready to go which is especially nice considering Italians have cheaper advancing altogether it's
about 1400 resources saved and 4 minutes and 20 seconds of research time that you can bypass this
is the condottiero's biggest advantage in my opinion which is an instant Imperial age unit
roughly on par with the champion stats but without the upfront investment bypassing the
Champion's upgrade cost assuming you start it from scratch is the equivalent of about 22 condottieri
judging by total resources and also skips the awkward four-minute transition to Champion from
scratch where you might need to be throwing long swords and two-handed Swordsmen into battles out
of desperation getting terrible value out of those units until the final upgrades come in
that said we know the Champion's lower cost is eventually going to lead to better value against
most units but how much better does it perform let's take a look at some common matchups to
find out which should give us an idea of when it's worth the extra initial investment first
off in a simple head-to-head with equal numbers condottieri typically have a slight Edge both
units defeat the other in seven hits but remember condottieri both attack and move faster helping
them navigate the battlefield of course Champions are a bit cheaper overall and making a resource
balance fight without supplies sometimes it goes one way sometimes the other I wouldn't say there's
a clear winner here unless you want to put some extra emphasis on gold doing it again but this
time factoring in the lower cost with supplies and a balanced fight the champions win this all
day while again costing less gold the point is supplies is a very useful Tech if you're planning
to spam Champions and if your civilization is missing supplies then condottieri automatically
become a much more attractive alternative moving on another really important role for the champion
is as a One-Stop counter to trash units the idea is that the champion is a reasonable counter to
the golden trash units assuming your opponent has run out of gold but you still have a bit
left or at reasonably High market prices you could also sell food and wood at the market to generate
the gold you need to make them the thing is though while the condottiero does similarly well
against halberdiers and actually better against skirmishers and Hazard with equal numbers their
nearly double gold cost makes them significantly worse in that anti-trash role against hazards
for example while condottieri ended up performing noticeably better than Champions when you actually
look at their losses the condottieri came out worse from a gold perspective another role that
champions of course do better is against Eagles the champion is the obvious choice thanks to large
bonus damage but it turns out the condottiero is not that bad on its own ending with about
half of its HP 101 against an Inca Elite Eagle Warrior as we saw already it's pretty quick on
its feet as well so I don't think it's a terrible response to Eagles by any means and especially
gold wise it's actually a reasonably good trade at the same time even in early Imperial age with
leftover Castle age troops it turns out you get better results sticking with the long sword than
immediately switching to condottiero thanks to the long sword's extra bonus damage the point is
either unit works and they just have a trade-off of Greater attack bonus against faster speed
so those are a couple of roles where the champion is arguably still better but what
about the condottiero's specialty to start with hand cannoneers it turns out negating
their bonus damage leads to condottieri taking almost twice as many hits when you then add in
their attack bonus against gunpowder and put the two units side by side you can see it's not
even close this is of course the role they're intended to play and it's when they're very
good at filling in a practical situation it's easy to imagine where you'd be creating Pikes
as Italians against Cavalry and then are facing hand cannoneers as a counter to your spear units
in that situation condottieri would be a perfect transition given you probably already have some
infantry upgrades in the barracks contrast that easy transition with a tech switch into
Elite skirmishers which if you're trying to start from scratch requires a fair amount of time and
investment now with that said one unit I think you have to be wary of is Janissaries yes they
are gunpowder units but unlike the hand cannoneer they don't deal bonus damage against infantry so
the condottiero's hidden armor doesn't give them any extra resistance in fact in this exam sample
Head to Head they don't even end up looking that much better than a regular Champion despite their
extra attack bonus and speed against a massive janissaries especially with micro and some tactics
condottieri don't necessarily come out on top with equal numbers I'm not saying to never make them as
a counter to janissaries but just that it isn't the slam dunk that it is against hand candy nears
a similar idea also applies to arbalesters. fully upgraded Italian condottieri take two more shots
than a champion but again you have to be careful charging them into a big mass of archers even with
their extra HP and speed there's still infantry with low bass Pierce armor in fact I think art
blasters are among the better ways to counter them along with Siege or tanky units that can beat them
with raw stats now this has all been a comparison to a generic or Italian Champion but now let's
talk about some civilizations who get some extra benefit or incentive to use them naturally you
probably think of the big infantry civilizations who compared to generic conduit heroes are
getting Penthouse-ttieros Goths of course have their large discount and creation speed boost
Japanese attack faster Vikings have more HP as well as more damage against Cavalry making them
a very well-rounded unit Celts also move faster on top of the condottieri's already very fast speed
making them actually faster than a paladin teutons of course also give extra melee armor to their
condottieri Malians give extra Pierce armor making them that much better against hand cannoneers and
janissaries Sicilians then take less bonus damage and of course Slavs gain trample damage with
Druzhina pretty much any strong late game infantry civilization will automatically have extra strong
condottieri and you could be tempted to skip the long line of champion upgrades for something
comparably strong right off the bat a couple to note though are the Malay and bulgarians whose
unique texts affect the militia line specifically and considering both civilizations are also
lacking the champion upgrade there's less initial investment making the condottiero less appealing
in contrast now on the other hand there's also a few civilizations that benefit from an Italian
Ally not because they have good Champions with an infantry bonus but specifically because they don't
any of tatar Ethiopians Mayans Huns or gurjaras and Khmer for balanced reasons don't have the
champion and some are missing supplies on top of that as well so having an Italian Ally actually
gives them a way to get something functionally similar to the champion plugging that hole in
their Tech Tree of course arguably the biggest beneficiary is the Persians who don't even have
two-handed Swordsmen whether it's against Eagle Warriors or trash units in general Persians
lacking anything beyond long Swordsmen gives them a tech tree Gap where assuming you have the gold
they now have a unit that can play the Champion's role while also being resistant to gunpowder
admittedly that can be tricky to think of in the heat of a game where you may not be considering
your team civilizations and options but personally I see more upside to having an Italian Ally not
for infantry civs with great bonuses but actually more for the civilizations who have the worst
Champion lines those are just my thoughts though and hopefully gave you some ideas or
inspiration for how you might use the condottiero thanks for watching and I'll see you next time