So You Want To Play Mayans | Aoe2

First episode of my new cross platform youtube/twitch series! The idea is to do a civ overview and talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the civ in theory, and then play 1 game to check out how the civ actually plays out. I also fill the time queuing by answering questions pertaining to the civ from the twitch chat. While playing I focus on doing 100% educational commentary and even turn off alerts on my stream, so you guys get as much info as I can possibly provide.
This episode featured the Mayans, and it was played on patch 36202.
As usual any feedback is highly requested in the comments. I will prepare a small script beforehand next time so my community in the theory part will be a little cleaner, sorry if I stuttered too much here. Hope you guys enjoy!
Watch me Live at: / hera_aoc
Join my Discord: / discord

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Day 3 of 30. Let me know what you guys think of this series, seriously all feedback is appreciated. Also what civ should i do for next weeks episode?

[@monsieurbaggins3458]

Super practical dude. Love it. Can you do Slavs in one of the next ones?

[@slauzenger6855]

Tatars please

[@wackiechan300]

Mongols plez. It's really hard to know when to pull off a mangudai switch

[@anirudhviswanathan3986]

Next month can you dedicate to the new civs?

[@alejandrocanelo3058]

You could try to show another more standard mayan game :)

[@Ahmadabdal_]

hey guys Hera of the law here and today we are gonna do an overview of the mayans

[@lukedebroqueville9333]

0:00 intro/format explanation 1:08 theory - 1:29 civ bonuses - 3:16 tech tree - 4:40 conclusion/lessons from theory - 5:18 map bans 7:16 questions from twitch chat 8:58 practical application/gameplay - 15:10 hits feudal age - 22:30 hits castle age - 36:54 hits imperial age - 36:59 pause and thoughts on game - 43:36 gg is called/game recap

[@mightybatillo]

Luke de Broquêville You mised 27:34

[@ottok5477]

This is like one of those comments in ASMR videos.

[@zuzukyd]

ty

[@carlosd8029]

thanks

[@Phoenix_1991]

Hero.

[@Nadie-mb4vw]

As much i enjoy SotL videos about civs, having a pro explaining their weaknesses and strengths, and what maps they have advantage , is much better to improve on the competitive scene.

[@Rage_WinterchiIl]

And a bit more reliable.. in SotL's mayan overview he says siege onager is only worth getting to cut down trees lul

[@Nadie-mb4vw]

@@Rage_WinterchiIl to be fair that mayan review is like 5 years old, and also his early videos are really primitive. Also hes kind of right since i have never seen anyone going for Onagers with mayans lol

[@erensozen791]

@@Nadie-mb4vw mayans don't get siege onagers, you didn't get the point

[@MisterPubichair]

Maybe we can have the best from both. Maybe they can cooperate in this series. So the detail unit vs unit parts can come from SoL and the pro gamer Infos about strats/weakness/maps come from Hera. BTW @hera this might be a perfect way to grow your follower! Win + Win

[@erensozen791]

@@MisterPubichair i don't like how sol sees the game tbh, he talks about stats and math too much and makes things more complicated than they should be and he talks from a perspective doesn't really exist in real games

[@truekingvictory]

I love how even when a giant horde of rams and knights start battering your castles, you sound like you're just discussing the weather. Amazing!

[@angryhippo2910]

This is dope, I would love to see one of these for every civ. The game with Larry MbL and Viper over on his channel was dope. I'd love to see the POV of your flank. Also you said "reach" when you wanted Viper's Mamelukes to go somewhere. I thought that was pure Toronto slang. Is it common in Montreal?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Hahaha yeah i use reach all the time here, but idk how common it is overall. I will upload a tg soon, idk which one tho!

[@mattmarkowicz]

You want to see a POV of Hera's flank??? Sounds kinky...

[@Gui101do]

Mayans are one of my favorite civs. Plumes are so fun to use.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Same man, i also love the eagles tho

[@eliteteutonicknight1]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 100hp eagles are great. Though weak to infantry, they can just run away lol

[@noakeyharding9437]

wow maybe it's just me but i find it insane how the level seems to be lower 3 years ago, no ground clic for the mang shot, Hera have a LOT of unspend res in castle age(above 1000 food and wood realy frequently sometime peak to 3000) he didnt reach the 140 vill befor 45 min (IG) and didnt hit the 200 pop befor 54min and regulary have 6 to 8 vill in Q in both TC but sometime he have 10 vill on Q in one TC and the second is idle :o i'm new in AOE but i dont think i've even see hera with 1000stockpile in every ressource once in this past 6 month vid (exept for food when he clic up or buy expenssive tech maybe) i mean it is still top elo game and they are still way better than me, but compared to their level nowaday it seems realy different ^^

[@Onewaystyx]

How do you handle matchups vs civs that have access to high pierce armor infantry? Especially malians and goths. Ive had several maya vs malian games and their 10 pierce armor champions just roll me. Tried using onager eagle but it failed completely. How to deal with those sturdy high pierce armor melee units that are also good vs eagles?

[@erensozen791]

had the same problem earlier today vs malians and i didn't know about their infantry bonus so when i see 1+7 pa champions i knew i was fucked up, fortunately it was 2v2 and won in the end 11.

[@satyakisil9711]

Give up. There's no way. 11 Those civs are designed to hard-counter Maya. Like Berbers would eat Magyars and stuff. Not your fault.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Actually you shud just go elite plumes in late game. They get a +2 damage vs infantry so minimum they will do is 3 damage per shot. (Castle age plumes get a +1 only). Also usually mayans do better in early game than those civs so make sure to gain some advantage then

[@PropetTelevision]

Hey, man, I love what u are doing for the community. The luck I have that u start with Mayans, it's the first civ I'm playing with (I played only 2 games so far in MM). Keep doing this stuff cause a lot of new players are going to be grateful. Now that lot of us are on quarantine I think the game is having a pike on players per day. So, lots of players will need these kinds of things. I hope u enjoy doing these videos. Kisses from Argentina

[@adrianfritz8166]

27:31 - one Mangonel kills four Mangonels - OMG

[@felipesuarez6564]

Why does he delete the mangonel before the shoot lands?

[@adrianfritz8166]

@@felipesuarez6564 As far as I know: If you delete the mangonel before the shot hits, it does full damage, discarding any high ground advantage.

[@BeerInHandVball]

need a spirit of the law video on this!

[@adrianfritz8166]

@@BeerInHandVball This is the best video i found on the issue: www.twitch.tv/t90official/clip/HonorableWiseSpaghettiWOOP?filter=clips&range=7d&sort=time

[@sirh0tsauce]

@@adrianfritz8166 yup but the other onagers were not uphill or his downhill, so maybe is just the "habit"?

[@The_MisTrO]

When someone asks how lucky are you (as MBL) 😭 27:30 😀

[@gabrielechini8647]

Hera said he deleted his own mangonel for spreading the shot, is that a bug? : I

[@rustcohle3088]

@@gabrielechini8647 interestin didnt know about that (i knew about removing uphill disadvantage)

[@gabrielechini8647]

@@rustcohle3088 Well we've got an interesting aspect ready to be investigated by Spirit of the Law ;D

[@sebastianalfarosuazo2589]

Great vids lately man, been following you since NAC3, you are one of the most educational and entertaining streamers, and my favorite pro, thanks for helping us plebs to get better! Persians next would be neat!

[@m1st87]

Ok so now I know why I lose 90% of my games... I don't know how to react when i'm being raided, I lose my cool and I just give up, watching helplessly as all my villagers get slaughtered... I break very easily under pressure, I just don't know how to react. And when I do, I almost never have enough resources to do so.

[@hansoskar1911]

This game is prime exemple why Trush against Mayans is not great. Forcing Mayans into Stone is a lot like forcing Hera to stay inside and play aoe2. Its what they wanna do anyway. (unless you want to prevent the FC) Going forward with the MAA vs Trush was super greedy bc the MAA are great against Vils and Towers. Your reaction to the mangonel pressure in Castel Age was kinda bad. (also its mbl you know the Mangonel is coming) you could make a few eagles and try to snipe the Mangonel to gain some time or you do another tower in front of the gold so he cant hit you and do the Guard Tower upgrade. They kill every attempt at Castle Age pressure. you already had the university and the upgrade is super cheap. The overall style you played wasnt that that well suited for Mayans bc they dont really have anything to do with 140 vils.They lack the heavy options to leverage that economy.

[@TorrellesEdit]

Great series! Really enjoy the RM match after the "theory".

[@erensozen791]

awesome stuff, tutorials on youtube might be boring but how you came up with this concept is really nice. Checking the bonuses and getting your comments as the first step, then comments on the maps what to ban etc.. getting questions on queue then talk about the civ as you play (you were a bit silent time to time but it was a game vs mbl and he went for tr so totally ok) these all goes so smoothly didn't get bored for a second, thanks for the great content keep it up!

[@ericlandon950]

Thanks Hera! Appreciate the series and looking forward to it. Could you take more questions from chat after the match?

[@FajorMuckup]

Can you explain the delete at the amazing 27:32 please

[@ElectronicShredder]

Why is he garrisoning the villagers in the Dark Age like that? The boar was already dead

[@holysecret2]

Muscle memory?

[@jdog2230]

How do you enjoy the game at this point

[@genericyoutubeaccount579]

Hera, you can put a poll on youtube videos. it shows up on the top right I believe. If you know when you are going to put the poll in the video then you can direct the audience to it during your commentary. So that might be more efficient than reading through the comment section to see what the next civ is. The downside is that you can only choose like 4 or 5 options for the poll so definitely not every civ.

[@David-cs9zo]

RTS is so fun to play man.Let's make rts popular again!

[@pacomemo2000]

Awesome vid man, im personally lookin forward for a Celts or Persians vid.

[@ichigoblackTWD]

Incas please

[@hectorvenom7117]

Hey Hera! I love this series, is very informative. I was looking for something like this to better learn civs. I would love to see some cavalary civs like Mongols, Huns or Cumans. Keep up the great content!!

[@CCAPriester]

The movement at 27:33 is just genious. Something only a top player abuses.

[@adamrfisher6297]

Love ya Hera just started watchin ya! Please start shift clicking though! If I can at 1200 elo you can 😂

[@Drakkir_D]

Keep going, I wanna see all Civs! :D

[@lightingman117]

Love it! Thanks! I'm only thinking aloud, you're the pro...since the Mayans are a gold heavy civ, wouldn't it have been better to build a castle more in front of your main gold so you could defend it early on instead of getting Mangonel pushed? But then again that right side was exposed, so maybe one on the forward small gold and not the stone? Obv 20-20 and all that, just trying to get better at reading the map. I think this is probably one of the better ways to learn AOE of the guides out there. Everything else is too generalized and doesn't measure up to real game-play (theory vs reality). I'd hit the top tier civs first, I don't know what they are and would like to have some 'power plays' in my backpack. Thanks!

[@weopkasdkopasdpkasdkl8065]

With the tower that was so close to your barracks, why did you not make 1 or 2 man at arms to attack the tower? Is it because it would be a waste of resources or is there a different reason behind it?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

He had scouts nearby when i thought of it. But honestly it still couldve been good

[@richardbrayshaw9963]

I only started liking Mayans when I say your maa into arch Bo. Stop massing around now Hera! STOP! it's time to do a "so you want to play khmer" vid

[@sol6333]

hey can you do a fresh update on this (with current changes)

[@gersoncujcuy2534]

Love too see that game! I have a question, if you had gone for archers, what are the next steps to follow that early aggression if you get countered by skirms and scouts? I always get myself cornered after I do the archer rush, even if it succeeds, because I don't know how to follow it...

[@DerRabe3000]

Great video, very educational, appreciate the relaxed educational value while playing top level game

[@Dr.A]

What do you think about Khmer/Mayans matchup ? In 1vs1, monks are the good counter supposed. But in teamgames, with many elephants on the field (because the map pool favorize booming), it is not so easy... And generally, what do you think of matchup with a civ with a strong Siege/inf combo in lategame ?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Well in 1v1 its quiet even, but i would probably still prefer mayans. In teamgame khmer is way better in pocket and mayans way better in flank. There isnt too much you can do vs mass elephants with mayans, .aybe some halbs/plumes and a few monks

[@roperross259]

I loved your commentary (and stellar performance!) during NAC3 and it made me wanna hear more of you. Mayans is my favorite civ so this was awesome! Guessing you won't do another mezo civ right away but Aztecs would be great to see. They're a top tier civ but it seems like they don't have anything specific they excel at besides a drush and amazing eco bonus. Keep it up! :)

[@wolfonix3160]

27:36 i watched the move live , and now again on youtube and i still have the same reaction xD a big OOF

[@TurimoO]

Thank you, i started ranked today for first time ever and i'm 5/1 with mayans most game for now go plume/halb or plume/eagle but i'm still at low elo (1100) so there not so much agression before imp. It was really informative.

[@TaimalaiX]

I can't stop watching this series even if I've seen it before.

[@AzureKaioshin]

No I don't want to play mayans. Ill stick with my Portuguese which is D tier (But JustSaiyanXD! He moved them to C tier!) NO TAKEBACKS!

[@JK-bw8of]

I've just started my 30 days of thumbs up. I've already given 3 so 27 to go!

[@George_K.]

You're playing vs MBL and I just read he is leaving AoE2, such a shame... Anyways, Mayans are frustrating me how hard they are to face and I find it disappointing they don't have once weakness. As I see it, it's probably up to a playstyle to defeat them, but on my low level of play you can't really speak of having a playstyle.

[@thescribe509]

Elite Keshik has same pierce armor as the Hussar with silk armor and 160 hp to boot. Really scary unit. Think Elite Tarkan but a third of the gold cost (after you count the gold gain) and faster attack rate. Besides that largely identical. I don't know how it would have matched up lategame if you got into El Dorado eagles but I'd be willing to bet Tatars have an edge there.

[@davidkhamis5201]

How can I counter onagers and halberdiers with Mayans? This guy I play with uses like 80-100 pikemen and 20 onagers and keeps beating me.

[@pascalbaryamo4568]

Can’t understand why you rank mayans that high, they only have 2 useable non siege units (ok halbs are good to have too). Malian Swordsmen, Huscarls and arguably some other army comps hard counter all they have, if you don’t snowball win in late CA you can basically resign

[@iwersonsch5131]

Their Mayan thing is that they have fully upgraded Arbalests. That's great

[@MuahMan]

I play Mayans A LOT. But I never use their archers in 1200 rating games, 100 fully upgraded elite Eagle Warriors do very well.

[@matiasrisso5917]

Amazing, thanks for the video! This is one of my favorite civs. Hope to see more coming, would be nice to do the meta civs first (Aztecs, Persians, Chinese, etc.) perhaps people will be more interested in those.

[@adamrfisher6297]

Please do more q and a after the video since you did so little

[@jefffinkbonner9551]

Leave it to the Canadian to insist on pronouncing it "Mae-ens." *shutter*

[@barbershopjohn]

How to speak Canadian: talk normally but then butcher a few key words and blow your cover

[@kinuy0024]

i think you need a coffee dude...your APM is rediculous...i gotta lean my hotkeys...i'm new...

[@asaadb1]

THIS is the kind of content that will take you far. I can only imagine how hard it is, keep doing what you are doing, its amazing. TIP - next episodes do it with a guest star, or even a noob, get more perspectives, maybe at the end, i dunno, collab with someone, i volunteer (serious) !

[@92BenHur]

Asaad Malshy what a sad try..

[@asaadb1]

@@92BenHur 11

[@sylasjones9330]

After seeing the triple shot with the Magonel I liked this video

[@GrapeJuiceFruit]

Please do persians next!

[@LinkMarioSamus]

Why men-at-arms instead of archers in Feudal Age, just to ask?

[@chuckmaddox6725]

4:11 "Plumed Archer, we've already talked about" No, No you did not lol

[@0344478]

Quick Q for you Hera, the Mayan bonus: "Archers cost -10% Feudal, -20% Castle, -30% Imperial Age" - That doesn't apply to Plumed Archers does it?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Yes it does!

[@Ginge2820]

Awesome idea and it's great to hear some of the thoughts that go through pro's minds before and during each game. Keep it up!

[@TheAnthonySonic]

will be awesome if u can share the hot key setting....ur movment so fast!!

[@ProfShikari]

I like this, I’m by no means a pro player... probably not even considered casual, however, watching your videos really helps me understand build orders and this series will help me understand which civs might play better with my play style vs other civs... assuming they are played properly, not only that but they are entertaining too

[@naikyou]

I'd like to thank Mbl for immediately wrecking the theory by tower rushing you. Very informative, though possibly a bit hard on you commentary-wise if you're matched with a really hard opponent. You could technically watch your/other pros' replays and give feedback about it that way. Then again, it'll probably come down to "learn how to react" in most cases so that's probably a wasted effort. One of my picks for this would be the Malians since it's one of those interesting civs that feels like it's neutered due to missing a lot of crucial techs (+ not having amazing early food eco) and it'd be nice to see how a good player would make them work.

[@BatsAwesomeIn2030]

The red player (former team mate of Hira) is actually quite good.

[@Toshirozawa]

That was super helpful. Funny how I grew up on this game when it first came out but never "studied" it until now.

[@koyaanisqatsi7404]

I love those videos but since AOE is such a complex game with multiple maps, different civ matchups, and mostly reacting to situations, I think one video can hardly give a good understanding of one civ. If your‘re ever in need of content you could make e.g. a week of Mayans and make a video about the civ with a lot of different examples.

[@koyaanisqatsi7404]

I love those videos but since AOE is such a complex game with multiple maps, different civ matchups, and mostly reacting to situations, I think one video can hardly give a good understanding of one civ. If your‘re ever in need of content you could make e.g. a week of Mayans and make a video about the civ with a lot of different examples.

[@juan21646]

I think that one mistake you did was going agressive on mbl's gold without securing your own gold at home. There was a moment in the game in which you didn't have any gold income, and were struggling with skirms against mangonels. Great job anyways, keep up with the great content!

[@localman7017]

Kind of surprised that this even went into a late game like this, I think he could’ve definitely kicked you off that hill in castle age instead of just sending his army straight across the map and trying to base trade, once you hit the quadruple kill on the onagers I thought it should’ve been completely over

[@thing9610]

Just subbed because of this series, im selling stuff on steam to buy AoE. Being wathinc way too much games to not play, and since i haven't played this game for like 10 years i guess, some insight on what to do is awesome; your commentaries while playing, explaining stuff that you are doing while pointing out the differences between your civ and the opponents civ is reaaaaaly great, im excited to go back to age and more of this content would be awesome. Keep doing a great job, while i watch all the rest of your videos.

[@MickeyasGilliady]

your thumb-nail . how did you do that , how did you made your army surround the castle ?

[@VengeanceCore]

Why do i have to get loom if i start with an extra villager and -50 wood?

[@Rxon012]

I legit was looking for this yesterday, you read my mind

[@ThereThereSquare]

love to watch the viper for the master-pizza, watch Hera for the m "KNOWLEDGE".... MUCH RESPECT

[@andreiorha9464]

16 min in I thought "bro, this guy is playing better than you". Then I saw it's MBL :-|

[@targa5824]

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with this series. I really like it! Constructive feedback: it would be nice to link other uploads of you playing Mayans to this video. Since there are different strategies and unit compositions for every civ. Like here you were basically playing men at arms into plumbed archers. I would be interested in a Mayans archer play our yours. Thank you for your videos, keep it up!!!

[@kevinlecavalier9720]

super nice video, really made me understand a lot of things a knew but didn't really know how to apply, thanks Hera!

[@lechugator]

If you had created archers in feudal, when going castle would you upgrade them or ditch them for plumes?

[@athharahamed590]

love the series. mayans are my favourite. a lot of us noobs doesn't know which civs good for which map. u r the only pro player who does these things for us. thanks bro. for example i never knew britons and persians where good for arabia. i was just spamming huns whenever i get arabia.

[@MisterPubichair]

This is so good! Yesterday I talked with a friend that there's no series like this. I need more game plans and for this I need to know which civ is good at what. What are good early game strategies, which switches are good? Stuff like that.

[@tpurcell6467]

How about a gunpowder civ? Spanish or Turks?

[@Idle_villager]

Good work! Would appreciate a video on Cummins- feel they’re a great civ to play but not always sure what’s the best way to play them

[@alejandroromero6464]

Why would he go trush when you were fully walled and had a back stone?

[@HahnValentin]

So I want to play Mongols... ASAP :D

[@iamusdamma2637]

hi im new to your channel really good content by the way im also half new to AoE 2 i plan on watching this series thankyou for making it up to date

[@warbreakr]

Knight rush civ

[@Kellar_AoE]

Great series :). If you want a tip, you should start off with the new civs in my opinion.

[@uri158]

This is quite helpful for me to learn every different civ Really enjoyed in this video Supporting you from Taiwan and anticipating to see Spanish in the future~

[@somersetbassett4580]

I very much enjoy this content, getting back into it and this helps while being fun too 😂

[@josvathomsen2098]

Why did MBL not make Cav Archers as Tatars?

[@eriewerts4269]

I love your content. Could you re-do this video with the new skirmishers? I would love to see you cover tactics builds and so on.

[@RoninSan7]

When playing Mayans build 2 markets... got it. Thank you Hera!!!11!!

[@andrewjohnhodge6599]

This is really useful practical application of theory, I'm really glad I looked into your channel! I'd really like to see Malay next, I think they're very interesting, and maybe still not fully understood by a lot of players (including me!). Thank you.

[@binaryfireball2929]

Do you think the forward castle was worth it compared to castling to protect your gold?

[@b360smile]

I like your casting and also this civ serie is good content to learn something about aoe2. Want more 👍👍

[@micheledellaira4306]

This went quickler than I expected (:p) from a tutorial to a full try-hard game! Still, thanks a lot for this Hera, really useful for new/bad players to improve.

[@GuilhermeSoler]

Amazing serie. I wish you play Khmers

[@IsafreyrVentures]

Its like so you want to try garen? in league of legends but now age of empires 2? godly!

[@JacobBuliwyf]

man everyday one civ comon.. big fan thums up

[@sleros8646]

* tries to make an informative series about a civ's weaknesses and strengths * * gets tower rushed by MbL instantly *

[@muhammadnuralhafiz]

i wish mesoamerican get more civ and more buff

[@derikaem8021]

Would you agree that mayans are the worst melee civ?