hey guys spirit of the law here in this
video we're going to take a look at
another
african kingdom civilization this time
it's the berbers they have some
versatile cavalry with a top-tier night
rush a couple of options for camels
and even a cavalry version of the
skirmisher
they're especially good team players
with both a team unit
and a unique tech that benefits all of
your allies
the berbers are basically the rich kid
everybody invites to their birthday
because they give you a good present
let's check them out
[Music]
we'll start things off by taking a look
at their team bonus the jenna tour
i've looked at them more in depth in
their own video recently but basically
they're
a higher hp and faster version of the
elite skirmisher
that performs a bit worse in the castle
age and better in the imperial age
the cost is higher but even when that's
factored in they're an excellent choice
in the late game when population limits
count
especially if you have bloodlines a lot
of allies also have some
interesting bonuses for them with the
aztecs huns
mongols saracens vietnamese and turks
being the most notable
with bloodlines they even win
cost-effectively against
elite skirmishers on top of doing better
against archers in general
the main downside is their longer list
of counters so you'll want to keep them
protected with
other units in front moving on their
first civilization bonus is that the
villagers move
ten percent faster a quick glance at
some world record times for running will
let you know why they get this bonus
it kind of reminds me of the old age of
empires 1 30
faster walking speed except well a lot
worse
one thing to know about walking speed is
that it's a relatively small factor
in gather rate most of the time if
you're setting up your economy
reasonably well
with lumber camps within a few tiles of
the woodline gold mines a single tile
away and your farms at most
double layered faster walking isn't
really that big of a deal
you maybe see a few percentage increase
in collection with farms benefiting the
most
though in this case it's mostly because
they were doubled up in another video i
found the effect was a lot smaller for
farms immediately around the town
center basically as an economy bonus it
just isn't overwhelming
in terms of saving your units though it
has some pretty profound
implications making them nearly
uncatchable by the militia line
and much better at running away from
ranged units even wolves will get fewer
attacks on them
and you can run a bore about twice as
far on the map
i'd say the real economic impact of the
bonus is the odd villager that it'll
save you
the most significant bonus is up next
and it's their stable units costing 15
percent less in castle age
and 20 less in imperial when you're
rushing and scraping for resources
saving 20 for each night adds up fast
and means you're just that much more
likely to be able to keep constant
production
or afford upgrades to put it in
perspective with two stables constantly
making nights
it's roughly equivalent to having four
extra invisible villagers
i would actually consider this to be
their major economy bonus
assuming you're playing them
conventionally and going for cavalry
just to crunch the numbers 15 less means
18
more units for the same resources which
if you factor in lanchester square law
means you're actually getting a 38
advantage
the fact this bonus gets even better in
imperial age is worth noting
as well and means heavily discounted
cavaliers heavy camels and hazards
all with bloodlines and full upgrades if
you decide to use them
on days you just want to steamroll a
town with light cavalry or need to back
up your flanks with knights
this bonus has you covered they're also
nearly evenly matched with fully
upgraded paladins in the late game when
given equal resources
you won't win over the long run but it's
a lot closer than you might expect
the last bonus is basically the first
one again except
this time on water that can be useful
once in a while helping you avoid fights
or chasing things down
in terms of speed the order goes cannon
galleons fishing ships
fire ships galleys and fast fire ships
and demo ships as the fastest
with the berber bonus factored in a few
things flip and their fishing ships
outrun fire ships
while their fire ships can chase down
galleons and fast fire ships
and their galleons almost exactly match
the demo ship for speed
this isn't the kind of thing you need to
memorize in fact the only thing you'll
have to remember is that in most
matchups you'll have the faster ship
as a side effect that's easy to overlook
it also means their fishing ships work
a bit faster again with reasonable
distances it's a pretty modest
increase with fish traps we'd even
expect a smaller increase since the
travel distance is usually quite short
so my general impression of their sieve
bonuses is that everything seems to be
built around speed
whether that's done directly or through
pushing you toward
cavalry as we'll see that trend
continues as we shift our focus to the
castle and their unique unit
the camel archer now unlike every other
camel unit in the game
they actually don't have a bonus against
cavalry but in fact have one against
cavalry archers
we could consider them an anti-cavalry
archer cavalry archer they have a
moderate bonus against them which
generalizes to
pretty much every similar type of unique
unit except for some reason the
conquistador
now that's not to say their bonus damage
should completely dictate when to use
them
in fact the jenna tour has an even
larger bonus and would be my first
choice against cavalry archer armies
i think it's better to look at the camel
archer as a strong standalone unit
in fact i've secretly had a crush on
them since my thumb ring video where
they outperformed every other archer
unit in terms of damage output
testing them again along with some other
hard hitting ranged units
it still holds up really well with
castle age upgrades they're right up
there with the best which is especially
notable considering they cost
significantly less
than their closest competition if we
look at them in the post-imperial stage
against a low pierce armor target
they fall behind the mangadai and
mammaloo they're not quite as impressive
especially with the magnetized
anti-siege bonus factored in
but camel archers should be considered
very good value for the gold spend
if you're making use of their
anti-cavalry archer bonus as well
it's just going to be that much better
but an argument can be made that even if
that were taken away
entirely they'd still be a solid unit
that's also comparing them to some of
the best unique units
if we compare them to the other berber
options it's by far the hardest hitting
of their mounted archers now putting
their high damage output aside
they're notable for also being able to
take quite a bit
one thing you normally have to watch out
for with cavalry archer unique units
is how much bonus damage they take
there's normally significant damage from
skirmishers
camels and especially pikes camel
archers take some of that but it's
nowhere near the same level
in fact as a general rule it's roughly
half as much across the board
that makes them not only one of the
hardest hitting cavalry archers but also
the most likely to survive against the
normal counter units
a few other miscellaneous things to note
are that they're quite fast and even
outpace quite a few other cavalry units
the fact that camels also has the
interesting implication of 5 bonus
damage against buildings if they have an
indian ally
though it doesn't work against castles
and basically stops working
against all buildings once the enemy has
masonry
the creation time is also quite fast
especially when helped out by one of
their unique tacks
they're much faster than mangudai and
conquistadors for example
though they're not as fast as the
infantry unique units the elite upgrade
costs 1000 wood and 500 gold
it only gives 5 hp one attack and one
melee armor
that would need quite a few to pay off
but it's in line with some similar elite
unit upgrades
they also have a nice short delay on
their attacks like the manga die
which makes them easy to micro and in
general fun to use
another hidden quality is that their
accuracy is nearly perfect
even in the castle age thumb ring is
still important for about an 18
faster firing rate but it's not as
important as it would be
for say a cavalry archer which in the
castle age is lucky to hit three times
out of four
also did i mention that they regenerate
health i think we should talk about the
unique tax
the first one we'll look at regenerates
health for all camel units
it turns out though it's at a pretty
slow rate in fact it's just a tenth of
the healing rate of a monk
and significantly slower than a viking
similar bonus for their berserks
over a few minutes though it can add up
for example with an army of 40 injured
units that ends up being the same
healing rate as bringing along
four monks or eight missionaries keep in
mind the tech applies to both the camel
archer and the camel line at the stable
those camels at the stable are also
extra cheap as well
there was a well-known bug when the
expansion first came out that this
technology
affected all camels including both
allies and enemies in case you're
wondering that has been fixed and now
it's just your own camels that benefit
so you don't have to worry about that
speaking of unique texts that help your
allies their castle age unique tech is
that the whole team's castles work 25
faster including your own that applies
to both units and techs
now this is by far my favorite tech in
the game because i always felt like
spies took
way too long to research besides being
nice for helping your allies create
their unique units
this is also going to help trebuchet
production that can have a surprisingly
large impact on a game
for example this sneaky japanese
trebuchet is attacking this very
strategically placed castle
as saracens most of the time i can't get
the trebuchets out quickly enough to
save it
with the first one coming out at 39
seconds and the second at a minute 17.
trying again as the berbers with this
tech the first trebuchet
is out at 31 seconds and the second is
out around a minute
the third one is out already when the
trebuchet is taken down
and the castle is saved as sometimes
happens a small change
has led to a big difference in the
outcome so that's the berber unique
units and
tax i was really impressed with how the
camel archer performed
and i think it's quietly become one of
the best ranged unique units
the geniture steals a bit of the
spotlight and the stats don't jump out
at you so i feel like it's gone a bit
under the radar the emphasis on
camels while also leaving you regular
cavalry as an option
makes them a good fit for people who are
maybe camel curious
but not quite ready to take the plunge
in the way you have to be
with saracens or indians so now let's
quickly check out their tech tree
starting with the archers
in the late game they're missing
arbolest and parthian tactics which
makes the heavy cavalry archer a bit of
a false friend
they're also not cavalry enough to get
the discount bonus
and provided you have a castle the camel
archer is the better choice for that
role
the lack of the arbolest is a bit
unfortunate as well
as the lack of an early game bonus for
the archer rush
the hand cannon here is nice and you'll
be relying on it regularly to
counter your enemy's helper gears
overall i'd say it's a b-plus
based largely on the late game
effectiveness of their unique units and
the sheer number of
options available next up is the
infantry
with no infantry bonuses they only get
generic champions
and are missing the halberdier entirely
for some people that might be the push
they need to go for camels
but more likely they were taken away
because it would make them too strong
in trash fights considering they already
have the geniture and cheap hazards
overall for infantry i'd have to go with
a c but mostly be used just to have
something to put in front of your ranged
units
and won't be dazzling on their own now
let's take a look at their cavalry the
cheaper cavalry bonus automatically
bumps them
a lot since it affects light cavalry
knights and camels
the fact that camels regenerate hp also
makes them a very
intriguing option there's no way i can
give them an a plus without paladin
so i'm going to give them an a even
though for the classic castle age night
rush they're probably number one
in the expansions next up is siege i
really like to see the bombard cannon
and the siege engineers
it feels like a solid b plus for me
since they have the essentials
but no real bonus faster castles are
great for making extra trebuchets
though i tend not to make a ton of siege
as berbers just because they slow down
my army too much
now let's take a look at the navy it
hurts the late game not having
shipwright
but to be fair you have access to
everything else
including heated shot the extra speed
bonus is interesting
since it lets you avoid unfavorable
fights but at the end of the day being
good at running away doesn't make you
top tier
the lack of a strong early wood bonus
and shipwright in the late game
make them feel like a bee overall
they'll do all right for themselves but
compared to other naval civilizations
they kind of get blown out of the water
taking a quick look at the monks missing
the extra hp
is a little rough and block printing is
normally a pretty useful one to get as
well
redemption is a necessity and it's there
along with illumination
i'm gonna give them a b for monks a gold
bonus would do a lot to help them out
here
but they are respectable moving on to
defenses the university is missing a few
important late game techs like
architecture keep and bombard tower
i like the idea of the geniture hand
cannoneer and camel line as defensive
counter units
though it's unfortunate they don't have
the halberdier considering the missing
university texts i'd have to give them a
b-minus for defenses
now let's take a look at the economy we
can sort of consider the extra walking
rate to be a bonus here
the cheaper stable unit certainly gives
them the appearance of an incredibly
strong economy during night rushes
which is definitely a strategy to
consider the only economic upgrade
missing
is two man saw which is only a 10 boost
at a time in the game when wood usually
isn't
a big issue overall i'd give them a b
for economy unless you're going for a
night rush in which case
it's an a plus with knights it's
basically the slav and turk economy
bonuses rolled into one
which is hard to overstate so just to
wrap up with a few gameplay thoughts
first of all considering that as a whole
age of empires players are probably most
comfortable with the fast castle knight
rush strategy
berbers are going to be a civilization
that a lot of people will find they can
use
quite well the first time that cavalry
strength continues throughout the game
right up to the point you'd normally be
making paladins
and your late game rating potential will
usually rely on discounted cavaliers
hazards and camels instead
now people who play the base game
primarily are often in the habit of
avoiding camels as the bulk of their
army
but it's important to be open-minded
about using them more in the expansions
where they take a fraction of the bonus
damage they used to from defensive
buildings
the geniture can also be useful for
raiding though it's not quite as good at
that because of its low attack
i see it as a stronger version of the
skirmisher against archers
but much weaker against pikemen unless
you're investing a lot of attention into
micro
either way it never hurts to have the
extra option and even if you don't use
them
odds are at least one of your allies
will in every game
speaking of team games i find they
generally play best online
as the pocket player with easily a top
three night rush and still one of the
best stables in early imperial age
they also have a knack of easily
handling some of the traditional power
civilizations
like the huns franks and mongols which
in itself can also be a big asset to the
team
but those are my thoughts i'd be happy
to hear your experience with them as
well
thanks for watching guys i'll see you
next time
you