All 45 Civilizations Ranked Best To Worst (Empire Wars Redbull Format)

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Edits by / @k1aoe
#Ageofempires2, #AoE2, #Hera

[@evanjacob8463]

As always I skip to the end of the video to see the full list and then go back and watch Hera talk about my favourite civs! 11

[@fth68]

I did just the same haha

[@Oggymandias]

Loved the Daut-Driveby in the Tatars bit 11

[@iNimgul]

Having a longer form video is preferable. Thanks for really going into the civs, even comparing some potential matchups!

[@thanos91410]

i love the "we respect Bulgarians in this house" attitude😂😂😂

[@КрасимирБузов]

Why is all of this though? Where this meme comes from?

[@thanos91410]

@@КрасимирБузов hera likes playing Bulgarians when most other pros don't consider them as a good civ

[@aa01blue38]

@@КрасимирБузовthere is the famous copypasta of course

[@NapKingCole84]

Hera: will you make a EW tips video? Basic basic build changes, strategy?

[@Bonanza99994]

could be awesome

[@JACR--Atlas]

Chill Sunday, some pizza and a Hera tierlist to go along with it, what a great day to be an AoE2 fan. Keep cooking Hera!

[@souheilallegue2342]

A wise man once said: "Huns are Huns, and Mayans are Mayans."

[@LuisM_Santana]

I know is not simple to share info like this right now, so thank you

[@ns-islandsroblox]

This is so different, nothing like random map tierlist. Wasn't expecting Mongols in d tier and huns in s!

[@konradpyszniak976]

I played mongols on the New maps for EW and most of the maps have a LOT of Animals that can be used to gain advantage. Yes, its risky but i really dont think they are D tier.

[@Alumon]

@@konradpyszniak976 the main mongol advantage is speed and the other guy has same eco than you from scratch so no bonus

[@lucrainville7095]

Thanks Hera for this video. I love that everyone is contributing in promoting this mode of the game. I think this is good for the player base in general.

[@joshuahall1268]

I’ve been waiting for this! Thanks Hera!

[@SuperVogli]

can you make a video explaining the 11 new maps? that would be awesome!

[@MDog_FPV]

Good timing on this video

[@GolDRoger7777]

If Hera wins the EW Redbull tournament, then we will know that this Tier list make sense 11

[@madmusic341]

Love these kinds of tier lists, awesome vid! 👍😃👍

[@Lunga95]

Thoughts on the devs adjusting for certain ‘missing’ dark age bonuses? Like Italians should have +75 food, Japanese should have extra wood from all their eco buildings, Goths should have +1 vil from instant loom, etc.

[@racernatorde5318]

Nah, empire wars switches things around and makes otherwise less interesting civilizations appealing. No need to always have the same civs around

[@camwardart]

Love the tier lists hera keep up the energy and good work!

[@felixnesme975]

Thank you for this nice video :) I am overall agree with your ranking, but i would have put sicilian a little bit higher. I think sergeant could be a high quality replacement for both scout and lancer. Therefore it may used to put a huge pressure early game with a sergeant-skirmisher/archer rush. The dungeon itself is of course a bug investment but the map being often really agressive, it mays help to stabilize your defense. Of course it is only my very low elo opinion ;) Thanks again for your nice content :)

[@gangreneday]

Great vidya. Good luck grinding everyone

[@gebhard128]

I love to play Huns in the EW ladder, with the 100 wood back they feel really smooth and shine in all in military production, market, sell the stone and all in knights or CA in castle age after an aggressive feudal opening, its so much fun

[@quasibrodo923]

5:10 me having YT up on a side monitor while working........Hera stop spying on me lol.

[@kenwilson5641]

My Mayans!!

[@jackwaite4035]

Forward krepost is so nice, every time I get them in RM I open with 4 M@A into heavy spear skirm play, even over produce a little bit into forward krepost rush. A lot of people really struggle against this at mid elo.

[@smaruhmaruh6955]

Actually this might be the first time I will playing in ranked more often, because I really love the pace of EW a bit more than RM. Content like this is gold right now!

[@jjforcebreaker]

Very nice list, thanks!

[@theactiveinvestor123]

Thanks for this video man 🔥🔥

[@craigthomas8615]

Appreciate the explanations. Good vid

[@timothymartensen9040]

Huns are so back

[@noahshipp6318]

This is spirm erasure

[@Islam-rw7dv]

Great and informative video 🙌

[@tibomcd461]

They'll find a way to loose with the civ x) 53:46 the respect man

[@maximilian-3563]

Good vid. Would be nice if you save this TL and update it with any game updates or maybe any changes you think of just before Wololo

[@Ω3103ζ]

honestly malians underrated you beat mayans pretty good and have a good answer for everything until late imp wich doesnt matter that much + double gold comp sleeper civ!!!1111

[@TheMagicalTortoise]

Literally moved the video to a side monitor to continue working "so you can watch this while or working or w/e on a side monitor". Perfect

[@GvF11]

The fact that the persians, byzantines, armenians and georgians are all together is kinda funny given their history and geography

[@afz902k]

The spirm rush

[@turbanheadless]

i like how everybody has some dragons or eagles or ornaments in their emblem, but burmese get a peacock

[@bensonrabe6728]

Hera. I hope u pick the tartars and win. Every S tier tournament, the pros loose with my favorite civ. Please win with them

[@ianaranda4640]

you could go skrims spears rush with turks to be very impredictible and bait the oponent

[@raffaelemanstretta2517]

Georgians' extra cart goes on hunt. No?

[@riccardocorradini6713]

I love how all pros shit on sicilians but devs take years to just make donjons build 7 seconds faster and call it a buff 🤣

[@gr33nmachine3000]

I wonder if Hera is secretly putting Japanese on D tier because he wants to goad Spirit of the Law into redoing his overview of the civ?

[@hughparsonage4446]

Tried a spear-skirm rush earlier today, but prematurely shot my wad as it were and ended up with quite a mess on my hands.

[@matthewmcneany]

Counterpoint: Skear rush.

[@danemoran4054]

tatars good pick mountain dune 4 hill bonus

[@karnazacss]

Cool but PUT TIMESTAMP ON BULGARIANS

[@thomash.2500]

Poor Spirit of the Law :(

[@sneedfest3399]

Huh

[@thomash.2500]

@@sneedfest3399 Japanese

[@dachi880]

Day 11 of wanting a tier list for multiplayer games

[@lolliepoep]

There is a mod to show ratha stance right?

[@epsilon2944]

I think I'm gonna be bold and stick it in there. (sorry I'm a simple man)

[@rovsea-3761]

Then make one after RBW to see how your view changes?

[@jacobwood3326]

“Burmese propaganda” 11 he’s not wrong.

[@mikelivingood7797]

Where I disagree. Incas benefit more than any meso civ in Empire Wars. They have great lower cost skirms and spears, which allows more food to go up to castle. Mayans' don't have an extra villager, aztecs do not benefit from extra carrying in Dark age. S tier Portuguese- still gain benefit from berries and the most gained resources of any civ in 250 wood. Then being king of gold units you have to be- S tier Franks- Free horse collar is huge as the Franks are the perfect civ for a prolonged Feudal attack. Extra hp go a long way. I also have it on good authority you can wait the Franks out because they are not as good in Mid to late Imp now, they can wait you out with the score lead. If they were A tier before they are S tier now. Khmer- Battle elephants did nothing but get cheaper for them and they miss the no benefit Dark Age. Jumping into houses is critical to not losing villagers and being able to snowball. S tier Celt- With apologizes to Hoang, cannot be the same tier when they lose all the wood gained in Dark Age. With nothing in Feudal except faster infantry they are immensely hurt by everyone being able to drop a range. D tier The worst call-Italians! Italians save 120 food and 60 gold when advancing to Castle Age. This is close to Ethiopians. Italians thrive on hybrid maps as their cheaper fishing ships and dock techs help bring in more food. Pavise gives armor placing their archers on par with faster firing Ethiopians. Their 33% discount at the university allows them to get chemistry and ballistics much earlier. Then they have cheaper gunpowder units specifically hand cannoneer vs eagles and bombard cannons vs trebs. This ability to counter meso civs should make them a pick on almost any roster ( but near the end) . A tier just behind Ethiopians.

[@jasonsmith1950]

For Italians: Outside of the cheaper age-up, they're pretty much generic in the early game. Cheaper fishing ships are also less likely to provide value in Empire Wars when you expect to be attacked early on (i.e. producing fishing ships will likely just result in you losing water control - which means losing the fishing ships before they pay themselves off). If you have any fishing ships in empire wars, then they'll most likely be fishing ships you started with (which of course means no benefit from the discount). The other bonuses are helpful if you get to that point, but you need to actually get to that point (a bit of a tall order when that point is late castle or imperial age). And extra armor from a UT does not provide much value to archers (and again, require you to get to late-castle for any benefit, which may be a tall order in some matches) - certainly nowhere near as good as Ethiopians faster-firing (which is available in Feudal Age and will consistently provide value - armor only provides value if they're getting attacked, and archers with extra armor still get cleaned up quickly). Empire Wars tends to be a fast-paced game mode with lots of army early on, and Italians are more of a late-game civ carried by their flexibility more than their civ bonuses (on land maps - on water, they're also carried by good water timings, as they get the water upgrades much more easily, but that is in castle/imp). The discount on imp will help get up to imp a bit earlier, but the discount on chemistry is a res-saving benefit rather than a timing-benefit (since by the time you finish advancing, you should have enough res for the full-cost upgrade). So overall, they may be good for fast-castle on water maps, but otherwise are rather lack-luster. Celts: they may lose the extra wood from dark age, but they still have a wood-cutting bonus (and a lot of vils start on wood). Therefore, the bonus still provides some value, which I think is why Hera kept them in C-tier (despite losing ~100 wood from dark age). Celts are fully capable of going archers in Feudal age, which does benefit from faster wood-cutting Sicilians: May benefit from the faster fortifications, which would help with defensive game-play and walling up. Not really the go-to Strat in empire wars, but it might be enough of a benefit to push them out of D-tier (but only to bottom of C)

[@mikelivingood7797]

@@jasonsmith1950 Hera said some civs have such bonuses they can go up to Castle quickly. Italians should be considered one of them. I have only watched one match on water with fish. It was Ithmus Viper vs MBL both built docks. In castle a crossbow deals 5+2 damage and have 2 pierce armor. With pavise Italians have 3 pierce armor and only take 4 damage instead of 5. Ethiopians deal 4*1,18 to Italians 5. In Imperial it changes to 6+4 and 4 armor. Ethiopians deal 5*1.388 or 6.938. Italians deal 6*1.176 or 7.056. So armored Italians win head to head, survive longer to return to safety against skirmishers. But their biggest asset is 20% cheaper gunpowder. This makes them a great counter unit against meso as skirm/handcannon destroys eagle/arbalest with the discount. If you face all out plumes you can go skirm/paladin as the time limit allows going hard on gold units. Not to mention how important bombard cannon is huge when pushing castles and trebs. What would you rate Italians. I said the end of A, and they will be picked at the end of 6+ civ drafts because they can counter meso. Ok and Bohemians.

[@jasonsmith1950]

@@mikelivingood7797 Armor techs are a relatively low priority for archer units, and gen bows aren't exactly a power unit. Italians will likely get a castle eventually, but it won't be a high priority. Meanwhile, Ethiopians will be benefitting from their faster fire rate straight from the get go (in feudal even). In a head to head fight, Italian Xbows will take 9 shots each while Ethiopians take 7 each - but that assumes full upgrades (which often won't be the case). It also assumes that they're actually going head-to-head, which might not be the case (Italians have perfectly fine knights after all, and mangonels are also an option). And then there's the possibility of overkill: if 10+ archers fire at the same target, some of the shots will hit a target that is already dead - in that situation, the faster firing archers have an edge over the armored ones (at least until enough archers die). But basically, Italians (if they go archers) will be getting Xbow and fletching-line before the armor techs (maybe ballistics as well). And then in order to have an advantage over generic Xbows, they still need to research 3 armor techs (which adds up to a significant price tag), one of which requires a castle. At best, you're looking at late-castle age before they're fully upgraded (at which point your argument suggests a large impact than I had realized, but only against ranged units). I had a game as Italians against Bohemians lately on the RBW ranked queue. I didn't ever make it to imperial age in that game (though the Bohemians player did). I certainly could have done a better job of spending my resources (and gotten to imp earlier), but even so, Bohemian hand cannons come before condos do. Italians vs Bohemians isn't one-sided because Bohemians are much stronger in castle age. And it also isn't enough to just get up to imperial age: the Italians player still needs an economy strong enough to support a tech switch (the infantry armor techs are crucial, a few attack upgrades are nice as well, and of course some barracks beyond the initial starting one) and condo production. Against Meso civs, the Italians will struggle to survive the early game in empire wars - those are listed high in the tier list because they can spam Eagles and archers right off the bat. Italians don't have any bonuses to help them survive against that early game. Cheaper gunpowder is a great bonus, but that only matters if the game goes to imp (and the Italians player will have to survive a lot of pressure to get to that point). On water maps, their fast castle capabilities will really help (so they could be A-tier in that case), but until they're castle age they'll be pretty generic - players will build extra docks, but those docks will be busy churning out warships (fishing ships are too risky an investment unless you've already won water - different story in dark age, but that's been skipped). On land maps, I think I'd keep them with Hera's C-tier. They might be able to fast castle, but they don't have much in the way of bonuses to take advantage of that - Ethiopians have faster firing Xbows and free pikeman upgrade; Saracens have their market bonuses, camels and their team bonus; Italians have cheaper university techs, which are more often a defensive bonus than an offensive one, and don't help with early castle age pressure, and the cheaper age up (which saves 120 food and only 30 gold). Also, Italians don't have Paladins (only FU Cavalier, which is often more practical in 1v1s anyways) TLDR: Italians would be good on water maps due to their fast castle. On land maps, they have to survive the early-mid game before their bonuses can kick in (which can be a challenge in such a fast-paced game mode)

[@mikelivingood7797]

@jasonsmith1950 I said Italians should be higher because of their value on hybrid maps and use against meso. Eagles and archers are worse than scouts.in Feudal, so meso civs are at a general disadvantage. I said they are at the end of A behind Ethiopians. 2/3 of your disagreement seems to be areas we agree.

[@jasonsmith1950]

@@mikelivingood7797 Remember the reason Hera rated the meso civs high (stronger than they are on standard maps) is because they'll be using the starting barracks while their opponents likely won't (b/c no cavalry means spears aren't useful, and MAAs take extra investment for a unit that isn't that great), which puts them at 2 production buildings (starting barracks + archery range dropped down immediately) to their opponents one (either archery range/stables dropped down immediately). The meso's opponent would have to spend an extra 175 res to match that, and the meso civ can respond with yet another production building (maintaining their production advantage) or by getting a tech (likely fletching, giving them a tech advantage). Full-send is a go-to strat in empire wars, and Italians have nothing to help them survive against that early game. In order to counter meso civs, they need to handle their go-to strat in empire wars. Aztecs have a further production speed bonus, +50 gold, and carry bonus. Mayans start with an extra vil and have cheaper archers. Incas have a food discount (doesn't help with archers, but does help with eagles/spears/skirms) and won't need to build houses for a while. Italians have nothing to help them in Empire Wars Feudal, giving meso civs a better chance to snowball an advantage against them right from the get-go.

[@Sasha-sd6jo]

Can someone explain what empire wars is?

[@fth68]

Is this ranked civ also for the normal playgame or am I confused?

[@quecobpt]

It is not

[@87JJosh]

At least Sicilians are consistent being the worst civ in RM and EW

[@ianaranda4640]

Turks are not good going for double gold composition? xbow/camel/knight/siege&monk?

[@ashwingaikwad7993]

Good to be here before the bots

[@ashwingaikwad7993]

Oh shit I'm not

[@derrickgraham9276]

Damn! It must be nice to have Red Bull open up a contest and know you are going to automatically win 1st place!!! Congrats Hera on your victory!!! Well played!!!

[@why_wait]

Don't speak too soon, he is great but there's no guarantees

[@derrickgraham9276]

@@why_wait LOL! I'll bet you $100 USD Hera wins. I'll use Venmo, Paypal, or Zelle to send you bet if I lose. You want in?

[@justincronkright5025]

Bengalis being forced to mine that much stone for a castle to get a knight-equivalent is what really sucks in these fast paced game modes I would suspect.

[@mubashirulmoula1798]

And even then the knight-equivalent just slaughtered by skirmishers.

[@jvan6582]

Interesting

[@Klepske]

Most of my favourite civs are towards the bottom. Empire wars is not for me. 11😂

[@thenosa87]

If spanish can't even get a B on here...

[@nemes1s_aoe]

No no no no no no. Hera baiting. No no no no no no no..........

[@Ω3103ζ]

"burmese propaganda" xDD

[@Aloooy108]

Why are wearing headphones?

[@allenbythesea]

meh, hate empire wars. downvote (sorry)

[@mr.nicolas4367]

hera god