Top 5 AoE2 Units Newer Players Should Use More Often

[@TheSpearkan]

I stopped using Onagers when they were more effective at friendly fire than actually killing the enemy

[@digimaks]

AGREE! I stopped using them from few matches in the game, since they are dumb enough to shoot at ONE soldier surrounded by 8 soldiers of your side! They became useless for defense behind walls too, sicne their splash damage near wall damages walls too. They are only handy when you can put them on CEASE mode and micro-manage their shots individually. But that doesnt work too well since yuou need to control your primary armies.

[@shoopoop21]

If this is your problem, you're probably not using it right. Onagers are used with pikes, but thats not optimal, guns are. They fill a very similar niche as infantry, while not having to be so close.

[@PLABSCORE1]

wtf onagers are great they just need a little bit of micro but MUCH less than monks

[@ryoumakoushiro7447]

Welp, I usually use Onager for my counter en masse when practicing aaand I got rekt because their knights

[@strategicmessager9659]

Even when I got into controlling them (not a ranked player, I am a no rush player) I chose Slavs over Celts a lot as to keep control and not run in too fast with infantry and cavalry.

[@AaronMk91]

Despite my nostalgic love of AoE2 I don't think I ever got into the multiplayer on the assumption or fear that anyone I'd be fighting will be a lot faster to the points of detail than I am, though this was an nice to watch all the same. I've always just sort of operated on a slow and steady basis anyways, almost treating town building as an art rather than a means to an end.

[@Real_MisterSir]

+Aaron MK Haha me too man, I always end up setting up my town so it looks pretty, rather than strategic ^^ If you want to play multiplayer go look for low level games or games with Treaty, that way you are safe from early game raid and don't have to stress over your build plan :)

[@Real_MisterSir]

+Grant Dosland All hail the castle/tower-only walls! XD

[@TheHadesShade]

+Aaron MK You should play Anno series then.

[@AaronMk91]

I actually have the first Anno game on CD packed up high somewhere in my old collection, along with shit like the old Ceasar and Cleopatra games. But now a days I got Banished with mods.

[@TheSpearkan]

+Aaron MK Pretty much, I don't want to play any multiplayer RTS since no matter how fast I try to expand, the enemy always appears to magic an army ten times my size.

[@muskatDR]

"This video is stupid and your channel-" *WOLOLO!* "BEST CHANNEL EVER!"

[@daniyalshah1503]

ikr!

[@davethiessen3372]

muskatDR I want the old monks back

[@maddocpax788]

How the hell "umumeh" turned into "wololo" is beyond me.

[@Wveth]

@@maddocpax788 "wololo" is from the first AoE game

[@maddocpax788]

@@Wveth I know what it is, or supposed to be. I played the game. It sounds nothing like "wololo". Just listen to it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXSseJVnic5jbM0 And if your reply is that "wololo" is in the name of the linked video, I refer you to my previous comment.

[@tigerd7528]

Oh hell yes it's stressful when you hear that murmuring of monks stealing away your shiny knights.

[@Lewtable]

+tiger d Decided to play a bot game cause I was bored a couple of days ago, that fucker's army was seriously 80% monks and 20% regular soldiers (with a total army count of like 120 population), so it ended up being a 1 hour Monk war as I just couldn't break through.

[@toddbrayer2301]

+Lewtable Light cavs counter monks quite well.

[@conraad10]

+tiger d one word: heresy

[@martijnbouman8874]

Two words: Heresy & Faith

[@tigerd7528]

Martijn Bouman Such expensive upgrades though. Also not every civ has them.

[@k14check]

Top unused unit has to be cobra car. Case closed.

[@davidwever4798]

+Kunal Shah VDML bruh. VDML

[@tvremote9394]

+Kunal Shah how do you turn this on?

[@Wtf_is_this_handle_thing_YT]

+Brendan O'Hare What?

[@k14check]

+Brendan O'Hare they can't be used.

[@davidwever4798]

Kunal Shah If you use the cheat 'Natural Wonders', you can play as GAIA. Hence, you can use the jaguar and turkey.

[@guerra_dos_bichos]

i disagree spirit , the big problem with mangonels for newer players is simply controlling them not to kill your own units, as you stated micro is not a newbies strong point and mangonels are microheavy

[@digimaks]

YOu can only use them by putting on ""CEASED FIRE" mode and only order to shoot manually. but it may not always work if they are overrun by enemy army while youre back in town restarting farms! :P Most of the time I had an anger attack when my army finish off almost all enemy units- mlets say I got 2 enemy units surrounded by 10 of mine being finished off. Then mongonel or seige onegor creeps over and decide to throw in its last token into battle- finishing off 8 of 10 of my own units, just for the sake of 2 half-dead enemy units! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I wish they had some sort of AI for it, or command function that would tell it not to shoot if my units are in shot proximity.

[@ScientistDog]

And also when they take down the trees around your walls while shooting the enemy near them...

[@yvrelna]

Problems with mangonels: - they attack your own front line - they damage your own wall more than they damage the attacker - if you put them on cease fire to prevent the above, they'll be sitting duck if you don't notice enemy attacks - they're slow, so it's hard to bring them for offense - the disperse formation significantly reduce their effectiveness - their projectile is slow, so it's easy for fast moving units to avoid them - it's too much to ask beginners to shoot ahead - mass mangonels are best if they disperse their attacks instead of focus fire, but it's hard to micro more than 5 mangonels even for experts Mangonels could've been a much better unit for beginners if they have their own auto targeting logic. Their auto attack logic should pick points that have high ratio of enemy vs own unit, and to avoid damaging walls. Either that or they could, for balance reasons, have damage bonus against enemy units and/or reduced damage against your own.

[@left9096]

Yeah but you won't get better if you simply avoid them and never practice using them

[@Twisthle]

I once had a portuguese teacher that studied words and their origin. She told me that the word Champion (Campeão, in Portuguese), originaly meant "Fighter". Given the level of medical science at the time, losing a swordfight often meant losing your life, so only the winners would stay alive and keep being called champions. Maybe this was something common in the former roman empire and made its way to England through William The Conqueror. I thought a lot about that, and there is some similarity between the words Campear (To fight, in medieval portuguese) and Kampf (German for Fight), meaningh they probably have the same root.

[@landochabod7]

+Twisthle I think it derives from the latin "campus", which means battlefield, so yeah, *fighter*. Later it came to mean *someone who fights representing someone else*, like their own people in so called "champion warfare"; (e.g. the Menelaus vs Paris duel in Book 3 of the Iliad), or a king or nobleman to whom they've sworn allegiance, usually in exchange for an aristocratic title. This way, a nobleman could say he'd won a tournament because his champion had done so, without risking his own neck. Eventually, in some languages the *fighting* part was dropped and only the *representing* part stays on: in my own Italian, for instance, the English "champion" and "sample" (as in, physical or statistical) both translate into "campione".

[@fakelove7272]

well in videogames campers are usually players that survive very long because they just hide in some dark corner and and they don't have a hair wick of champions excpet for the languaje root "camp" that has a little coincidence with champion.

[@aidanbeattie8341]

Probably Indo-European roots

[@soyderiverdeliverybeaver8941]

That explains why el cid is called El Cid Campeador. If i am not mistaken Old spanish and old portuguese are basically the same language

[@Almansur8]

@@soyderiverdeliverybeaver8941 Old Castilian and Old Portuguese/Galician were already quite different

[@SpiritOfTheLaw]

Thanks to everyone on the Facebook page who got in on the conversation :) It was very helpful to hear a variety of perspectives on this one before making it. Sadly, no one mentioned Samurai, so I decided I better not put them in...

[@rovsea-3761]

+Spirit Of The Law In my opinion the Gothic Champion is probably among the most underrated units in the game. They're cost effectiveness is huge, especially in late-game where gold matters a lot more than food or wood.

[@body_hunter_pt4242]

+Spirit Of The Law hi, im not here to advertise my channel, is just i created a youtube channel 2 weeks ago and im really a big fan of age of empires, i play age of empires since i was 12 years old and a big fan of you, and your videos are so perfectly well made, pls try to add me on steam so we can play together some day , i really wanna play with you. xD

[@alexandrupurcarea1926]

hello, i am a big fan of you and i want to ask you this: How does sound the idea of making a video something like a Q&A but only with questions when you can answer just with yes or no? You re awesome!!!

[@rovsea-3761]

Petards is an idea, considering how often newer players put up five layers of walls or something similarly ridiculous. Newer players also tend to play on closed maps like Black Forest more (where they can more easily protect themselves), so walling is also more common.

[@TheStubbornpridE]

+Spirit Of The Law hi! hope u are doing good. Thanks for all the videos! If you want to make another video for new players, please do it about unit moves such as patrol, flanking, or using shift for scout etc. I notices many new players not using them, especially patrol. They also do not use keyboard shortcuts, for example they literally find blacksmith and click it, instead of ctrl+s. Thank youuuu

[@S4R1N]

This would have been super helpful 16 years ago...

[@mondaysinsanity8193]

S4R1N new dlc released just recently

[@JPPMJC67]

well when i played 16 years ago we already knew that it was part of a strategy tips for AOE II website.

[@yahyamusseb]

Back then i barely knew any english and it took a hard lesson to know that paladins are countered by halberdiers

[@scottgilmour4422]

thanks

[@mr.authentic2505]

So true

[@migueeeelet]

I used to no create any pikemen nor any of that line, until one day I saw one poking at a knight and dealing tons of damage. Go, pikes!

[@SpiritOfTheLaw]

Yeah, it's an unexpectedly large bonus. In Civ 5 for example, pikemen do 50% more damage to cavalry, which seems reasonable. In AoE2, pikemen go from their base level of 4 attack to 26 attack against cavalry, and halberdiers go from 6 attack to 38 against cavalry. Even with blacksmith techs in there, it's still giving them 4 or 5 times their normal attack when they're against cavalry, which is pretty intense.

[@digimaks]

They are alsosuper valuable when map runs out of gold and stone ores, and your only reliable resource is wood and food- which means- pikemen and skirmishers. Put when those presumably trashy units chop up group of shiny palladins filled with gold- thats a major ouch for enemy.

[@migueeeelet]

digimaks Hahah, well, me and my brother are low-ranked noobies (me worse, small brother x3) and while i sometimes considered using Hussars for attacking, I only saw them as explorers xD We'd just use standard stuff like paladins, champs and archers, probably skirmishers if the other one had archers, but rarely pikemen.

[@wiesellmakelaardij1237]

Its been 6 years since I played this game so I forgot these troop names

[@dimitriosdaratzikis4600]

+Pizza_F0r_ L1F3 I melt that game but my pc crashed a month ago and I forgot them so

[@mohammeduddin8874]

monks vs knights... "fear of God" xD i see what u did there

[@scottgilmour4422]

who ids gode

[@Phlegethon]

Huh you don’t realize how much better definitive edition looks until you see the old stuff

[@gregoryhayes7569]

I like that little "*pike and shot is a good idea" at 3:00. Good job encouraging historically accurate tactics, Ensemble!

[@Szederp]

Aoe 2 still going strong in 2015? What a pleasant surprize...such a great game.

[@mondaysinsanity8193]

Alonso de Hojeda still is

[@weewooweewoo3175]

Alonso de Hojeda 2017✋

[@bastiangalleguillos508]

And still

[@pedrokantor3997]

2019!

[@shoobydoobydoooo]

Hidden cup bois

[@SmolJordan]

Man, your editing is soooo good in all these new videos!

[@eget4144]

dialog made by text fade too fast. i must stop video to read. otherwise no flaw at editing

[@SmolJordan]

Ege T read faster. not a flaw to me

[@alceushunterx]

+Ege T here's how to cure slow reading, get peripheral vision, read more, predict the words before you even think/read it. It helps a lot :D I was taught this way.

[@rasmustagu]

For a game this old, I love how even 5 year old videos are pretty much up to date with even the newest games.

[@tvremote9394]

I think petards are really underused. they only cost 20 gold which is cheaper than most other units and 7 of them can bring down a castle before u can blink an eye! think of all the time saved! although u have to find a safe way to get them to the castle first but still they're pretty awesome

[@oachkatzl8098]

+Jerrin Thomas Can Petards mount rams?

[@hazel5049]

+Scrub Free Not sure, I think not. I still use them every now and again as a 'Surprise, your castle is gone' tool in da box.

[@oachkatzl8098]

+Richard Wheeldon Would be kind of overpowered I guess, yet hilarious at the same time. Awesome profile picture btw. :)

[@hazel5049]

Scrub Free Thanks mate. Its hilarious because one time I was fighting an advanced AI (One that proved a challenge without cheating) and the battle was around this one no mans land between our cities. He set up a castle there, and it seemed that I would lose. But then I just made a few petards, strolled around the battle and *bam,* a few of those Allahu Akbar motherfuckers destroyed the castle in seconds. Underrated in my eyes.

[@oachkatzl8098]

Richard Wheeldon To smithereens!

[@shadowdancerRFW]

I have to say, after watching many of your videos I now added Siege Onagers in my army composition, which is now Mamelukes, Onagers and a few Trebuchets. They all work fantastic and I have no probs fighting any kind of unit or building. Yeah it's gold intensive, but when you kill 10 units for every one you lose, it's a definite win, and honestly I never had problems with gold.

[@ClaireIsLiterallyMeFrFr]

11, you’re gonna love Siege Onagers even more with the new Saracen Unique Tech. Well, that is if you even play AoE2 anymore.

[@simplylinn]

Why am I watching AoE2 strategy videos? I don't even play AoE2 :S

[@puppy3908]

same

[@izaktaylor4246]

CoderCandy give it a shot someday, it's a pretty fun game.

[@nemtudom5074]

And that, right there is the problem

[@Banaaniapina692]

same

[@SiriusGG]

Exactly the same for me. But now that I learned that you can actually do stuff like attacking a certain spot instead of a unit with an onager I might actually pick this game up again. Last time I played this was when I was like 8 or 9 years old, but playing online with a real meta and microing is a completely different experience!

[@fiable262626]

Gotta love champions, especially when you consider their damage to buildings (dps/gold is similar to rams). This means that when you overwhelm or raid your opponent, you can quickly wipe their town off the map.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

Number 1 : cobra car : you are really a noob among noobs if you do not know that cheat code.

[@lollytrolly5123]

I used only Marco Polo and Aegis ahahaha

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

Aarnav Munshi one more word from you and I feed you to my domestic wolf, Ornlu

[@ivankrylov6270]

i snuck one into an enemy town once when a villager walked through a gate...it gutted his entire city...

[@alittlebity]

I might go ask my bigdaddy about that one...

[@maistromann136]

It's a shame Persians don't get bracer, their cobra cars have less range and attack and are outclassed by other civ's cobra cars in late imp

[@mateeshbhave7988]

Hey, I've just recently found your channel on youtube through random surfing. Your commentary and insights have rekindled my interest in AoE again. I've spent at least 5000 hours playing this game but still find your insights helpful. Thanks and keep contributing.

[@HECKproductions]

ye kill a knight and the other guy loses 60f and 75g so the balance is shifted by 135 resources ye convert one and not only does he lose those but you basically gain them because you have a unit now that is worth those so it shifts the balance by 270 resources dam son

[@linhhoang1363]

when you try to kill a knight, you will also lose 1-2 pikes yourself. So the shift is less than that. Monks are the best vs knights.

[@ilikedat6996]

And u spend 100g so its 270-100=170

[@paulc_4205]

Mooonk, I need a mooonk

[@DeisFortuna]

Wololo

[@milanpospisil8024]

I think one of the best unit is halberdier. It is cheap, you can mass them, does not cost any gold, so with strong economy, you can send waves of them. With base attack of 7, they are threat even to infrantry, because you will lose the fight, but not loose the gold. Definetly greatest unit in situations, when gold is precious.

[@sumpurnis]

It's interesting how I've been taught to use even more villagers (approximately 60 - 75% of total population, not just around 50%) and just to storm enemy (if playing 1 on 1) with never ending lines of trash units like skirmishers, making your opponent all the time concentrating on defenses rather than building up decent army, while I can pile up resources and periodically kill off some villagers to replace them with some elite units.

[@oberstskeptic9919]

+sumpurnis who taught you that? :D

[@TonysRacing600]

Resonance, probably :D

[@HECKproductions]

+sumpurnis that is not a bad strategy per se and i love doing it but if your opponent makes something that can overpower your trash you are basically dead and can do nothing about it

[@canadian__ninja]

+Tony's Racing Res preaches the 50% vills. Video creator is almost certainly quoting him

[@Bauschi666]

+sumpurnis I totally agree with your amount of vills, its only that you need to be able to put out enough army that you are safe from harrassment. I usually play with 300 pop and end up having 170-175 vills ;) Works like a charm

[@KomradeCPU]

I believe scouts could be put as well, as a unit that new players underestimate. However, it's understandable given it usually requires more micro so you don't lose them easily, together with the investment in farms made early on, to support that build.

[@eget4144]

they melt in front of non ranged attack units. no micro can save them from dying

[@KomradeCPU]

Ege T "oh young padawan, watch daut you must, perceive the power in scouts". With 4 scouts, you can easily deal with one spear, using a bit of micro; bait tactics.

[@eget4144]

"i know that master" problem is microing 30 hussar againts pikes, champion, paladins, eagles. it never gonna work. every enemy can produce at least one of these units

[@KomradeCPU]

Ege T "Missing the point you are, young padawan". Scouts are only used for an early game raid, usually with civs good at that (that have bloodlines, for example). Late game, you won't be microing hussar, unless if it's to send them to the enemy lumber, without getting in the way of castles. Also, don't forget that they are expendable units; you can have them as meat shield in the front while your shiny gold units, in the back, do the damage.

[@lordilluminati5836]

+KomradeCPU scouts are ownl good to counter siege and maybe archers when you dont want to use gold, or your heavy cav sucks

[@jpdst29]

I love using monks to convert enemy units. Especially on maps with low population count. I can convert units and go over my population count which is a big benefit.

[@jarisalmazani5016]

I love the combo of hand cannoneer, hussar/light cavalry, and bombard cannon. Its the best combo ever i've tried

[@GiggaGMikeE]

Thanks for another great video. Your channel actually got me into this game(I built my first gaming computer a few weeks ago) and I actually won my first online game(2v2) based on the advice you gave on the Vikings and Goths. Keep up the amazing work. Also, awesome intro song man. You should release a full version for downloads.

[@johnfist206]

Ah thanks spirit for acknowledging the hand cannoneer isnt just a counter to infantry but a very powerful unit on its own. The difference between 11 attack (arbalest) and 17 attack (hand cannoneer) is huge if you consider both values are reduced by a flat amount with armour, allowing the hand cannoneer to often deal twice the damage an arbalest would or more. They're really a great unit for pushing, but indeed you should watch for onagers the most.

[@feeb4you]

Watched a few of your videos now. Very usefull and entertaining. I used to play AOE2 against some friends back in the "LAN" days and one friend used to destroy us all. Nice for a few tips like this so I can get one over on him now!

[@dradonie]

first time when i play age of empires 2 the agr of kings i only use 8 vilagers 2 of each resources xD and I use only two handed sword because they look cool and arbalest

[@kevintrang3007]

Shadow Bonnie The Bunny Same but used 4 for each

[@dradonie]

Kevin Trang lool cool

[@GameToony]

lol same XD i thought it was too much stress handling anywhere over 10 villagers

[@Raziffalyan]

I used to play this game and cornered the enemy, but only to drain their economy off without destroying the buildings, and build a wall around them, act like they were some sort of 'national park' and build my own base around the wall. And yes, I agree two handed swordsman are the coolest shit lol, even when my economy was a huge shit, I'd rather not upgrade them to champion. And I hesitate to destroy the forest except that it was really necessary because I hate global warning lol. Once I play the game for 37 hours in ludikris (?) black forest map, all the enemies are inside the national park and my ally too, and make a small super long route inside the wall without gate between my market and my ally's market to gain gold. And 500 max population, around 100-ish were trade carts, and the rest were farmers. I didn't cheat at all that my food's stock were sooo damn crazy.

[@pighead1995]

I love how you offer up strategy on good unit compositions such as onager + halbs for example. And would love to see a video showing off some effective combos for beginners or intermediate levels. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)

[@stefansantoso2478]

havent played this game for years and found this video fun to watch! I wish there was a new competitive rts in the spirit of aoe2

[@itssemp6216]

i can never get over how well done your intro is like omg dude. i am impressed by your composing.

[@KoflerDavid]

Rams against Archers is also known as DISTRACTION!Carnifex in Wh40k Tabletop: big, ugly targets that soak up dakka so that more squishy units can advance.

[@3k3lp4k3t]

I am not playing aoe for a while, but I LOVE TO WATCH YOUR VIDEOS... omg, it is so much fun... thänks!!!!!!!!!!

[@MrPathorn]

New players should use COBRA more often.

[@justonerandomguy6580]

MrPathorn hell fuckin yeah

[@jknott1509]

How do you turn this on

[@Immorpher]

By default I click on these videos to see/hear the awesome intro video! Then I stick around because of the great content :D

[@Quarker]

I've started using rams more often, and holy shit they make a massive difference. Walls and castles go down in a few minutes if not seconds, if used with the Mongols or Celts they are even faster.

[@khorps4756]

yeah rams absolutely crush any building in their path

[@whatisinaname4313]

mongols got insane rams

[@smoothness69]

Yeah capped rams cut through buildings fast.

[@TimDespain]

"Spirit of the Countdown" made me giggle. Keep up the great work on these fantastic videos! I've learned a lot from them.

[@bruni15]

6:17 Yo this is the moment when you lead Attila in his battle agains those Franks, right after you destoryed Orleans's Town centre, tons of Byzantines's Champions army comes in for reinforcement of the Franks isn't it? :D

[@copyninjakakashi779]

Courage _15 yeah and they have that one unit in the corner of the forest until the main force arrives lol

[@Suddhadeep]

samurai belonging to western roman empire

[@Volcano4981]

#TheLastRomanSamurai XD

[@leonwoodward4568]

I love your videos! Havent played aoe2 in years but I watch these videos every time I see them and theyre making me get back into the game :)

[@Konkajou]

dunno if you take suggestions, but i would really like to see a chinese overview :)

[@whoawhoa4062]

+Vanilla Cream i would to.

[@fredonline1]

+Vanilla Cream same

[@brandonciciotti4944]

I second this. They seem like they have a lot of potential but the weird start often dissuades me from trying them.

[@shoopoop21]

You really should try them. if you can find sheep before loom finishes, its not any different from any other start.

[@orirune3079]

He has made one actually

[@koob2128]

dude your awesome, makes me happy that people can still do youtube videos on age of empires 2

[@ArrakeeanSandWorm]

Four of my favorites units! The ram shield is my favorite tactics to disrupt protect my advance, add a few units in some of them to break trough the enemy's lines and you're golden. Champion are a mixed bag for me, very useful in raw power but so costly to obtain. They make or break the beginning of a trash war. And are all around counter killer. Monk, why does everybody forget about them? Yes they are slower than moss, fragile and very costly in gold but with a bit of micro, a small cadre of them can persuade a player to retreat his army of paladin. and help keeping alive your most expensive troops if you can mke them retrat before it's too late. The best pal of a monk is the pike. Hand-cannoner not beig used against infantry, really? It's like in a fps choosing a bugspray as weapon instead of a minigun. in the paper rock scissor of AOE 2 is THE hard counter against infantry, especialy in "hold the line" battles. Scorpion : cross-fire with them godamnit. they are the medieval machine gun to the magonnel - mortar approach.

[@zachwayt3874]

Saw this in my recommended section and now I wanna go back and play some AoE2 again. Thanks for the nostalgia trip 😁

[@MinecraftMovieMaker]

Can you please make a tutorial about counters?? You know... what units counter knights, spearmen, monks... Would be awesome to know things like that for a beginner like me :D

[@Dixxi91]

MinecraftMovieMaker yes, I want this too :)

[@ediwijanarko6460]

cobra xD

[@RoulicisThe]

The rare use of magonels for new players (new in PvP at least), in my opinion, comes from trying them against the AI : Using magonels against AI is useless, as an AI macro is impossible to equal in this game. You can never get a single magonel/onager shot at their units as they'll always get away instantly the moment it fires, even if they're already in melee. As it's a consistent thing against the AI, players stops using them while playing (I myself don't ever use the magonel line when playing against AI because it's a waste of ressources), so when they move on to PvP they're used to not rely on this unit and completely forget that they face a real person this time, and so can effectively rely on them

[@ArturoHDZG]

If a campaign's misión gives me magonels or onagers, I send them apart of my army as decoys. The IA charges against them, meanwhile my main army attacks the empty base in the other flank, is the only useful use of these against IA and with lucky, kill some enemy dudes

[@JohnSmith-tt3go]

Exactly as OP wrote. Just played the Inca campaign mission 2 recently and you're given an onager as part of an initial army meant to die. That onager killed 14 of my units and none of the enemy's even though I solely microed it to fire at the enemy's rear lines.

[@anden434]

The number one spot is awesome and if I recall there is a civilization who have the unique tech to remove gold cost of the militia/man-at-arms/long swordsman/ two handed swordsman/ champion but can't remember witch one tho

[@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785]

Champs are also pretty good at taking down buildings, castles, & towers too if your opponent put off researching murder holes...a bunch of champs can wreck a TC fast, & garrisoning them in rams to protect the champs from ranged units(or just having rams nearby to distract fire) and then you only gotta worry about heavy Calvalry, seige onagers or a scorp horde....

[@moo5e471]

IM drunk and i keep getting sad when the video ends :(

[@stephenl8984]

I don't even play aoe2 anymore- haven't for a really long time. But I still like to watch your videos for the nostalgia value. :) Keep it up man.

[@joshuaholcomb2523]

Hey there, I really found your videos informative and fun to watch. I have a random question to ask: have you heard of Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds? It's basically AOE2, with a few texture changes and new mechanics. I'd be curious to hear your recommendations on it; how it compares to the original, strengths and weaknesses, etc.

[@marcdedouvan]

well said! I approve! Master of warfare skills ! I add: a small group of monks can kick the ass of a large army of elephants or teutonic knights (to slow!) or convert an entire city of villagers. Trebuchets can attack other siege or human too (with massive group). The combination of korean onagers+trebuchets+chariot (or scorpions) well controlled is amazingly deadly and destructive! Champions can rush to destroy towns, camps, towers and castles because of their bonus against buildings and good armor if it is plate. They cost little gold, which can be bought to the market if you got lot of food, even in the end of the game, without gold mine left.

[@o2Tenka]

Thanks for the video but I think those are pretty basic, underused are for me: - Throwing axeman vs trash or champs - Post imp Spanish/incan villagers with sappers vs buildings - Scorpions with halbs/champs mass combo vs any melee unit massed - Demolition ships in shallows vs mass units - Kamayuks vs anything that is melee and its in front of them etc

[@hazel5049]

+o2Tenka I love the Incas, with the Slingers (Ghetto Hand Cannoneers) and the Kamayuks, who are my fav Infantry (Just beating Halbs/Pikes). Gotta love da inca.

[@jesseh5888]

+Richard Wheeldon Are the african kingdoms Inca Eagle Warrior better now in comparison to aztec or mayan as to that of the older versions where it was just a speed buff and not an armour buff.

[@hazel5049]

Jesse H Im assuming by Inca Eagle warrior you mean the Kamayuks. They have no real Armour as such, just the ability to crush cav, more damage, more health, 1 range (They always get the first hit in) and chavvy loose trousers.

[@jesseh5888]

Richard Wheeldon I literally mean Elite eagle warrior. Not the kamayuk or slinger or any other unit. Where in forgotten empires their buff was just speed and in African kingdom they changed it to an armour buff. The one that belongs to inca and gets their bonus tech.

[@hazel5049]

Jesse H God damned, well, Ok. Never really use the Eagle Warrior frankly.

[@jamesliu6602]

After seeing some skeptics in the comment section about champions, I realize spirit did not go in-depth to analyze the champions. So as an engineering grad student and an AoE 2 veteran, I thought I would go ahead and do it In the late game, there are 3 important resources to consider 1. The actual resources (wood food gold) I measure unit cost in combined resource (assume wood=food, and gold from market trade only in late game) 2. Unit creation time (in late game trash war, it is all about who can spam units faster) 3. Population Unit stats (assume COMPLETE UPGRADES, no civ bonus) Champion 70 HP, 17 Attack, 4/5 Armor (melee/pierce), 178/203 resource (guilds/no guilds), 21 sec Halberdier 60 HP, 10 Attack, 3/4 Armor (melee/pierce), 60 resource, 22 sec Elite Skirm 35 HP, 7 Attack, 3/8 Armor (melee/pierce), 60 resource, 22 sec Resource wise, if we round up (this favors the champ), 1 champ = AT LEAST 3 of either skirm or halb. 1 champ can kill 3 skirm, 2 skirm and 1 halb; but NOT 2 halb and 1 skirm, or 3 halb. So it appears that champs are NOT resource efficient vs trash if your opponent makes a lot of halb. what REALLY HAPPENS (IMPORTANT!!): 1. Late game trash war is all about spamming units, so in order for your opponent to counter your champions, they would need to produce halbs AT LEAST TWICE as fast as you produce champs. but that is NOT possible since champs are created 1 sec FASTER (21 sec vs 22 sec) than halbs. If you have at least 1/2 the amount of barracks your opponent has, your champs will win. 2. If your opponent has a lot of skirms in the backline that fires at your champs constantly, same story. In order for your opponent to keep your champs from reaching the skirms in the backline, they would need to produce halbs AT LEAST TWICE as fast. Skirms only do TWO damage per shot to champs (halb does 6) so champs can comfortably tank a lot of skirm shots while killing halbs. Champs kill skirms is 3 hits (5 hits against halbs), so when your champs reach the skirm line, skirms will drop like flies. 3. Champs are more POPULATION EFFICIENT than trash, meaning you will have more room for villagers than you opponent, which means more resource income. TL;DR: champions are NOT resource efficient vs trash, especially against halbs, but in actually late game scenario, champions will DEMOLISH your opponent, because they are produced faster, and leaves more population space for villagers. Moral of the story: War. War never changes.

[@oom-3262]

If you have played as goths, you'll know what champions are capable of...

[@Volcano4981]

Yup, absolutely. Get a massive numbers advantage - check Kill trash units - check Fight Pallies off with cost efficiency - check Beat even dedicated anti-infantry infantry units - check Force civs like Byzantines to bring their expensive UUs out - check About the only thing I can think of that can stop them are Teutonic Knights, Mamelukes, and Throwing Axemen. Onagers and archers are a capable check, but Goths have an effective answer to both.

[@Nakuruk]

You wrote the beautiful intro music?!!! No wonder why Shazam couldn't find it!! It's really awesom!! Thanks for the link to it!

[@fenrirgg]

What about the petards? noone uses them but you can destroy an economy very fast using them.

[@Swwatter]

Petards are useful for one thing and one thing only: a bust through walls. 2 petards will bust down a normal wall, and 3 will bust down a fortified wall. Beyond that, they're useless.

[@fenrirgg]

Swwatter Ohm, they do their best =(

[@jefffinkbonner9551]

The Saracens should get upgraded petards tho....

[@nimlouth]

I saw what u did there...

[@sethr.c1065]

Too expensive and too squishy for common use though.

[@JAKEATO]

For a old player(I kind of the gold expensive type of units), I learned the trash war in the Age2DE for certain mission of the Indians (you base is in the center )

[@Commandos12]

and demolition ships :3

[@gustavosanches3454]

Damn... The intro never gets old, it is so cool! :D

[@jesseh5888]

Here is a review of you TIPS. These are good suggestions -The reason they don't use Mangonels and Scorpions is because they make a maximum of 2 or 3 of them and expect it to kill off the other army. Also, not many know that catapults outrange Town Centers. -Hand Cannons ridiculous bonus against infantry isn't very apparent when there is 5 HC vs 5 Champions(30 HC will completely destroy 30 Champions however). Which is what newbies fighting newbies do. Them not missing shots in close range is also not an obvious fact. Not knowing these things and then comparing it to arbalest, HC seems like a waste. Bad suggestions -"Champions" If I had already done the upgrades to make champions, it wouldn't reach a point where I would have to make champions to defend my town from countless trash to begin with. I would have already made champions (coz who upgrades to champions and not use it as frequently as possible!) or run out of gold myself. -Ram shield vs archers is a good concept, but if you know that the other guy massed archers and you had time to make 3-4 rams, get Light Cavalry instead or even better! get catapults. Am I missing something here? Neutral Suggestion. -Monks are a nightmare to micro or even to try to convert with more than 1-2 monks (even if you have lots) when fighting a massive battle (which is what you yourself would be building up for). Most of the time, the guy my monk is trying to convert dies from my own auto-target archers. They can't convert catapults or cannons effectively coz they sit at the back and if the monks gets close enough then the archers are also close enough to shoot them down. BUT yes, everyone needs to learn to use those monks. The strongest and weakest unit of the game!

[@anirudhviswanathan3986]

Rams soak up a ton of fire though. Light cavs still fall to archer spam if they lose in numbers, especially fighting against Britons, Mayans or Chinese, who LOVE to spam their unique archers like there is no tomorrow.

[@goodperson656]

my boy spirit of the law making a video this is great

[@Jaska1]

When I was playing AoE2 back in 2000-2003 online players tend to ban siege weapons, besides trebuchets. It was just one of those unspoken rules kind of thing. Still one of my favorite RTS games till this date, squealed when they announced the hd version (mainly because it would work on my modern pc)

[@Jointi5]

28 (and counting :D), still missing the good old times I had on the MSN GAMING ZONE™

[@alicalk5084]

in that times teutonic knights people wasnt know how to deal with them teutons was mostly banned civ in that times

[@nathanbrown8680]

I wasn't very active in online play, but I don't think it was an unwritten rule. I think It's that the mangonel line kind of sucks in a high lag/low micro environment and scorpions kind of suck in general. Why learn to master a unit that will be an expensive disaster in half your games (or all your games if you're the one with the crappy Internet) when you can work on your boom? Same reason people used to get into arguments over who had the best champions. The reduction in lag and increase in micro changed the game and I'm not always sure it was for the better. It certainly mucked up the inter-unit balance in favor of cavalry.

[@ediwijanarko6460]

and today i still playing this game at work aha

[@hermessanhao]

Man, it's fascinating to come back to this franchise twenty years later. #Khmerelephants all the way!

[@papazoulou9326]

6:20 Attila campaign?

[@tomscorpion6288]

+PapaZoulou Yes, number 4, A Barbarian Betrothal :))

[@scottgilmour4422]

eye agre

[@danielvarga8178]

Its interesting how foreigners can write Attila properly when a lot of native hungarians cant

[@somethingclever2704]

Love your videos, keep up the great work!

[@kylethompson8348]

Mine: Cavalry archers Scorpions Petard Trebuchet Hussars

[@thepoet05]

"Nothing drives them away and puts fear of God in the hearts of attacking player like monks." Haha! Well said, Spirit! I must say...that conversion sound scares the hell out of me, especially when I can't see where in the horde enemy units the monk is. :D

[@jesseh5888]

+Akshay Chougaonkar Or you see but you cant reach it. LOL

[@thepoet05]

+Jesse H Haha. That could be one of the possibilities. Yes. In fact, that is the case most of the times. :D

[@marijnclaesen]

WOLOLOOOOO AJOOOOO JO JOOO

[@NomanJohan]

WOW! Your dream came true. Not HD. *It's getting a freaking 4k remaster.*

[@michaelbest5356]

fukken spirit of the law intros the hypest shit. never stop my dude. one love

[@jordirodri1362]

damn i remember playing with the vikings in dark forest vs a teuton and i destroyed his army of teutonic knights with 20 elite scorpions XD

[@Graymenn]

fatslob?

[@ciaranjones9449]

Hey man, I find your channel really interesting and I love binge watching these countdowns! +1 sub!

[@SmilayBros]

More top 5's in the future?

[@SpiritOfTheLaw]

+Abyssed topkek hard to say. My KZbin feed is full of WatchMojo videos , so I've been going through a bit of a Top 10 video phase, and at the moment it seems to be soaking into my own videos

[@humanbear4]

+Spirit Of The Law Then don't watch danger dolans videos XD

[@SoundlessScream]

I used to get 20 halberdiers and 10 skirmishers in a box formation with a priest in the middle, make a few copies of that to leapfrog past each other. The A.I sent a steady stream of horsemen at me. Petards, trebuchets, or cannon ships helped a lot as I moved up little by little into the enemy city.

[@jawsh1313]

you could buy this on steam?

[@whitehavencpu6813]

yes

[@OuzoPator]

Your voice is giving me the chills. New point on my to-do-list: watch every video of you while stoned x)

[@MrDeothor]

Spirit Of The Law, could you make video on how Ai cheats (AOE 2 HD)? Seriously.. They have infinite resources :|

[@WilliamRussellajb]

Thanks for making these videos bro, keep up the Age2 stuff :)

[@RaithSienar]

Halberdiers are the most overused unit. #stopusinghalberdiers #halberdiersbelonginthetrash #iamnotapaladin

[@inkbold8511]

One of the most valuable unit.

[@dynamicworlds1]

**laughs in Byzantine**

[@rused107]

I first watched this video when it was 2 years old . And realised hd was already out by then . Damn I'm feeling old

[@ThunderKat]

There is only one Champion unit, the others are just clones just like starwars :)

[@lattal3944]

+Thunder Kat Is the original Champion El Cid?

[@nathanpiazza9644]

Wow we finally get to see the face behind the voice. By the way I really hope you read this comment, because I have watched a few other AOE2 channels and everybody else's voice is so loud and yellingish, they all give me anxiety (won't mention any names...). Your voice is so agreeable and therapeutic, I feel like I could listen to you talk about anything at all.

[@thetoaster501th4]

How do you turn this on Robin Hood idk I’ll ask that lumberjack hey Marco Polo hey how do you turn this on oh easy just say blackdeath oh okay torpedo 2

[@adamrosner7736]

Just peaked at the AOE2 reddit and it looks like you’re a legend good sir!

[@izvarzone]

Skip to 1:05

[@matthewhawkins3697]

I would like to say as respectfully as possible that "Spirit of the Countdown" is one very handsome fella...

[@uncolorr]

*My army:* - Knight (horse) in front, 10 or more - Any unit can meelee attack, but I preffer the guy who's made on Barracks (not militia, the other). - Various crossbowman *Water army* - Fire ships - War Galley - Transport ship *YEAH* If i dont have resources to make Knights I make Rams xD Because her distracts the archers or towers, then I place my units what is in the Ram in the flor and attack

[@anubhavjaintj]

I love Champions. Usually in the Regicide matches, I build an army of about 40 Champions and take them directly to the opponent castle without damaging anything else on the way and easily finish them off, killing the king. Champions are the best against buildings.

[@Vaibhavpandey2]

You hit the spot right there and except Onagers, I use all of them and in fact I build army comprising of mainly champions, paladins, siege rams and hand cannoneers. All of those considered champions are my fav because they are cheap and coupled with blacksmith upgrades they become unbeatable except for group of hand cannoneers :D

[@Tommy1marg]

0:52 every time the best part of intro

[@hatec01]

what is that song?

[@gangreneday]

That last point about spending gold to counter goldless units changed my life.

[@sinaonur2658]

I skip intros for 90% of the things i watch/read/play yet i watch spirit of the law intro every time for some reason :D

[@panhuragan4388]

I love using thrash units. Especially skirmishers. 200 in 20 minutes from the beginning :-)

[@Jsquared62]

solid job on the music for this episode!

[@wirew]

Ur channel is amazing bro. Top quality content

[@mobius118th-]

I love your videos dude they are really cool and help me all with my games. Keep it up!!