This part is purely Champion vs Champion warfare comparing before supplies tech and after. All battles are 40 vs 40 both controlled by AI patrolling into each other tested 10 times. with the exception of Goths, Bulgars and Malay (see why below).
Before supplies for every 2 champions you make. Goths can make roughly 3. 40 generic champions equals roughly 60 gothic champions. This is about as basic math we can get.
While Malay can make 60 food 2h swordsman, this will complicate findings in a scenario where you have 800g and 2400f in the bank so I chose to keep this simplified for now. I'll include malay in future testings. They have the potential to be #1 or lower all dependant on whether gold is available or not.
So instead the civs tested in these scenario are: Goths, Slavs, Japanese, Aztecs, Burmese, Vikings, Celts and as a control group the Britons (they're just generic FU Champions).
So let's look at the rankings.
Rank #1 Goths. 60 champions vs 40 champions. Goths will come out on top. Slavs give them a good run for their money but goth domination here is uncontested winning all battles. Even if missing plate mail.
#2 Slavs. Losing narrowly to Gothic 60 vs 40 Slavic. And winning 6/10 fights vs Japanese. 40 vs 40. Slavs take second place. Druzhina is a very powerful tech in infantry warfare. Consistent win against other champions.
#3 Japanese. Losing all vs Goths 60 vs Japanese 40. Losing 6/10 vs Slavs. However winning consistently vs Aztecs, Burmese, Vikings and Celts.
4# Aztecs. Loses all above battles. Beats Burmese and Vikings however. Garland wars is a very critical tech here and you'll see why below.
# 5 Vikings and Burmese. The difference of 1 attack adds up here. This is the only one I had to do more than 10 times. As both were tied 5/10 against each other. In the end Vikings won by one match but the fight can really go either way. For this reason I gave them a tie.
#6 Celts. The extra 5% speed is a good bonus but in this scenario it's not an effective one. So they're 6th.
#7 Britons, the control group. Expected result. Did win 2/10 fights against Celts. But overall celts is better.
So now what if Supplies is done? How does that change things? Well since goths don't get supplies they remain unaffected, however for every 40 generic champions goths can make 50. Does it really make a difference? Luckily for you I was sad enough to test it because Multiplayer servers have not been so kind to me so I been on that scenario editor grind instead.
Using the exact same scenario above. We did 50 Gothic champions vs 40 Slavic, Japanese, Aztec, Viking, Burmese, Celts and Britons again. Britons are also still a control group here. Here are your results.
#1 Slavs. With a deficit of 10 gothic champions, 40 druzhina champions are able to take on 50 gothic champions. Slavs won 8/10 engagements while goths won 2/10.
#2 Goths. Despite losing 10 champions with the new cost. They did beat sometimes japanese, aztecs, sometimes vikings, burmese, celts and britons. Though oddly enough viking and Japanese champions were able to keep up against goths but not so well against the others.
#3 Japanese. Still rank 3 before and rank 3 after. Noticeable difference vs goths but not against the prior civs.
#4 Vikings and Aztecs. A surprising turn of events. The viks were able to survive another hit vs gothic and slavic champions. Aztec champions vs vikings however Aztecs did win but with 10 fewer gothic champions in the mix. Vikings outlasted Aztecs.
#5 Burmese champions. Same rank as before. Same deal. Even pretty even vs Vikings winning 4/10 battles.
#6 Celt champions. No surprise. No differences.
#7 Britons (control group) expected results. Same deal as before.
So what are the supplies results so far?
It seems slavs has overtaken goths and even though I expected japanese champions to be second place given their faster 33% attack rate. Goths still came out on top albeit by a thread. The result that surprised me most is Vikings. Maybe they are still tied 5th place with burmese but one explanation could be the extra hp when champion numbers are closer offset the extra attack of Aztec and Burmese.
Note: I have not used Bulgar 2h in this scenario, which is a potential candidate given its extra 6 melee armour. This is something I'll do more in depth in future. Maybe in video + flip chart form coz they look better than a wall of text.
Doing 10 tests of each battle is not as reliable and some instances the AOE2DE AI had weird patrolling issues. So this will need to be done again, possibly explaining why Vikings did so much better after supplies?
If you read this far. Thanks guys. And like with all things aoe2. In a realistic scenario the answer is that "it always depends".
Gl hf.
HyunaOP
Before supplies for every 2 champions you make. Goths can make roughly 3. 40 generic champions equals roughly 60 gothic champions. This is about as basic math we can get.
While Malay can make 60 food 2h swordsman, this will complicate findings in a scenario where you have 800g and 2400f in the bank so I chose to keep this simplified for now. I'll include malay in future testings. They have the potential to be #1 or lower all dependant on whether gold is available or not.
So instead the civs tested in these scenario are: Goths, Slavs, Japanese, Aztecs, Burmese, Vikings, Celts and as a control group the Britons (they're just generic FU Champions).
So let's look at the rankings.
Rank #1 Goths. 60 champions vs 40 champions. Goths will come out on top. Slavs give them a good run for their money but goth domination here is uncontested winning all battles. Even if missing plate mail.
#2 Slavs. Losing narrowly to Gothic 60 vs 40 Slavic. And winning 6/10 fights vs Japanese. 40 vs 40. Slavs take second place. Druzhina is a very powerful tech in infantry warfare. Consistent win against other champions.
#3 Japanese. Losing all vs Goths 60 vs Japanese 40. Losing 6/10 vs Slavs. However winning consistently vs Aztecs, Burmese, Vikings and Celts.
4# Aztecs. Loses all above battles. Beats Burmese and Vikings however. Garland wars is a very critical tech here and you'll see why below.
# 5 Vikings and Burmese. The difference of 1 attack adds up here. This is the only one I had to do more than 10 times. As both were tied 5/10 against each other. In the end Vikings won by one match but the fight can really go either way. For this reason I gave them a tie.
#6 Celts. The extra 5% speed is a good bonus but in this scenario it's not an effective one. So they're 6th.
#7 Britons, the control group. Expected result. Did win 2/10 fights against Celts. But overall celts is better.
So now what if Supplies is done? How does that change things? Well since goths don't get supplies they remain unaffected, however for every 40 generic champions goths can make 50. Does it really make a difference? Luckily for you I was sad enough to test it because Multiplayer servers have not been so kind to me so I been on that scenario editor grind instead.
Using the exact same scenario above. We did 50 Gothic champions vs 40 Slavic, Japanese, Aztec, Viking, Burmese, Celts and Britons again. Britons are also still a control group here. Here are your results.
#1 Slavs. With a deficit of 10 gothic champions, 40 druzhina champions are able to take on 50 gothic champions. Slavs won 8/10 engagements while goths won 2/10.
#2 Goths. Despite losing 10 champions with the new cost. They did beat sometimes japanese, aztecs, sometimes vikings, burmese, celts and britons. Though oddly enough viking and Japanese champions were able to keep up against goths but not so well against the others.
#3 Japanese. Still rank 3 before and rank 3 after. Noticeable difference vs goths but not against the prior civs.
#4 Vikings and Aztecs. A surprising turn of events. The viks were able to survive another hit vs gothic and slavic champions. Aztec champions vs vikings however Aztecs did win but with 10 fewer gothic champions in the mix. Vikings outlasted Aztecs.
#5 Burmese champions. Same rank as before. Same deal. Even pretty even vs Vikings winning 4/10 battles.
#6 Celt champions. No surprise. No differences.
#7 Britons (control group) expected results. Same deal as before.
So what are the supplies results so far?
It seems slavs has overtaken goths and even though I expected japanese champions to be second place given their faster 33% attack rate. Goths still came out on top albeit by a thread. The result that surprised me most is Vikings. Maybe they are still tied 5th place with burmese but one explanation could be the extra hp when champion numbers are closer offset the extra attack of Aztec and Burmese.
Note: I have not used Bulgar 2h in this scenario, which is a potential candidate given its extra 6 melee armour. This is something I'll do more in depth in future. Maybe in video + flip chart form coz they look better than a wall of text.
Doing 10 tests of each battle is not as reliable and some instances the AOE2DE AI had weird patrolling issues. So this will need to be done again, possibly explaining why Vikings did so much better after supplies?
If you read this far. Thanks guys. And like with all things aoe2. In a realistic scenario the answer is that "it always depends".
Gl hf.
HyunaOP