First of all, I'm nowhere near a top player here, I'm around 1500 voobly and looking for some advice. At this level, I am aware that the reason I am loosing (or winning) games have nothing to do with the civilization match-up and instead I make many mistakes during each game (so do my rivals) and the one that makes the least (or the second to last, as they say in chess) wins the game.
Anyway, I don't think that there is nothing wrong if players of my level use the strengths and weaknesses of each civilization and play accordingly (in fact, it is one of the most entretaining part of AoE).
This post comes because yesterday I played a 1v1 arabia game, Berbers vs Goth. I lost it badly despite an early eco & military advantage and I believe I did several strategic bad choices. I decided that as Goth, my opponend would want to go Huskarls in Castle Age, so I decided to go knights in Castle instead of Camel Archers (maybe first bad decision, as I reached castle age in better conditions than my opponent). Either way, I believe cheap knights with berbers can't be too bad.
As I decided I would go knts, I opened with scouts and I was able to disrupt his eco and forced him to create a disproportionate amount of spears. I hit Castle age before he did and attacked with a few knights, when I managed to enter he had a complete army of pikes.
From then on, it was him pressuring me with mostly just pikes. I decided to add skirms, but due to the lack of wood for the upgrade and my necessity to get army as soon as possible I made genitours (which was a terrible choice). Eventually I managed to make camel archers but he had already the upper hand and I lost the game in the end.
I guess I need to rethink my answer to massed pikes , or maybe I focused too much into defending something that my TCs could have dealt with and looked for a counter-attack (he added mangonels to his pikes, but often leave them undefended and I could snipe them with knights or even vills) Anyway this left me wondering why I have so many doubts about what can be done with each civ.
I explain myself: unless I get a civilization like, for example, Britons, that I know I want to go for archers; I normally have many doubts about what to do (or what my options are) with every civ. For that, I'm trying to fill in a table with the different strategies for each civilization and I wanted the community to help me build it and correct it.
Keep in mind that this is thought for arabia 1v1 & TGs and we are trying to get the best options (going Spanish archers is possible, I know):
PS: Sorry for long post, but as I have read, you are not too afraid of this in AOEZone
Anyway, I don't think that there is nothing wrong if players of my level use the strengths and weaknesses of each civilization and play accordingly (in fact, it is one of the most entretaining part of AoE).
This post comes because yesterday I played a 1v1 arabia game, Berbers vs Goth. I lost it badly despite an early eco & military advantage and I believe I did several strategic bad choices. I decided that as Goth, my opponend would want to go Huskarls in Castle Age, so I decided to go knights in Castle instead of Camel Archers (maybe first bad decision, as I reached castle age in better conditions than my opponent). Either way, I believe cheap knights with berbers can't be too bad.
As I decided I would go knts, I opened with scouts and I was able to disrupt his eco and forced him to create a disproportionate amount of spears. I hit Castle age before he did and attacked with a few knights, when I managed to enter he had a complete army of pikes.
From then on, it was him pressuring me with mostly just pikes. I decided to add skirms, but due to the lack of wood for the upgrade and my necessity to get army as soon as possible I made genitours (which was a terrible choice). Eventually I managed to make camel archers but he had already the upper hand and I lost the game in the end.
I guess I need to rethink my answer to massed pikes , or maybe I focused too much into defending something that my TCs could have dealt with and looked for a counter-attack (he added mangonels to his pikes, but often leave them undefended and I could snipe them with knights or even vills) Anyway this left me wondering why I have so many doubts about what can be done with each civ.
I explain myself: unless I get a civilization like, for example, Britons, that I know I want to go for archers; I normally have many doubts about what to do (or what my options are) with every civ. For that, I'm trying to fill in a table with the different strategies for each civilization and I wanted the community to help me build it and correct it.
Keep in mind that this is thought for arabia 1v1 & TGs and we are trying to get the best options (going Spanish archers is possible, I know):
CIV | Feudal Age | Castle Age | Imperial Age | Comments |
Aztecs | - M@A -> eagles - M@A -> archer | - Eagles | - Elite eagles | |
Berbers | ? | - Cheap knights - Camel archer | - Camel Archer | |
Britons | - Archers | - Xbow | - Arbalest + trebs | |
Burmese | - M@A +1 att | ????? | ????? | |
Byzantines | ? | ? | ? + trash | |
Celts | - M@A -> archer ? | - Halbs + Siege + Wood raiders | ||
Chinese | - Archer - Scouts | - Xbow - Knights - Camels | - Chukonus - Anything | |
Ethiopians | - Archer - Scouts | - Xbows | - Arbalests + siege | |
Franks | - Scouts | - Knights | - Cavs, paladins | |
Goths | ? | - Knights - Huskarls | - Huskarls + halbs | |
Huns | - Archers - Scouts | - Cav Archer - Knights | - Heavy Cav Archer + halbs - Cavs, paladins | |
Incas | - M@A -> eagles - Towers + vills | - Eagles | - Kamayuks + eagles | |
Indians | - Scouts | - Camels | - More camels | |
Italians | ? | - Xbow? - Knights? | - Gunpowder | |
Japanese | - M@A | ? | - Trebuchets | |
Khmer | ? | ? | ? | |
Koreans | - Towers | ? | - Halbs & Siege | |
Magyars | - Scouts | - Knights | - Cavs, paladins - Heavy Cav Archer | |
Malay | ? | - Battle elephants | ? | |
Malians | - M@A -> Archers - Scouts | ? | ? | |
Mayas | - Archers | - Plumes - Xbows | - Plumes + Rams | |
Mongols | - Scouts | - Mangudai + rams | ||
Persians | - Scouts | - Knights | - Cavs, paladins ? | |
Portuguese | ? | ? | ? | |
Sarracens | - Scouts | ? | - Mamelukes | |
Slavs | - Scouts | - Knights | - Halbs + Siege | |
Spanish | - Scouts - Towers | - Conqs - Knights | - Paladins | |
Teutons | - Scouts | - Knights | - Cavs, paladins ? | |
Turks | ? | - Janissaries ? - Cav Archer | - Heavy Cav Archer | |
Vietnamese | - Archers | ? | ? | |
Vikings | - Archers | - Xbow | - Berserkers |
PS: Sorry for long post, but as I have read, you are not too afraid of this in AOEZone