AoE2: Ranking Historical Nonsense in Unique Techs - Worst 5 

Just wanted to add a small correction: a Serjeant in Old French, for the medieval period, not only refers to the tenure listed by Wikipedia, but primarly and most generally means a professional foot soldier. Normans spoke French and used the French military system, so calling their foot soldiers "serjeant" is totally accurate. The Normans brought the term in England after the conquest, but its primary meaning has evolved and does not refers to it in modern English.

Mayan actually can open a portal to another world and with the cities of gold upon them, they could buy better armor in the alternative universe, a very tough chicken skin

A point about the Vietnamese civ. When they were first introduced, they were portrayed as a SE Asian civ but in reality, Vietnam had stronger cultural ties with East Asia (writing system, vocabulary, Confucianism, & even their Buddhism was imported from China rather than from other SEA countries). Of course, in later patches Vietnam became an East Asian civ due to the backlash from the Viet AOE2 community.

I believe that the Japanese tech being faster to unpack siege is very very very loosely based on Ichiya-jo or Sunomata Castle, which was supposed to have been built overnight. I could see them looking at that, seeing that the castle was a wooden fortress assembled from pre-built parts rather fast in order to act as a sort of siege tower, realising that they couldn't balance that properly in game and then using it for the siege units in general.

Nice video. But.. a little subjective in places. For example, yeomen. All peasantry had to train with the bow. So it actual took years to develop the skills (shooting a long bow is really hard!). So it actually makes sense, that with training, to would shoot it farther.

"Their historical advisor must have been on vacation" - love it 🤣

Chatras affecting elephant archer would be much more make sense. It would give them more line of sight or attack range for the bowman on top of elephant and if it was made of metal, it could also give Pierce armor.

Absolutely amazing vid. I wish you did the whole list for 39 civs I woulda watched the whole thing even if 1 hour long

Serjeant is derived from Sergeant which is proably what the "AOE Serjeant" refers to: "In medieval European usage, a sergeant was simply any attendant or officer with a protective duty. Any medieval knight or military order of knighthood might have "sergeants-at-arms", meaning servants able to fight if needed. " It makes a lot of sense for those units to partakes in crusades, Crusades where definitly NOT a "knight only" thing.

If you plan on doing Top 5 most fitting unique techs, i strongly recommend the Hussite reforms. Not only the civ definitely fits and the unit as well, the effect is spot on. IRL hussites had several demands from the church, one of which being the poverty of church. This was also something done in regular ceremonies, with liturgy done somewhere on a hill with a table instead of altar. Also priests were commonly wearing common clothes and living in modesty. In the game, this is reflected perfectly by turning the monk cost and cost of monk upgrades from gold to food. Only thing that would make this even better would be including the other reforms suggested by hussites, like utraquistic liturgy (could be the the thing that gives villagers the sanctity upgrade) or preaching being independent and free from Rome's control (monks being made faster?) Either way pretty spot on tech. Wagenburg tactics is also pretty fitting, but unfortunately it's kind of difficult to rate with how different hussite wagons are in the game and IRL.

To be fair, Sicilians basically are Normans, just with a different name and some Italian, Arabic, and Greek influences. That being said there was enough change between the two that I wouldnt mind a new castle age tech. Oh, and the Japanese one should be switched out for +2 Pierce armor for Hand Cannoneers.

The civ scicilians refer to the norman kingdom of scicilia. Its accurate. The Most important leaders of the first cruzade were normands from that kingdom

I think yeoman can be construed as having the correct effect. They're professional footsoldiers contrary to the majority of medieval infantry that was composed of temporary levies, they were armed with some of the best bows from the time period (so good they were still in use in the Elizabethan era). It makes sense that it would make them more performant.

If El Dorado were the unique tech for the Muisca, then at least you’d be able to say it’s a tech based on a myth the Muisca inspired. Maybe it could provide a permanent Gold trickle or something similar to represent the metalworking of the Muisca. As is, it is simply bizarre.

El Dorado represents the fact that while conflicting with the natives, the Europeans would waste time searching for a thing that didn’t exist. So this “technology” makes your soldiers more effective. But yeah the rest seems absolute BS.

I genuinely burst out laughing at the umbrella part. Great vid! 👍

Great video! I want ti give some input in some points: 5. A reason why I didn't like the choice of the "Sicilians" as a civ is because it has nothing to do with Sicily, but rather, the Italo-Normans, which is a huge shame given that the civ is meant to represent the "rich cultural diversity of medieval Sicily", when in reality its just the Normans with a different name, as can be seen from the tech tree and bonuses. So, I would say that the technology kinda makes sense in effect and civ, but only if the SIcilians are acknowledged as Normans. 1. Yeah, El Dorado (and the whole Maya civ as depicted in the game) is pure fantasy. I'm glad you touched upon this, which is a huge misrepresentation for american civs in general. The only detail i want to point out is that the Maya were never an empire, but rather a collection of city-states in the same fashion as the Greeks. A much better name for El Dorado would have been "Star Wars" (yes, I wrote that correctly). A Star War in Maya culture was glyph used to represent a decisive battle between two distinct polities. Also, given that the Maya style of warfare apparently involved the elites as the primary fighting force rather than commoners, it would kinda fit the Eagle Warrior if you are willing to abstract then as asome sort of mayan nobility.

I am a blacksmith, the bearded axe tech makes theoretiacally sense, since the design of a bearded axe has physically less metal in its body before the actual blade part. Where as a conventional a axe the one you could use for chopping wood is heavier and has more mass. A little less weight can give the thrower more distance in thorwing :) Makes actually sense

I *think* the idea for El Dorado was a sort of "Fountain of eternal Youth" thing, which would make sense for more HP. It's still nonsense, but it is slightly less nonsense than it could be.

Just two minutes into the vid, but - there's ~ 900 hillforts (Piliakalnis) in Lithuania, while according to wiki, there's 1,224 in England. If we compare sizes of both countries, we find out, that Hillforts density is way higher in Lithuania ;) So it was, in fact, given to the correct civ :)

The detail on that ancient elephant art is incredible

I love how the Frank's throwing Axemen throw double-bearded axes that are almost as big as the man throwing it. You couldn't even pick that up off the ground, let alone throw it.

Great video. I would say that the reconquest of sicily was a first crusade before the first crusade and inspired the actual one as Normans played a pivotle role. Sidenote: a friend said that the Lithuanians could have the conversion resistance since they were one of the last to be converted from paganism and the teutons should have the relic bonus since they were on a crusade themselves in the baltic

El dorado wouldn’t be a terrible technology for the Incas because they were known to have extraordinary amounts of gold

Some of the sources I've read mentioned 'Serjeants' as having not only royal household duties (as you state) but also accompanied their lords into battle when required. They were below knights but above common levies in the Medieval hierarchy, and their armour and weapons often reflected this. The Sicilians are also supposed to represent the period of the ruling Norman lords in southern Italy and Sicily just before they went onto Crusade under Bohemond of Taranto with his Norman knights. I think people confuse 'Sicilians' too literally with the people, rather than the political entity that they represent during the 11th and 12th centuries. When the Normans lords of Italy invaded the Byzantine Empire for example, they recruited all the local levies from the Italian and Sicilian villages under their rule to form the spear-armed foot soldiers, with the mounted Norman knights being the main power of that force. That being said, a better unique unit for the Sicilians would have been a mounted Norman knight similar to the lance wielding Sicilian hero units (Robert Guiscard etc) found in the scenario editor. My guess is that the devs didn't want another cavalry civ and shaped the Sicilians to be infantry instead, hence the Serjeant unit.

Excellent video. I think that another honorable mention tech is Manipur cavalry(from Burmese). In fact, Manipur people have often fought against Burmese and even when Manipur was a part of Toungoo Empire, Manipur warriors were general lancers. And, of course, arambai was the common weapon of Meitei, not the Burmese, army.

Seriousness, humor and examples. What else do we need?

Really great video! I've thought of some of these myself, the inaccuracies and severe misrepresentations became more clear the more history I've learnt

Amazing video with super fun elements! Would love to see more! :)

El Dorado could also be an Aztec technology, but no matter if Aztec or Spanish, it should give some sort of boost to gold production.

Amazing work! May be your first video, but the way you provided information and disassembled the nonsense systematically was on-point. Keep it up!

I'm more familiar with the "Man of Gold" translation of El Dorado instead of "City of Gold". It makes more sense in that context, although it's still not appropriate for the Mayans.

I really enjoyed this video, love learning new things about history, and I also enjoyed the subtle humor throughout, I hope this is a series and not a one off video. I need to know about all the other technologies now!

I think they should correct all these historical inaccuracies just by renaming the techs. The effects can stay I the same. For example El Dorado can be renamed to Chuc'ah which was the Mayan practice of taking prisoners of war. It doesn't make a ton of sense why their Eagle Warriors (which they didn't even have) get 40 + HP but at least one historical aspect is corrected and no in-game balance is affected.

Finally someone reviewing this! Keep it coming.

Wow, very interesting vid, nicely done! I also would love to see the rest of the tech!

The thing with Yeoman in medieval England is it was mostly in reference to a class of people who were non-noble landowners. These people were not only more readily available to be raised into armies but also often trained much more intensively than serfs, specifically with longbows. So it makes more sense that the class and system of acquiring better trained and readily available archers adds attack value.

I had no idea how inaccurate Mayans were depicted. I wish they get around to fixing these inaccuracies along with the dlc content that has been coming out. Indians and Chinese also have a lot to say about their inaccurate/incomplete depiction. Great job on the video though 🔥

Very interesting video! Looking forward for the Top 5!

Nice vid! I'm actually from Yucatán & I agree with you, we don't understand why "el dorado" is an mayan tech on aoe2, and it's true, there were no eagle warriors here but a lot of jaguar warriors, one last thing, the Mayan civilization didn't disappear completely, when the Spanish come were a lot of little cities with caciques, they try to conquistate them but they never accomplished that, that's why there is authentical Mayan people all around the peninsula today, if wanna know more about this, can read about the founding of Mérida with Gonzalo Guerrero (an Spanish who decided to marry a Mayan women) & Francisco de Montejo (the whole family) :)

Seeing "Kataparuto" on the third place I knew it is going to be a very interesting video.

You did a really good job with this video! I was surprised when you said is your first video you ever made. Congrats! And keep going with this!

Awesome for be your first video, hope see more of you soon

Great creative content. Keep up the good work buddy. Was watching your other video "AoE2: Ranking Historical Sense in Unique Techs - Top 5" and ended up here. Even liked this video more.

great video man, really insightfull. Keep up the good work my man

This is a wonderful video! Hope we get further parts.

I love these kind of videos. You will have my views 100% if you make more with this style!

This was a very good video. Thank you for making it and help give information to the AoE2 community (and everyone else)!

Great video! I loved the humour and the details!

I'd love to see a complete historical accuracy mod. Where all of the techs do what they actually did IRL and the techs apply to the correct civs. Also I'd like to the see the unit models get redesigned to actually look how they're supposed to for each civ. That would add a lot more flavor to the civs I think.

How to fix El Dorado: Civ: Inca Unit: Town center Effect: Every town centre gives a small trickle of gold, similar to that of the relics

Oh my god this was amazing! Please make more! Rank other techs, rank civ bonuses, rank tech trees, units, etc.

About Yeomen tech, learning how to wield a bow from childhood ought to make them better at archery in their adult years. It is also found that such individuals had an asymmetrical bone structure, which might make them severely disabled in their older years [that is if they make it that far in life.....], but it would probably make it more natural for them to shoot arrows farther. The feudal and castle age ranges increase is justified this way, making that last +1 range very expensive for them to get that sweet 6+6 range. Towers should get both range and attack, though it would be similar to the Korean unique tech, so they probably refrained from that.

Very good effort for your first video! Or even very good effort!

For your first video, it was very well made and professional. Subbed.

“Huns don’t need to build houses.” Y’know, I’d be totally down if semi-nomadic or steppe civs like the Huns, Mongols, Tatars, and Cumans all had single or four tile yurts or tents that unpacked and packed and moved like trebuchets. And don’t forget, arrow wounds can be reduced by up to 50% if you figure out how to weave cloth with a loom!

ROFL @ the UT Santa Claus. Brilliant video!

Game designers: The game's settings are ready but we still have to come up with a unique technology for the Mayans and the deadline is tomorrow. Any ideas anybody? -Designer: I just watched yesterday a new movie I rented on VHS it was called El Dorado. That sounds like a cool name doesn't it? -Lead designers: SOLD!

Great video, love the content and I think you sound like Cillian Murphy if he had a German accent 👏🏼. Looking forward to the next vid

super cool video! Nice to know all of these things.

Fantastic! Could you do one on aoe1?I think it would be interesting because it seems to me that the logical and historical mistakes are even more preposterous there, like almost everyone (including Minoan) have camels, Sumeria and Egypt can research chain mail armour, pre-assyrian civs have mounted units, etc.

What a great video! especially for your first one

great video! I'd love to see a least accurate civ unit video as well if you feel up to it.

Wow what a great vid. Wish there were a lot more vids like this.

Apparently, the original story of El Dorado was about a ritual where the heir to a tribe would be covered in gold for a ceremony, and then proceed to offer valuables to a deity. If we take the liberty to consider that story to be credible enough to make it into AoE2, it could be a technology for the Inca and related to monks, faith, or the fervor or fortitude of warriors

Of note with regards to the term "kataparuto", while certainly a loan word from English, "発石木 " was a term used for catapults of the Onin war, which would in effect be man-powered mangonels, however the AoE2 technology is rather nonsensical here as there wasn't really a proper trebuchet analog in Japan. Additionally, the term bathtub does exist in Japanese, as bathing has been a popular practice in Japan well before any European contact, with the terms "浴槽" and "湯船", the latter even having an etymological root in how a service arose to escape the crowded public bathhouses, where people would go and seek the services of "bath ships" off the shore of cities during the Edo period.

In Urdu the word for umbrella is "Chathri" and in Punjabi "Chatha". Never once did it cross my mind that Chatras could be the Sanskrit term for umbrella.

Good video sir. Yeomen (Mandatory archery training of the kingdoms commoners/citizenry) would improve their archer abilities, thus the Yeomen effect is fitting, no need for increased training rate. Having visited Lithuania myself, I can say their topography was brilliantly laid out to construct good defensible hillforts. Thus I love this tech for them. What I would however change for Lithuanians is: African ,Mezzo, Civs that do not gain access to Good cavalry,nor gunpowder,nor elephants and a weak navy should instead receive strong bonuses for their infantry, villagers and trash. African and mezzo civs should only have canoe navies. Able to fire arrows ,fast ,agile and only using 0.5 pop space but they don't have access to Gally line, nor cannon. Gallons. All canoes can carry/transport 3-5 units and are trained twice as fast as regular ships. Don’t have access to fire ships but get fire canoes that shoot fat covered fire arrows (Fat burns intensely hot). Tech in dock:Fat covered fire arrows - +3 attack to canoes. Canoes transporting skirmishers gain added pierce armour,attack and range. Canoe upgrades are half the cost of regular ship upgrades and come in immediately when you research them. Give the imperial Skirmisher Team bonus (Vietnamese) to a Sub Sahara African civ (Shona people). Sub Sahara African civs get African huts as Dark age houses. (Already in game.) Saracen + Berber+Turks + Kurds dark age houses should be Berber tents (Already in game.) Lithuanians ‘’Skirmishers and spearmen move 10% faster’’ bonus should go to a new Mapuches/Tarascans civ that forms part of a New DLC. And the (Spearman-line and Skirmishers +2P armour) should go to the Zaputechs. In turn Lithuanians towershields tech applies to their crossbows and their sword line. . Dravidians I would love to see the Dravidian ‘’Skirmishers attack 25% faster’’ bonus go to a new Mapuches/Tarascans civ that forms part of a New DLC Tribes of the Tropics DLC Taíno/Arawak peoples / Carib kingdom/Tupi Zaputechs Mapuches/Tarascans. Toltecs Polynesians/ Tuʻi Tonga Empire. In turn the Dravidian Urumi gains the ability to build/repair docks and faster firing BBC/hand cannoneers.

Great video man! I like the idea. Wish there will be more like this. What do you think of my reskilled Scots (because Celts in aoe2 are so wrong in there depicture). I am sure that you will say something about the unique technologies that I picked. The Scots Infantry and trash units I know that the Celts are in the game and they represent the Scots. But they are badly designed and we can’t give the same tech tree to both the Irish and the Welsh. Just think about the longbow. Welsh had it but Irish did not. The flag would be the kingly banner of Scotland. The red lion on a golden bottom. Bonus - Trash units move 10% faster => The Scots were experts at guerilla warfare. This bonus shows that. - Lumberjacks work 15% faster - Beginwith 2 more sheep (Scotland is famous for its sheep) - Every ennemy unit killed brings 5% of its food cost to the Scottish player. => Raids were common in Scotland even in the modern era. That’s a way to show this phenomenon. Team bonus - Trash units train 15% faster Unique unit Gallowglass: heavy infantry 90F 25G - Castle age: HP: 50 Attack: 12 Armor 2/2 Speed 1.00 Rate of fire 2.0 - Imperial age: Elite 1000F 600G HP 65 Attack 16 Armor 3/3 Speed 1.00 Rate of fire 2.0 An heavy infantry made to charge. Well equipped and powerful, they take many risks due to their war mindset. That’s why they have less hp than a champion. Unique technologies - Castle age => Shiltron 350F 350G Pikemen line gains +1 range and +1/+1 armor. => Scotland was famous for its pikemen and their shiltron formation. That’s why they must be above average. - Imperial age => Hobelar 350F 400G Light cavalry gains +2/2 armor => The heavy Scottish horsemen were very few but the Scots had a pretty good light cavalry. Archery range 1) Bowman => crossbowman 2) Skirmisher => Elite skirmisher No HA (we are in western Europe not in the steppes), no HC nor the technologies of the building. Barrack 1) Militia => Men at arms => Longswordsmen => 2 handed swordsmen => Champion 2) Spearman => Pikeman => Halberdier - Squires - Supplies Stable 1) Scout => Light cavalry => Hussar 2) Knight => Cavalier - Blood lines - Husbandry The Scots had a good light cavalry but not a great heavy one. That’s why they must not have the paladins. Siege workshop 1) Ram => Capped ram => Siege ram 2) Mangonnel => Onager 3) Scorpion 4) Siege tower Scotland was not famous for its siege weapons. I don’t know where the creators of the game took this idea. Blacksmith 1) forging => iron casting => blast furnace 2) scale mail armor => chain mail armor => plate mail armor 3) scale barding armor => chain barding armor 4) fletching => bodkin arrow => bracer 5) padded archer armor => leather archer armor => ring archer armor The range units of Scotland were not as bas as they are in the current game. They were not on the same level as the British or Welsh ones but they were decent at least. That’s why I give them bracer and the last armor for their skirmishers but without thumbring nor arbalester Dock 1) fishing ship 2) transport ship 3) trade cog 4) fire ship 5) demolition ship => heavy demolition ship 6) galley => war galley => galion 7) canon galion - guillnets - careening => dry docks Scotland was not famous for its navy. University - masonery => architecture - fortified walls - balistic - guard tower => keep - murder holes - treademill crane - chemistry - arrowslits Castle - hoardings - sappers - conscription Monastery - redemption - atonement - herbal medicine - heresy - sanctity - fervor - faith - illumination - block printing - theocracy Mining camp - gold mining => gold shaft mining - stone mining => stone shaft mining Lumber camp - double bit axe => bow saw Mill - horse collar => heavy plow No guilds

Nice content bro! New sub :D

Hey great video. I just subscribed and I'm looking forward for more videos like this. When I was a kid I enjoyed a lot playing AoE II and learning a little bit of history by doing the campaigns and reading civilizations tech tree. Now I would want to know, for example, who actually had the better knights (when I was a kid, in the game, it was the French knight line, but now the game has new civs and units and it's not anymore)

that santa claus tech... that was a good one dude, you made me smile

I think Ironclad should be a dishonorable mention. - siege, but should be ships - effect of giving armor is ok, I think shells wouldn't be melee damage though - wrong civ, wrong time

Yeoman increasing range and attack does make sense in my opinion. Its not hard to muster archers, but it is hard to muster good longbowmen. So we could say this tech signifies how training was emphasized.

Torsion design was actually created for ballista during Alexander's siege of Cyprus since nothing could otherwise get through the defenses. It wasn't just for catapults. And saying China invented rocketry is questionable at best, since tube based propulsion was found elsewhere earlier.

Oh man, I was hoping someone would make a video like this, specifically because it amuses me how absurd the katapuruto tech is

As Vietnamese, I can say we use "umbrella" on elephants for sheltering against the sun and the rain. In battle, we'd rather use flamethrower or mount some sorts of hand cannon on it xD

I could see Chu Ko Nu *carrying* rockets as a separate weapon and using the repeating crossbow as a sidearm...

Great video mate, cheers!

Wow your first video is way beyond anything I made. Great job

Glad to watch this again just in time for christmas.

You're absolutely right about Chatras in Vietnamese civ. How the hell an umbrella can give Elephants +100 HP? Yes, we did have umbrella on elephants but it's only for celebration of the Emperor. It's absolutely wrong. If you want to make tanky Elephants, have good breeds (in history the capital of Thăng Long, Hanoi has 2000 Elephants) or wear armour on them. And, in history, we put cannons on Elephants instead of Umbrellas. So...hell no

Yeoman makes sense to me. Damage and range effectiveness can be increased because of combat training and readiness.

A much better name for El Dorado would've been The Fountain of Youth. Still mythological, but it's in the right general area and works with the hp bonus.

Well done for a first video! Could've fooled me

Please, do more of these historical criticism videos! With regards to Chatras, I am used to seeing them on depictions of ancient Indian chariot archers. Supposedly, they were there to provide shade from the hot Indian sun on the battlefield. I have no idea of they actually were on the chariots, and I’m not used to seeing them on war elephants.

Love the choice of music! It’s what I play aoe2 to ;)

Santa Claus is my new favorite cursed tech

I noticed they already mentioned the corrections about the French Serjeant but I also gotta mention another one. There were indeed Japanese catapults, actually if you google "Japanese catapult" the image appears right away. Also look at Hōseki (抛石), Tōsekiki (投石機), Hatsuishiki (発石木) or Hihō (飛砲) all of these seem to be historical names for Japanese catapults before contact with europeans. You can also google "Shogun 2 Total War Catapult"

To play devil's advocate, here's a small way in which El Dorado could give anyone extra HP : the name refers to the mythical ruler of the city, who was said to wear gold from head to toes, hence the name. So in a widely inefficient way, nobility (which if you look from far enough is what eagle warriors are, since they're kind of equivalent to knights) could be outfitted with metal, even if it's the worst one you could possibly pick for armor.

Nice video. Love it👍🏻

Nice vid! It would be fun if you did your best to come up with a more suiting technology name. I wouldn’t mind if they reworked many of these no sense technology names.

Great content Keep it up)

Cool video 🔥 realy interesting

Why not , Would like to see more of such videos.

Heinz Harald talking about AoE? You got my attention and my sub, boy! P. S. I'm from Sicily, our voice dub is hilarious :)

Nice video, but maybe work on your sound compression for future projects ;)

I did like your video but I gotta mention another tiny corrections, about the Mayans. 600-900AD was only the fall of the Mayan states but Mayan archaeology is divided in 3 periods. Pre-classic Mayans 1000BC - 250AD Classic Mayans 250AD - 900AD Post-classic Mayans 900AD - 1521 (arrival of the Spanish) Actually they were the first enemy face by Hernán Cortés in 1519 After that Mayans are divided according to Mexican history as: Colonial Mayans 1521 - 1821 (Mayans were finally conquered in the late 18th century) Post-colonial Mayans 1821 - Present day (Google the "Caste War of Yucatan") I still agree 100% with you about "El Dorado" technology.

Ngl, this was gold Thanks for this video!

Goth's Anarchy plus Huskarls were always what triggered me the most