Spartans overview (AoE2)

[@Sandman10032]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="78">1:18</a> Really happy to see real life history emulated so well in game. Battle drills giving +2 against Eagle Warriors represents how dominant the Greek infantry were in the Greco-Aztec war of 283 B.C

[@Frondlock]

even though it is obviously not a geographical fact, in history, the Mayan civilisation for example was already thriving when Hoplites were fighting in the mediterranean. Mayans are as much Ancient Times as Medieval Times civ

[@Soinetwa]

i mean they were so effective that the aztecs never invaded europe in the first place Battle Drills obviously famously being the reason for that

[@Sans-Undertale]

Wait, i thought these new civs wont be be mixed with the aoe2 civs. How come it says that? Something is sus

[@VIEUXNEGBS1337]

Ahahah M. Kneeg Rose, you are right

[@everythingsgonnabealright8888]

@@Sans-Undertale did you… even listen to the video? He explains almost in every vid about these civs that they won’t be in Ranked. They’ll be available in skirmish vs AI and unranked multiplayer. I don’t think any amount of clarifications from both devs and KZbinrs covering this helps, if people just refuse to pay attention.

[@micahbush5397]

The thing I always find most memorable about Sparta is that one visitor to the city is reputed to have commented that after tasting their food, he understood why Spartans were not afraid of death.

[@bristleback3614]

well Leonidas said he want his fellow soldier to accompanied him to "dine in the hell" or something like that indicating that food served by lord Hades is somewhat better than the one he had at his home

[@breadbug]

that is why india is superpower 🙏superior food and people ☝

[@shelldie8523]

​@@breadbug meh just better food, and zero civic sense.

[@Alexis-kg1sm]

@@breadbug But India is famous for poor sanitation, especially in food production. In any case, they have a high birth rate culture and are moderately productive per individual, in combination that is a lot of power.

[@axxy6879]

@@breadbug DO NOT REDEEEEEEEM SAAAAAR

[@Elron089]

giving spartans 300 pop space is next lvl memeing

[@Omerizorman]

There Unique Unit must have Extra damage to Monks Reference to Someone who loves to kill gods

[@Sids1192]

They do seem to be the Goths of the DLC (infantry civ with arrow resistant UU and no stone walls). +100 is a lot, but I could see it happening.

[@Fyrebrand18]

“No stone walls or even masonry.” *Points to the barracks line* BEHOLD! THESE ARE SPARTA’S WALLS!

[@CallofDutyBlackOps28]

“ *AWOO! AWOO! AWOO!* “

[@classicalmusic210]

"This is madness." "THIS IS SPARTA!"

[@idrusaly1070]

*points to the elite hippeus* BEHOLD! THESE ARE SPARTA'S FORTIFIED WALLS

[@Cat-up6hb]

sparta only has one kind of wall the flesh wall

[@WWFanatic0]

Overhaul campaigns sound like a fantastic path for AoE2. They can provide rich content without having to worry about balance while also testing ideas and mechanics that may be more controversial. Really excited for this DLC and what I'm sure will be a number of SotL creative video ideas.

[@Broken_robot1986]

Yeah I love the sound of this, and it seems like a great way to keep development funded.

[@shino4242]

Its basically a paid open beta that gives us legitimate content, with the downside of ALSO needing to pay for the "final product" (The new civs that get the tech and bonuses that these new side campaigns get), which I dont mind, but because of that I DO wish they were at least a bit cheaper. But I get it. A voiced campaign needs VA's, and VA's need money, and the cost of them making the civs is the same as if there was no campaign. Prolly more here since they now needed to reskin/make new models instead of copy pasting champions and knights and arbalests over and over but creating 1-3 actual new units. So its understandable but...I'm just not sure an "unusable" civ is worth it.

[@charlieperaltaf]

-We have no walls? -Points towards Hoplites: this are the Spartan walls!

[@LeftJoystick]

THIS IS SPARTA!!!

[@timothyernst8812]

Men make the best wall

[@spartanxmonster]

"Spartas walls are its soldiers, and it's borders are the tips of their spears."

[@nathangamble125]

*SHIELD WALL* is the only wall we need

[@parkerdixon-word6295]

Just for the fun of talking history, I assume that the Polemarch units are meant to represent the twin monarchs of Sparta- Sparta was lead by two royal families, supposedly descended from twin sons of Heracles. These Kings were interesting in that very Mediterranean "We don't like Tyrants and Kings" way where they had oddly limited political power in the face of the Spartans' equivalent of a Senate, and their actual governing body of 5 semi-randomly elected officials. The Kings' primary jobs in Sparta were leading a bunch of religious rituals, and leading Sparta's armies, where having two of them helped limit the likelihood of one of them taking those armies and trying to pull a Caesar.

[@nvmtt]

(having two of them helped limit the likelihood of one of them taking those armies and trying to pull a Caesar.)- ironically which is exactly what ended up happening. the 'caesar' dude left his counterpart in northern greece to rest, came back home with his part of the army, killed the ephors (the 5 semi-randomly elected officials) and distributed land all over the place. of course, the city did not last long after that........unlike Rome.

[@felixloewenich2202]

It's a military title, loosely translatable to commander-in-chief. It's not what the spartan kings were called.

[@lekhakaananta5864]

It's a position seen across many greek states. Polemarch means war-leader and is similar to commander-in-chief. The Spartan monarchs filled that role in Sparta, but the Polemarchs of other greek cities would not necessarily have been hereditary and in republics would probably have been elected. Sometimes they're elected for specific campaigns, not a permanent position.

[@nathangamble125]

So Sparta's government was a diarchy with two military/religious figureheads, two councils (one of respected elders, the other of specially chosen individuals), and a lower assembly of elected citizen bureaucrats beneath them... like Equestria in MLP? LOL.

[@EvilDoresh]

Fun fact: the Bronze Age collapse hit the Greeks so hard they effectively stopped using their old Mycenean word for "king".

[@Alias_Anybody]

It's kind of wild how just because AoE2 is the most popular one, it starts sucking up content from AoE1 and 3. Like, at this point, I'm just waiting for Babylonians fighting Ironclads by 2027.

[@AuronDdraig]

AoE 2: 40K is gonna be sick

[@Alexis-kg1sm]

@@AuronDdraig Let's start with clone wars. Star wars civilizations already exist in an aoe2 spin-off.

[@Fernybun]

AoE2 is just that good, baby

[@TARDISES]

It's even taking some AoM mechanics. For that matter, the whole "mutually exclusive techs" thing here is basically picking a minor god.

[@Septimus_ii]

imo it's got the strongest mechanics, so I'm very happy that it's sucking up all the other interesting historical periods too

[@Sans-Undertale]

Please stop, have mercy. I'm already excited for the DLC but now you're killing me Spirit of the law. I'M CRAVING IT

[@sanmitranaik]

Hey Guys, Spartans of the Law here!

[@IamRayson]

Hey Spartans, Law of the Guys here!

[@michaelhaverman710]

Wow that is so funny and original. I feel better off for having read this comment.

[@fabiancampos4304]

Hey spirits, guy of the law here

[@lordrubbish_aoe]

Civ bonuses: pop limit increased to 300; visibility of units’ abs unaffected by lighting

[@Tribbianiz]

Missed opportunity 😅

[@Berengar92]

Ngl, giving Spartans a pop cap of 300 would be pretty boss. Completely broken, but still pretty boss.

[@BirikinPrimary]

Goths : Who are you? Spartans : I am you but better

[@volcanic_sloth]

spartans are closer to burmese or japanese than goths, they don't have a single infantry discount going for them

[@RheaMainz]

@@volcanic_sloth Projectile proof unique unit and -33% gold champion is pretty Gothy!

[@volcanic_sloth]

@@RheaMainz .... they don't get a champion gold discount

[@benedictjajo]

Spartans, what's your profession? Spartans: Spirit of the law!!!

[@nefftron1]

Really really hope that Chronicles expands into a full sub-game with other ancient civs. I want Macedon, Rome, Seleucids, Carthage, and Gauls!

[@felixcroc]

That's just Return of Rome

[@misutahowaitodesu]

it will chronicles is spin off of AOE II DE

[@atoucangirl]

why stop there? Goths, Picts, Egyptians, Nubians, Assirians...

[@everythingsgonnabealright8888]

@@felixcroc Obviously not, because it’s considerably expanded in mechanics. Stop this nonsensical narrative.

[@OsakaLover]

I love the fact they're incorporating the shield wall kind of tactic with two Hoplites being side by side and giving each other more armor.

[@Ymgarl]

It's a fun idea, but practically speaking it doesn't really do much: units aren't usually used alone. Even if you had perfection for micro and managed to pull all the hoplites apart so they lost their bonus, the -1/-1 is... Not significant. A more practical way to model it might be to give them a much diminished armour when attacked from behind or the side, although that would have vulnerabilities to pathing jank in multiplayer

[@Firefocus-fz2we]

So Hippeus is a Teutonic Knight that stole Huskarl's armour, picked up a spear and modified Centurion's helmet. 🤔

[@pandaprewmaster325]

Creative comment lol

[@GameFuMaster]

Spartan civ be like "you get a spear, you get a spear, and YOU get a spear"

[@saffral]

Spears are the best weapons after all, especially in tight formation as the aura bonuses seem to indicate they're designed for.

[@GameFuMaster]

@@saffral just saying that nearly every unit is just using the same kind of spear lol

[@mertyilm_z]

Separating champion from two-handed also brings the opportunity to do both researches at the same time, cutting down the transition period. Which is a clear problem in regular champion line

[@MrAnonymous00100]

I don't think so as Paragon (Champion Equal) cost is quite high and player not likely to wait to have enough resource for it to research Battle Drill together. I think it almost the same anyway, unless go Hoplite and Hippeus, then transit to MAA line with lots of float resources.

[@niklasw.1297]

appreciate the historical facts segueway into sponsored segment. Makes it worth watching the whole way through

[@mscbijles1256]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="774">12:54</a> you really should have gone for “Spirit of the Spa(rta)”

[@martinstanek6524]

The word Hippeus had many meanings in different places (including horseman), but in Sparta it meant 'a royal bodyguard'.

[@ivanstrydom8417]

Correct sir. In the early years of Sparta's rise they used to have officers on horseback (Hippius) the moment the Hoplon shield came to be , the officers were permanently dismounted and became infantry officers leading the Hoplites, the name stuck, the elite Hippius infantry then became the royal guard, thus the cavalry name persisted but for 95% of the time they were infantry units. Just like how ''Knights'' are known to be heavy cavalry , but throughout the entire Medieval period in Western Europe, you had hundreds of ''Foot knights'' / Dis mounted knights whom battled as infantry.

[@Ymgarl]

Hippeus comes from the word for horse, so it definitely meant cavalryman, even if it was misapplied. Like the grenadier guard aren't so much about throwing grenades anymore.

[@hernanreipp3321]

​@@ivanstrydom8417The Big shields the Hoplites uses is called Aspis. The old greek word hoplon actually means "full gear or equipped".

[@charlieperaltaf]

Many, many years ago, when Persia came ashore🎶 Heeding Leonidas' call, the Spartans went to war!🎵

[@erkocab]

thanks -- I'm really excited for this DLC and have pre ordered.

[@dembro27]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="470">7:50</a> Nice. Cool overview, Spirit. I like it a helot, which, of course, is short for “hell of a lot”. We get an offensive spear unit for once and the Polemarch’s powerful aura effects are interesting.

[@twiexcursori]

fun fact: the helots were slaves or serfs that sparta would periodically symbolically declare war against. very normal polity

[@Genexperiment100]

Besides the great content I Just Love how smoothe your transitions to sponsorships are.

[@pokefuranku]

Yeah, me too

[@mrwildcaptain]

The tech trees and all the mechanics are all directly connected to what we know about Sparta (romanticised a bit) 1) Polemarch/Πολέμαρχος = Archon/Lord of War in Greek, 2 of them represent the two monarchs but the title as it is, is actually an Athenian title for one of the nine lords that was about war. 2) Hippeus/Ιππευς = Royal Guard in Spartan society, cavalry for the rest of the Greeks. 3) The archery range being bad also supports what Greeks in general thought about long range combat being for cowards. That doesnt mean that they didnt use archers/javelins but especially Spartans liked to hire mercenaries (from Crete, Corinth etc) for that duty or use helots, since Spartans focused on melee training. 4) Having ZERO stuff in defences/walls is a nod to Agesilaus II who famously said when asked why Sparta doesnt have walls : These are Sparta's walls (pointing to his men) 5) Eco bonus + Helot Levies tech are linked historically to helots and how with certain military reforms they (especially in the later stages of Sparta's history)were allowed to have a more prominent role in the military while earlier they were mostly slaves and meat shields. 6) Spartans were famously bad at sea and never had anything more than 10-15 -i believe- ships, and relied on allies for that role thus the name of the tech Peloponnesian League 7) Krypteia/Κρυπτεία = Secrecy/Secret, was a secrect service in Sparta usually used to kill helots before they rebelled. A lot of things didnt exist or are used in a very liberal way, but its a game and there is some balancing going around so they dont feel completely lame to play, but i enjoyed those little things here and there.

[@arcomegis9999]

I was going to comment a very long explanation on the techs on this video but it seems like you managed to keep it short and standard. Awesome. I still think that the Romae ad Bellum team should eventually revisit and rework the League techs. The gold reduction or gold bonus on Peloponnesian and Delian League seems not to connect well with the real reason why the 2 states form those coalitions. Then a situation would arise if the team decided to add the Thebans, leaders of the Boiotian League, Aetolian League, Thessalian League and such.

[@hernanreipp3321]

​@@arcomegis9999I want one day saw the famous "300" in action in AoE. By 300 I am talking about the Sacred Band of Thebes. The ones that beat the Spartans really bad.

[@hernanreipp3321]

I recommend you the blog of Brett Deveraux called "this isn't Sparta". The guy nailed very good with historical sources that destroy the myth of Ancient Sparta greatness.

[@pseudonymsam]

"A city is well-fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick." - Lycurgus

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

Spartans having an eco bonus is likely a representation of the Helots, the slave caste the Spartans used for most hard labour. "Fun" fact, it was considered normal for Spartans to rape helots at random.

[@Furymgs3]

If I remember correctly, they also ritualistically declared war on them every autumn as some kind of celebration to essentially make sure they wouldn't ever think of rebelling, and during these "wars" young spartan warriors were encouraged to murder them on sight and give priority to the strongest (and, therefore, most "dangerous and potentially rebellious") ones.

[@Fernybun]

​@@Furymgs3reminds me of the Aztecs.

[@stylesrj]

Wasn't there also a thing where young warriors were not given enough food so they'd sneak into homes to steal it... which was to train them in how to be sneaky and to also not get caught... So maybe the food bonus is because they scrounged up some extra food without anyone noticing where it came from :D

[@hernanreipp3321]

​@@Furymgs3Yeah the so well know Kripteia. Every year the ruling spartiate class will declare war on them and kill the ones they feel are very dangerous phisically to their rulers.

[@edspace.]

Interestingly enough, I believe the re-naming of Heresy to Hemlock in this DLC might be an elusion to how Socrates was sentenced to death by being required to drink it, supposedly for his philosophical teachings although more contemporary classicists tell me there was probably more politics involved (him supporting a Spartan backed regime which was recently overthrown).

[@salvadorseekatzrisquez2947]

Wow! So cool! It's gonna be interesting! I am looking forward to this release, thanks for the amazing content Spirit

[@FizzleFX]

Their main strength is they can fight in shade.

[@Binarokaro]

One thing definitely fun about having these campaign-focused civs that don't impact the meta is that they can get really wild with it. The fact that Sparta has no imperial age archer or cav options is kind of wild, and I kind of really dig that they aren't afraid to experiment like that. Big hopes for more future civs like that where they can really minmax

[@Keln02]

If you leave a Polemarch next to Elite Hippeus, the archers would effectively deal 10 damage/minute, taking 9min to kill a single Hippeus. That's pretty cool

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

This and Ryan George are the only channels for which having ads in a video is actually a plus.

[@m-o-d-o]

The Spartan walls are their spears!

[@gaius_iulius_megas]

points at Hoplites *"These are the walls of Sparta!"*

[@IHeliosI]

Babe wake up!! New SOTL overview!

[@Steve-mx9rr]

I LOVE that they finally doing ancient era in AoE2 engine, not that fail with RoR. Looking forward to this DLC! still... i hope we get a middle age DLC next year (:

[@alexvandermerwe7851]

I like that the devs are focusing on adding effects to units like charge, melee range and formation-based armor bonuses because the base game really isn’t a ‘strategy’ game, it’s really more of an ‘operation’ game - the winner of most competitive AOE matches is the player who can get more, better, stronger units onto the field faster with better resource efficiency, there aren’t ever any tradeoffs, it’s strictly a number crunch. When we add in some of these new mechanics the implications of different unit dynamics and not strict bonuses enables genuine ‘strategy’ because you’re looking to match specific unit effects onto the enemy.

[@Floris_VI]

Honestly at this point the squarespace sponsor is a real part of the video i look forward to, the pun is always so good, i will miss that part o the video if they ever stop sponsoring you

[@snack711]

maybe that might fix melee pathing, just give melee units 0.1 range, or 0.05 or whatever small value might be suffiecient

[@mttrashcan-bg1ro]

This video sold me on the DLC. It sounds and looks like a really awesome idea. I'm not a Multiplayer person, I sometimes play with friends against AI but I mostly play Single Player Skirmish and Campaigns.

[@nerzha]

Love the squarespace adds, always fun to see what puns you think of.

[@avariel3912]

Fun fact : this is sparta

[@ar1sm70]

Polemarch is Greek for "Warlord". Badass looking unit too :)

[@theOGSG]

and you get 2 reflecting the 2 kings who ruled Sparta at the same time.

[@quecobpt]

So hyped for this DLC! I wish they include the new civs in ranked after balancing them.

[@maledikt]

I really hope the DLC does well so that more will be added later. I always wanted AoE2 gameplay in the ancient ages, so having more future content with ancient Rome, Egypt, Gauls, etc would be a small dream come true.

[@Geffalrus1984]

I really, really, really hope they add Macedon to this eventually. 😍

[@johannesuebel9519]

The Rome-DLC left me with a "meh, nice but it doesnt really appeal to me" but seeing this beautiful, wonderful hoplons leaves me much more hyped

[@TheBronf]

man. spartans and goths teaming up would have the best barracks in the game. also im loving what im seeing in this civ.

[@LegendaryBoneThugs]

I wish you would cover Age Of Empires Online, so much content on math alone. The Developers at Project Celeste have kept it going strong adding new civs, new gear, new loot, quests, new regions, new rewards, all making aoeo amazing 👏🏼

[@Ymgarl]

My guess is that they want to expand this more to include more civs. I'm actually stoked to see pros play with these civs. I guess there'll be at least one battle for Greece tournament.

[@queldron]

Hoplite is easilly the most epic looking unit of all time.

[@Dracobyte]

Thanks for the coverage!

[@lordfarquaad7054]

''really happy fighting in the shade'' subtle refrence I love it

[@maltanno]

From the unique tech descriptions it looks like making a choice doesn't lock you out of the other option.

[@tambow44]

I am so freakin' pumped for this DLC.

[@UltimateSpinDash]

Always looking forward to the website puns.

[@Dagsschiller]

I'm very excited about this, I will finally have accurate Persians.

[@arcomegis9999]

To some extent, yes. The devs had great trouble with Persians by trying to cram every possibly Persians without understanding that even Persians fight differently. There's the Achaemenid Persians ( these ones ) which fights with infantry and archers. Then there are Parthian Persians that fight with cataphracts and horse archers. Yes, you're not mistaken. The Eastern powers back then already have cataphracts. Later, there are the Sassanid Persians who revived the infantry, archer and cavalry systems of their predecessors, not particularly focusing on one unit. You can consider that they reformed and give us the heavy cavalry by the name of Aswaran cavalry in the game. Lastly, you have the Safavid Persians which incorporate heavy gunpowder, prioritizing it heavily. Therefore, the Persians way back on their earliest release ( Age of Kings, Conquerors ) and up until Mountain Royals are Persian dynasties mushed together. The Huns did fight the Persians, the Sassanids dynasty to be exact but not much under Attila. It's the Hepthalites or White Huns that frequently clashed with these Persians.

[@Dagsschiller]

@@arcomegis9999 Well yes, Persians evolved during antiquity, but Persians in AoE1 were an "Elephant civilization" as far as I know, that was never their focus, I always wanted Immortals in AoE.

[@CaptainCorobo]

Well done for the 'they're happy fighting in the shade' reference

[@inductivegrunt94]

I was sold on the Spartans already, now I'm even more sold. And them having no stone walls but instead a spear wall is both cool and funny.

[@sitrilko]

In David Gemmell's Troy there's a line that goes roughly like this (I read a translation, not the original English version) "A wall of men is stronger than a wall of stone." Evidently these Spartans took that to heart!

[@SuperMewKittyKatGaming]

i wish they did this kind of treatmen to ALL game civs,reskins and techs and stuff,instead we have like incas and tatars with full european armors and crossbows,trebuchets to all,swiss pikemen and knights

[@AyeBeAPirate]

Visually it's awesome! But in gameplay, there's already a lot of units to keep track of. I wonder if that's a game design decision - if every civ had completely unique units, it gets tricky (especially for newer players) to quickly tell where they fit in rock/paper/scissors of unit types.

[@MajesticOak]

Just imagine the base game as seen through the eyes of a monk jotting down the tales from a traveling bard while neither of them had ever gone east of the Oder river.

[@SuperMewKittyKatGaming]

@@AyeBeAPirate they could put an icon beside names like ⭐ infantry,🟡archery 🟩 cavalry

[@Anergyne]

Merriam Webster is correct! Polemarch comes from the Greek words 'Polemos', which means war; and 'Archos', which means leader or ruler. A polemarch was basically the Ancient Greek equivalent of a general or commander. Fun fact: 'Archos' is also at the rood of words like 'monarchy'.

[@arcomegis9999]

To extend some trivial info on the fun fact, there's the Athenian archons. Then there are hierarchs, diarch, tetrarch, trierarch.

[@OSU2010]

There arrows will block out the sun! “Then we Shall Fight in the Shade”

[@Doc_Calamari]

As far as the base game is concerned, I would really love if Militia and Two-Handed Swordsman would become individual unit lines with the latter being an infantry counter. Same with Archer/Crossbowman, the Crossbowman-line behaving more like the Composite Bowman, making it strong against high armor/value units but weak against other ranged units (Heavy Crossbowman as regional upgrade would also be cool)

[@arcomegis9999]

I think I said something similar in the other video. I'm set with the weapon&shield militias, archers and crossbow-line. As for the case of Two-handed swords, it would be better if they are unique campaign heroes or a division called horse-cutters, another cavalry-counter.

[@Tizonwar8]

It's definitely the right approach for Aoe2 to release campaigns for dlc, they are so much fun and very affordable. There's a lot of history fans playing this game, rank ladder is only 1 aspect of the game. I wish Aoe2 can do a full Chinese campaign, even though the special units may not be transferable to 1v1 ranked. I think a lot of people will buy that DLC

[@alakazam15]

Regarding the pronunciation of polemarch, a good general rule is that in languages east of France, 'ch' is pronounced like the 'kh' sound you may know from Russian or Arabic. And in Italian it's just hard k, so yes, chianti is pronounced with a k.

[@nimrod4463]

Thank you, with this video I understood what I needed to upgrade, and the mere fact that spartans don't have walls, they are the WALL. > Therefore I won the first stage of the spartan part of the campaign

[@TheRAMBO9191]

Fine fine I'll watch 300 again!

[@lazthegreat10]

There are so many fun facts in the comments, i truly love you fellow nerds

[@Ghouleh3133]

Heresy being renamed Hemlock is genius.

[@cactuscoe9096]

I have vague memories from school of Sparta being ruled by two Archons: - The Archon Eponymous (= "Commander Year-Name") - The Archon Polemarch (= "Commander War-Command") one for civil and ceremonial stuff, the other for military stuff. When you play Sparta, you get two Polemarchs, which may be a reference to the two Archons (...both being the military version because this is not a game about civil ceremonies)

[@wfaddwadadw]

hoplites looking sick that one stading there <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="469">7:49</a> like ..... habadacus

[@christopherg2347]

For the longest time, Sparta was the only big city without a wall. "Our soldiers are all the static defenses we need."

[@felixloewenich2202]

Sparta was barely above average militarily among the greek poleis. It's an entirely overhyped polity

[@christopherg2347]

@@felixloewenich2202 So they were barely above the average Vassals of Athens, yet fought on equal terms with them for decades? Yes, that doesn't add up.

[@felixloewenich2202]

@@christopherg2347 Who's talking about vassals? Sparta was one the hegemonic powers in ancient greece, but they weren't really anything special compared to the other major city states. They had some minor tactical advantages through their organisation, but man for man they weren't any better than athenians, boeotians, thebans, corinthians or whoever else. Free fun fact, they also fought a lot of their wars against athens with fiancial aid from the persian empire.

[@christopherg2347]

@@felixloewenich2202 The "average polity" of the time was subservient to a Hegemon. "Barely above average" and "also a Hegemon" doesn't add up.

[@kwdblade4683]

I think it would be cool to include trainable heroes in the main game. Give a castle and Imperial age hero, and pick one from a group of three- an offensive hero, a defensive hero, and a support hero. Maybe some civ can have a civ bonus to get one in Feudal age or something like that.

[@arcomegis9999]

Ah, Warcraft 3.

[@mrKreuzfeld]

Sparta famously had no walls. So no stonewall makes sens

[@bm8985]

I like a lot of the Spartan mechanics. I feel like aoe2 could use more wild ideas. I know the game is deliberately refinely balanced around ranked, but theres definitely room for new ideas. I hope Spartans eventually get added to ranked after theyve spent some time in unranked getting balanced. It would be really cool if more civs get access to a limited number of commander units, even if its tricky to balance.

[@EvilDoresh]

The Spartans' reputation was likely exaggerated by the _other_ Greek city states who had to deal with their shenanigans. But still, they did have an edge over those part-time soldiers, so I can see them being a bit scary to face.

[@Zeppongola]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="205">3:25</a> Etymology fun time! The "k" rather than "ch" sound is the same as in "Monarch", "Archmage", or "Hierarchy". They, and Polemarch itself, derive from the ancient Greek "Archon", which meant something along the lines of "Leader/Ruler", hence "Polemos (war) + Archon (leader) = Polemarch (war-leader)"; "Mono (one/lone) + Archon = Monarch (sole ruler)", etc. A lot of words of Greek origin/derivation use a hard K sound despite being written as Ch: Chaos, Charisma, Christian, Melancholy, Ichor, Orchid... I believe this is because the Romans actually used the letter C to denote a hard K sound (thus Ceasar is more like Kaiser than See-zar, Lucius is more like Lukius etc, which is more evident in Latin words like Castle and Colosseum), so they wrote the Greek's version of the sound (which was close but not quite the same, being aspirated) as Ch to differentiate it. Hence the Greek letter for the K sound being named "Kai" and written as "Chi". Meanwhile a lot of _other_ words we use in English use Ch for the sound we tend to assume when we see those letters together, like French's Challenge/Choice/Chocolate/Paunch, because they had a different convention for what sound those letters made together. English being the glorious mess of a language that it is, happily adopted spellings pretty similar to the source language in a lot of cases, making intuitive pronunciation a nightmare, but providing endless fun for etymology and history trivia... like how you can draw a pretty accurate map of how Britain was invaded over the centuries based on how the names of various areas sound

[@cleeiii357]

"Many, many years ago, when Persia came ashore. Heeding Leonidas' call, the Spartans went to war. Joined by their brothers, A few against the fateful horde. Hellenic hearts are set aflame, The hot gate calls their name.-"

[@SvanTowerMan]

I hope the effects of bonuses and unique techs in the Battle for Greece DLC can still appear in base AoE2. There are a lot of good ideas here and it would be a shame to waste them.

[@mvm8816]

I'm not that big of a fan of the hero stuff, early game aggression probably exponentially becomes more potent and harder to counter.

[@Spiror]

@@mvm8816yep but in feudal you can have only one and is weak like a horseman with regen….even georgian scout have regen now and is faster. I thing is not so much problem cause you can have only one in feudal for free, its more a buffer then warrior like the pharaoh in aom….😊😊

[@daheadsmiter2052]

Thank you for all the 300 References lol

[@CafofodaMatilha]

The units look so beautiful!

[@vitinhoverso]

sanguinhaaa

[@lucassousa.521]

I think that at least the Macedonians will come to the game, to end the Hellenistic Greek history and put an end to the Persian Empire. However, just as AOE 4 is a mix of 2 and 3, this Greece DLC paves the way to bring together the civilizations of AOE 1 with 2.

[@Rika101OfficialYT]

This is..............SPARTAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Anyway, can't wait for this new AOE2 DLC, unlike the last one

[@AnimeFan-dl4qd]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="550">9:10</a> Yeah, its pretty Spartan:D <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="570">9:30</a> These barracks are the epitome of Spartan culture

[@NiDe500]

Alternate unique techs for -all- civs probably doesn’t make sense, but for a few civs that are infamously split in their identity, this could be a great idea. Imagine Turks going all-in on cavalry and cav archers by replacing Artillery with something more suitable, or replacing Sipahi with something for the Ottomans proper. Or, the Slavs, which are torn between the Kievan Rus and the later modern Russia; unique techs would be a middle ground between making entirely new civs and this awkward mashup.

[@elisharobertson5628]

Alright! New civs for SOTL to explain!!! Love these videos!

[@kell2859]

AoE2 Spartans: just spam hoplites, protect your Polemarch and that's it

[@danthanhhuynhpham685]

So its goths but instead of discount you get more resource income

[@Chalkaspis]

Looking forward for this one.

[@fadhilyudistira8819]

this video went from "your future #1 seed in aoe2" to "goth's infantry rush #2"

[@pbbananas]

Love the rethinking of infantry like the fractional range increase and proximity effects. Infantry (swordsmen specifically) need more in the standard game to make them competitive to archers and cavalry. The Roman’s were a great step in the right direction with bonuses that didn’t infringe on cavalry/archer niches. Also really hoping they emulate the reskin of all standard units for each civ in the standard game. Would make for a much more immersive experience, and add another facet of player experience to be able to identify all the diverse unit skins.

[@kuugaku2005]

It's nice to see these AOM/AOE3 mechanism getting picked up and reused in AOE2, even just as a standalone dlc.

[@darthjump]

"Mom, i want Age Of Mythology Retold" "But we have Age of Mythology at Home"

[@royasturias1784]

You mean Total War Saga: Troy, and SEGA succeeded in provoking MS to do better.

[@zenologic7786]

I like how Spartan units sound angry all the time. Even the villagers

[@TheChimples]

This gonna be my favourite civ in the new DLC

[@xAriconusx]

I think what we need to consider about the Peloponnesian League is the fact, that it generates gold PER castle. Following your calculation it would mean that with 2 castles, the gold is even after 10 minutes,, with 3 after 7,5 minutes with 4 after 5 minutes.

[@scevda]

Another vid where I am reminded by Rise of Nations mechanics. No complaints here, love that game.

[@Hyphen8_]

Hey Spirit of the Law, guys here