I'm having a medical depression treatment for more than a year now and your civ reviews are not only informative but also calming me down in some way. They really make me smile and feel better. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Hey, Spirit of the Law, I just want to say that I discovered your channel a couple months ago and it reinvigorated my interest in Age of Empires 2. I even got the game for Christmas and played it on the same day. So, thanks, Spirit. Keep up the good work!
Also, fun fact: the design of the Malian wonder is historically inaccurate. The wonder had a different design, but there are currently no documents that ever recorded the wonder's original design. In fact, the version that is in the game is actually a reconstruction built in the early 20th century.
I literally had to rewatch like a minute after he came with the comment in the video realizing I had been laughing so hard, it didn't hear a word he said since xD
just for those who actually don't know what it means and are curious. Automated Teller Machine. Officially, however, in my home country of Canada, its called both an ATM and ABM (banking).
Have you considered doing a math course using Age of Empires II? "Now children, if we have x Japanese Samurai and y Byzantine Cataphracts, how long will it take to kill z Teutonic Knights? Would the Teutonic Knights win if they were only engaging x Japanese Samurai? Would Teutonic Knights win if y Byzantine Cataphracts began engaging once x-6 Japanese Samurai died?" Hmm, I am salivating just thinking about it... Math would be so sexy.
As with many computer games, they make amazing teaching support for math specifically, but it tends to be insanely hard. Ppl could, however, very well take data evaluation and basic experimental design classes from SotL and his videos.
I basically learned algebra from AoE 1. Once I figured out that Axemen could become X, and food could become Y it got really easy to grasp how it could work.
You know what's the better Christmas gift?! HIM HAVING A VIDEO ON STAR WARS: GALACTIC BATTLEGROUNDS! (If you don't know what that is, Google it or some shit: I am tired of requesting him that!)
The buildings of the newer factions, in general, look better. They could redo the old ones (european, asian, american), but then again, Definitive Edition is coming, so I don't think they'd bother changing the graphics of the old version.
It's not African in general, more like western Africa, in the sahel zone precisely. It's pretty great architecture regarding the resources they have to build it imo
2:17 I believe that the ally which benefits the most is not Portuguese, but Koreans. While Portuguese are missing arrowslits, Koreans can research every single university techs.
Your channel is consistently the best AoE2 content on youtube, and really some of the best content of any type youtube has to offer. Love it all, keep up the good work.
"... which is fun, but it takes a bit more work to figure out exactly what they offer. That's probably why you're here though." Oh Spirit, I haven't touched my AoE2 CD since I last played the game (circa 2003). Just here for the quality content, your videos are amazing. Keep it up, man!
I get an "all out offensive" vibe higher pierce armor allows infantry to push trough ranged defenses and cavalry are glass cannons so the faster you start hitting the better the extra arrows on the TC help to offset the risks of that strategy
used to play this game when i was 8 years old ah the memories. Now i'm 18 and thanks to you picking this game up again. Keep up the great content you make!
Just letting people know that AoE2HD is on sale atm on steam 75% off, get it while it's hot if you haven't already. Your amazing civ overviews on the expansion civs have made me want to play them so bad. I still have my old CD and played that version, but now its time. Thanks for the content Spirit!
VEEEERY IMPORTANT! pls read! I saw a commercial of the game "Guns of Glory", a Mobile-App, and it uses YOUR (Spirit of the law) CONTENT! I saw the scene where elefants were catched between cliffs and onagers who killed them! I do not know if this is allowed but for me it looks like this is ILLEGAL?!
Things like this are used constantly, for example the AoE II screenshots are used to promote bad Browser Games, etc. Idk if that is illegal for sure, but it is highly inappropriate.
In a TC war, how much stronger are they? How many Malian TCs are needed to kill a generic castle? For the first time, I wanted more SOTL math in a video. Love you, man.
I still remember the times when Malian wood discount affected Farms (it was immensly good) and they had the Halberdier, with halberdiers they would be probably the A+ Infantry :-D. Now with the Beta Patch the Pikes will do more damage to Camels, which will hurt the awesome Malian Camels alot. Malians are a great example of 'how life destroys your dreams', from super good to being average :-/.
There is a difference between Nerf and the Blizzard Nerf. Nerf is meant to make thing weaker, but still viable. But Blizzard Nerf makes the thing weak too much, thats its trash and no longer viable. That case is coming with Malians, they becoming less and less viable.
Ben Reubenson Malians are one of the best civs until Imperial Age hits. The cheaper buildings(wood wise) makes them so flexible at the first 3 ages of the game.
@@anirudhviswanathan3986 They are strong early imp and no other cavarly can compete for some time due to gold/food/time saved (related to knight line upgrades and connected upgrades) and farimba.
I disagree on B+ for Malian Economy, that's at least an A. They're being nerfed economywise because their eco is too strong. They only lack two-man because their early bonuses are so strong, the 15% cheaper buildings basically negates the need for two-man, and it's an accessible bonus right off the bat. Crop Rotation is also far better than two-man saw considering the Malians military comp is mainly food driven, so all the farms you'll be using will be converting wood into food much more efficiently. Calling their eco anything short of an A is kinda silly IMO, and apparently in many expert players' and developers' opinions. The wood and gold bonus early on is making them incredibly efficient and flexible, moreso than most civs in the game.
No offense intended BTW. If they did have two-man saw, their eco would be completely overpowered, because of 2 very strong early economy bonuses and a fully upgraded late economy as well.
I agree. With the fast castle build they're incredibly flexible because you can just switch out a few vils from wood to gold or food without impacting your ability to put down your two TCs or go knights. Easily my favourite civ.
Just here during the t90 24 hr stream where you are commenting to let you know that the chat is going crazy for you and we have been screaming for you for over 3 hours now. We love to hear you speak
Malians are a literally perfect civilization, all the way up until imperial age. They have access to: -Crossbowmen with Thumb Ring, and both a wood and gold bonus to benefit it. -Knights with Bloodlines and Husbandry, and also both a wood and gold bonus that help it. And they can also make Camels too, when faced with opposing Knights. -Long Swordsmen that don't die instantly to Crossbowmen, which is incredibly useful against meso civs that go for Eagle Warriors. -Good Monks with both a wood and gold bonus to benefit, which is great for Arena. -A unique unit that is actually useful in castle age This is quite possibly the most versatile civilization in the entire game. However, as you mentioned, they have critical holes for imperial age. -No Bracer. This means their Arbalests have the same attack as Crossbowmen with Bracer and only +5 HP, while they critically have -1 range than Crossbowmen with Bracer, making them worse. So Turk xbows in imp are better than Malian Arbalests. This also means their Elite Skirmishers suffer. -No Blast Furnace. Their Champions may seem really good with the extra pierce armor but it's actually just a trade off, since they're worse against melee units. This means, counter-intuitively, that Malian Champions do not beat Elite Huskarls, they go even with them in combat (both die in 6 hits). Malian Pikemen are the worst in the game. The extra pierce armor does _not_ make up for having only 4+2 attack. Seriously, Malian Pikemen are just awful. You may think that they're better than regular Halberdiers when facing even Elite Skirmishers, but they're just not. While Malian Pikemen do take 19 shots from Elite Skirmishers as opposed to the mere 10 hits that regular Halberdiers take (making Malian pikes more resistant), Malian pikes deal much less damage. Regular halbs kill an eskirm in only 5 strikes, whereas a Malian pike takes a whole 12 strikes to kill an eskirm! That's ridiculous. Malian pikes are also a lot worse vs cavalry and infantry. -No Siege Engineers, Siege Ram, or Heavy Scorpion. In early imperial age they're good because they have 80% faster researching Chemistry which gives them faster access to Bombard Cannons, but after this early imperial moment, they fall off due to all the missing siege techs. -No Paladin. Past early imperial age, Malian Cavaliers are not as good as Paladins. This is another sign of Malians falling off in imperial age. -No Hussar means that their Light Cavalry are simply average overall. Slightly better vs melee units but worse vs ranged units. Not really a strength of the civilization. So really they are an incredibly good, perhaps overpowered, civilization in the early and mid game, and even early imperial age sometimes, but they fall off after that point and become a mediocre civ.
What's so good is their flexibility. You can go for any early game strat without harming yourself too much later on and some early strats are even stronger with Malians. You'll always have an answer to the enemy units.
Ben Reubenson I'm not sure who did the video, could have been Zeroempires, but it showed that the Malian Farimba cav beat mid range Paladins 1 to 1. But they're not as good for raiding due to lower hp and armor more vulnerable to arrows
a typical noob thinking malians are op because you either won two or three games with them or lost a few against them sure in the right circumstances they are not bad at all but most of the times there will be a civ that can very very very very very easily beat them
I really think Malians should either get Blast Furnace and Farimba should be changed to +3 attack for cav, or get the Halberdier back without Blast Furnace if it would then make their Champions and Gbeto OP. I feel like they've been a bit over-nerfed for the late game (except for their still borderline OP cavalry until very balls-deep into Post-Imperial with gold), even though in a lot of cases, their early strengths do negate most of that.
OK, last comment, I swear. It's worth pointing out that, because of their wood/gold bonuses and general flexibility, Malians are seen as one of the top civs at the higher competitive levels, if not actually the best civ period. They have a lot of good choices, they don't really suck at anything, and they have teh kind of early game bonuses that competitive civs need to gain an advantage over enemies. Their wide late game tech tree and faster university also helps them out if the game goes to imp. They're a really really good civ.
I seriously think about this every time I see a fast imp strategy video. Malians can probably fast imp as quickly as the Turks on Arena, and then rush gunpowder with their tanky pikemen to back it up. On top of this they are going to be dropping Tigui Town Centers if they have spare wood and stone. Fast Gunpowder or Knight or even Gbeto rushing accompanied by town center pushes seems to be a decent way to play them on closed maps.
@@Shifter5555 haha, I was thinking the same thing the other day. I'm not a crazy good player but I managed to hit imp ~30 seconds after a Turk opponent even though I went for late castle aggression. Just love playing with this civ.
Constructive criticism: Next time could you make the screenshots of the tech tree larger? I understand why they use less than 1/4 of the space...but you don't need to make them THAT small. Some of us like to read the info as you explain it :P thanks.
I love the Malians so much, they are very versatile and I dare say almost lack a true weakness. Where as the Byzantines and Chinese are versatile defensive, and mostly relies on trash units. The Malians are versatile and aggressive with both a robust economy and all around stronk units.
Not to mention the phenomenal value they derive from those units, be it their gold or trash units. I usually end up with a huge gold surplus with the Malians because the gold units I do make don't die as easily and my trash keeps on being replenished without impacting my gold stockpiles.
Ahem. Hi there Spirit. Bit of a weird one. I just wanted to give you the BIGGEST props for the comment "What you talkin bout?" after a guy called Willis had said something - that for some reason NO ONE seemed to get ( which was obscene! D:< ) whilst you were helping Cast T90's 24 hour stream. Saying that, you've probably already forgotten about it... But just in case, you've been sat there all night, shaking your head wondering why the fans, and perhaps the Gods had forsaken you... well.. someone enjoyed it ;) Seriously though, I thoroughly appreciated the subtlety and speed of that comment, and I felt you needed some respect for it. Kudos. Also, thanks for the cast, and all the videos, advice etc. You make exceptional content. Peace!
A town center drop sounds like the most hilarious strategy ever. I'm reminded of that video from a few years ago about unconventional strategies, one of which was demolishing your town center and rebuilding it right next to your opponent.
The "King" of anti-archer infantry units... the Huskarl... or the Mayan Eagle Warrior... or the Incan Eagles Warrior... and now the Malian Condotierro as well.
Condottiero got nerfed to the point, that its 'Trash' that cost gold. -1 attack and -1 pierce armor, also everything with anti infantry bonus besides Gunpowder will kill them. I would understand the other two nerfs, but removing pierce armor from a unit that is supposed to counter archers is stupid, now all the gunpowder units will kill Condo one shot early. Malians miss +2 already so making Condos with Malians is no longer viable anymore, you will be better using regular Champs now.
Michael Šperl They are meant to counter gunpowder not archers and as far as I think they still dont take the bonus 10 dmg from hand cannons so I dont see why that interaction would change.
They are meant to counter things that shoot, Jannisary, Hand Cannon, Bombard, you name it. I am fine with the other changes, but removing that 1 pierce armor is stupid. They will do the job much more poorly now.
Michael Šperl I dont know if I am right here but the fast moving speed and decent HP plus the pierce armour made condos much better against archers than they should have been. 1 pierce armour is nothing against hcs and other gunpowder units with 18+ attack. This simply reduced their ability to counter archers which they shouldnt counter in the first place. Cant say for sure though, maybe this makes them die one shot faster from HCs and may affect them a lot.
But unlike Byzantines they have blast furnace. Celts end up with 1 less armour but 2 more attack, so they're slightly better in melee (worse against archers of course).
Not going to lie, considering where their armour already started, I'd rather get the attack upgrade for Paladins, except against Castles. Plus the attack upgrade also affects infantry, sooo... ...Then again, I don't really see why one would ever want to go with Pallies as Byzantines to begin with - while they're not really interchangeable, I'd argue their Cataphracts are better at most roles, except against brute force units (likely counterable well with their cheaper Halberdiers) and ranged pierce damage units - which their cheaper Skirmishers already have covered.
I remember playing CBA when African Kingdoms just came out... Malians on your team basically meant you won. Their halbs, hand cannons, and cavalry combo was just insane
great as usual. you've returned my love for the game. what's the chances of seeing all the civs (thus far) graded in one video, or on one spreadsheet? year in review? ;)
The game seems to like me playing as Malians and Ethiopians for some reason. So I learned some strategies with them. Gbeteos with cavaliers backing some cannons while pikes and skirmishers stay upfront (sometimes with camels ) Is good.
I really enjoy these videos. I wish other RTS games had similar levels of production and thought. Something like Age of Mythology or Star Wars Battleground.
Lol at the ATM joke. Fun fact: in Wisconsin there used to be ATMs labeled TYME (which stands for "take your money everywhere), and people would call them "TYME machines"
Honestly the free gold minning is just a good quality of life. Helps a lot getting to castle a bit faster Also Gbetos are fantastic as a counter skirmish unit in a team battle with allied knights
Best Nomad Civ in the game(persians are up there as well) 1 villlager builds TC, one builds Dock, one build house. As soon as Dock is up you can build fishing ship due to saving on all the building. I have sick nasty Nomad build with them when I get lucky enough to draw them.
Yo Spirit! Ty for the Video, made my day at work much more enjoyable. On the other side, what is the song during 17:23 ? I've searched it for quite a while, but can't find it.
Everything about the Malians feels like it's designed to put them just ever so slightly ahead of the curve militarily in whichever age they are in. So you wind up wanting to rush; but they give you the option to rush at the start of whatever age you are going for. So long as you don't try and grind it out in a long game you are fairly set.
if you find yourself in that situ try an army of farimba light cav. stand up surprisingly well, can chew down expensive gold units and important buildings and you can already have another army of them on the way no sweat while your enemy is recovering
where did Sotl get the patch info from? (second gold miming upgrade for free removed) I would really like to read more about that and see if they talked about other stuff aswell
In the Steam window if you click on Age of Empires 2 in your library, instead of clicking PLAY, scroll down after "achivements" and "workshop" and there's "Recent news" at the bottom. It's worth checking every once in a while because they post stuff like Patch Notes and deals.
Just had the sillyist game as Malians. I went scouts but really only caused some idle time before losing them, killed an Archer/pike rush while sending 1 slightly injured knight into their economy instead of using it in the defense. The knight just wrecked stuff and killed several vills until it died to TC fire when they finally garrisoned. By that point though 10 knights were on the way. Now, they had plenty of halbs but I just split the knights and kept kiting around killing archers and any villagers that were brave enough to leave the TCs. Entire eco paralyzed by 10 knights. Ok I then lose most of them and kill one of their TCs, but still have one knight and start trickling in Gbetos. Their economy is still in shambles and the Gbetos just destroy pikes and production buildings. They lose their army to the Gbetos before losing the only building that could really counter them, the Archery range. Eco completely frozen just from a few knights and Gbetos kiting around and occasionally mobbing up and attacking a building. Seriously 1-15 units just dodging and weaving in their economy paralyzed them and destroyed both their ability to produce and their ability to afford production. They surrender in castle age before ever seeing a seige unit.
love your vids man. i really hope the games pops up again. you should pick back up on the climbing to 1800s series. also finish all the civs and redo some of the out dated ones.. maybe show build orders :D :D tall order i know haha
Thanks for the overview and especially the info about the nerfs! Kinda hard keeping up with all of it, especially since the tech tree (at least in my game) hasn't been changed to reflect that in some cases like the Malians apparently. Does anyone know about updated tech trees being available to check on the net (Sorry if that's a rather stupid question.). Awesome video as always, immensely looking forward to playing them soon!
Hey Spirit of the Law, around 1 year ago you made a video where you spectated the hardest AI's build order. This was a very interesting topic and I wanted to ask you if you could do it again with other gamemodes like Wonder Race or defending the wonder. The reason why it interests me is because some gamemodes are objective based and other are very military based. Little fun fact: In wonder race you can't do onagers :D It would be nice if we see something like this in the future :)
I'm having a medical depression treatment for more than a year now and your civ reviews are not only informative but also calming me down in some way. They really make me smile and feel better. Thank you and keep up the good work!
know what you mean. Spirit is a good egg and most AoE2 community stuff is good humoured + interesting
There are creepy persons in the internet
@Nein Nopes oh so cute :3
This is such an wholesome conversation
@@DiktatorFluffki This is just stupid
Sryyyyy....
Never take the supremacy villager out of the intro please. Promise me!
Promise me, Ned
Nowy tends.
the promise was broken...
Jimmy Two-Times yeah
Hey, Spirit of the Law, I just want to say that I discovered your channel a couple months ago and it reinvigorated my interest in Age of Empires 2. I even got the game for Christmas and played it on the same day.
So, thanks, Spirit. Keep up the good work!
Also, fun fact: the design of the Malian wonder is historically inaccurate. The wonder had a different design, but there are currently no documents that ever recorded the wonder's original design.
In fact, the version that is in the game is actually a reconstruction built in the early 20th century.
Same for me.
ATM = "A Time Machine"
11
antares031 woke
I literally had to rewatch like a minute after he came with the comment in the video realizing I had been laughing so hard, it didn't hear a word he said since xD
ARE we still ducking using " 11 " ?
I've used it so much, I find myself using it outside AoE2.
threadenoid908 wat is11?
ATM = "A Time Machine"
11/10
duyhung 2h 11
This has to be the top comment in this video
duyhung 2h more of a 9/11
just for those who actually don't know what it means and are curious. Automated Teller Machine. Officially, however, in my home country of Canada, its called both an ATM and ABM (banking).
Malians are truly a "Jack of all trades, master of none" civ. Thanks for the video!
Malians are "Jack of all trades, master of all" civ.
Damn fun is what they are!
5:46 wtf that hussar just broke the hay bale physic laws
just noticed xD
if found the needle
thats why units cant go through hay stacks the stop to searh for the needle
What you think the wings are for?
Have you considered doing a math course using Age of Empires II?
"Now children, if we have x Japanese Samurai and y Byzantine Cataphracts, how long will it take to kill z Teutonic Knights? Would the Teutonic Knights win if they were only engaging x Japanese Samurai? Would Teutonic Knights win if y Byzantine Cataphracts began engaging once x-6 Japanese Samurai died?"
Hmm, I am salivating just thinking about it... Math would be so sexy.
As with many computer games, they make amazing teaching support for math specifically, but it tends to be insanely hard.
Ppl could, however, very well take data evaluation and basic experimental design classes from SotL and his videos.
I basically learned algebra from AoE 1. Once I figured out that Axemen could become X, and food could become Y it got really easy to grasp how it could work.
Yeah but i would still be a dumb fuck
The African kingdoms campaign, when you help mema and she spams her sisters (gbetos) like a machine gun.
I loved that unit since then.
My favorite campaign mission because of that. Sadly it got patched in DE
repairing is how i roll.
Best Christmas gift tbqh
You know what's the better Christmas gift?! HIM HAVING A VIDEO ON STAR WARS: GALACTIC BATTLEGROUNDS! (If you don't know what that is, Google it or some shit: I am tired of requesting him that!)
A video on Galactic Battlegrounds will surely be nice
That's what I've been telling him for the past TWO MONTHS! He just... ignored me or... didn't see me!
I love the architecture of the Africans.
I keep placing my post TC farms around houses. :/
They still build in that style
The buildings of the newer factions, in general, look better. They could redo the old ones (european, asian, american), but then again, Definitive Edition is coming, so I don't think they'd bother changing the graphics of the old version.
It's not African in general, more like western Africa, in the sahel zone precisely. It's pretty great architecture regarding the resources they have to build it imo
"If all else fails, just drop town centers in their base"
castle-age malian douche new meta?!?
OP
Lol someone actually did this to me once
@@hussamgunter7381 They're like discount castles in this regard.
2:17 I believe that the ally which benefits the most is not Portuguese, but Koreans. While Portuguese are missing arrowslits, Koreans can research every single university techs.
but they get the tower upgrades for free, so they don't save the research time. I'm sneaky like that ;)
Your logic is sound. :D
12 hours ago!?
Why not china? cheaper techs done faster sounds like a powerful combination then just faster techs alone?
Lame Gamer Patreons
Your channel is consistently the best AoE2 content on youtube, and really some of the best content of any type youtube has to offer. Love it all, keep up the good work.
3:37 We all know that villager will box herself in!
Watching this a year later i paused on that same exact spot... guess I still got it.
"... which is fun, but it takes a bit more work to figure out exactly what they offer. That's probably why you're here though." Oh Spirit, I haven't touched my AoE2 CD since I last played the game (circa 2003). Just here for the quality content, your videos are amazing. Keep it up, man!
I get an "all out offensive" vibe
higher pierce armor allows infantry to push trough ranged defenses and cavalry are glass cannons so the faster you start hitting the better
the extra arrows on the TC help to offset the risks of that strategy
I don't even play this game, but I love your videos. (The intro is amazing, it never gets old)
used to play this game when i was 8 years old ah the memories. Now i'm 18 and thanks to you picking this game up again. Keep up the great content you make!
21:12
If all else fails, do a MASTAPIECE with Gbetos and Siege Towers rush.
I think Pikeman/Champ lame is better
MASTAPEACE
I feel like that this was an immense amount of work to create this video, but it was 100% worth it!
What video editing program are you using?
Thanks. I use PowerDirector 12.
Big fan, btw :)
Thank you for answering!
Awesome! I feel honored ;)
Just letting people know that AoE2HD is on sale atm on steam 75% off, get it while it's hot if you haven't already.
Your amazing civ overviews on the expansion civs have made me want to play them so bad. I still have my old CD and played that version, but now its time.
Thanks for the content Spirit!
VEEEERY IMPORTANT! pls read!
I saw a commercial of the game "Guns of Glory", a Mobile-App, and it uses YOUR (Spirit of the law) CONTENT! I saw the scene where elefants were catched between cliffs and onagers who killed them!
I do not know if this is allowed but for me it looks like this is ILLEGAL?!
I'm searching for the video, i will post the link if found
Things like this are used constantly, for example the AoE II screenshots are used to promote bad Browser Games, etc.
Idk if that is illegal for sure, but it is highly inappropriate.
im pretty sure that it is illegal. unless spirit knows about it.
There was also another mobile game that used a whole video from another youtuber as an ad and just removed the sound
Are you saying they took a clip from this video? ua-cam.com/video/Q3R9qgcUiBw/v-deo.htmlm2s
In a TC war, how much stronger are they? How many Malian TCs are needed to kill a generic castle? For the first time, I wanted more SOTL math in a video.
Love you, man.
I still remember the times when Malian wood discount affected Farms (it was immensly good) and they had the Halberdier, with halberdiers they would be probably the A+ Infantry :-D.
Now with the Beta Patch the Pikes will do more damage to Camels, which will hurt the awesome Malian Camels alot.
Malians are a great example of 'how life destroys your dreams', from super good to being average :-/.
That's called balance. Aren't all civilizations supposed to be average?
There is a difference between Nerf and the Blizzard Nerf.
Nerf is meant to make thing weaker, but still viable.
But Blizzard Nerf makes the thing weak too much, thats its trash and no longer viable.
That case is coming with Malians, they becoming less and less viable.
Ben Reubenson
Malians are one of the best civs until Imperial Age hits. The cheaper buildings(wood wise) makes them so flexible at the first 3 ages of the game.
@@anirudhviswanathan3986 They are strong early imp and no other cavarly can compete for some time due to gold/food/time saved (related to knight line upgrades and connected upgrades) and farimba.
"And if all else fails just drop TC in their base" laughed so hard xD
I disagree on B+ for Malian Economy, that's at least an A. They're being nerfed economywise because their eco is too strong. They only lack two-man because their early bonuses are so strong, the 15% cheaper buildings basically negates the need for two-man, and it's an accessible bonus right off the bat. Crop Rotation is also far better than two-man saw considering the Malians military comp is mainly food driven, so all the farms you'll be using will be converting wood into food much more efficiently.
Calling their eco anything short of an A is kinda silly IMO, and apparently in many expert players' and developers' opinions. The wood and gold bonus early on is making them incredibly efficient and flexible, moreso than most civs in the game.
No offense intended BTW.
If they did have two-man saw, their eco would be completely overpowered, because of 2 very strong early economy bonuses and a fully upgraded late economy as well.
I agree. With the fast castle build they're incredibly flexible because you can just switch out a few vils from wood to gold or food without impacting your ability to put down your two TCs or go knights. Easily my favourite civ.
Just here during the t90 24 hr stream where you are commenting to let you know that the chat is going crazy for you and we have been screaming for you for over 3 hours now. We love to hear you speak
5:45* Luke HayWallker
*horse included
Why do you commentators always remind me to tell Spirit to review STAR WARS: GALACTIC BATTLEGROUNDS?!
MALEMization reasons
Its 12:30 in the morning..
Who care i wanna know what the malians upto..!
Its 3:35 in the morning and I still want to know it🙈😂
*Malians
But I just wanna know how are you so beautiful?❤️
Sahil Mustafa Beig That has got to be one of the most cringe worthy beta shit I have ever read in my life lol.
Adrian V even gaja mada won't be able to save you from that cringe 😂
Malians are a literally perfect civilization, all the way up until imperial age.
They have access to:
-Crossbowmen with Thumb Ring, and both a wood and gold bonus to benefit it.
-Knights with Bloodlines and Husbandry, and also both a wood and gold bonus that help it. And they can also make Camels too, when faced with opposing Knights.
-Long Swordsmen that don't die instantly to Crossbowmen, which is incredibly useful against meso civs that go for Eagle Warriors.
-Good Monks with both a wood and gold bonus to benefit, which is great for Arena.
-A unique unit that is actually useful in castle age
This is quite possibly the most versatile civilization in the entire game.
However, as you mentioned, they have critical holes for imperial age.
-No Bracer. This means their Arbalests have the same attack as Crossbowmen with Bracer and only +5 HP, while they critically have -1 range than Crossbowmen with Bracer, making them worse. So Turk xbows in imp are better than Malian Arbalests. This also means their Elite Skirmishers suffer.
-No Blast Furnace. Their Champions may seem really good with the extra pierce armor but it's actually just a trade off, since they're worse against melee units. This means, counter-intuitively, that Malian Champions do not beat Elite Huskarls, they go even with them in combat (both die in 6 hits).
Malian Pikemen are the worst in the game. The extra pierce armor does _not_ make up for having only 4+2 attack. Seriously, Malian Pikemen are just awful. You may think that they're better than regular Halberdiers when facing even Elite Skirmishers, but they're just not. While Malian Pikemen do take 19 shots from Elite Skirmishers as opposed to the mere 10 hits that regular Halberdiers take (making Malian pikes more resistant), Malian pikes deal much less damage. Regular halbs kill an eskirm in only 5 strikes, whereas a Malian pike takes a whole 12 strikes to kill an eskirm! That's ridiculous. Malian pikes are also a lot worse vs cavalry and infantry.
-No Siege Engineers, Siege Ram, or Heavy Scorpion. In early imperial age they're good because they have 80% faster researching Chemistry which gives them faster access to Bombard Cannons, but after this early imperial moment, they fall off due to all the missing siege techs.
-No Paladin. Past early imperial age, Malian Cavaliers are not as good as Paladins. This is another sign of Malians falling off in imperial age.
-No Hussar means that their Light Cavalry are simply average overall. Slightly better vs melee units but worse vs ranged units. Not really a strength of the civilization.
So really they are an incredibly good, perhaps overpowered, civilization in the early and mid game, and even early imperial age sometimes, but they fall off after that point and become a mediocre civ.
This tbh. Even The Viper says that they are probably the best overall civ currently.
What's so good is their flexibility. You can go for any early game strat without harming yourself too much later on and some early strats are even stronger with Malians. You'll always have an answer to the enemy units.
Ben Reubenson I'm not sure who did the video, could have been Zeroempires, but it showed that the Malian Farimba cav beat mid range Paladins 1 to 1. But they're not as good for raiding due to lower hp and armor more vulnerable to arrows
a typical noob
thinking malians are op because you either won two or three games with them or lost a few against them
sure in the right circumstances they are not bad at all but most of the times there will be a civ that can very very very very very easily beat them
I really think Malians should either get Blast Furnace and Farimba should be changed to +3 attack for cav, or get the Halberdier back without Blast Furnace if it would then make their Champions and Gbeto OP. I feel like they've been a bit over-nerfed for the late game (except for their still borderline OP cavalry until very balls-deep into Post-Imperial with gold), even though in a lot of cases, their early strengths do negate most of that.
OK, last comment, I swear. It's worth pointing out that, because of their wood/gold bonuses and general flexibility, Malians are seen as one of the top civs at the higher competitive levels, if not actually the best civ period. They have a lot of good choices, they don't really suck at anything, and they have teh kind of early game bonuses that competitive civs need to gain an advantage over enemies. Their wide late game tech tree and faster university also helps them out if the game goes to imp. They're a really really good civ.
I think when the Viper played against rocket beans he said Malians were the best civ in the game.
I seriously think about this every time I see a fast imp strategy video. Malians can probably fast imp as quickly as the Turks on Arena, and then rush gunpowder with their tanky pikemen to back it up. On top of this they are going to be dropping Tigui Town Centers if they have spare wood and stone. Fast Gunpowder or Knight or even Gbeto rushing accompanied by town center pushes seems to be a decent way to play them on closed maps.
@@Shifter5555 haha, I was thinking the same thing the other day. I'm not a crazy good player but I managed to hit imp ~30 seconds after a Turk opponent even though I went for late castle aggression. Just love playing with this civ.
Constructive criticism:
Next time could you make the screenshots of the tech tree larger? I understand why they use less than 1/4 of the space...but you don't need to make them THAT small. Some of us like to read the info as you explain it :P thanks.
For the one person repairing buildings,
How considerate, thank you
I love the Malians so much, they are very versatile and I dare say almost lack a true weakness.
Where as the Byzantines and Chinese are versatile defensive, and mostly relies on trash units. The Malians are versatile and aggressive with both a robust economy and all around stronk units.
Not to mention the phenomenal value they derive from those units, be it their gold or trash units. I usually end up with a huge gold surplus with the Malians because the gold units I do make don't die as easily and my trash keeps on being replenished without impacting my gold stockpiles.
Man, I've gotta' say, I love these videos of yours, bruddah 🤘
no. don't make it weird
Even though I don't really play AoE anymore, always find myself watching your latest uploads
I'm going to be using that from now on when I tell people I need a ATM. "I need a time machine". The looks this will get me. Awesome.lol
Dude, I normally hate any kind of channel like this, but your vids rock! Keep it up man!
wat
5:45 There's always a hole
Yes, even when there isn't, there is.
Ahem. Hi there Spirit. Bit of a weird one.
I just wanted to give you the BIGGEST props for the comment "What you talkin bout?" after a guy called Willis had said something - that for some reason NO ONE seemed to get ( which was obscene! D:< ) whilst you were helping Cast T90's 24 hour stream.
Saying that, you've probably already forgotten about it...
But just in case, you've been sat there all night, shaking your head wondering why the fans, and perhaps the Gods had forsaken you... well.. someone enjoyed it ;)
Seriously though, I thoroughly appreciated the subtlety and speed of that comment, and I felt you needed some respect for it. Kudos.
Also, thanks for the cast, and all the videos, advice etc. You make exceptional content. Peace!
Awesome review, keep up the good work! Love the channel
So far, I've noticed that Spirit of the Law says things are, "difficult to quantify" when he really means a priceless lifesaving advantage.
5:45 shoutout to that scout that just... walked through the barrier.
A town center drop sounds like the most hilarious strategy ever. I'm reminded of that video from a few years ago about unconventional strategies, one of which was demolishing your town center and rebuilding it right next to your opponent.
My favorite new African Civ - thanks for the overview!
Extreeemely good videos from SOTL! Thx!!
I have been one of your fans for more than two years. Happy New Year! (though it is a bit early) :))
Yaaaaas I thought you were never going to do this vid , thx❤️
The "King" of anti-archer infantry units... the Huskarl... or the Mayan Eagle Warrior... or the Incan Eagles Warrior... and now the Malian Condotierro as well.
Condottiero got nerfed to the point, that its 'Trash' that cost gold.
-1 attack and -1 pierce armor, also everything with anti infantry bonus besides Gunpowder will kill them.
I would understand the other two nerfs, but removing pierce armor from a unit that is supposed to counter archers is stupid, now all the gunpowder units will kill Condo one shot early.
Malians miss +2 already so making Condos with Malians is no longer viable anymore, you will be better using regular Champs now.
Michael Šperl They are meant to counter gunpowder not archers and as far as I think they still dont take the bonus 10 dmg from hand cannons so I dont see why that interaction would change.
They are meant to counter things that shoot, Jannisary, Hand Cannon, Bombard, you name it.
I am fine with the other changes, but removing that 1 pierce armor is stupid.
They will do the job much more poorly now.
Michael Šperl I dont know if I am right here but the fast moving speed and decent HP plus the pierce armour made condos much better against archers than they should have been. 1 pierce armour is nothing against hcs and other gunpowder units with 18+ attack. This simply reduced their ability to counter archers which they shouldnt counter in the first place. Cant say for sure though, maybe this makes them die one shot faster from HCs and may affect them a lot.
Bingo, that dying one shot faster is actually a big deal.
Wow Im revisiting this game after Yeeears.. Great videos man.. Subbed
"just bnuild town centers in their base"
He's done it, the ultimate RUSH to rule them all.
Fast Town Centers Rush!
Men I love your videos I wish you could make them more often but I understand jaja keep up the good work you'll always be my favorite Math Jedi Master
I took your quiz and got Malians as my best civ, i will try them out.
hope you had fun
Nothing better than seeing a SoTL video :3
13:00 celts paladins are even worse bc of missing plate barding armor
But unlike Byzantines they have blast furnace. Celts end up with 1 less armour but 2 more attack, so they're slightly better in melee (worse against archers of course).
Not going to lie, considering where their armour already started, I'd rather get the attack upgrade for Paladins, except against Castles. Plus the attack upgrade also affects infantry, sooo...
...Then again, I don't really see why one would ever want to go with Pallies as Byzantines to begin with - while they're not really interchangeable, I'd argue their Cataphracts are better at most roles, except against brute force units (likely counterable well with their cheaper Halberdiers) and ranged pierce damage units - which their cheaper Skirmishers already have covered.
Interesting civ that is good for new players trying all sorts of strategies. Awesome!
Well down law! can't wait for your review on the new SE Asian civilizations.
Good guy spiritofthelaw puts a shortcut to the beginning!
I remember playing CBA when African Kingdoms just came out... Malians on your team basically meant you won. Their halbs, hand cannons, and cavalry combo was just insane
I've been anticipating this! :D
Finally a civ overview
Another good video from Spirit
Thanks man I really wanted this civ overview
great as usual. you've returned my love for the game. what's the chances of seeing all the civs (thus far) graded in one video, or on one spreadsheet? year in review? ;)
The game seems to like me playing as Malians and Ethiopians for some reason.
So I learned some strategies with them.
Gbeteos with cavaliers backing some cannons while pikes and skirmishers stay upfront (sometimes with camels )
Is good.
I really enjoy these videos. I wish other RTS games had similar levels of production and thought. Something like Age of Mythology or Star Wars Battleground.
*le gasp* Malians! SOTL posted! All is well!
Lol at the ATM joke. Fun fact: in Wisconsin there used to be ATMs labeled TYME (which stands for "take your money everywhere), and people would call them "TYME machines"
Hey Spirit, do you stream any AoE games on twitch?
Man that Farimba Cavalier/Heavy Camel with back line Gbeto cleans
Honestly the free gold minning is just a good quality of life. Helps a lot getting to castle a bit faster
Also Gbetos are fantastic as a counter skirmish unit in a team battle with allied knights
I have not played AoEII in years. I still watch all your videos. Wonder why.
came here for some malian pointers .... but i found out that the atm is a time machine .... this is what i call an education boys
Do you live stream yourself on Twitch?
The ATM theory alone gets a like right off the bat
2 years later and even through I barely see malians online in DE its my go to civ in team games given how common cav spam is in ranked teams
Best Nomad Civ in the game(persians are up there as well)
1 villlager builds TC, one builds Dock, one build house. As soon as Dock is up you can build fishing ship due to saving on all the building.
I have sick nasty Nomad build with them when I get lucky enough to draw them.
Yo Spirit! Ty for the Video, made my day at work much more enjoyable. On the other side, what is the song during 17:23 ? I've searched it for quite a while, but can't find it.
"their champions are basically huskarls"'
resonance22
20 minutes? You spoil me senpai ❤️
Easily the best civ in the game atm.
i love these kind of videos
Hello, Spirit of The Law here... Soothing sound ;)
2:52 lol got free shoutout
19:10 what would you say if they had a Viking ally? how cheap are those docks?
It would be Nice to see malians condos and huskarls
Everything about the Malians feels like it's designed to put them just ever so slightly ahead of the curve militarily in whichever age they are in.
So you wind up wanting to rush; but they give you the option to rush at the start of whatever age you are going for.
So long as you don't try and grind it out in a long game you are fairly set.
I was going to say they seem like a castle-rushing civ with the option of an early-imperial-rush, but I think your assessment is more accurate.
if you find yourself in that situ try an army of farimba light cav. stand up surprisingly well, can chew down expensive gold units and important buildings and you can already have another army of them on the way no sweat while your enemy is recovering
eyy he is back missed you man
where did Sotl get the patch info from? (second gold miming upgrade for free removed)
I would really like to read more about that and see if they talked about other stuff aswell
Just find game on the Steam and look at the Patch Notes. I cant post links here.
In the Steam window if you click on Age of Empires 2 in your library, instead of clicking PLAY, scroll down after "achivements" and "workshop" and there's "Recent news" at the bottom. It's worth checking every once in a while because they post stuff like Patch Notes and deals.
Liked before watching
Just had the sillyist game as Malians.
I went scouts but really only caused some idle time before losing them, killed an Archer/pike rush while sending 1 slightly injured knight into their economy instead of using it in the defense. The knight just wrecked stuff and killed several vills until it died to TC fire when they finally garrisoned. By that point though 10 knights were on the way. Now, they had plenty of halbs but I just split the knights and kept kiting around killing archers and any villagers that were brave enough to leave the TCs. Entire eco paralyzed by 10 knights. Ok I then lose most of them and kill one of their TCs, but still have one knight and start trickling in Gbetos. Their economy is still in shambles and the Gbetos just destroy pikes and production buildings. They lose their army to the Gbetos before losing the only building that could really counter them, the Archery range.
Eco completely frozen just from a few knights and Gbetos kiting around and occasionally mobbing up and attacking a building. Seriously 1-15 units just dodging and weaving in their economy paralyzed them and destroyed both their ability to produce and their ability to afford production. They surrender in castle age before ever seeing a seige unit.
love your vids man. i really hope the games pops up again. you should pick back up on the climbing to 1800s series. also finish all the civs and redo some of the out dated ones.. maybe show build orders :D :D tall order i know haha
O... And do the khmer I have been having alot of fun with them.. would love to see what ya think. Crazy how cost effective they are.
I love your intro theme
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH. I've never clicked a video so fast in my life.
Thanks for the overview and especially the info about the nerfs! Kinda hard keeping up with all of it, especially since the tech tree (at least in my game) hasn't been changed to reflect that in some cases like the Malians apparently. Does anyone know about updated tech trees being available to check on the net (Sorry if that's a rather stupid question.).
Awesome video as always, immensely looking forward to playing them soon!
"5 extra arrows at all times"
Okkkkaaay... I think massed Malian aggressive TC drop might be a good strategy.
Hey Spirit of the Law,
around 1 year ago you made a video where you spectated the hardest AI's build order. This was a very interesting topic and I wanted to ask you if you could do it again with other gamemodes like Wonder Race or defending the wonder. The reason why it interests me is because some gamemodes are objective based and other are very military based.
Little fun fact: In wonder race you can't do onagers :D
It would be nice if we see something like this in the future :)
how many malian TC's do you need to beat a castle?
anter176 as many as you can select
Or atleast 35+