Poles Overview (AoE2)

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1:25 Team bonus: Scout line +1 vs archers
1:58 Villagers recover HP
2:34 Folwark replaces the mill
4:05 Stone miners also generate gold
UNIQUE UNIT AND TECHS
6:15 Obuch
8:45 Knights cost -60% gold
10:15 Light cavalry + Hussar deal trample damage
TECH TREE
11:28 Archers B
11:50 Infantry A-
11:22 Cavalry A-
13:00 Siege B
13:15 Navy C/B- (C+ average)
13:40 Monks B
14:05 Defenses B
14:38 Trash B-
15:10 General thoughts & strategies
16:30 Sponsor
___________________________________________________________
Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com
Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

[@Michas333]

As a Polish person, i can confirm, i do deal more damage to archers and recover ~5hp per minute.

[@alejandrosmusic8685]

Thanks mate I hope you’re able to counter the Slavs when they come to Poland

[@prussianblue9316]

We really be in the dark age

[@thegreenpianist7683]

This made me laugh way more that it should have

[@ian_b]

As a non-Polish archer, I can confirm this😥

[@tr4spyable]

As a polish person I can confirm it even applies to Winged Hussars

[@bare_bear_hands]

The simple fact that folwarks are 3x3, just like farms, makes them aesthetically ideal.

[@Adunapheth]

You forgot about their secret bonus, if you are raiding the enemy with winged hussars, you type in chat "And the Winged Hussars arrived" to assert dominance.

[@toddv7257]

Coming down the mountainside

[@GarkKahn]

Highly effective in september When we remember

[@eruantien9932]

It does amuse me how hussars have had wings since... The Conquerors? Were they in the original Age of the Kings or were they added in the expansion? I can't remember anymore. Anyway, hussars have always had wings but we're only so recently getting Poles as a civ. I find this amusing.

[@Neon-Lines]

but their Hussars are literally the worst for Raiding and against Archers lol

[@danpower7416]

@@eruantien9932 They were added in Conquerors, same for halbs.^^ But Liths also get winged hussars and were introduced much earlier than poles.

[@pramodn9077]

+10 for bringing back the intro!

[@andrewjohnhodge6599]

It was a lovely surprise!

[@00rasengan]

We want this intro in aoe4 videos as well!

[@Krissieo]

+15 in imperial age

[@Eustathe]

He didn't bring it back, it's always been there in civ overviews

[@wyrdplae8586]

does anyone know if the opening song an original work? If there's a full version somewhere I'd love to grab it??? It slaps.

[@azsswim]

I love the model for the castle, its Bedzin in Poland. My dad was lived across the street from it, and has many childhood memories from having played in its moats and its walls.

[@T0mek87]

Hope he didn't get hurt when the Chinese empire did a rush on Będzin.

[@Apocalypso64]

Did you show him the Polish Castle in-game?

[@ratulxy]

Wait, your dad lived across a castle? That's so cool.

[@weswolverine]

​@@T0mek87ironically I was just playing as the poles and the Chinese just did this to me

[@MiSt3300]

I am Polish and I can tell you that when I mine I produce gold all the time!

[@kwdblade4683]

deepest lore

[@MiSt3300]

@@kwdblade4683 you know it!

[@watchman835]

From your arse.

[@Mephistopheles9]

@@watchman835 from yours

[@randomturd1415]

But can the hun player confirm if they don't need houses?🤨

[@HistoricalWeapons]

And the Winged Hussars Arrived!!

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

Making their way to heaven!

[@toddv7257]

Coming down the mountainside!

[@Zapper1993]

They could use some southeast right now.

[@XtReMz98]

SotL says the Poles aren’t good on water, but then grants them a Sea+. Go figure!

[@rhalfik]

It's a stab at Bochemians for saying 'ahoj' despite not having sea access.

[@eviljoel]

Its because they have screen doors on their submarines.

[@x2cer]

Had a huge smile on my face when I heard the classic SOTL intro music :D

[@kwdblade4683]

The polls are in on the Poles, and their polearms held by Pole arms are polling well, although not with the pols.

[@popopduck877]

What about Paul the Pole?

[@kouron]

@@popopduck877 he's a politician, politely polluting polish ponds with polonium, we don't talk about him.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

Damn Poles, they ruined Poland!

[@Wtf_is_this_handle_thing_YT]

I don't get the last pun. What are the pols?

[@piotrjasielski]

You polished this sentence to perfection.

[@MrShirial]

I love poles for their farm sized mill

[@tyranitararmaldo]

It is also the only unique building with a Dark Age skin.

[@jameskindschuh93]

I love poles for their folwark sized farms

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Farming = A+ for me. Look at that proper squaring of the Farms. *Look at it!* Hmm, needs more Winged Hussars breakdowns (unless that's already a previous video).

[@LordRavensong]

It is

[@ottokarl5427]

"It's a square tomato! We have nature on the run!" - Adrian Monk

[@ingwio2485]

That Sponsor transition was soo smooth! Thanks for the overview. I really enjoyed it!

[@RESURRECT2]

The ultimate skill is that when you defeat Poles, you never know if they won't return in the next 2 minutes.

[@samfire3067]

*gets revived more 4 times during The game *

[@IhateMTVandVIVA]

A huge advantage, especially on maps, where you know, or you can assume or find out quickly where your opponent's town is (like on Arena), is that you just need to collect stone to get enough gold to get to castle age. Then you can immediatelly drop a castle at your opponent's town and even keep collecting only stone to get enough gold for the most of time while castle age. Meanwhile you can drop a lot of castles there.

[@fs23]

This can be good at lower or medium elos my linksgrünversiffter friend but it is definitely not optimal, so there are counters that work too well which higher level players will utilise.

[@josephdavis3472]

​@@fs23 yeah, but by that logic, almost no strategies are good because the really pro players can counterplay them. Not to belabor the point, but an all in castle age knight rush is a strat that can easily lose you a game at high elo due to their better ability to micro and adapt to stressful circumstances -- but I wouldn't say that means that knight rush is a "bad strategy" -- even if it's not that great at the highest level.

[@W-G]

@@josephdavis3472 I think when talking about things it's best to avoid the trap of "but in high elo" because in that territory every single move can be countered so its like... why bother hahaha

[@CJ00014]

Just press G

[@arandomwalk]

“Obuch” with a small exhale at the end of the word, is what made this video complete

[@jarom6894]

Szlachta tech fits excellent into Polish history - nobility/knight class (in Polish Szlachta) was numerous compared to other countries in late medieval era

[@Diana-le7oh]

Poles arew my favorite civ in Aoe 2 now. The square farms is the biggest reason but I also have a much better win rate with playing them as an infantry civ than with any other civ.

[@michabaron4129]

Id almost count Obuchs as a bonus to the archer score, since with that 2 unit army comp (obuch + either skirm or arb) your ranged unita get more dps than most civs, even if ever so slightly. Its not gamebreaking amount but never detrimental E: Spirit of the Lawn

[@obesechicken13]

Yeah especially vs units with insane pierce armor like incan or mayan plumes and eagles, huskarls, or malian Champskarls. Then again just massing more Obuch probably works against those too.

[@Saltyoven]

Folwark allowing you to easily surround with farms and not need a complicated farm build order is real nice too.

[@Sallafar]

So.... the historical polish Winged Hussars where known as a (a bit late to the party but still) formidable, state of the art, *heavy shock cavalry* . And in AoE II they are not only a light melee cav, but also the poles as such are lacking in the final heavy cav-armour upgrade *and* the competetive lategame heavy cavalry.... WOOOT?? Am i the only one here feeling put off by this?

[@ArthurDraco]

Not the first time AoE 2 ignored historical accuracy over gameplay balance.

[@Sallafar]

@@ArthurDraco yes, but this bad? They basically engineered an entirely new civ, while still advertising them for what they aren't in-game anymore... To whom else did they do something on that level?

[@lscibor]

Early polish hussars were very much light cavalry, gradually becoming kinda "medium" and then heavy shock cavalry towards last third of 16th century, while AoE2 supposedly portraits mostly events from before ~1550. So you can kinda understand why they made that choice, I guess. Their shock aspect is kinda covered by trample, it seems.

[@ArthurDraco]

@@Sallafar There are a few that i could mention here(not sure if there are as bad as this). Chinese for example, had invented quite a few (most in fact) medieval technologies, yet don't have access to them in game. Also, many Spanish Conquistadors have written about how the Macuahuitl, the weapon used by the Jaguar warriors, could decapitate horses, yet it's an anti-infantry unit. The Saracen unique unit is also a weird one: from what i read, they never threw swords at enemies.

[@johnxina5126]

Game balance>historical accuracy Deal with it bro, this has been the priority by the developers since day one

[@gauravminz8337]

Not sure about this, but the way I see this, Szlachta Priveleges is supposed to be used as soon as one hits Castle Age while continuing producing Light Cavalry. This strategy is supported by the Folwark bonus. Of course this means that people using this strategy would have to take a chunk of their villagers to build a Castle, and upon its completion immediately research the unique tech all the while continuing producing Light Cavalry for offence/defence. Once the research is completed, Knights can be produced. This would free up lot of gold, and can be a potential source for the Imperial upgrade.

[@Gojong_Emperor_Qianlong]

In the game, Poles cannot use Paladins, but in real history, there were heavy cavalry like Paladin in Poland, right? In other games, the Poles come out with powerful cavalry that won't be pushed back even if they go head-to-head with the Teutonic Knights.

[@Daniel-ob2ev]

Yea we got winged hussars as our heavy cavalry.

[@sahilambawade8636]

Yeah infact Lithuanian had more light cavalry and poles had heavy cavalry and in game Lithuanians have strong paladins and poles have stronger light cavalry 😂

[@ChrisZukowski88]

@@sahilambawade8636 exactly makes 0 sense. The winged hussars were also the last heavy cavalry in history while everyone else shifted focus towards lightly armored infantry with rocket launchers lol.

[@timothydoyle9635]

It just does not quite feel like a Spirit of the Law video without the bamf supremacy vil mercing that cobra car. Glad to see him return.

[@TadeoDOria]

Love your overviews, but you forgot to highlight the Winged Hussar as a unique unit and to show its differences to the regular Hussar. You went straight from the Obuch to the unique techs.

[@tonyschrock627]

There's a separate video on the winged hussars

[@tonyschrock627]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3vZYXSerrCqg8U

[@TadeoDOria]

@@tonyschrock627 I know, but that's like saying there's a separate video about the Obuch; you should at least cover the basics in a civ overview, it is on the unique units list after all.

[@Dinnye01]

You so deserve the sponsorship! And the transition was flawless!

[@iwersonsch5131]

I wonder if with the mechanics of the Folwark, the original Korean bonus could make a comeback... "Fortifications within 20 tiles of the starting TC are built 50% faster and cost 15% less." "War wagons are now classified as siege, no longer classified as cavalry archers, and no longer benefit from archer armor."

[@kurt4735]

Great video. All of these are very well out together. Thank you for doing these.

[@PBspartanPAGE]

Thank you for correct obuch pronunciation. It was so frustrating to hear it said as “obuk” in some other youtubers’ videos😅

[@rafad9044]

I was waiting for szachta privilige :|

[@Turalcar]

He described it correctly and then started calling it "obuh" which is even worse than "obuk"

[@Turalcar]

@@rafad9044 Considering it makes for less mining this name would make sense

[@littleumbrella1763]

Yes you have pronounced the Obuch correctly 👏

[@andrzejandrzejski229]

Unlile folwark...

[@spd-kv6sd]

I wonder how they would fend with Mongols as allies. I feel like both civs complement each other perfectly - both in their strengths and their versatility - and can make up for unpredictable plays. The only problem is the late game when both lack Ring Archer Armor and Plate Barding Armor, but both are strong in the late game anyways. Also, factor in the fast Mongol siege if you pair it with Obuch.

[@Kjorn90]

Historically, we actually get well with Tatars most of the time. Prince Vitold, brother of King Vladislaus Jagiello, gave them land on Polish and Lithuanian borders in exchange for a title of Khan. Those warriors were perfect allies and fearsome foes for next centuries. Mongols wasn't a monolite. Much of the horde swore loyalty to Ottoman Turks, some got under Russian Tzars. But those raised near Baltic Sea are still brothers to us, who helped us survive russian regime. Even religion wasn't an issue to them. They taught us horse riding, archery and their tactics. It would be nice if AoE would make some synnergy

[@marianmarkovic5881]

@@Kjorn90 actualy those civ bonusses complement each other,...

[@Vlaew]

Poles has been my favorite, replacing Spanish in team games with friends. Prioritizing mining stone into castle usually gets me a good amount of gold and the stone I need to put up castles. Plus a mill that actually fits around the farms is nice AND the instant food from 10% of 8 farms is really nice in a pinch. I wish more civs were well rounded like this.

[@holemas]

Haven’t visited your channel in a long time, but congratulations on having a sponsor!

[@LordOfNothingreally]

Normally I always skip the ad, or switch videos...but for truly exceptional KZbinrs I will, as a professional courtesy and sign of respect, always watch their sponsorship sections. Spirit of the Law is one such KZbinr, so marketing people looking for effective partners take note!

[@BryanLikesCandy]

Spirit of the Law could talk about anything. As long as that intro music plays, I'm there.

[@game-devin]

You can think of the stone/gold bonus like this: For every two villagers you send to either gold or stone, you are choosing between two gold miners, or two stone miners and a bonus gold miner.

[@jizz225]

15:15 That stuck villager is killing me

[@Piccolino_]

I used to play aoe back when I was a little child during the 2000s and I always get a feeling of nostalgia thinking about this game, at the moment I have the game on my steam but never play it, even though I love watching your videos about it, they're so well edited and curious to watch and they make me feel relaxed and happy :0(!)

[@W-G]

Intro is the best part of your videos for some reason, its just so hype.

[@SteelRatVT]

16:21 those perfectly placed farms are our OCD dreams come true!

[@WyattGoslingIsCool]

Poles are great on forest nothing because you can micro your farms to get a respectable food income in the early game. You should be able to get a lead off of that compared to other civs. How about a remake of the Slavs?

[@mastodon11111111]

Nah. I play forest nothing at a very high level. The poles needing a 3by3 space for the mill hurts alot. They do catch up but they don't have anything that stands out in imp that make them a good civ. Not saying they are bad but they aren't even a top 10 civ on forest nothing

[@mastodon11111111]

Also you need wood for gold early on so deleting farms and remaking them hurts your early gold income. If you want an imp time less then an hour in you need to sell All the wood you collect. To get to imp you need at least 1600 gold to also get onager upgrade and an onager to use to cut. That's roughly 10k wood sold at 14 per 100 wood

[@srbishkrst]

@@mastodon11111111 why wood for gold early on?

[@hikatoyshi]

Going castle.

[@WyattGoslingIsCool]

@@mastodon11111111 I'm surprised, but I'll believe you since you're much better than me. What civs are good on forest nothing?

[@gaberielpendragon]

Folwark can be built around the farms around your TC as you expand, giving you both safety and extra food.

[@konradpyszniak976]

Yes but not the first folwark which you build near berries.

[@gaberielpendragon]

@@konradpyszniak976 As they are also houses, you are likely to need to build many of them, possibly before even starting up your farm eco. Can position two near TC to cover future farms. The first of which would likely be best placed either to the top or the left of the TC if I'm remembering the farming video well enough.

[@joelcarrizales2435]

Thanks for bringing back the intro :)

[@0507MAZ]

im glad the intro is back!

[@sgtflintlock6904]

Yaaaaay! The intro is back!!

[@Jaageful]

Folwark is so enjoyable to farm. Maybe all mills should be that way, or farm size could be smaller so you can fit them in similar fashion.

[@sauromatae9728]

Ah, perfect mill

[@Zappygunshot]

You never really got into the idea of Obuch as a support unit for other things, which is where I believe (and the numbers seem to agree given their winrate on closed maps) their real strength lies. The Obuch may not win a fight against a Boyar or a Teutonic Knight one-on-one, but as a front line with something like ranged behind to capitalise on that armour stripping ability may well do much better. I'd like to see how well they do vs high armour unique units when they are used in tandem with something else, either in a 1v1 where that'd require a more closed map or much more intense micro; or in a team game where the Poles player just churns out their Obuch and a teammate covers the other half of the comp.

[@Krokmaniak]

About winged hussars. It actually makes sense. Historically Winged Hussars were seen as one use unit to deal decisive blow. But other cavalry units like armored companions were actually doing most of the job to make this one decisive charge possible

[@the_picard]

100% liking the video for that sweet ad transition.

[@jehuvargas4027]

Good to see the intro back

[@TheDunestyler]

The winged hussar has always won against helebardiers, when I played them. even in terms of cost-effectiveness. They also perform extremely well against ranged units. And they win against all cavalry, except the cataphracts and elephants, but that's not a problem if you can outproduce your enemy with trash units.

[@arnavnandan]

They are good against gunpowder units too. I tested them in equal numbers and almost half of them survived

[@GarkKahn]

1:01 holy... relics! It's back!

[@reubendias18]

Spirit of the "smooth transitions of puns"

[@TheMrMatx]

I liked the video specifically for that 'Spirit of the Lawn' pun, hilarious

[@alexxpetra4097]

You're the reason I won a small tournament with my friends 🔥

[@rohansharma581]

The world needs Spirit's intro !

[@pupsworld9312]

Bro been waiting so long for this XD

[@pupsworld9312]

@Navaneerh Krishna poles are insane

[@ayush885]

I don't know about the poles,but the intro is enough to make me subscribe again.

[@-Kidzin]

Still baffled (and honestly annoyed) at how Winged Hussars are replacement to hussars instead of paladins and considered light cav given that their renown comes from them being an elite, very heavily armed and armored cavalry of early modern era.

[@KingBobXVI]

Eyyy, the intro music is back! I've missed it :)

[@thedyvyne2780]

Love the content you make! Would you ever consider doing a video on conquistadors? I know Im not alone in wondering a lot of things about them, such as bonus damage/class type damage, how they stack up against other units, etc. An overview of the spanish civ would also be pretty neat, I think theyre a really well rounded overall civ

[@popopduck877]

They're like cav archer take bonus dommages from both pike and skirmisher

[@josephbrandenburg4373]

Ask and ye shall receive, eventually. Good for you

[@fulgursagitta5049]

that intro song is pure serotonin

[@SpaceMissile]

about to switch to poles main from britons, just to change it up. thanks for the tips, as always

[@SolidNate99]

Spirit of the lawn!! Yes

[@acrenequintovex]

THE INTRO IS BACK WOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@Polored1066]

fun fact it takes 186 swings of an Obuch to reduce a siege ram armor to 9, allowing you to finish the ram off with an arbalest

[@mcgan8749]

What do you mean "allowing you to finish the ram off with an arbalest"? No matter how much (pierce) armor any unit has, any attack will always do at least 1 damage.

[@Handepsilon]

The obuch will probably kill the ram before that even happens

[@CrnaStrela]

I'll keep that in mind when I meet 10k hp ram

[@Handepsilon]

that or you can also ask the opponent to repair the ram just enough to survive but not hit 100% and reset the armor again you know, in the name of science. Actually, can you still repair your opponent's thing? I remembered that being a thing in pre-HD

[@Tocaraca]

@@mcgan8749 I think he is jokinh

[@GeckoDraws]

Yoooooo the intro is back !

[@crc5244]

3:00 Interesting point that Poles are incentivised to do mill upgrades early, because of the 10% value dropped off immediately after farm construction. However, not sure if it's a good reason to do farm upgrades early. Because while a farm upgrade means you get more food up front, it also means you need to wait longer until the farm next renews.

[@anonnymousperson]

Nice segue into the add :)

[@KANEISNINJA]

WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED

[@165_josephlcna3]

video : farm, sponsor : spirit of the lawn - chefs kiss

[@GunsAndRoses871]

About Time we get Civ reviews.

[@TisTheWay]

Finally! Thank you!

[@BlueBolt5000]

The biggest bonus the Poles have is the Folwark actually being the same size as farms.

[@HazmanFTW]

Oh nice, you fixed up the Seige/Navy mistake for the actual release :)

[@tajniak0811]

Perfect timing :)

[@6zslim627]

I love how after seeing so many comments about the intro, Spirit really listened to his audience and brought it back. Much love SoTL, great overview as always

[@windibd]

I think he only keeps it for civ overviews, he didn't use it in the Saracen market video.

[@ogilvy85]

yeo gratz on the sponsorship man!!

[@MambaB]

spirit of the lawn im dying here

[@Neon-Lines]

I wish Poles got either Paladins or Plate Barding Armor so their cavalry wouldn't be so frail, even if at a worse discount from Szlachta Privileges. They really struggle vs massed Archers as their Hussars die fastest to them too and they lack Siege Onagers as well as Ring Archer Armor.

[@muchmilner1808]

but with plate armor poles will be too op. I played them many times and spam cavalry it very good.

[@muchmilner1808]

I think that correct change it can be +1PA bonus in castle age. only this

[@khankhomrad8855]

Nah they just need to make the UU tech make their knights only cost food. As is, even the significant gold discount isn't enough to make up for all of the missing upgrades and the fact that they have better options elsewhere.

[@Neon-Lines]

I also feel once gold runs out you basically lose as Poles in any matchup because all their unit types lack punch.

[@muchmilner1808]

@@Neon-Lines but they have longer more gold ;}

[@SolidNate99]

Best youtuber Period.

[@changwooklee4532]

you square farm to squarespace vid flow is so smooth that I thought squarespace is kinda new folwark strategy

[@arcisas]

You nailed Obuch pronunciation 😀

[@SoulOfGmod]

Oh my god the intro is back; I cant come up with an arguement to keep it but I love it do death and I want you to know it

[@joshuabritton3581]

Spirit of the Lawn; 10/10 would recommend to a friend

[@albanerulin8308]

Still gotta love that intro

[@Ahmadabdal_]

Lets gooo another overview

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

Polacy są niesamowici!

[@kekero540]

I like the fulwark because it means I can neatly place farms

[@erizo.senpai]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES THE GOLD INTRO MUSIC

[@RaynmanPlays]

The meta these days for 4v4 is two archer civs and two cavalry civs. But I wonder if maybe including an infantry civ or a siege civ might be able to counter the meta.

[@arizonabusinessleague918]

New civs in AoE always have cooler and more innovative features. It makes original civs just feel handicapped and antiquated.

[@KingBobXVI]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the biggest benefit of the Folwark: it's actually the same size as a farm so you can put it in a reasonable grid :P

[@lf2208]

He mentions it at 16:20 actually

[@CommissarMitch]

I do not play AoE anymore but I will keep watching Spirit's videos because yes.

[@timothymurray677]

The intro is back!!! I love it!

[@DevNevinYoutube]

poles are really fun. lots of options.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

A top 10 light cavalry line video would be intriguing. Especially if we count the Magyar Huszar.

[@quaketheduck1247]

intro mvp

[@commanderkeen4971]

It's all in the spirit of the lawn

[@RolfReibach]

man you are the only person who gets me excited about adds. love it :D