Best Civ For Beginners? [AOE3]

[@AussieDrongo]

What do you think is the best civilisation for beginners? Do you agree with the assessment or do you think there's another civ better than French for newer players? Let me know.

[@ikielinsesi1843]

For learning the game from the very start and singleplayer, Spain is the best for beginners. For multiplayer beginners, France is the way to go.

[@4.1.4.1s]

Britain

[@pascal1103]

unpopular Opinion: Japan has the advantage of being hard to raid and having early events of success by just spamming Ashi bc they're so powerful. That could be a a reason for a new player staying with AOE 3. You also have the two monks for exploration, not too many unit types. You don't have to herd. The shrines are quite forgiving if you're struggling with your eco. It's just not a good preperation for playing other civs and encourages bad habits. In this regard, french is way better.

[@silmaril96]

@@ANSELAbitsxb Constantly making vills is the backbone of any good player. For beginners, Otto are probably the worst choice, because they don't force you to develop that habit.

[@kenb2957]

I feel like three civs that are Super new player forgiving are the Sioux, Ottomans, and the Japanese. Sioux flat out don't have to worry about housing, so as long as your eco is rolling you can be pumping military out, and with your super fast army you can make mistakes of going in, deciding it's a bad engagement, and escaping. With the Ottomans, your villagers are auto training the entire game so you don't have to pay attention to that, you just have to decide how much resources you invest into the training speed. Jannisaries are an incredible unit that can match up perfectly against enemy age 2 units, and a shipment of hus or training abus means that you have all you need to counter the enemy behind the backbone of some of the strongest age 2 heavy infantry. And then there's Japan, where as long as you know "I need to put houses on animals", the economy plays itself. No need to herd at all, automatic resource generation in case you're under pressure, and every unit they get, be it ashi, yumi, or even the oddball samurai/rider for all in cav or all in light, works well.

[@TenaciousTeddy]

The only thing wrong with playing the French is that you're playing the French

[@sirgando3774]

2

[@TenaciousTeddy]

1

[@SirNarax]

As a Frenchman I am offended but for some reason I understand.

[@tristan.h5099]

@@SirNarax same

[@maddymowbray2267]

bro i feel u

[@hansoskar1911]

It turns out: if your Villagers gather super fast and cant be killed any strat is possible.

[@hoola_amigos]

19

[@antoniusantar8702]

French or Brits are the best beginner civs in my opinion

[@davidderr8705]

I also include Spain in this category

[@Hallointhehouse]

Brits require heavy micro imo. I always begin to sweat when playing Brits.

[@andreasjonsson3419]

@@Hallointhehouse , cow boom requires a lot of micro

[@vladimirlagos2688]

Curiously enough, the devs originally thought the best entry level civ was Spain as per their own instruction booklet that came with the game CD. I guess it was because of the fast shupments and the age 2 lancers they had back then. Even back then, I always thought French were easier, though.

[@davidderr8705]

@@vladimirlagos2688 yup, I remember reading that

[@decorn2542]

At first I mainly played with ottomans as you don't need to do a lot of microing and decision making, you can only build janissaries with the barracks and you train settlers automaticly, although I wouldn't recommend it you can focus a lot more on the game if you only need to worry about a couple of unit types. I didn't only play against the AI though and this was a long time ago (pre-warchief), so I agree with the french pick but ottos aren't too bad for a first game.

[@tjsmithson1598]

A video that goes over the rock paper scissors nature of units would be cool.

[@holeinyourwall3872]

Yes please!

[@Skilliard]

For total beginner, I'd say ottoman. One thing I find new players struggling with is an idle TC and resource management. They either won't be training enough vills and just spending on military, or will be diverting too much resources to aging up, unnecessary buildings(ie early mill/estate), etc. Besides your mosque upgrades and houses, you spawn vills automatically and can just focus on dumping all your resources into janissaries, and have a very strong all in rush without sacrificing eco. For semi-beginner, I'd say Japan. One thing that new players struggle with is herding. Remembering to right click the herd every 12 seconds to move it towards your TC is very difficult, so new players often end up hunting far away and getting raided by cav, or build mills that are a huge wood sink and slow. With Japan, you get free cherry orchards in lieu of hunting so that's an entire mechanic you don't need to worry about. They do have a few more mechanics with their consulate, wonders, shrine, etc, but IMO it's not too hard to figure out.

[@whitefox25]

bro u not the utuber here u dont know what u talking about

[@davey5867]

@@whitefox25 bruh

[@Vincrand]

I'd say Spain is a also good to learn with. They don't really have unique mechanics aside frome unction, which they won't use yet, and faster shipments, which they won't really notice. They also have a big unit pool of standard units.

[@kallio32]

As a aeo3 veteran, French is my personal favorite civilization because of the variety of infantry troops and the heavy cannons that the factory produce

[@lionelhutz-attorneyatlaw4443]

Drongo is going to run out of thumbnails at some point, unless he animates more himself. Either that, or Tobias could make a cameo here and there.

[@RomAEterna1512]

French, British or Spanish are the best for beginners because are very standard and good on everything and have lot of similarities between them or between factions of other age games

[@FuelDropforthewin]

In a pinch French villagers can back up an early all-in, too. They pack a decent punch to support melee military units.

[@bleed7378]

I started with the Ottos when I was 10, but since I had no idea how to even come close to optimizing artillery, I very quickly dropped them for Germans. Now that I am playing again for the first time since like 2013, I picked up the US (non-revolt) and I'm loving them.

[@jjforcebreaker]

I'd also say French. Certainly one of the core, OG civs. My favs are Japanese and Aztecs, but for a newcomer it's best to start with one of the older ones to learn the basics of AoE3 knowledge.

[@bernard3303]

Either french or portuguese imo work really well, as portuguese teach a new player to boom

[@tom4150]

As a veteran that still plays with cheats the french are stacked. The french cathedral cards gets you special arsenol upgrades and ability to produce artillery faster. Also allows gives you the option to rank up faster from age 2 to 3.

[@vladimirlagos2688]

In the vanilla version of the game, the devs suggested new players to start with Spain and then proceed to Brits, French, and Ports... even back then I thought that order was a bit off...

[@theowlogram888]

Spanish were much better back then and their unique units remind a bit of AoE2 so I think it's why ES recommended people to play them first.

[@hetoverseo3887]

Spain is the most basic and closer to aoe2 as you can get.

[@hetoverseo3887]

I would recommend learning spain because if you learn how to use them, you can play with the other civs pretty easily

[@Quirriff]

French also have every standard unit except grenadiers. So its great for learning too.

[@StatedOregon5]

I remember the good old days where u could do a timing on sioux(now lakota) using musks and cdbs with pioneer card

[@seanpchristy]

Excited to watch this I just jumped back into AOE 3 CE through Xbox I enjoyed AOE3 back in the day when it came out but haven't played it since after watching a few of your videos I jumped into Dutch. I like having the banks automatically roll in gold but japan seems to be very promising as well

[@luciusoptimus7888]

For one of the USA challenges I didn't build hardly any military. Just used French settlers

[@Imperator42]

Hmm, I remember ages back from the AoE3 demo that you could only play the Spanish, so you had to get used to Lancers, Rodeleros and such

[@justinisenberg1841]

I never hear people talking about another advantage the French have, Natives. The French have the best cards for enhancing natives imo and I've played many games where the native troops were carrying the game for me.

[@nathansutterfield]

Great informative video. I didn't know about the discord. I will join right now. Thanks for the great content.

[@adeelqureshy573]

When you’re on Age 2 get towers imported, in order reflect enemy rushers. I was to do this and defeat an aggressive British player. Also get to age three fast to get artillery. Artillery does splash damage. Get it imported along with forts, and hussars for counter artillery.

[@matthewchamberlain2953]

British all the way for me. You feel like you're drowning in resources constantly. Free villagers ftw.

[@paymonm]

I started playing AOE3 back in 2005 and I still play the way I used to back then as a lil kid... trash :D

[@comentotudo7]

me too lol

[@karanr9965]

lmao same

[@Joker-yw9hl]

Can't go wrong beginning with the Spanish, Brits, Portuguese or French. Whichever one interests you most. Spanish or British would be my standouts, but Portuguese would help beginners to boom and hype to the organ guns. French are like the Spanish in that they have a good variety of units but I think their uniqueness makes them less of a beginner civ for me. People say Ottomans but I think that'd confuse a beginner, and also give them bad habits. If they're into it and understand what they're doing however they might find themselves enjoying the freedom to not have to worry so much about macro, but just be wary of picking up bad habits when switchaing to more conventional civs, especially as Ottoman units are completely unique. One thing's for certain - I'd start off with a European civ. Preferably one with access to pikes, crossbows/longbows, and musks. Skirms an added bonus, but units with low coin cost (i.e., musks) are preferable for a beginner, in my opinion

[@ethanlim3222]

Japan heh :P unraidable vills, auto-generate houses, excellent musks and archers, daimyo stacking of abilities, teleporting explorers if you get caught... a beginner has to attack them early and pressure them to gain the advantage, not likely at the lower levels

[@lolslayer58]

Yea and once the beginner faces somewhat skilled enemies he will be idled on the tc or get stomped with a timing, not noob friendly

[@KleinerGrenadier]

Its hard for a beginner to make a balanced economy that makes shrines, vills and soldiers And a noob wont take advantage of all the little quirks like faster musks or daymos as well as people like (i just guess this) you who has a decent knowledge about the game

[@fupopanda]

@@lolslayer58 but the beginner wont be facing those kinds of skilled players. The problem with japan for beginners is that there are many things you need to do right in age 1 and 2.

[@NihilisticAltruist]

japan is not good because all others civ collect food thro hunting while Japan thro farms/orchidesa, and it's very easy, I mean if you learn to play first without hunting it will be harder for you late

[@pixelmaster98]

1:05 your maths is incorrect; 40% range resist does not equal 40% more HP. The maths works differently here, they actually end up with about 65% more effective HP. An easier example is by using 50% resistances (= half damage). It's rather intuitive to understand that this means they have double the effective HP, and the maths works the same on other percentage values (though the really relevant one is how much damage you still take, not how much you resist). The effective HP multiplier works out to = 1 / (damagePercentageStillTaken). Therefore, at 40% resistance, you have 1/0.6 = 1.667 times the effective HP. If you follow this logic further, it becomes clear that, the closer you are to 100%, the more impactful a single percentage point will be. For example, 0% -> 25% resistance only raises your effective HP from 100% of base to 133% of base, but 50% -> 75% raises your effective HP from 200% to 400%. 90% resistance would be 10x the effective HP as base HP, and at 100% you're obviously completely immune.

[@PenguNL]

I wonder how a true vanilla civ would perform, no special units, no special bonusses. But a full unit roster and all the basic cards available.

[@poyloos4834]

If you gave them all the standard “most civs have this” cards, I’d think they’d do fine. Bonuses don’t play *that* huge of a role in aoe3 and more often than not a battle is decided by who has access to what. I can think of a few civs that sorely lack musks.

[@TotalWarChronicles]

Aussie we are still waiting for a thorough inca guide!! When will you deliver!?

[@935AscensionGroup]

So what counters the French? The fact that they don't have a specific strenght? Also : How do you calculate macro? I always have troubles with managing how many villagers on what resource. Great video!

[@ST69TS]

It's a tricky thing. The easy answer is to say that experience will teach you that. What I recommend though is to not be afraid to use the market when you make a mistake in your macro. Also try and reallocate villagers. Build orders will say often "X on food and Y on gold", but a treasure, an adaptation in strategy can easily change this. Remain flexible :)

[@johnlocke4715]

@Bart Van Riet So it depends on what composition the french are choosing and what civ you're playing as. I'd say 75% of the time they'll 5 hussar semi-FF into skirms/goons with some cuirassier + 2 the cannon shipment. A good counter to this strategy is longbow/goon with cannons of your own, preferbaly culverins.

[@erikonthefloor]

I think Germans do counter the French. Their early game raids with Uhlans(high melee damage) are perfect against the Coureurs des bois(same melee armour as vills) and their War wagons(anti cav) counter the often-used Cuirassier in the late game.

[@PhotonTrooperGaming]

Funny how I probably I did the inverse way and went for the hardest ones back in 2006-2007 to play and stayed there forever, lol. I picked the germans, russians and lakota (which was called sioux in the past) as the ones that I wanted to stay playing and never went back, lol. But I also picked ottos as well, which was played very often in the past. I don't recommend sioux or germans for beginners, unless you are an aggressive player and really likes to micro a lot.

[@TerahAsh]

The fact that they are a 'balanced' civ could be disadvantage. I prefer niche civs but the French CdB is good. They make a strong economy. Without them the French would be nothing.

[@TerahAsh]

The Good Things About Each Civ: The Hauds: Fast age up from water, Aenna rush with 5 big button tomakawks and Kenya horsemen shipment. Good against Japan and Britts. Apart from that they are blah. Aztec: All the units are niche and this can be an advantage and a disadvantage. The war chief has some use. Don't let them fortify war and noble huts. Japan: only good if left alone. If you let them get to fortress age, game over. Fast age up and directly attacking their units and military buildings is better than attacking shrines early on. Germany: similar to France - settler wagons but CdBs are better overall. Apart from that, nothing else is good. Spain: Quick training for crossbows and pike so they are spamable. Later on, Spanish gold and lancers. Unction is kinda useful. An unlimited card shipment is a must for your deck. Lakota: bow riders for raiding early on. Warchief. The opponent will just avoid your teepees so send other cards. Britt's: early boom and water boom but vulnerable to Spanish pike and crossbow rush. French: CdBs - a huge advantage. Portuguese: should only be used on a water map.

[@sam_lxxxiv]

The answer is the Ottomans by far. Fewer number of unit types when compared to other civs, thus less confusion with what to build, and it has auto settler production, which is very beginner-friendly.

[@AussieDrongo]

Unfortunately the Ottomans create a very bad habit for new players, in that they are not taught to train villagers.

[@Argiur]

Depends on what type of beginner youre talking about. Beginner in ranked, probably french. Beginner to RTS genre, Ottomans. Most likely they will start playing Treaty, as its the most beginner friendly mode. Someone who is new to RTS won't have the APM to handle their economy. But someone who wants to train exclusively for ranked 1v1 will do so with the most middle-ground civ. The french are that device

[@AussieDrongo]

@@ANSELAbitsxb Title of the video was "best civ for beginners" not "easiest civ for beginners" ;)

[@franz2027]

When the basis for your argument is another game you really shouldn't be preaching to people who know way more than you. The title is correct.

[@furkansaryerli]

@@ANSELAbitsxb You might have a point, but what is a ''nazi simping for his messiah''? You accuse him a nazi just because he disagrees with you?

[@EspressoCatPlays]

French and Britts are so boring, but totally agree french is the best one, also not so dependent on making settlers as British, new players usually forget to make settlers, french village gather more, so you do not need so many french Courier de Bois a British settler

[@augustduplessis5862]

Saw a video of someone rushing his opponent in age 1 with the french vils

[@applejuice90]

As beginner what beginner like 1. Simple 2. Versatile. 3. Can cheese your enemy.

[@Makofueled]

Clicking to see if we said French or not

[@robertkeaney9905]

When I first started playing the easiest civ for me was the Russians. Because it didn't matter that I lost a lot of villagers and military units. I just made more. For a russian player life is cheap.

[@davidtogi5878]

True, i was allergic to raids and everytime my vill died i felt miserable. After lots of time playing russ i became numb to death. 😂

[@robertkeaney9905]

@@davidtogi5878 True, that is how it goes

[@gabrielecaverzan1056]

Hey Aussie! Would you please share the secret behind the zoom level you have when you play Age of Empires 3? How do I zoom back further? Thanks in advance!

[@happybox9822]

I know it's 2 years old, but probably just a bigger screen. It looks the same on my 32''

[@magnus-carlson]

Pls do some videos about treaty game civs and strategies

[@prateekdabeer7614]

Loved it

[@justinisenberg1841]

I swear, there's little I hate more than being attacked by coyotes, maces, and pumas and I haven't even been to Australia!

[@vincelantos8544]

And what nations are the hardest?

[@moch.farisdzulfiqar6123]

My pick is Germany, 10% slower shipment, underwhelming naval and military unit to choose, and had expensive unit to kill another expensive unit (doppelsoldner and war wagon to kill curraisieur).

[@jameshehir5719]

Chinese maybe

[@bipboup7761]

@@jameshehir5719 as a chinese player I don't agree. Chinese are often pretty underwhelming, but If think Germany IS way harder because of how expensive are your units. They also tend to be quite fragile (Uhlans), so you need to micro like crazy, and you're punished quite easily.

[@hetoverseo3887]

@@bipboup7761 chinese isn't the hardest civ but they are pretty niche, you will get the hang of it after a few games, the hardest one is Germany in my opinion, they are expensive

[@tom4150]

​@@moch.farisdzulfiqar6123is there a civilization that gets shipments the fastest

[@weirdchamp7790]

sweden and british very noob friendly

[@Speak4Yourself2]

Excellent video. But I'm not sure of the use of the term 'forgiving'. French being forgiving? Nope. Learning French is good as it genuinely makes you a better player in terms of micro and macro. I am surprised you didn't mention the top noob civs of current times, the Swedes and the Japanese. Forgiving should be used when you can make just one type of speedy musk units and have ridiculous passive income from your houses.

[@zares_fnx]

That's interesting. I always tried to protect them even more than "normal" villagers because they're more expensive. I wouldn't use them to fight. That changed my view. What about using cards that boost them, is it worth?

[@dulcis4573]

i dont think so. Its too rare of those situations for the cards to be worth it

[@mickethegoblin7167]

Try it out. It is an interesting strategy, and they might not expect it.

[@arctrooper4240]

Nice 👍

[@konsumkind99]

turns out: USA

[@jefflowel9542]

Ottos. Auto vils do wonders for new players

[@sarahslye2726]

Otto, Brit, Sweden, French, Port all ez to play

[@joneyemcl3318]

I found Sweden quite tricky to get used to. Torps present extra dynamics to consider with your resource macro

[@_kaverna]

I always thought Ottomans was the easiest for beginners!

[@holeinyourwall3872]

Me too! Free spam of vils ans minimum eco management, all in military

[@dika2saja]

French and Japan, japan village doesn't hunting and their cannon & Musk is op French just because less pop capped by villager

[@Senbatorii]

French, it's the French.

[@nicolaabbate4704]

Who in their right mind would recommend Dutch as a beginner's civ??? That's so dumb

[@zares_fnx]

When I came back to AoE3 (played vanilla one years ago), I didn't remember almost anything, and Dutch was one of my most often picks - my winning ratio was the highest even though I like French more, and they was my main back then. On low ELO I could do something crazy like age up with that politician that unlocks Halberdiers in age II, and just go straight into an enemy base. They also have early Skirmishers without Early Skirmishers card, so with some basic micro, they can fight mass Musketeers that a lot of players like to mass. Besides that, banks are very useful, as new players have problems with mining gold without losing too many villagers. Funny thing, when I played 2v2 games with my friend (he played as Brits), after mines around his base were depleted, he was just chopping wood and trading to gold in the market... I had to tell him estates are a thing lol. Villagers gold cost might be hard for beginners but if they just stick to Dutch, they should figure it out sooner or later.

[@nicolaabbate4704]

@@zares_fnxeverything you say is true and I also really like Dutch because of their uniqueness, but that is what makes them bad for beginners , if you stick with them as your first civ you're going to have problems playing with different civs

[@roAvenue]

France is not for noobs, it's for lamers. The best civs for beginers are Otto, Brits and Portugal

[@MrHanderson91]

In terms of simplicity, Spanish are as basic as you get.

[@Tobmei]

Thats cool and all, but there is no way I play the frensh

[@ericnawamusic]

Cour de bouis is great

[@ourdailyshorts27]

i have started on russia and china cuz i love communist countries

[@lottoman1]

My fav civs are ottomans and japanese

[@Ratciclefan]

Wow

[@Nopenotatall]

This video could be 5 seconds long and 1 word. British

[@samuelrawlings2393]

Why are British good for newbies also, how do you combat early rushes when playing the brits?

[@Nopenotatall]

@@samuelrawlings2393 they are super simple to learn what buildings do what, how to fight since they’re muskets and cav are decent. No weird mechanics or units. Brits are as vanilla as it gets. You can learn the game super easy with them

[@jameshehir5719]

@@samuelrawlings2393 British early boom is more powerful than any other because of the house bonus. Pikes obviously are great anti-cav and longbows are exceptional anti-infantry bowmen. Brits are a 'boring' civ but they have all the basics. Pikes, Bows, Musks, Hussars, Dragoons, Falconets, Culverins etc. In my mind they're the most vanilla ice cream, salt & pepper civ. Bland perhaps, but noob friendly

[@compsognathus4533]

I am not a good player, and I play always as British.

[@musketman6376]

i think the british or the french are the best

[@schadowizationproductions6205]

I'd honestly say the Spanish.

[@MCUPW]

Better than age 4, just saying....

[@TheFerperrub]

O think that Russia is.

[@JM-ic9yx]

Damn can you slide into my dms with some deck pics?

[@TerahAsh]

France

[@BanditoCGET]

Like number 10? Haven't been this early in a while!

[@JA-lr5ix]

Pls be Portugal or Lakota...

[@JA-lr5ix]

... FUCK!