Do Malians have the best gold bonus now? 

Came here to say this. They definitely have additional advantages in castle and imperial ages due to this. Not to mention the trade bonus in team games.

Every civ is the same base tech tree besides their unique units and bonuses. Easier to balance that than completely different factions with different mechanics like Zerg vs Terran etc.

@@kommodore6691 I wish the devs try to make unique skins for regions at least. So Aztecs don't fight using europeans soldiers and things like that. Forgotten team and lots of modders out there already made a lot of excelent looking skins.

@@ScudForEver this is really cool, but I think it might make things confusing from a game play point of view. Especially at a high level, you need to recognize units within a second or less, on a screen filled with other information. I think it's great that there are a lot of mods for the people that want it, but it shouldn't be standard.

They be mixing it better than Walter White cooking.

​@@tokagerkun a guy in the AoE2 subreddit already made some art of regional skins and it's both unique and immediately recognisable. But I agree that if they do something like that it should be as a game setting like small trees.

go vote and reward yourself with the video afterwards. as a random internet man I'm legally bound to say to you how important voting is.

Are u from arg?

@@tomasferraz7655 Paraguay

@@AuronDdraig so are any of the candidates good? Or you are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils?

Vote for the best party: The Malian party.

The most broken Hearthstone deck ever had something like a 56% win rate. In competitive 1v1s 3% is a lot. It's more than house edge in Casinos and Casinos are not known to be fair.

@@ruukinen waaat? :o

Yes. 3% advantage is a lot. But its not so much that its a must pick.

Yep. AoE2 is suprisingly balanced. Not only cause the most successfull civ is only in 54%-58% area, but because lowest winrate ones never fell bellow 36% winrate, and more vommonly hover around 42-46%

​@@ethribin4188 I guess it makes a difference if mirror matches are possible, like in Hearthstone since then the deck itself can at most win 50% against itself so it's a self balancing mechanic, only casualty being deck diversity.

nobody picks technologies of blacksmith worth of 1800 gold or even half of it, i think he mentioned that in the last parts when he compared results of some game

They do, SotL is just wrong on this one. :P

Poles will have to mine gold as well anyway. 33% roi on villagers is pretty bad especially since stone is the slowest resource to mine after farms.

why does it matter, which resource gives you extra gold? i would even put it exactly reverse - if the resource you need is stone and gold is aplenty extra gold from stone gives you exactly nothing. however, the bonus directly on gold means it applies every single time at the moment you need it. btw who stops Malians from tasking the same number of vils to stone as Poles do? they gain the exact same amount of stone.

@@BayWa4eva the pole bonus is far more powerful in practice than your comment implies.

@@Kawabongahlive not because of stone. in fact the same rate (33%) on wood or farms would be broken beyond repair. the Poles can only get to that high bonus number because stone is such a bad source for bonuses.

@@BayWa4eva the bonus is stronger in practice than what your comments say. It already got nerfed and it makes the beeline towards a castle less punishing which allows them to pick their knight discount tech or go obuch or sell it on the market. You just need to have levels of creativity that are not contemplated in your responses.

Molly and was also there!

It's not so clear, because in this game you can run out of ressources. So in a long game (when it turn into trash unit combat) 1 gold is worth more than in the middle of the game. At this point it's just a completly different bonus.

@@MrMorvana But if you ended up in the late game with 15% more gold available at every other stage of the game, you deserve to lose. You shouldn't be thinking about a game state that almost never happens and if it does is bad for you. Tbf it's still half of the old bonus, it's just vastly superior since you get the gold now rather than later.

1695 gold all told, or 1995 gold, if you include the 20 gold/tech bonus.

@@GoranXII So, the bonus could end up being almost as strong if you research enough blacksmith upgrades, right?

@@joaquinreisin9372 Yep.

On water maps i always pick spain, the 25% more gold trade bonus actually helps out so much, and the faster cannon galleon shots make you rule the waves and your trade untouchable

@@Sven73524 I always love it when SCPs come out of their holes to play some good old Age of Empires

"Good at everything" civs are the most boring design wise

@@seraphimconcordant I actually think they're quite interesting, because it needs to be balanced somehow. For Malians, it's the classic "each unit is missing something in imp". Arbalest but no bracer, siege onager but no siege engineers, great champions against ranged units but no blast furnace, great cavalier and light cav but no paladin or hussar. Their heavy camel with farimba is basically their only unit that is strictly better than the baseline "fully upgraded" unit.

@@jordivermeulen2519 Yeah, it's more like "good at everything but excelent at nothing"

@@seraphimconcordant that’s interesting, I feel that “only good at X” civs are quite dull. Like goths pretty much only going inf and franks well it’s knights 90% of the time. So 🤷‍♂️

I am 1000 elo and I hate when my opponent picks turks on Arena but I also don’t like playing as turks.

Persian unique tech I'd say. Crossbow line becoming trash unit is huge gold saving

Ah, another Malian appreciator. My number one civ by a huge margin.

@@aoefsmrap Fancy seeing you here!

@@robbylava Of course.

Yeah, normally bonus that apply to every resource/bulding are lower, like portuguese faster reseaeching, mayans longer lasting resources or incas cheaper rome buildings, the the bonus with less applainces are greater to compensate, like longer lasting sheeps, faster universities or cheaper castles.

Malians were dope when you could spam +3 pierce armor halbs and fuck up archer and cav civs

They are great but conquistador is better, come on

@@SammyBoyy300 If you've ever done Conqs vs. Gbeto, they feel very similar and infact their head-to-head matchup can go either way because Conqs have the better hit-and-run DPS whilst Gbeto have the better stand-and-fight DPS. The absurd damage on Conqs also tends to overkill really bad vs. Gbeto. In my experience it usually ends up with Conqs running from Gbeto so much that they can't get the damage in that they'd like, and IF Gbeto get a counter-raid in, it can be damaging for Conqs, who can be unfortunately semi-slow to stop it, giving Gbetos a couple free swings at getting vil kills in before the Conq shots lead to kills. But what Gbeto can do that Conqs can't is burn through walls. And opponent who has walled extensively = Conqs won't get much damage in and miss their window. An opponent who *has* walled in will still see their walls burned down in seconds by mass Gbeto, because as an infantry unit they get bonus damage vs. buildings and have perhaps the fastest, most *practical* DPS vs. buildings in the game. (for example, Shotels theoretically burn through buildings faster, but can't be stacked as well vs. walls, so here Gbeto outperform them in practice) I would say Conqs are the more user-friendly option and the one that feels cleaner and easier to manage, especially without walls. If we're talking about a walled opponent or the potential of use though, I'd still rank Gbeto higher. Conqs are legit only good at raiding and tend to flop in direct combat, precisely because their reload speed is pretty bad. (something that running tends to "cancel") Gbeto are much better on this front.

@@Longknife Conqs are way superior when microed properly. Reload time doesn't matter, what's important is initial fire delay before doing the attack - and Gbeto are one of the slowest units in the game to perform their attack after stopping. Conqs can stop, shoot and run away before Gbeto finish their attacking animation. This is also why Gbeto are so susceptible to mangonels if you ever get caught out - they need to stand in place for a long time before their attack activates and they lose most of their HP to single shot. Speaking of, Gbeto die to 1-2 volleys of town center while Conqs can survive multiple and keep killing villagers. Yes, Gbeto are by far the best at taking down walls, especially house walls etc. but you made it seem like Conqs aren't good at busting through walls. That's wrong. Their attack is so high that they can make a hole in palisade walls very quickly. Only house walls or stone walls stop Conqs. Direct combat isn't just Gbeto vs Conqs. You will rarely see that in practice. Spanish player will likely be raiding with conqs before Malian player has a castle and by the time to make one, they will switch to Knight line. What's much more important is how they do vs knights or crossbows, the dominant castle age units - and Conqs, while forced to run away in low numbers, actually murder knights when microed and in good mass while Gbeto get slaughtered and can't run away unless there's a chokepoint nearby. Gbeto can run away from crossbows due to their high speed but if they take a fight they will suffer heavy losses.

@@Progeusz First wanna point out the assessment "Spanish player will be raiding with Conqs before Malian player has a castle" is absurd and there's nothing to support this. These are factors decided by individual match, and if anything, Malians have the stronger eco bonuses to get them to Castle faster, as well as the better means of doing damage in Feudal. My point was that if both players make raiding squads, yes Conqs have the superior hit-and-run game, but not superior *enough* that they're not taking losses to Gbeto in the process. This means a defensive Gbeto squad that chooses just to tail the Conqs and fire back at them will be doing enough damage and enough of a threat that the Conqs are not getting in the damage that they'd like. Additionally, in terms of cost, Gbeto can gladly throw bodies at the fight because Gbeto are the cheaper unit that's also made quicker, meaning Malians both spend less and rebuild their numbers quicker. This is again padded by the fact the Malian gold bonus is stronger. *Long-term,* as this battle escalates, this favors Malians, precisely *because* Conqs are so dependent on hit-and-run. Hit-and-run means single target, Hit-and-run means lots of overkill damage or more squads micro'ed to remain effective, Hit-and-Run means more numbers matter less and less. You mention Conqs can kill walls, but precisely this is unlikely vs. Gbeto. Standing still is their death condition. This means the Gbeto are successfully defending during Conq's power spike, and because Conqs benefit less from mass squads whilst Gbeto benefit more alongside the fact Conqs are at their strongest in early castle, this all means that the longer the match drags on, the more Gbeto will overwhelm. You likewise claim that Gbeto being better at reload/standing and fighting doesn't matter. 100% it matters, because precisely when the Gbeto are counterattacking the Spanish base, this is when the Conqs cannot hit-and-run. They *must* engage to defend, and they're at a disadvantage here. This is why the Gbeto are as much a threat to the Spanish as the Conqs are to the Malians: because whilst the Conqs have better hit-and-run, the Gbeto have better staying power and are a better threat to enemy defenses/buildings. There is a difference between Conqs "killing palisades quick" and losing a stone wall in mere seconds because your opponent snuck a squad of Gbeto to your gate, or a palisade instantly crumbling to even a modest squad. As a pure hit-and-run unit, if we're talking about a map like Atacama with no walls and vulnerable vils, this is where Conqs are going to shine and their speed + better hit-and-run will give them an edge. They can gladly patrol the woodlines and never really have to stop or turn back to take shots from an opponent. If we're talking about a neutral Arabia setup though, with no particular incentive to put vils in danger whilst both teams have an opportunity to build walls, then this is really just a test if the Malians player can stave off those initial raid attempts, because the more the match goes on, the more cost effectiveness, unit creation time, a better gold eco, superior building damage and better capacity for Gbeto to stand and fight are going to start becoming factors. This is not a game of absolutes, but situational advantages. However, yes, I would absolutely argue Gbeto are the better universal, well-rounded raiding unit and waaaaaaaaaay better suited for an enemy with defenses up, precisely because Conqs slow reload speed begins to become a very crippling weakness as the game draws on and the opponent can afford to throw more mass armies at you; hitting-and-running and killing one unit out of 40 every 3 seconds is not a productive use of an army.

*Gbethereum

Tbf, even with highest win rate, it’s just a mere 53%, which is not that impressive tbh.

The tribute fee would more than cancel it out since it starts at 30%, coinage -> 20% and only banking in imperial gets it to 0%.

Gambisons ruined this, but that's honestly understandable since it'd be downright broken on Malians and we'd suddenly have people calling to nerf (Malian) infantry lol.

@@Longknife oh right, i straight up forgot gambesons. But their civ bonus is still a better version of it.

@@timoschmonsees2652 Yeah I mean I guess TECHNICALLY you can argue they get it for free. FFS they could even just patch the text to say "Malians get +1 pierce armor in Feudal, Gambesons for free and +1 pierce armor in Imperial" and they're back to fully qualifying for your statement.

@@Longknife then you'd have to make them have Supplies as well which doesn't bode well for Slavs

@@The-jy3yq ??? Malians have Supplies. Malians have every technology - save for Gambesons which they get in a roundabout way - all the way up to Imperial. They are only missing Imperial techs, nothing else.

Ah yes bring back colonialism

It's also fitting that the bonus makes the civilization quite strong; too few people realize how powerful West Africa was in the Late Middle Ages. If the Sahara Desert hadn't stood between the Malians and gunpowder technology, African history would likely have looked quite different.

It was so (I tested) before wheelbarrow since the April 11 patch. Not sure if there was a fix for that recently, but I still wonder why this 20% was not mentioned.

Yeah but you will no longer have 20% advantage over other civs after they research wheelbarrow. You're wasting your bonus by staying behind. Not mention wheelbarrow is absolutely crucial for farming and important for everything in general.