Slavs Overview (updated for DE) 

For skirmishers, it is more important to have the last armor than the bracer. If you want to make a video to compare Slavic skirmishers to Mongol ones, to Frankish ones and to Berbeber ones, you will enjoy the result Spirit of the law.

It's a great day anytime SotL uploads a civ overview.

I wonder if devs at some point rename Slavs as Rus (especially after addition of Poles and Bohemians it makes sense).

Yess! I love the return of the old intro! So cool to see it in DE graphics!

"in this video we're going to be revisiting and taking an in-depth look at the SLOTHs." I: Good. Wait what?

So glad you went back to the acoustic Guitar intro. By far the best, catchy and memorable!

That sponsorship transition at the end was CLEAN.

I think the takeaway for Slavs performing average despite such strong ratings is simply that archers rule the meta still. I honestly would love to see a small increase in speed for all infantry units (or maybe a buff to squires) to help them out a bit

Personally, they feel more like a B+ in most categories than an A- civ. Most categories they have serious shortcomings in terms of raw power. Jack of all trades and what not

Just wanted to say I’ve started back playin AoE2 & AoE3 recently to give my mental a break from the toxic realm of League of Legends and I must say Spirit I truly enjoy your videos, I remember growing up playing this game religiously and with the help of your videos and steam I’m diving back into the world of AoE and I’m loving it. Keep up the great work, love your channel !

Was not expecting this redo today. Something good to take my mind off the heat.

One of my favoite civs. I remember a 1v1 in arena. My oponent started attacking me in CA, but I resisted only walling and made up to IA, then I researched Druzhina, built as many barracks as I could and started spamming halberdiers. He resigned soon after. That game would be great for a T90's low elo legends video. Unfortunately, I had a problem with my PC and it doesn't run AoE DE anymore. 😭

The classic SOTL intro sequence is the heroin that I didn't know I needed this morning.

Everytime i see the intro again is a moment i am happy

As Hera said, they got great cav, but there’s just other civs that does it better. Franks obviously, Berbers who also have ranged UU, even teuton who get both farm bonus and extra armor. They get great siege but pike and siege is kinda bad in current meta. Other civs do monk siege better, and Celts are go to for best siege with wood bonus. So sadly they don’t have any real nice power spikes, and they often die do civs who can put pressure on them, and have a hard time against kiting CA. I kinda miss Slavs being strong so I hope they get a small buff, it’s not like have too many bonuses already.

that spinning villager at 1:19 always cracks me up

I tend to be an economic player, booming hard, walling up, and making several troop buildings so I can pump out counters to whatever the enemy is attacking me with, and as I stress their gold reserves, I start making my gold troops. The Slavs played right into this and is one of my favorite civs now, lol. Having 10 barracks is a quarter of my pop cap, saving me on house building. Two birds with one stone. I usually rush Druzhina as fast as possible, because then my endless halberdier spam becomes an actual threat. I use my farming bonus and copious woodcutters to fund this spam until I notice the enemy sending fewer gold troops, then I start throwing in champions with the halbs, and making a few rams to start pushing into their base. If they counter infantry hard, I'll use Boyars as my gold unit, but I try to hold off on the gold units until late-game, again, to wear out their good troops early with sheer numbers of trash.

The 4:27 upgrade to two-handed swordsman was some excellent editing. Very well done!

I think that orthodoxy UT should have become a bonus, even if it wasn’t popular, this was partly because it was a tech. It could have become +3/4 armor and pierce armor in castle/imperial age.

One thing I've particularly enjoyed when rewatching some of these vids are the ads with squarespace. "Spirit of the Lawn" was especially funny to me lol

SOTL is just such a genuine lad, he even makes watching ads for sponsors entertaining. Much love man!

I would like to have Orthodoxy as an inherent bonus. Otherwise I played them the last 20 games only and I am very satisfied with them.

Since there are Poles, Bohemians and Bulgarians (to some extend we can count them as Slavs), they should do the same thing to Slavs they did to Indians. Split Slavas to more civs, where Kievan Rus should be baseline like Hindustanis inherited Indians theme. Serbs and Croats could be other two civs.

3:24 That moon dance doe. Slavs are within top 5 dancers.

Since we already have Bulgarians, bohemians and poles, it is clear that Slavs represent only the Kievan and Novgorod rus, so splitting them, as well as adding the Vlachs/Wallachians (btw they are not slavic) since we already have a campaign for them would be a great addition

Spirit, I just love your intro. I get happy every time I see that villager kill the Cobra. Crazy good timing with the music.

So happy to see full civ overviews again! Hope there are many more DE civ revisits to come.

Hi SOTL please could you do overviews for civs but from the perspective of countering and defeating them ?? Love the vids

For early Naval, there are a few bonuses: - less need for houses means more wood for ships - free Population Capacity makes it easier to build ships, villagers and land military at the same time. Just the harbor can support 5 fishing ships - less wood and population space needed for farms (due to better production), is also a very minor buff None of them is big, but I feel together they might have C+ or B-

this is amazing! I really, really wanted you to redo the Slavs video due to the 'outdatedness' of the previous video's format! I am so glad that you did a modern Slavs overview video! thanks a lot SotL!! :) :D

The practical effect of the farming bonus actually matching up with the advertised number while actually being much higher in the code is an interesting contrast with the Japanese bonus being drastically higher than stated because of a misunderstanding of statistics. (i believe it was actually corrected in DE, but thats still decades of time where it wasn't)

Dude, I learn so much from these videos. Thanks for the time you put into researching, gathering footage and comparisons. Just constantly good stuff.

happy you still doing the civ overview updates!!

Some historian : Slavics peasants suffered a great deal under their rulers. Peasant at 3:24 : Aint working without moonwalking P.D: Nice video as always!

3:23 that male villager just hit a sick Moon Walk lmao

He's got so many overviews to revisit. He's gonna have a lotta work

I was literally looking at the old Slavs video last night and wondering if you'd update it since the civilization has changed so much. Great update!

Best Age II channel! Thanks!

Been awhile since you made an overview video. I hope we get updates for all DE changed civs!

I love so much this serie of videos! It s like chrismas for me when it pops up on my youtube wall

I know you generally dont do videos for Age of Empires 4, but would love to see Civ overviews similar to these for it.

It's nice seeing you redoing older civ videos, considering a lot has changed in Definitive edition

I understand that Slavs' slow start means that they struggle against extremely aggressive civs. One might hypothesize that Slavs would therefore do well on closed maps, where they would be able to reach their full potential. However, the data you showed at the start of the video don't support this hypothesis. What additional factors do you think are responsible for the win rates we observe?

Look at my boy being sponsored! I'm so proud of you

I love the Slavs new unique tech so much

Thank you so much for bringing the intro back.

Slavs have quickly become my new favorite civ. I just love the Boyar + SO combo

3:23 Moonwalking on the job, see this is why Slav farmers are the best farmers.

Not to diminish the time and effort in producing these informative videos, but my favorite part of many of them is the well placed puns. Keep "punning".

When you look at the civs that Slavs struggle against, three of them have access to Hand Cannoneers and Bombard Cannons, which shut down the Slav Imperial Age army of infantry and siege. Mongols can shred Slav siege with Mangudai and Drill, Huns easily rush them down with Scouts into Knights, and Bulgarians have their faster-attacking Knights that stomp Slav Knights (even though Boyars still beat Bulgarian Knights). That said, there are several civs that have Hand Cannoneers and Bombard Cannons that don't do well against Slavs, such as Portuguese, Bohemians, etc., likely because they cannot keep up economically with Slavs. Meanwhile, Franks, Lithuanians, Huns, etc., all have great early eco bonuses that let them be more aggressive early. As Spirit put it, Slavs are not as fast as those hyper-aggressive civs, which can take them out before the Slavs' farms kick in.

Nice!! Definitely a very solid civ.

I love slavs. Thanks for the content sotl!!

I have something to say. SOTL has one of the greatest RU-vid intros of all time

I have a suggestion. Please add which team is best to match in team games. in your upcoming civ reviews.

I missed the intro song so much! It's insanely good!

Hearing that intro gave me the shivers ❤️

For people complaining about the lack of strelets they are in aoe3 and 4

Thank you for this!

I love the Slav Scorpion Rush (on some maps)!

I would really love to see a DID made about Salvs civ choiches before and after this video, and i am sure SOTL would love it too

The cheap castles mean they can retain map control very well. Provided they can get that control in the first place.

I can see why you took the old version down, but it would have been fun to compare!

That last plug earned you a S tier rating! BRAVO!

Hyped for your sponsor my man! Get paid!

Spirit of the law can basically remaje all the overviews and i'll watch each of them

Actually seing how much changes has each civ over the last moths overall after DE all of them need the updated overview video. Anyway its so funny watch one of 7 years ago and see how much the game changed!

"Spirit of the Draw! Upgrade yourself from a Woad Raider to a Woad Shader!" beautiful

Came for the redo of a civ overview, danced for the classic intro.

Spirit of the draw! Hilarious. Man, truly

3:24 that villager is straight up moonwalking, what a chad

Yes!!!!! The beloved intro is back

since they split bohemians from slavs, i think it would be more fitting to gove bohemians the castles cost wood tech. but i know, balance needs to exist.

That was a sneaky segue into the sponsor slot.

Thank you

I think the f for the range is not fair. Their skirmishers do miss only one upgrade. They might not be the best but they do the job if you need them. A c or c- would have been just imo. Besides from that thanks for another great video

3:23 nice moonwalk farmer, nice one !

Despite having a weak archery range, I find archer rushes very effective with the Slavs, since you save a lot of wood with their team bonus. Plus, since it is not a common strategy for them, you can really take your enemies by surprise.

YESSS waited long enough to hear that info LMAOOO. Luv your works thou.

Spirit of the Draw FTW👌😂 that halb made my day

Just what I needed

Due to delayed pay-off on their farm bonus they're very nice as pocket option in team games, which is not represented in 1v1 statistics.

BOYARS! BOYARS! BOYARS! After playing the Rus Custom Campaign, it made me realize the full power of the BOYARS! WHAT a UNIT! They just absolutely destroy melee units like Cavaliers, Keshiks, Stepp Lancers etc. Always have Scorps or Skirmishers to help them take out Cav Archers who are strong against Boyars. But any Melee unit has no chance! BOYAR POWER man!

I wonder how their Team Bonus interacts with Mongols "Nomads" tech... Do the Mongols keep the population space from destroyed military buildings, or do they lose it because they aren't "houses"?

Would've been funny if their hero was just some dude in a tracksuit and a vodka bottle that shouts obscenities when you click on him. Or if their victory theme is just a hardbass track.

I'd love a refresh on Byzantines, they're one of my favorites.

That sponsor section was CLEAN

Hahaha Entering grade 2 this fall.... that made me laugh more than I care to admit

that intro

Finally older civ overview update... I hope you can do all AOC overview update..

Hi mate, just a quick question. With the Slav's having the faster farming bonus, how does this effect the number of farmers per single lumberjack compared to generic farming rate? I know you have covered this (farms to single lumberjack ratio) somewhere in your long library of vid's but for the life of me I can't find it. Just thought I would mention that I am from Australia and just wanted you to know that you have a lot of fans down under and we all think your vid's are fantastic, the amount of detail you go into is simply AWSOME. Cheers and keep up the excellent content.

I think Slavs should get a new unique tech from the Town Centre for villagers. "Tracksuit".

i love all your civ overviews. i know you are low to mid elo and your videos are targeting that demographic but I was wondering if you could make some content pertaining to high level like 1800+ stuff. you put so much effort into your vids that I think a lot of people would benefit from some higher elo analysis. i really liked your video with tatoh about why Chinese are good at high elo and hope you make more stuff like that in your civ reviews.

Such a legend

Shoutout to my new favorite artist spirit of the draw

I would love to see the work from Spirit of the Draw.

3:18 Oh, hello there Mr. Elephant.

Hey spirit. Make video on the unique naval units.

The RU-vid captions had it: "an in-depth look at the sloths", made me giggle a bit

OMFG THE OPENING SONG YESSSSSSS

do you know man you are perfect voice for do reviews? like i want to hire you for that :)