Hey guys, Spirit of the Law here
in this video, I'm gonna compare the Eagle Warriors of the 3 American civilizations
Aztecs, Mayans and Incas to see which one is best
Or at least in which situations each one excels
Now I have looked at them all as part of their respective civ overviews
But the point of this video is to compare all of them at one time
Against some of the different types of units and rank them against each other
Let's check it out
Now to start with, one thing that makes the comparison relatively straightforward
Compared to, say battle elephants for example
Is that the cost and speed is the same for all Eagle Warriors
They also have access to the same generic infantry technologies
And are identical through Feudal and Castle Age
the only difference between them is that each American civilization has a different Imperial Age unique tech
That somehow modifies their Eagle Warrior's stats
Those techs all cost 1200 resources as a combination of food and gold
So it's about as close to equal as you'll get in this sort of comparison
The Mayan's El Dorado gives their equal warriors plus 40 HP, on top of the Elite Eagle Warriors normal 60 HP
The resulting 100 HP ties them for the most of any infantry unit
On the other hand, the Aztec's Garland Wars gives all of their infantry +4 attack
Including Eagle Warriors
Now Eagle Warriors aren't exactly known for high attack
And are really only ahead of the Pikemen line to start with
But +4 is a big jump and puts their attack around that of a normal Champion or infantry unique unit
The last is the Incas with their unique tech Couriers
A while back this used to increase their speed by +10%
But was switched in favor of giving Kamayuks, Slingers and Eagles +1 melee armor and +2 pierce armor
the pierce armor of Eagle Warriors is already quite good, starting at 4
And potentially being increased by another 4 through the Blacksmith
An additional 2 from Couriers puts them at a total of 10, which is the same as an Elite Huskarl
We'll see what that does against archers and defensive buildings a bit later
Now the comparison between them is gonna be done in a few phases
Part 1 of the test is going to be a straightforward head-to-head matchup with each other
That gives us a quick estimate of their relative strength in melee fights
But is definitely not the only metric will look at
In doing a round-robin... Well, I guess round-eagle in this case, here are the results
Basically Mayans consistently beat Aztecs and Aztecs beat Incas. With Incas losing especially bad to Mayans
that might be a bit surprising as Incas have the best win rate of the group online
Yet their Eagle Warriors already seem to be the worst in melee
Now that being said, a simple rumble in the jungle between Eagle Warriors may not tell the whole story
After all, you don't make Eagle Warriors just to fight other Eagle Warriors
In part 2 of the test, let's see how they compare when it comes to raiding
They're the closest thing American civilizations have to cavalry
And in that role, Aztecs arguably perform the best
Since their Eagle warriors take out villagers in 3 hits, as opposed to 4
That might not sound like much, but in a test group of 8 Villagers
That means Mayans and Incas takes about 23% longer than Aztecs to clear the area
That extra time means the other player is more likely to realize what's happening
And garrison Villagers, build Walls or send reinforcements
But while Aztecs can clear an area of Villagers faster
Mayans and Incas are significantly better at holding up against defensive buildings
Like Town Centers, Towers and Castles
Mayans and Incas might take longer to kill Villagers
But the extra HP and pierce armor means they give better value than Aztecs
When defensive structures are around
Against towers for example, they take the fewest number of shots while Mayans take the most
And it's the same thing against Castles
As another example, when attacking a fully garrisoned and upgraded Town Center with 10 Elite Eagles
Aztecs extra attack lets them take down the Town Center a bit faster
But their lower HP means they really end up with about the same amount of strength left over
As Mayans in that situation
In this case, the Incas extra armor doesn't help at all
Since Town Centers already do 1 damage to all Elite Eagle Warriors
They take the longest and end with the least HP
So against Town Centers, Incas are noticeably worse than the other two
Overall in terms of their raiding potential, I give a slight edge to Aztecs in terms of surprise ability
And they're good for things like a fast Imperial
And then making a quick swarm of eagles to target the player's Town Center
Whereas Mayans do better in post-imperial, where there are a lot of towers or Castles around
And you want a raiding unit that'll survive a bit longer
Incas can use their Eagles to raid, but end up not standing out quite as much as the other two
Moving on to part 3, we'll now take a look at how they do against a variety of units and open field combat
Incas haven't done very well so far, but it turns out they do have a specialty
Their +2 pierce armor means that Arbalest do 1 damage to them
As opposed to 2 damage to Aztec and Mayan Elite Eagle Warriors
The Mayans extra HP makes them significantly better than Aztecs, taking 50 hits instead of 30
But Incas survived the longest, taking 60 shots
On the other hand after uncaging the Eagles, we can see that Aztecs take out Arbalest in 3 hits
As oppose the other Eagles, four
That means at close range, Aztecs will do better than you'd think
But overall, Incas will still do the best against most archers
I say most, because an archer that does less than 10 damage, like a Skirmisher or Genitour
Or more than 13 damage like Arambai, Conquistadors Slingers and Hand Cannoners
Will actually take the longest to kill a Mayan Eagle Warrior
Most archer variations have between 10 and 12 attack though
In which case the numbers work out so that Incas perform the best
A fun fact, is this is the only scenario in which the Incas performed best during the entire video
But moving on, what about the Eagle's deadliest counter, the Champion?
They have 8 bonus damage against Eagle Warriors
So, what helps the most? More attack, HP, or an extra melee armor?
Well, I wouldn't recommend any of the Eagles in that matchup
But Mayans take an extra 2 hits from champions while Aztecs takes them out 2 hits faster
At the end of the day, Mayans have the best results, thanks to surviving a bit longer
Allowing them to sometimes sneak in a bit more damage. While Incas again perform the worst
Their 1 extra melee armor is not helping them out in this fight much at all
I can't emphasize enough that with equal numbers, this is not a matchup you want to allow
Regardless of which civilization you are
But let's flip to another common infantry unit to finish up the Barracks
And see how they all do against Halberdiers
Now it's not a very natural comparison since they have totally different roles
Halberdiers are a cheap anti-cavalry and generally filler unit that doesn't cost gold
While eagles are very gold intensive and meant to be either anti-archer or raiding units
Still, if they do cross paths, Mayans again come out in the best shape
Incas do about the same as Aztecs as the halberdiers attack is low enough
That 1 extra melee armor does make an impact
Again, this is admittedly a weird matchup
But the point is Mayans seem to give the best value against low attack melee units
Moving on the last unit I want to compare them all against is the Paladin
All civilizations Eagle Warriors have a +4 attack bonus against cavalry
And with roughly balanced resources on each side, we can again see that Mayans have the best result
Actually winning against Paladins 19 vs 10 with a little under a third of their HP left
Aztecs and Incas do significantly worse, but not really different from each other
Against a mixed army with Paladins and a few archers in the background as well
I'd expect Incas to do slightly better than Aztecs given their extra pierce armor
So in conclusions, head-to-head Mayans were the clear winner
When it comes to raiding, Mayans give the best value
But Aztecs earned a mention for having a bit of speed and shock value
When it comes to specific units though, Incas do particularly well against archers with 10 to 12 attack
But other than that, Mayans again perform the best
Their extra HP is just too good
And from a stats perspective it's pretty clear that Mayans across the board have the best Eagle Warriors
Of course, in practice you may not even need them considering they also have the Plumed Archer
Another one of the best raiding units in game
Of the 3 civilizations I'd say in actual play
The one that's most important to this civilizations unit composition would actually be the Aztecs
As they otherwise don't have a great raiding unit
Similarly, Eagle Warriors still play a role in the Incas army as an anti-archer and raiding unit
So having the worst Eagle Warriors in this case doesn't mean it's a useless unit
They're just not quite as OP as the Mayans
But that's all for this one, thanks for watching guys. I'll see you next time
If you thought the previous arbalest & eagles bout to get blasted by onagers that means we're bros now
Or is it just me? ok