The Persian Savar horseman is an interesting case of a "unique unit" hardly being specialized or unique in any way. I wonder if it isn't the devs testing the waters for further diversifying the civilizations and giving units regional appearances.
The cheaper upgrade cost is really what makes it unique. Basically the theme they are going with is that the Persians get their late game power spikes a bit earlier than the other civs, which fits historically as they were a super power to a similar time as the Romans.
Good catch. It also feels like the arrow moves faster, maybe as a result of that straight path. They feel super smooth when firing and remind me of AoE1 archers.
I saw that and I immediately thought of the AoE1 composite bowmen. That straight trajectory also means that any opponent directly running at a CBowman will get hit regardless of ballistics.
@@SpiritOfTheLawwhat counter would you use against composite bowman? Light cav? Also where does that leave Vietnamese as the anti archer archer civ 😬 who wins rattan vs composite bowman?!?
@@SpiritOfTheLaw I think this greatly improves firing downhill. Always noticed how most projectile arcs oddly work to your disadvantage when you have the elevation advantage, cause the archers fire at 45˚-ish regardless and thus make the arrow take extra long to hit the ground.
One interesting thing about the Monaspa is that once some of them fall, the rest become weaker. Coupled with the cavalry regen, this makes it that much more important for the Georgians to withdraw wounded units to the back if possible, and for their opponents to finish off individual Monaspas instead of letting the damage get spread around.
@@Progeusz But in the case of AoE that's true, it's a mechanic that was introduced there. Same with the idea of a church that fires arrows, taken from AoE4.
@@Progeusz The 1 specific mechanic was introduced in AoE3. Just because the unit also has other bonuses doesn't mean they didn't take the idea from that game and adopt it to AoE2. Most of the new AoE2 mechanics, especially the more gimmicky ones, are taken from the other games. Look at the mule cart. It's from Age of Mythology.
As a Roman Catholic with a deep appreciation of church history, I am very excited for Armenia and Georgia to finally be put on the Age of Empires map! Armenia was the first country to officially convert to Christianity and Georgia was once in communion with them. Plus the improvements to the monastery that these civs have is definitely attractive to me, as someone who's always wanted to include monks more in his gameplay. I am definitely going to buy this DLC!
Even though there's a remake in the works, it's still nice that the devs still remember AOM and the mechanics it introduced because I really liked how very diverse each civilization played compared to AOE at the time
Georgian here, i have been playing Age of Empires 2 pretty much all my life. Ever since i was a kide and my father took me to the office where his co-workers were playing AoE LAN. I never expected to see Georgia as a DLC. Happy days
I personally think that the devs will probably either have relic victories only check for relics present on the map at the start of the match, or maybe give the free relic a different tag so it doesn't count, but at the same time you could well be right.
I wonder if sniping the Mule cart will ever be viable when raiding it seems pretty tanky by early fedual and darkage standards but i imagine it isn't exactly ideal to lose one.
i really like the new creative kind of stuff they bring into the game. the new persian Paladin unit looks so amazing. and historicly it makes more scense like this too
Great video as always Spirit. Nice to see the devs making some creative decisions and make the new civs standout. I hope they both won't fail due to their mediocre early game.
Excited for the two new civs, and especially the Persian overhaul. Will say though, was hoping the only wood archers got changed to only wood cost Cav archers, and the Persian unique cavalry unit had the range of a steppe lancer. That 1 range is so powerful and handy. But really happy for the new bonuses for them, and War Elephants may be of some usefulness now that they get Imperial age Muhoots for free. With that and Husbandry, they won’t be so unbearably slow.
I can't really see Champions becoming a thing in castle age, without a discount, but the twohanded swordsmen upgrade is pretty cheap, so might see that one, at least in mid-ELO games. The new civs look really fun. Really looking forward to this DLC!
Great video thanks for sharing. Persian change seems to really not affect their dark, feudal, or castle age much which I'm sure is what they intended. Parthian tactics in castle is very situational but could be okay. The gold bonus is very small and caravansaries aren't that strong so those are situational too. The new cavalry is a buff as it would mean FU arb do -1 (-33%) damage per shot while still having functionally the health vs most other units like cavalry, champions, maybe one less hit from halbs. The free mahouts is nice for elephants but they will still be very niche. Finally the citadels tech is cool but probably only picked up in post imperial. Overall nice QOL changes for the Persians to make them feel more unique too.
Ah, I see we are getting some innovative new unit concepts, like another version of the anti-(anti-archer)-archer and... clerics! Can't wait for the weird deep dives we can get for them.
*Fred:* "Alright gang, let's see who Mule Cart REALLY is!" _Unmasks_ *Everyone:* _GASP!_ "NORSE OX CART?!?" *Velma:* "But Why?!?" *Ox Cart:* "I made a bet with Loki. It didn't work out." *Velma:* "..that's it?" *Ox Cart:* "Yep." *Velma:* "..." *Ox Cart:* _sighs_ "..and I'm stealing some of the gold to...uhh...buy a farm...with stolen paintings buried out back?" *Everyone:* _GASP!_
I see new early aggression tactics coming with that mule cart. Send all vils to your opponent's base, lure the boars right in front of them and steal their berries. The drush is back with a vengeance.
I'm excited. I thought the next dlc was going to be breaking up the Chinese into 3 - 4 more specialized civs; like they did with the Indians. But, this works just as well. Never really thought of these "civs" as worldly relevant before, so it'll be cool to learn a bit more about them.
Your only hope is the Jurchens, a Tungusic people that lived settled in the modern-day Manchukuo province of PRC unlike the steppe nomads that some historians erroneously lumped the Jurchens with. Also, the Khitans
I can see the dark age spears, feudal pikes and castle halbs getting removed. Especially the castle age halbs. it just feels like too much bonus damage for that point in the game
This seems so broken. 80 HP 11 Attack castle age unit in ridiculous. With sanctity thats 95 HP. Imagine a forified church drop since they don't cost any stone at all. You do a castle rush, drop a fortified church next to your opponent (or multiple since they are so cheap) and train warrior monks to finish your enemy off.
The thing that no one seems to be talking about but I think is going to be really pivotal in some matchups is that Armenians can start making spears in Dark Age. Imagine a drush with spears against a civ with bad archers; you might kill vills slower, but how are they going to clean your raid up? With scouts? Yeah, right! And you can even pick up the pikeman upgrade while on the way up to castle age, forestalling a knight followup before they even have a chance to respond. Also, not costing gold means that you can just make a minor adjustment to your eco balance instead of needing to completely start taking a new resource in order to facilitate producing effective military. In fact, I bet the Armenians are going to have some killer fast castle strats where they delay going up way more than most civs can get away with, and pick up their pikeman upgrade while aging up to be ready for enemy knights with more economy on the field than most FC strats can manage. Kinda like Malay, in a different flavor.
@@llSuperSnivyll One on one, yes, they do, but if a villager is stopping to fight a spearman, then it's no longer working, and the Armenian player can just micro the spears to mitigate the damage while forcing villagers off of resources intermittently. You don't need to kill units to raid effectively. Also, since spears are so cheap, you can field more units than you can with a traditional militia drush, and using scouts to clean up the raid won't work; that'd force the opponent to either idle their economy to fend off your trash units, invest into archers they might not have further use for after cleaning up the spearmen, or commit to scouts and micro them around to keep the spears from harassing their economy which will eat up the apm of most players. No matter what, you're sending cheap, disposable units and causing economy damage to your opponent in some way simply by virtue of the timing of the rush. There's also the fact that, since archers are the only really efficient way to clean up a spear rush like this, you'd be forcing your opponent to spend gold in order to clear out your raid that cost you only wood and food to send. The more deeply I look into this, the more convinced I am that it's going to be a legit strat.
Surprised they haven't given China the India treatment AKA split them into dynasties (Han, Song, Ming, etc.) but this is cool too. I'm in the minority of players that doesn't care at all about the multiplayer and just likes the campaigns, so I'd be interested to see these new ones.
Splitting the Chinese into Han, Song and Ming would be like splitting the Britons into Tudors, Stuarts and Plantagenets. They were all various dynasties that ruled over roughly the same area of land.
@@kevinkibble8342 They could still do a split with the various peoples absorbed by China over time. Like Tibetans (unlikely I know), Uyghurs (with current events maybe even worse) and the Jurchen .
My idea for a Northern Europe DLC: - Ragnar Lothbrok (Vikings): take York and transform it into a fully-fledged Viking campaign. - Robert the Bruce (Celts): a challenging Scottish campaign (featuring William Wallace, again). - Brian Boru (Gaels): make the other campaigns and battles more diverse by including this new civ.
Also, East Asia DLC (China -> Ming, Jin, Tang, Song): Korean campaign: the main playable civilization would be the Koreans (representing Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla), with the Koreans, Tang and Song as potential enemy factions. Ming campaign: the main playable civilization would be the Ming, with the Ming, Mongols and Japanese as potential enemy factions. Japanese (samurai) campaign: the main playable civilization would be the Japanese, with the Japanese and Mongols as potential enemy factions.
I like how aoe2 devs are taking from aoe4 seeing how well the uniqueness of their civs are received. The fortified church work rate bonus is simply Holy Roman Empires feudal age Landmark copy
I get the frustration with the new civs being overpowered and the current corporate mentality around dlc, but I think some companies make dlc that’s more than worth it.
An Armenian/Lithuanian team up might be hilarious. Guaranteed at least one Relic, meaning Lithuanian Cav are gonna be scarier there with less overall effort, unless the enemy can snipe the Armenian's relic early, or intercept it en-route to the Lithuanians.
Having seen the recent Hololive AOE2 game where Fauna basically swept the competition with War Elephants, the idea that Persians are getting buffs is absolutely frakking terrifying.
Persians Imperial Unique tech should be "monks can only convert elephants from up close" so like rams. Or something similar to that. Whatever you do to them now, they won't find use due to easy counters by monk plays.
Always exited about new content on AoE2. That being said I am concerned about the new unique archer unit. What should you use to counter it? Pretty much all units that are typically used seem very bad. Skirmishers lose their armor so they are killed really fast, but i guess still do their bonus damage. Knights are going to melt. I guess that only leaves siege? This will be abused with a FC guaranteed. PS: How are you supposed to beat these with Goths?
Whenever they add new ideas like this to aoe2 I always wish that older civs would get updated to also have some of these new ideas, like they did with the dromon. Like maybe the mongols and huns and cumans should have the cart too cuz theyre nomadic
Georgians seem good, that monastery especially. Starting the with the cart also seems very useful even if it's -50 food. Basically a free lumber camp but much more versatile letting you get deer easily and so on. Unique unit seems very good assuming the build time isn't too high. Armenian infantry bonus seems completely useless. Unique unit could be good. Economy bonus feels weak as you shouldn't be making many carts anyway? 25% Better eco techs doesn't seem that impressive. Persian upgrades seem alright. Doubt the cavalry archers will do much. The paladin replacement seems very useful vs archers. The gold on kill seems good though.
Mule carts seem interesting, but I wonder how well they will fit in with walling in your resources for protection. Easy to do with a lumber camp or mining camp, might be trickier with these.
One of the promotional images shows the Persians (with their wonder and their new UU) with South Asian architecture. Is that another new change or it is just a specific campaing mission screenshot?
I wonder if this means other OG civs might get a rework in the future? I’d love to see an updated Byzantine architecture, though I think if they were going to do it, they would have done it in this DLC
Hey you missed the 5% work rate in dark on tcs for persians and what that means Could you do a video on this please, I've been trying to do some math, but I'm uncertain of some mechanics like rounding etc. Is it +1 vil and ~80 extra res at 23(24) vils or +1 vil and ~100 extra res at 28(29) vils? Or neither lol. Break it down for us please!
Glad to see the Persians getting a campaign. The only thing in DE and it’s DLC that have disappointed me is that so many old civs didn’t have campaigns, but with Britons and Persians both getting one, there is hope for Japanese and Vikings yet. Harald Bluetooth when?
@@dimitarangelkov2922 tbf Sengoku Jidai campaign would such be a bonus and will make people way more hyped (Even though we did have end of Oda Nobunaga in Kyoto mini campaign ) Playing as Tokugawa will be super hype
As a Georgian, I've been playing Age of Empires since 2002. I still remember those early days on an 800x600 resolution. As time passed, I often wondered why Georgia wasn't part of the game, considering its rich cultural history, spanning centuries and numerous battles, shared with Armenia. Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, holds the distinction of being Europe's one of the oldest cities, offering a treasure trove of fascinating history. Just imagine the intriguing content the game could incorporate into its campaigns. Now, after 21 years, my childhood dream has finally come true, and I am thrilled to witness and enjoy it.
As someone who only knows Georgia as that country in the Caucasus and "Georgia the country, not the state", this will be an interesting introduction to the country and its history. I am very happy for you guys :)
This comment brought a smile to my face. I've been playing the game since 1999 and I'm glad that your civ got included in the game. Greetings from Turkey.
@@Igor_054 I said an unique Monk, like the Archbishop, Pope Leo and Friar Truck, American Monks are still regular Monks, just with a different skin, and even then if I remember right back in Conquerors if a American Monk picked up a relic it would turn into a regular Monk too, although I think it only happened to converted monks
Well Armenia was part of Iran during the game era , the main Arminian Church is in Iran , its 700 years old , Armina was a major Iranian province in the middle ages , just like California or New York in the US , it was a major Persian province , Georgia was also part of Russia during the 1700's
Drop a combat monastery in your opponents resources, have vils and the mule cart in support. Take their resources, keep them off those resources, be able to repair and have hyper efficient eco, all for 200 wood. Things are going to be very interesting going forward.
You'd hope that by the time you reach Castle age the opponent would be able to defend against that. Still, probably good as a finisher if you are already pressuring them hard enough.
You're basically getting a Krepost / Town Center defensively WITH an eco bonus around it that can also train monks to boot. And it only costs 200 wood?! Wut? This isn't a slightly improved Monastery, this is basically a mini-Castle cum Folwork that somehow doesn't cost stone. It should cost stone. And a lot.
There's definitely going to be a patch to add stone cost imo. But I'm excited to play these civs. You can steal your opponents berries, boar, and deer without needing to be good at laming the boar or building a mill.
I have been waiting for the Armenians and Georgians for 25 years straight! Thank you so much! I'm wondering why they ignored the Armenian cavalry, as it has been very renowned in early Middle Ages. Armenia was one of the principal centers of horse and camel breeding for millennia straight! Also, I would do much like to see the Zvartnots Cathedral as the Armenian wonder, as it has been the most renowned and beautiful monument for all Armenia's history. Anyhow, I'm happy to see my civ brought to life!
You missed one of the most important early game buffs for the Persians, which is that they have their dark age dock/tc work rate bonus back. It's not a huge deal, but it means that by the time they're entering feudal or castle age in a standard game they'll typically be up a full vill already, mitigating situations where they might struggle for food when going into a full boom, as an example.
It will be interesting to see how the 5% DA Bonus will fare about 3 years after it was removed. Back in 2019 it was enough to bring Persians into S tier due to the extra villager, hence it was ultimately removed, but obviously the game has changed a lot since then, and it might not be as broken.
I don't know that I'd say Armenian siege isn't that bad, not having Siege Engineers, Siege Ram, Bombard Cannon or any external siege bonus puts them firmly into the siege garbage tier imo 😅 great video as always though!
This free relic thingy from Armenians with Lithuanians sounds a interesting 2vs2 combo. Especially considering there is no way armour will work against them both with letis and composite bowman both piercing the enemy armour. You build the church give the relic to the Lithuanians and see him charging with charged cavarly. Adding a few tankly warrior priests that get created faster by Lithuanians team bonus to heal up between fights that can't be killed as quickly. Faster moving spearman from Lithuanians with + 2 infantry line of sight? Sounds like a fun combo to try.
Lithuanian spears are quite bad in lategame though (less attack and armour), but you shouldn't need those in regular team games, so a leitis/paladin, composite bowmen & tanky priests composition seems quite strong
This is true, looks broken actually since Warrior Priests can pick up relics, their relic control will be insane since you can't pick them off with scouts.
@@louisemmanuelmorente3978 perhaps warrior priests will still get the bonus damage as monks do? Seems logical to me to put them in infantry and the monk armour class
LOVE the castle looks, particularly the Armenien one, might be the closest to a real Medieval castle so far. Heck even the fortified churches could probably qualify for being called a castle, in it's look.
Not only the mule cart is from mythologies The georgians unique unit works the same as the fenrir wolf from mythologies too where the more there are together the more attack (and movemnt speed which isnt here thankfully) they get
That myth unit sucked if I remember correctly- too fragile for the cost, too expensive to mass, and the bonus not big enough to make use of. Plus it was competing with Fire Giants.
That paladin reskin for the Persian is my dream goal for the game. I want every civ (or almost every) to have uniquely skinned units for their armies. And no, I don't care if it makes the game confusing and forces players to learn a lot of units visuals.
