Hey guys Spirit Of The Law here, in this video
I want to talk about a really common question from people just picking up Age of Empires 2
- and that's which civilization is the best for beginners?
With 35 of them in the game now. It's a lot to take in all at once.
Now, I don't think there's one perfect answer to this
So in this video, I want to talk about a few schools of thought and the rationale for each of them
I also want to emphasize before we start that decisions made in game are much more important than which civ if you pick
Before the game, if you're looking to jump in and be successful against the AI or your friends
It's probably more important to learn a good starting build and unit counters, than to make a good strategic civ choice
That being said, I think specializing in one or two civilizations at first while you learn those core skills is a good idea
So that's what we'll look at here. To start off one school of thought is to go with these civilizations that are most popular
Among players new to the game as there's probably a reason behind the popularity
New players, to overgeneralize for a minute, tend to lean toward playing defensively and rely on the unique unit regardless of the situation
Naturally then, a couple of the most popular choices for new players are the Byzantines and Teutons. The Byzantines for example, are intentionally designed as
A defensive civilization and they have a lot of bonuses geared toward that play style, like cheaper halberdiers,
Skirmishers and camels. Free town watch, faster healing monks, as well as more building HP
The unique unit is also a fan favorite and deals extra damage to infantry as well as all adjacent units while at the same time
negating some enemy bonus damage
It's quite expensive to upgrade and requires you to build castles
But in lower level games you often do have time to build up and get upgrades
So the cost isn't as big of a deal as it is in higher levels of play. We'll see a bit later
There's another big reason that Byzantines are thought of as a good civ for beginners
For the Teutons their unique unit is also a fan favorite, in battles without
Micromanagement the Teutonic Knight can perform really well, with the highest melee armor in the game
Because of their slow speed many skilled opponents will use hit and run against them
But again at lower levels or against the AI that's less of a concern
their castles also have extra range and potentially more arrows and they also have a bonus for cheaper farms that
Encourages you to farm a lot, which is a really good habit to get into. For experienced players with normal settings
It's not unusual to end up with 50 or 60 farmers in imperial age
And the sooner you can safely get to that number the better
Another very popular choice is the Britons, again partly because of their unique unit. At higher levels players will counter longbows with a combination
Of Rams and Onagers but mass longbows are usually difficult for the AI and other new players to stop
They also have a pretty clear game plan of going for archers which simplifies your decision-making and they even have a good early to mid-game economy.
On land maps, I'd say they're technically the best of the three mentioned so far
But if you're just starting out all three are popular for a reason and you can't go wrong with any of them
But let's say you don't want to be mainstream and go with the crowd
You just want the best civs, that is the ones with the highest win percentage
According to the numbers in one verse one games on voobly: the Franks, Slavs and Indians were the top for under 1500 rated players
That's mostly just for one verse one Arabia and it could be different in team games or on other maps
But there likely is some truth to the fact that civilizations at the top of the list are better than the ones at the bottom
Indians are a bit unusual there because of their lack of Knights, but Frank's, Slavs and Huns are all very strong
civilizations for all three of those learning how to do a knight rush is going to instantly put you in a position to beat at
Least the moderate AI and all three have good bonuses to help you do that
If we narrow it down to just the bottom 1% of games played, it turns out
Malians are actually number one, followed by Huns and then Persians. Keep in mind though
These stats don't take definitive edition civilizations or balance changes into account yet
The information put out so far for definitive edition is a lot more confusing to interpret and seems to be tracking
Single player games against the AI as well
So the win percentages are really inflated
But for what it's worth the newest four civilizations have the highest win percentage at this point. If you want the most objectively strong
Civilizations any of those mentioned would be good candidates to try, now
All that being said another school of thought is that new players should go for civilizations with the most techs in the late-game
Lower level games online or against the AI tend to go to the late-game quite a bit, and having a variety of options can definitely
Help you learn the units and techs as well as how they interact
Arguably the best choice in that case would be the Spanish, as they have the most
Technologies and upgrades available. If you're brand new and just want to explore the different unit types
They're probably the next best thing to playing with "All Techs" enabled, though quite a few civilizations aren't that far behind in total tech count?
The only big things they're missing are the crossbow upgrade and any of these specialized cavalry units, but in general Spanish
Have a good variety of units, defensive technologies and even a great unique unit
Byzantines are pretty similar as well for having a very open tech tree
Combined with their defensive play style and lack of Dark Age bonuses
There's a pretty compelling argument for why they're so popular with new players and recommended so much by experienced ones
Saracens also get thrown in this group sometimes as well
None of those three civilizations have an overpowered Dark Age bonus
Which means you can avoid relying on that during your early game and potentially picking up some bad habits
That said, some people argue the opposite and the contrasting philosophy
Is that the best new player civilizations are the ones with the greatest advantage in the early game, certainly
You'll have the most success out of the gate if you grab one of those. If that's what you're looking for, the three I'd recommend
are the Huns
Lithuanians and Incas
If you are hoping to improve in the long term and are worried about getting used to an especially easy early game
then these would instead be civilizations to avoid
The Huns are the most extreme case and one of the easiest to play because they don't need to build houses which simplifies the game
And gives you one less thing to worry about
I also include the Lithuanians here because they start with an extra hundred and fifty food
that can cover up for a lot of early game inefficiencies and help you keep villagers coming out which just makes for an
unusually smooth Dark Age, newer players
I find quickly associate
Faster advanced times with being a better player which is true to an extent and the extra hundred and fifty food lets them advance
unusually quickly, that said keep in mind that advancing quickly is only useful if you have the economy to actually
Afford units and techs in the next age, which is a balance that good build orders are meant to do for you
I also want to put the Incas in here as an easy Dark Age
Civilization mostly because of their extra llama at the start of the game. Their houses also contribute double the population
Space, making them feel like a blend between the extra food
Of the Lithuanians and the Huns' bonus of not building houses at all. In my opinion
They're the easiest of the three American civilizations to learn and I'd consider them the Byzantines of the American civs
With a lot of late-game options and a defensive bonus, but missing cavalry making them a bit more streamlined
Personally, I do support the argument that learning on these civilizations will make other civs feel a lot weaker in comparison and make them harder
To switch to. That's why some people argue at first
It's best to avoid these civilizations along with the Chinese because of their lack of food at the start of the game
There's also an argument to avoid American
civilizations at first
Because of their lack of stable units. If your goal is ultimately to branch out and learn all of them, that process might be easier
If you're used to building houses and beginning with standard resources
But if you're just playing for fun and don't care too much about branching out later
I don't see anything wrong with going for Huns every game, and don't let anyone tell you that you're enjoying the game the wrong way
Now there's one more creative take on the question that I want to bring up and the idea is that new players should go random
civ every game. The argument goes, if you ultimately want to learn all of the
Civilizations the best way to do that is just to cycle through them, personally
I think at first it's helpful to go into games with a plan before it starts
So your attention can be focused on actually executing it. Learning to adapt and read game
Situations is something that I think takes longer to develop than just learning the civilizations. If you roll Chinese, for example
And begin with no food
And you're not expecting that it's a tough thing to try to react you in the moment
and it's likely a big contributor to their significantly lower success rate in average games, compared to experts
Likewise if the only early game strategy you know so far is a knight rush, and you roll Aztecs
That's kind of an awkward situation
Whatever you decide, trying them all is something to work toward and you might find a good one for you along the way
For me, I definitely went through a phase with first, Byzantines than Mayans and then Huns
But ultimately I settled on Japanese as the main civilization I used for most of my early rated games on HD
I found my games with them felt the most
Natural and they tended to have the main units I gravitated toward and I didn't really miss the things
They didn't have. It just ended up being a good fit for me at the time and when you're starting out
Whatever civilization you have the most fun playing is probably the one to go with
Hopefully if you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of choices though, this gives you a place to start. That's all for this one though
Thanks for watching guys. I'll see you next time