"Sir the enemy is approaching with cavalry!" "Hah!no problem my halbs will take them to the ground." "Sir there are catapharacts............" "OH SHIT WE ARE DEAD AS NOBS" True story.
So Italians have an anti-gunpowder melee unit and an anti-cavalry archer. Spainish are all about gunpowder and has a unit that is a cavalry gunpowder, so they're double screwed. Italians are anti-Spanish.
@@FwendlyMushwoom Weird.... i thought they even had a spanish garrison! There even was a famous tercio phrase "Born in spain, trained in Italy, dead in Flandes"
@@thessop9439 The great weakness of the Spanish empire was that even though the king was nominally ruler of all these lands, in reality they were all divided, with separate courts, laws, taxes, and so on. The only place the king actually commanded any real absolute authority was in Castile, even in Aragon he was not really that respected. That Tercio phrase comes from the fact that the king could only recruit loyal soldiers in Spain, then he would send them to Italy to put down whatever the rebellion of the week was, but then when the Dutch revolted they finally were defeated (Flanders being part of the Spanish Netherlands)
@@thessop9439 Basically the kings of "Spain" held all their territories in what is called a "personal union" where all the countries he ruled were technically still separate, but unified in sharing the same person as their king. "Spain" in quotation marks is intentional, because "Spain" as a single country, even though Aragon and Castile entered their personal union in 1479, they were not actually politically unified until 1715. Until then, they still had separate governments, and the king's titles were separate. Only in 1715 were they unified into a single "Kingdom of Spain"
Strange that Italians don't get Siege Engineers considering they were the most advanced gunpowder civilization on early high Medieval Ages (XIV and XV)
Can't pretend I'm an expert on such things so I'll take your word for it Shinkiro. However what I do know is that on a scale of handcannon deservability Chinese > Goths
@@shinkiro403 I know it's been a while since that comment, bit they actually did use gunpowder for military purposes (after a while though). Hell, they even invented the trebuchet.
Hey Spirit of the Law, i'll explain ya swiftly about the inside joke regarding the "heresy" monastery tech lack: It's common knowledge that throughout the whol post Roman empire history, Italy kind of became a land split between city states, little duchies, small kingdoms etc, and frequently puppeted from foreign states for their own gains (especially in between 10th - 17th centuries). And let's just say that briefly: we'd historically never cared much about the jersey we wore during conflicts or struggles, as long as there was a personal/political gain to have, usually short termed hehe Salutations from a fellow italian and AoE players, who really likes your youtube channel! Keep up the good work!
@@arshiaaghaei Genoese crossbows can kite war elephants, you screen with pikes (even though they get wrecked by elephants, it's still your best screen, since they're so cheap), and if you can mix in a few monks as well. Skirms become a problem at that point, but if you can mix in a little bit of siege or light cav, you can do fairly well. I've played the matchup before (although right now I'm on a pretty lengthy aoe2 hiatus) and war elephants really struggle against a good block of genoese xbows, especially backed up by some siege.
@@rovsea-3761 First, I said I'm not talking about pike-line since every civ has them. Second, if I support my elephants with mass skirmishers your Genoese crossbows won't do best.
Hey man, just wanted to say this is probably a good civ to redo since it's had a lot of changes, particularly to the condot and the fishing bonus. - Condots now have their own armor class which takes bonus damage from non-gunpowder anti-infantry like jaguar warriors and cataphracts. - Malian condots correctly receive the pierce armor bonus. - Fishing ships are now 20% cheaper rather than +2 LOS which makes Italians a lot better on water maps. - Pavise no longer applies to skirms.
Big B I'm in bro. Between the OP's "ownagers" and your "MYGA" I loled so hard. You both can advance to the Imperial Age, resource free, for those Wonders of comedy.
You forgot one huge thing, Spirit! As Italians have always been one of my go-to civilizations, you goofed up with the Condotierro, and totally forgot to mention how they do against trash spam, specifically skirmishers. They are superior to Champs in terms of this, in my opinion, because people can't use skirmishers to outnavigate Condos. They're fast, so they're much better at chasing down units they're good at countering, whereas Champs can sometimes be lured with trash, then they can just retreat and bring in the archers, or knights to clean up the champs. Condos fare better than Champs, in case of archers too, so in scenarios where you have a lot of trash to deal with, I like the Condotierro quite a bit. Also, if I'm not mistaken, they have 10 points of resistance against Anti-Infantry damage, so they may take less damage from Jaguar Warriors, Cataphracts, etc. (but still would get owned regardless) As far as the 15% cheaper gunpowder units, I view that as mostly good for their bombard cannons being cheaper than trebuchets, giving me a cheaper ranged siege weapon. Not having a halberdier won't be dire if you mix up pikes with Genoese Crossbowmen, in fact, the carnage is very real with that combo, and if you're like me at all, you like a good archer/spear combo. Just throw in a handful of hand cannoneers that you save resources on, to make up for the lack of anti-infantry damage, and that's a heck of a deathball combo that is very hard to counter. Just keep Hussars handy (thank God they added that) so they won't try to answer you with Onagers. Overall, Italians have a whack ton of variety, and even have a strong early game if you know how to use them right, so they're not awful until Imperial Age. The Archer rush is really strong because you can hit Feudal quite a bit faster, and if you build a castle right when you get to Castle Age, you can get Pavise and go with a full foot-archer based strategy that is hard to deal with.
+AgentJonathan Yeah, the anti anti-infantry bonus! Condottiero: The Cataphract of Infantry (TM) Thats why they are so good against slingers too. The incan player thinks: Hah! I have no gunpowder unit so his mass condottieros are completely useless, and they are infantry, so I will rip them apart with my slingers... 1min. later: errrm where the resign button is? (warning: don't try this at home kids, use OP Eskirms against slingers. Remember: safety first!)
+AgentJonathan If you're playing vs full or mostly trash you'd still want to go champions because they cost much less gold per unit and still clean up trash. Champions are still faster than skirms once squires is researched and since champions take 1 damage from skirms it would take an unreasonable amount of micro to make skirms work. You can spend the extra gold on siege like BBC or ranged units to help you push faster.,
+Pete (Pete26196) Actually Champions take 2 damage per hit from Elite Skirmishers unless they don't get Bracer or forget to research Chemistry. But it's still good for the champs
Woo! Spirit has uploaded, even after not playing this game for a couple of months just seeing your videos pop up is more exciting then any clickbait thumbnail :D
+Steb the Feg hahaha that would have been epic xD it could also be like a team bonus: "Italian pizza allows team players to tribute food with no trade penalty" - or something ^^
holy shit o.O if this bonus would work for the team too, imagine how a italian-goth team could spam the shit out of conditieros (or what ever these fuckers are called)
Hello, dear Spirit. I found your channel couple days ago - and now i'm having great times watching literally every your video before the sleep. Good memories + your awesome content, that's literally amazing. Thanks for your work and keep it up! Love your vids!
Its likely that the Italians don't get Heresy because up until the end of the 19th century there was a fair portion controlled directly by the Pope (See: Papal States) Also, even without being controlled in a Theocratic state, the Italians still have an intimate relationship with the head of the Western Church (Catholicism vs Eastern Orthodoxy) so the close proximity to, and long historical relationship Italy has had with Il Papa is probably the cause for not having the "Heresy" tech.
The heresy tech is about fighting heresy (converted units just die), and italy had its own inquisition (though less famous than the spanish) My guess is that its about balance. They have two unique units and having really strong unique units usually gets the heresy removed from the tech tree
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts aoe2 does have good historical accuracy in the campaign missions (ofc there are exceptions) but regards to civilizations... yea, they had to do some awkward stuff for the sake of balancing
Spirit, I constantly enjoy your videos. They are somehow gripping, yet have a simplistic format with complex content (if ya know what I mean). Love your content and love your character! Keep it up and I hope all is doing well :)
+Mr.SImo_N00b è una cazzata la civilizzazione italiana, nel medioevo eravamo divisi in staterelli e neppure oggi abbiamo un unica cultura nel nostro paese!!!!!
1500 views in the first hour. impressive. keep them coming! would love to see some comparison charts between all the different civs at some point. thanks for taking the time to do this
Good video again, Spirit! One thing though I found weird, you grade Goth Calvary B+ when it doesn't have last calvary armor, but Italian only got B- when it has the upgrade. No big deal though, it is hard to keep track of all the grade of all Civ. Good job anyway!
The genoese elite crossbows also do 6 damage per hit against galleons..... I have no idea what they do vs other ships but i think they are a nice suprise-counter if your opponent is raiding your farms from the shore with galleons whereas normal archers would fail ^^
+Blade Payne Nothing that really helps them with the early game rush besides maybe faster advancing. Not something that can touch the Saracens or Vikings or Japanese.
+Christian Hildebrandt Heresy tech is about having your religion differentiate heresies from the "true" faith, not about making your own religion a heresy. It's difficult to pinpoint what they implied by it, Italy has had a long and swingy history of religion. There have been numerous city-states that stopped following the Pope and various revolts against him as well. I think that may be it. It implies the Italian city-states, who were generally quite accepting of other cultures and faiths, do not agree with a "heresy" tech. Looking at all their crossbow, ship and gunpowder bonuses, it seems clear the Italians are not the Papal State, but the Italian city-states.
+Youmu Konpaku Yeah, right... just like FUNDAMENTALISM really teaches the fundamentals... I don't think the makers of this game would dare to make a statement on which they considered the true faith - for many reasons.
KarstenOkk oh sorry that's not what I was trying to say. I was just trying to say maybe because the name of the tech is "Heresy" and the italians are amongst other things very famous for having Catholicism and the Catholics are amongst other things very famous for brutally dealing with heresy, maybe that's why they found it funny.
the last time I've played AoE 2 for like 1-2 hours was like 5 years ago (I'm 13 btw). but for some reason this is one of my favorite chwnnels. Keep up the good work!
When I got the FE expansion, I never expected the Italians would be one of the civs that worked for me. I played some Random Civ picks on Salt Marsh and Yucatan. In some of these games I ended up playing Italians and to my surprise I did well with them. They are far from my favorite civ but they have some really nice tricks up their sleeve. A mix of Genoese Crossbowmen + Hand Cannoneers + Light Cavalry was a very well balanced army. Their whole feel was like playing an army of the later gunpowder era, with lines of musketeers firing volleys, while the cavalry supports them.
Interesting to see how much of this is not valid in 2020 anymore. The fishingsips-bonus and the gunpowderbonus buffed, and actually makes the italians not half bad anymore
very nice video as always :) I wanna thank you so much to spend your time for Videos on aoe. it rly. helped me allot to improve my skills :) have a nice Weekend Spirit!
As a kid, I lived on the shore of a 1 square mile mill pond in Centerport, New York. I loved throwing stones into the water, and eventually tried slinging them, using leather slings I made myself. Slings can be highly accurate and damaging; David really had an edge over Goliath! And the range can be fantastic -- I found I could triple or quadruple my useful range over barehanded throwing. Slingers should not be minimized or underestimated!
I like the -15% cost for gunpowder units. Most of their early game eco bonuses will disappear in late game, e.g. after everything is researched. While most other civs get a +15% or +20% boost of some sort that remains until the end, Italians get a +15% boost towards units they can only make in Imperial Age when their other eco bonuses are done for.
As the Portuguese have an unique building, the Feitoria, the Italians could use one too... the Pizzeria! It should give some sort of food trickle or something like that :D
The reason they don't get heresy is because Italy contains Vatican City, which sets the rules for the rest of the Catholic world. They can't be heretical because they're the people who say what is and isn't heresy.
I’m Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop. I work here with my old man and my son, Big Hoss. Everything in here has a story and a price. One thing I’ve learned after 21 years - you never know WHAT is gonna come through that door.
Fun fact: If you are on the same team as the Japanese and one of the German civs then all of your units are 50% less effective when fighting the Britons and Franks.
And over one year later, Italians completely dominate water maps in pro games. Interesting how even you couldn't anticipate how huge the addition of Fire Galleys would be. :P And Condos being by far the best unit to go for after sneaking some villagers onto your opponent's lands too, although I guess one could get to that conclusion from your analysis. Still very fun to rewatch those overviews, though. Don't get me wrong.
I'm glad you're covering the Italians, I do enjoy playing as them. But I have an idea, why not cover all of the cheats and cheat units (I know most of them off by heart). That would certainly be fun. If you don't feel like doing that, I'd like to see a Portuguese review :D FETIORIA SLING FTW! *SUPER MEGA EDIT TIME:* I have a reply I took while doing a regicide game, how would I be able to upload it anywhere, and if you can, can you check it out? :D
+Mr.Simo_ N00b Nope , I prefer gelato. The Germans had a joke in WWII about italian army. You take them in battle , because when you win ,someone needs to take care of the Ice ream business.
+Santi Ruejas (Leeroy) they are the og op unit man ... they are all up in your face sayin ... fuck you and your bitch-ass bonus nigga whenever i fight byz .. i make sure to try and take em out as early as possible cause they can field trash so quickly and while at the same time saving up for elite cataphract who can wreck shit up if amassed
A great video as always. I was surprised to see you have as much praise as you did for the Condottiero. I'm under the impression they're highly situational still, but you raise a really good point about not needing to upgrade them. If you look at it like that, they're damn strong if you were to fast imperial! I thought I might add a little detail. Condottieri also get a +10 damage resistance against anti-infantry units! In this case, units like the Cataphract and Jaguar Warrior. Of course, that's still a huge amount of damage going through and with Logistica I doubt Condottieri are cost-effective. Regardless, it's a point in their favour.
+Sam Rodrigues So what you're saying is that Condotierro have Infantry Armor? (Infantry attack is what gives units attack bonus against infantry, infantry armor negates that somewhat; this is similar to how Cataphracts operate.)
Yes! Finally, my favorite civ. edit: you say the siege is trash and just looking at it i'd have to agree, but onagers + gen Xbows are SUPER gross, even with no siege engineers. The only thing that can even come close to a block of gen xbows and onagers are other onagers or bombard ccns. But for that you have the hussar and your own bombard ccns.
+MrJaywalker Gotta admit I'm kinda scared for no siege engineers. That basically means that Italians still have to worry about the fully upgraded Siege Onager.
Sean - I mean you're right, the weakness of the block is skirms and other onagers, but for that you just have to play smart with the hussars and bombard ccns. But yea it's tough sometimes. Other then that, it's uncounterable.
MrJaywalker I'm not disagreeing that much. Obviously, there are still units that counter the binary siege + gen. Crossbows to some extent. The really archer-tanky Mayan and Incan Eagle warriors, for instance, or fully upgraded longbows. In my head onagers definitely figure in to a fully balanced Italian army, and Genoese Crossbows are grossly underrated for the most part, I think, but I'm still not sure how effective Gen. Crossbows + Onagers are by themselves.
Good Overview as pretty much always. Your uploads get high priority in my Sub. list. I don't mind if you upload once a week or every 2 weeks as long as you keep it at this quality and reliable. Prefer steady reliable content over some frequent videos that end up being a flash in the pan.
Creating a new religion, and pissing off the most powerful force on the planet at the time, just so you can have more wives... Henry VIII was pretty baller.
He wasn't "baller", he was a wretched man, a hypocrite and a heretic who stole Church property, closed the English monasteries, and tortured and murdered Catholic priests. His actions severed the people of the isle from the One True knightly salvific Ark of Christ and his Vicar on Earth and consequently brought about severe turmoil and enmity between Europe (Rome) and the island that hasn't healed ever since furthermore it opened the British people to Judeo-Masonic infiltration like nowhere else in the world. Only the Roman Catholic Holy Church has the authority vested from God the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost to lead, guard against and vanquish evil in this world, for which it is most hated by all AntiChrist principalities.
+Young Savage he did neither. I think Elizabeth 1st made the morals and COE. All Henry did is get the papacy doc. to be able to divorce. Of which wasn't a thing you could do unless your partner died. which...his 2nd,3rd and 5th wives all did, so really he did nothing wrong :) And it was the females fault of not giving him a son...:P
dethdad123 and Hitkid123's channel It does not make up for it completely. Garland makes their pikes have better base attack stats. But the increased attack is much less than the halberdiers' higher anti cavalry bonus.
+dethdad123 and Hitkid123's channel It really doesn't. Halberdiers get a massive attack bonus against cavalry; far more than the +4 that Garland Wars provides.
+Sean - Yeah, and the lack of a proper halberdier, combined with mediocre archers makes it very hard for the Aztecs to counter Cataphracts. Aztecs are really underpowered towards the late game because all they've got going is the cheap Jaguar Warrior spam and great monks, and neither means much against good paladin rushes, massed onager shots or enemies with heresy researched.
Also, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if Rome really was the biggest civ ever. It certainly is one of the biggest and longer lasting ones, but I'd argue that the Han Chinese have been around for a longer period of time and have had periods where they were at least equal to Rome at its height in terms of population and area. And thats not counting shorter-lived empires like the Mongols or British that were nonetheless bigger at their peaks than Rome was.
The Romans in the first game (granted, in an expansion), as well as the Byzantines in the second game represent their influence decently. If you want a campaign for the Byzantines, there's one from the Forgotten expansion, the Bari campaign.
There is no strongest civ. even the "top tiered" civs have downsides. As for the turks, they have horrible trash which makes their late game really weak.
+Realjsh010 Not to mention the split between good water civs and good land civs. Vikings, Japanese, and Saracens are all fairly good on the water, but struggle on land. If I had to pick the most well-rounded civilization, I'd have to go with Byzantines, but none of the civs are actually bad.
+VERGO I There is no " strongest civ" . all civs have advantages and disanvantages. it depends on the situation, the game mode you are playing, the map you are playing and your prefered gamestyle ( turtle, Boom or Rush) for example Vikings are very strong on watermaps and have early game advantages but have large drawbacks in the late game. Byzantines for example are very strong at turtling ( defending) but are fairly normal outside of that tactic.
their access to hussars in the new expansion is crucial! hussars work incredibly well backed with genoese crossbowmen hand cannoneers and bombard cannons. it is a complete and unique army composition.
Title is a bit misleading, came here expecting an Italian giving the overview of AoE2.
wow
its-a age of empires-a!
Kek
IT'S-A MEEE, SPIRT OF THE LAW-AA
CidGuerreiro1234
As an italian I am sad to say we do not talk that way
so condittieri can destroy a bombard tower faster than an otherwise identical building because somebody put cannons in the bombard tower
#AOElogic
And if there's ever a Cannon mounted atop an elephant...
Let's put cannons on the north korea and we are the winners.
@El Bottoo Keep playing 'perfect' balanced games, please.
They just really, really, hate cannons.
I mean they set the buildings on fire (the damaged state of a building is them on fire) and cannons need gunpowder, which explodes if set alight, so..
Italians should get a bonus when selling food on the market.
Because italian food is so gooood :O
That's actually a good point.
I think they should have a tank on the siege shop because they have Da Vinci
So does Indian, Japanese, Turkish and Persians.
We should get bonuses in different fields given all the things we've invented..
"Cataphracts, negating your attack bonuses since 1999." I DIED xD
"Sir the enemy is approaching with cavalry!" "Hah!no problem my halbs will take them to the ground." "Sir there are catapharacts............" "OH SHIT WE ARE DEAD AS NOBS" True story.
I loved it!!
This is why the Genoese crossbow comes in handy - kill them before they close distance to use that trample ability.
@@FrankCastle-tq9bz dude, they take no bonus damage, the Genoese crossbow is worthless against cataphracts
6:38 - Bombard Cannon converted then instantly killed by the already fired cannonball from it's own team
Hilarious
lol good catch
So Italians have an anti-gunpowder melee unit and an anti-cavalry archer. Spainish are all about gunpowder and has a unit that is a cavalry gunpowder, so they're double screwed.
Italians are anti-Spanish.
Fun fact. Naples was once a part of Spain
@@thessop9439 The king of Spain was also the king of Naples, it was still a separate country with its own laws and such, not "part of Spain"
@@FwendlyMushwoom Weird.... i thought they even had a spanish garrison! There even was a famous tercio phrase "Born in spain, trained in Italy, dead in Flandes"
@@thessop9439 The great weakness of the Spanish empire was that even though the king was nominally ruler of all these lands, in reality they were all divided, with separate courts, laws, taxes, and so on. The only place the king actually commanded any real absolute authority was in Castile, even in Aragon he was not really that respected.
That Tercio phrase comes from the fact that the king could only recruit loyal soldiers in Spain, then he would send them to Italy to put down whatever the rebellion of the week was, but then when the Dutch revolted they finally were defeated (Flanders being part of the Spanish Netherlands)
@@thessop9439 Basically the kings of "Spain" held all their territories in what is called a "personal union" where all the countries he ruled were technically still separate, but unified in sharing the same person as their king. "Spain" in quotation marks is intentional, because "Spain" as a single country, even though Aragon and Castile entered their personal union in 1479, they were not actually politically unified until 1715. Until then, they still had separate governments, and the king's titles were separate. Only in 1715 were they unified into a single "Kingdom of Spain"
Strange that Italians don't get Siege Engineers considering they were the most advanced gunpowder civilization on early high Medieval Ages (XIV and XV)
Adriano Rodrigues Chinese don't get gunpowder units but invented the damn thing
Alex Browne well, it's not like they militarized gunpowder that much (if at all, don't remember actually), that train was taken by koreans
Can't pretend I'm an expert on such things so I'll take your word for it Shinkiro. However what I do know is that on a scale of handcannon deservability Chinese > Goths
@@shinkiro403 I know it's been a while since that comment, bit they actually did use gunpowder for military purposes (after a while though).
Hell, they even invented the trebuchet.
@@amecarethqc6652 I was in doubt, and in fact you confirm they did, though it took them a while, and they weren't the first, is it correct?
Am I the only one whose day is made when Spirit uploads something? :P
+Aaryaman Sheoran I always look forward to his civ reviews!!! Gonna suck when he runs out.
certainly not.
Nope! Me n my gf love his videos too lmfao
Hey Spirit of the Law, i'll explain ya swiftly about the inside joke regarding the "heresy" monastery tech lack: It's common knowledge that throughout the whol post Roman empire history, Italy kind of became a land split between city states, little duchies, small kingdoms etc, and frequently puppeted from foreign states for their own gains (especially in between 10th - 17th centuries).
And let's just say that briefly: we'd historically never cared much about the jersey we wore during conflicts or struggles, as long as there was a personal/political gain to have, usually short termed hehe
Salutations from a fellow italian and AoE players, who really likes your youtube channel! Keep up the good work!
+Filippo Gatteschi
Also they converted to Goths and back, so nice joke about that missing tech :-).
You hit the nail right on the head, good sir or madam.
The Italians' main weakness is a Brit making a one-pot pasta vid on UA-cam
Lmao england pls
Jesus that's an hard counter.
8:25 i knew it! I once lost a force of Paladins to Genoese crossbows at a choke point which left me quite shitless...
+Schmieseldiesel Yep, Genoese Crossbowmen are pretty strong. In my personal opinion this makes the Italians a decent counter civ to Persians.
Huns too, actually, since they rely so much on cavalry. I don't think it translates to Mongols with their decent siege though.
@@rovsea-3761 How would you counter Elite war elephants? I'm not talking about halbs here.
@@arshiaaghaei Genoese crossbows can kite war elephants, you screen with pikes (even though they get wrecked by elephants, it's still your best screen, since they're so cheap), and if you can mix in a few monks as well. Skirms become a problem at that point, but if you can mix in a little bit of siege or light cav, you can do fairly well. I've played the matchup before (although right now I'm on a pretty lengthy aoe2 hiatus) and war elephants really struggle against a good block of genoese xbows, especially backed up by some siege.
@@rovsea-3761 First, I said I'm not talking about pike-line since every civ has them.
Second, if I support my elephants with mass skirmishers your Genoese crossbows won't do best.
Italians huh do they switch to the enemy team half way through the game?
hahaha 😂
+Peters Zeug
They can if you don't have Team Lock ;)
i thought that was the french
no the french just surrender
its funny how you dont understand some basic ass humor
Hey man, just wanted to say this is probably a good civ to redo since it's had a lot of changes, particularly to the condot and the fishing bonus.
- Condots now have their own armor class which takes bonus damage from non-gunpowder anti-infantry like jaguar warriors and cataphracts.
- Malian condots correctly receive the pierce armor bonus.
- Fishing ships are now 20% cheaper rather than +2 LOS which makes Italians a lot better on water maps.
- Pavise no longer applies to skirms.
Also the castle age unice unit fires as fast as the normal cross bow & the Contots got -1 Armor and DMG
that onager ownage
ownagers
vote opsimathics for commentator of the year
make youtube great again
can anyone help with finding song name?
it's a song that spirit wrote
Big B
I'm in bro.
Between the OP's "ownagers" and your "MYGA" I loled so hard.
You both can advance to the Imperial Age, resource free, for those Wonders of comedy.
holy shit you put a LOT of effort into this. subbed
You forgot one huge thing, Spirit! As Italians have always been one of my go-to civilizations, you goofed up with the Condotierro, and totally forgot to mention how they do against trash spam, specifically skirmishers. They are superior to Champs in terms of this, in my opinion, because people can't use skirmishers to outnavigate Condos. They're fast, so they're much better at chasing down units they're good at countering, whereas Champs can sometimes be lured with trash, then they can just retreat and bring in the archers, or knights to clean up the champs. Condos fare better than Champs, in case of archers too, so in scenarios where you have a lot of trash to deal with, I like the Condotierro quite a bit. Also, if I'm not mistaken, they have 10 points of resistance against Anti-Infantry damage, so they may take less damage from Jaguar Warriors, Cataphracts, etc. (but still would get owned regardless)
As far as the 15% cheaper gunpowder units, I view that as mostly good for their bombard cannons being cheaper than trebuchets, giving me a cheaper ranged siege weapon.
Not having a halberdier won't be dire if you mix up pikes with Genoese Crossbowmen, in fact, the carnage is very real with that combo, and if you're like me at all, you like a good archer/spear combo. Just throw in a handful of hand cannoneers that you save resources on, to make up for the lack of anti-infantry damage, and that's a heck of a deathball combo that is very hard to counter. Just keep Hussars handy (thank God they added that) so they won't try to answer you with Onagers.
Overall, Italians have a whack ton of variety, and even have a strong early game if you know how to use them right, so they're not awful until Imperial Age. The Archer rush is really strong because you can hit Feudal quite a bit faster, and if you build a castle right when you get to Castle Age, you can get Pavise and go with a full foot-archer based strategy that is hard to deal with.
+AgentJonathan
Yeah, the anti anti-infantry bonus! Condottiero: The Cataphract of Infantry (TM)
Thats why they are so good against slingers too. The incan player thinks: Hah! I have no gunpowder unit so his mass condottieros are completely useless, and they are infantry, so I will rip them apart with my slingers... 1min. later: errrm where the resign button is?
(warning: don't try this at home kids, use OP Eskirms against slingers. Remember: safety first!)
+AgentJonathan If you're playing vs full or mostly trash you'd still want to go champions because they cost much less gold per unit and still clean up trash. Champions are still faster than skirms once squires is researched and since champions take 1 damage from skirms it would take an unreasonable amount of micro to make skirms work.
You can spend the extra gold on siege like BBC or ranged units to help you push faster.,
Pete Of course though.
I like Condo's for the fact you can have a decent champ-like unit without teching all your resources into champs
+Pete (Pete26196)
Actually Champions take 2 damage per hit from Elite Skirmishers unless they don't get Bracer or forget to research Chemistry. But it's still good for the champs
JPence14 thank you. Professor Wikipedia.
This video of yours is the only think keeping me sane during the overtime I had to do. It's past midnight.
I'm guilty of not spreading the word for this channel, in the fear my frenemies might benefit from it and I start loosing again :c
Keep em coming!
Woo! Spirit has uploaded, even after not playing this game for a couple of months just seeing your videos pop up is more exciting then any clickbait thumbnail :D
+That Ryan Guy Them female villagers though...
Trade prolly helps Italians keep up Genoese Crossbowmen. Great video!
DO CHINESE OVERVIEW NEXT PLS
+Michael Tkaczevski Agreed! ^^
Their unique tech should have been Pizza: All units cost 50% less food, Villagers collect food 50% faster
+Steb the Feg Sounds like a good tech until you catch your units units red handed sneaking out of the battle and back to your town to get some more
+Steb the Feg hahaha that would have been epic xD it could also be like a team bonus: "Italian pizza allows team players to tribute food with no trade penalty" - or something ^^
holy shit o.O if this bonus would work for the team too, imagine how a italian-goth team could spam the shit out of conditieros (or what ever these fuckers are called)
Or maybe "Italians deliver Pizza for all the team. Each team player receives 500 food."
Stebface well done sir ahahahahahahah
Hello, dear Spirit. I found your channel couple days ago - and now i'm having great times watching literally every your video before the sleep. Good memories + your awesome content, that's literally amazing. Thanks for your work and keep it up! Love your vids!
Its likely that the Italians don't get Heresy because up until the end of the 19th century there was a fair portion controlled directly by the Pope (See: Papal States) Also, even without being controlled in a Theocratic state, the Italians still have an intimate relationship with the head of the Western Church (Catholicism vs Eastern Orthodoxy) so the close proximity to, and long historical relationship Italy has had with Il Papa is probably the cause for not having the "Heresy" tech.
The heresy tech is about fighting heresy (converted units just die), and italy had its own inquisition (though less famous than the spanish)
My guess is that its about balance. They have two unique units and having really strong unique units usually gets the heresy removed from the tech tree
That sounds great but Age of Empires has never cared about historical accuracy, just look at China.
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts aoe2 does have good historical accuracy in the campaign missions (ofc there are exceptions) but regards to civilizations... yea, they had to do some awkward stuff for the sake of balancing
Awesome video. Very analytical and detailed. Good job man!
_Siamo noooi, siamo noooi, i migliori di Age of Empi siamo noooi..._
I meglio forse no, però adoro il mix cannonieri balestrieri genovesi e bombarde
Ahahahah
Spirit, I constantly enjoy your videos. They are somehow gripping, yet have a simplistic format with complex content (if ya know what I mean). Love your content and love your character! Keep it up and I hope all is doing well :)
+Admok Mokhtari If you're constantly enjoying them seek medical attention. If you're _consistently_ enjoying them well, same here buddy! ; )
Hahahahahaha nice one XD
Spirit of the Law video?
a good end to a bad day. Molto bene
Molto bene .Io aspetto sempre i suoi video.È bello vedere gli italiani sotto questi video.
+Mr.Simo_ N00b Va bene.
+Mr.SImo_N00b è una cazzata la civilizzazione italiana, nel medioevo eravamo divisi in staterelli e neppure oggi abbiamo un unica cultura nel nostro paese!!!!!
Kevin Papa Bless
I've been binge watching his overviews because they are so entertaining and helpful lol
Gli italiani sono incredibili!
Mr. Allmighty Cornholio si,abbiamo i balestrieri al pesto genovese :3
Bled Ferox per questo son forti: buono il pesto, buoni i balestrieri.
Lapalissiano, vero? :P
Spaghetti squad!
Dude, I just found you channel like one or two months approx. but really I appreciate all your analysis and videos. I'm learning a lot with them.
ill join the boat for a Chinese overview (: they are a very fun civ to play as! also, fantastic video! keep it up!
This is one of the best gaming tutorial channels period. I wish I had someone this easy to understand for all my how-to videos.
I don't even play AOE 2 but this was so enjoyable to watch that I watched it all, also I know a lot about the Italians of AOE 2 now :D
8:02 This is why I watch your videos man. These personal touches just make my day.
Condotierro also does bonus damage agains turtle ships but it's rather useless knowledge XD
Could useful information in Mangrove Forest
maps
Yes! I've been waiting for this review, Thanks you SOTL! :)
Thing with trade ships is you need the docks to be pumping galleys whereas markets are free to build carts.
AoE needed these overviews back when it first released.
9:02 - THE MONGOLS...! Oh...
Just subscribed to your channel this week and have been binge watching your videos for days. Great stuff!
This one needs an update, as I feel the Italians are really good rn
I always listen to your intro, just thought I'd put that out there. Prolly favorite part of new videos.
9:16
Best Meme ever!
1500 views in the first hour. impressive. keep them coming! would love to see some comparison charts between all the different civs at some point. thanks for taking the time to do this
The Genoese crossbowman has also a bonus against cavalry archers, just I don't know how much
Same as calvary
God, love that intro song @Spiritofthelaw and keep up the good work with the awesome vids man!
Good video again, Spirit! One thing though I found weird, you grade Goth Calvary B+ when it doesn't have last calvary armor, but Italian only got B- when it has the upgrade. No big deal though, it is hard to keep track of all the grade of all Civ. Good job anyway!
I don't even play this game, but I still watch your in- depth videos not understanding pretty much anything, however, I enjoy every minute of it.
you should, its awesome :D
The genoese elite crossbows also do 6 damage per hit against galleons..... I have no idea what they do vs other ships but i think they are a nice suprise-counter if your opponent is raiding your farms from the shore with galleons whereas normal archers would fail ^^
"Surprise counter"
GG man :DDDD
Awesome video dude i was waiting for this one a long time
Always happy to see a new civ review! I'm curious to why you gave the Italians a lower score for naval?
+Blade Payne Nothing that really helps them with the early game rush besides maybe faster advancing. Not something that can touch the Saracens or Vikings or Japanese.
I have waited this overview for so long, thanks! =D
The Roman Catholic Church had the Inquisition, so no heresy.
+Christian Hildebrandt haha yes xD
+Christian Hildebrandt could also be a joke about how Catholicism started out as a heresy (Orthodox Christianity has that name for a reason)
+Christian Hildebrandt Heresy tech is about having your religion differentiate heresies from the "true" faith, not about making your own religion a heresy. It's difficult to pinpoint what they implied by it, Italy has had a long and swingy history of religion. There have been numerous city-states that stopped following the Pope and various revolts against him as well. I think that may be it. It implies the Italian city-states, who were generally quite accepting of other cultures and faiths, do not agree with a "heresy" tech. Looking at all their crossbow, ship and gunpowder bonuses, it seems clear the Italians are not the Papal State, but the Italian city-states.
+Youmu Konpaku Yeah, right... just like FUNDAMENTALISM really teaches the fundamentals...
I don't think the makers of this game would dare to make a statement on which they considered the true faith - for many reasons.
KarstenOkk oh sorry that's not what I was trying to say. I was just trying to say maybe because the name of the tech is "Heresy" and the italians are amongst other things very famous for having Catholicism and the Catholics are amongst other things very famous for brutally dealing with heresy, maybe that's why they found it funny.
the last time I've played AoE 2 for like 1-2 hours was like 5 years ago (I'm 13 btw). but for some reason this is one of my favorite chwnnels. Keep up the good work!
who else loves their intro tune
When I got the FE expansion, I never expected the Italians would be one of the civs that worked for me.
I played some Random Civ picks on Salt Marsh and Yucatan. In some of these games I ended up playing Italians and to my surprise I did well with them. They are far from my favorite civ but they have some really nice tricks up their sleeve.
A mix of Genoese Crossbowmen + Hand Cannoneers + Light Cavalry was a very well balanced army. Their whole feel was like playing an army of the later gunpowder era, with lines of musketeers firing volleys, while the cavalry supports them.
Interesting to see how much of this is not valid in 2020 anymore. The fishingsips-bonus and the gunpowderbonus buffed, and actually makes the italians not half bad anymore
very nice video as always :)
I wanna thank you so much to spend your time for Videos on aoe. it rly. helped me allot to improve my skills :)
have a nice Weekend Spirit!
can you please make a chinese civ overview?
+Julius Caesar seconded. I love playing as them.
Yeah id love to see one
+Julius Caesar I wanna see it too. Also it would finish off the AOK civs. Aztecs after to finish AOC and move on to AK.
+Julius Caesar Caesar why do you care about the chinese
+Kritz Cake same but longbowmen I like more just because of the range but yeah those are good
As a kid, I lived on the shore of a 1 square mile mill pond in Centerport, New York. I loved throwing stones into the water, and eventually tried slinging them, using leather slings I made myself. Slings can be highly accurate and damaging; David really had an edge over Goliath! And the range can be fantastic -- I found I could triple or quadruple my useful range over barehanded throwing.
Slingers should not be minimized or underestimated!
"Ontage" should be spelled "owntage"
+Kritz Cake and it must feature mungo the mangonel as the leader of the mungo-tage - i'd pay to watch that lol
I like the -15% cost for gunpowder units. Most of their early game eco bonuses will disappear in late game, e.g. after everything is researched. While most other civs get a +15% or +20% boost of some sort that remains until the end, Italians get a +15% boost towards units they can only make in Imperial Age when their other eco bonuses are done for.
Howdy
+Käsebrötchen Hey!
+Spirit Of The Law I see what you did there ;)
+Spirit Of The Law ayy lmao make portuguese pls
thx
schmid1.0 I'm eating myself right now! One does not simply withstand suiss cheese.
+Käsebrötchen Hoffe es schmeckt
I like your videos so much. I study aok and English at one time. Perfect
As the Portuguese have an unique building, the Feitoria, the Italians could use one too... the Pizzeria! It should give some sort of food trickle or something like that :D
+BootedSquirrel the building should look like the tower of pizza!
I swear, you are my favourite UA-camr.
The reason they don't get heresy is because Italy contains Vatican City, which sets the rules for the rest of the Catholic world. They can't be heretical because they're the people who say what is and isn't heresy.
Kinda. This Italy is based on the city states in the North and when those prospered the Papacy wasn't in Italy but instead in Avignon in France.
I’m Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop. I work here with my old man and my son, Big Hoss. Everything in here has a story and a price. One thing I’ve learned after 21 years - you never know WHAT is gonna come through that door.
Fun fact: If you are on the same team as the Japanese and one of the German civs then all of your units are 50% less effective when fighting the Britons and Franks.
And over one year later, Italians completely dominate water maps in pro games. Interesting how even you couldn't anticipate how huge the addition of Fire Galleys would be. :P
And Condos being by far the best unit to go for after sneaking some villagers onto your opponent's lands too, although I guess one could get to that conclusion from your analysis.
Still very fun to rewatch those overviews, though. Don't get me wrong.
I'm glad you're covering the Italians, I do enjoy playing as them.
But I have an idea, why not cover all of the cheats and cheat units (I know most of them off by heart). That would certainly be fun. If you don't feel like doing that, I'd like to see a Portuguese review :D FETIORIA SLING FTW!
*SUPER MEGA EDIT TIME:* I have a reply I took while doing a regicide game, how would I be able to upload it anywhere, and if you can, can you check it out? :D
After a long and hard day your video gave me a smile and I didn't watch yet
How to play Italians: Pass me the spaghetti
+Freddie Mercury its a mea, mario!
I'm italian.Do You want a pizza??
+Freddie Mercury JUSSA lika momma used tah makeh!!!
+Mr.Simo_ N00b Nope , I prefer gelato. The Germans had a joke in WWII about italian army. You take them in battle , because when you win ,someone needs to take care of the Ice ream business.
The onager montage and the cataphract quip were hilarious!
Hey!
+xMethusalemx Howdy
+Spirit Of The Law Does the Italian team bonus make Goths completely imune to gunpowder civs like Turks with the condottiero?
+Qazaq992 No. It does make them much more difficult to effectively counter.
Another awesome video... as always.
WOAH
THAT'S A SPICEY MEAT-A-BAWL!
+Ben Baker IT'S-A-ME! MARIO!
CATAPHRACTS
Negating your attack bonuses since 1999 :-D hilarious
Its one hell of a meme
9:18 those damn cataphracts man :(
+Santi Ruejas (Leeroy) they are the og op unit man ... they are all up in your face sayin ... fuck you and your bitch-ass bonus nigga
whenever i fight byz .. i make sure to try and take em out as early as possible cause they can field trash so quickly and while at the same time saving up for elite cataphract who can wreck shit up if amassed
As I may have mentioned before I have painful memories of getting wrecked by Cataphracts...
+Volcano4981 #Cataphrekt
Haha XD
Very well-made and organized video!
I don't really get the picture with Heracy. I may be missing something
+Mike Fluffgren I guess they have the pope
The French Bastard Me smart x3
+Mike Fluffgren That was Henry VIII, the first monarch to formally secede from the Catholic Church.
I don't get it, either.
ChesterKhan I understand now. Heh x3
I think it has to do with medieval Italian politics: there was plenty of alliance shifts & betrayals among the Italian city-states.
A great video as always. I was surprised to see you have as much praise as you did for the Condottiero. I'm under the impression they're highly situational still, but you raise a really good point about not needing to upgrade them. If you look at it like that, they're damn strong if you were to fast imperial!
I thought I might add a little detail. Condottieri also get a +10 damage resistance against anti-infantry units! In this case, units like the Cataphract and Jaguar Warrior. Of course, that's still a huge amount of damage going through and with Logistica I doubt Condottieri are cost-effective. Regardless, it's a point in their favour.
+Sam Rodrigues So what you're saying is that Condotierro have Infantry Armor? (Infantry attack is what gives units attack bonus against infantry, infantry armor negates that somewhat; this is similar to how Cataphracts operate.)
Sean - Essentially, yes
Yes! Finally, my favorite civ.
edit: you say the siege is trash and just looking at it i'd have to agree, but onagers + gen Xbows are SUPER gross, even with no siege engineers. The only thing that can even come close to a block of gen xbows and onagers are other onagers or bombard ccns. But for that you have the hussar and your own bombard ccns.
+John ?
+MrJaywalker
My favourite in Forgotten too, in AK I prefer Malians.
+MrJaywalker Gotta admit I'm kinda scared for no siege engineers. That basically means that Italians still have to worry about the fully upgraded Siege Onager.
Sean - I mean you're right, the weakness of the block is skirms and other onagers, but for that you just have to play smart with the hussars and bombard ccns. But yea it's tough sometimes. Other then that, it's uncounterable.
MrJaywalker
I'm not disagreeing that much. Obviously, there are still units that counter the binary siege + gen. Crossbows to some extent. The really archer-tanky Mayan and Incan Eagle warriors, for instance, or fully upgraded longbows. In my head onagers definitely figure in to a fully balanced Italian army, and Genoese Crossbows are grossly underrated for the most part, I think, but I'm still not sure how effective Gen. Crossbows + Onagers are by themselves.
1 word: Legionaries. Alarico's campaign nighmare... RIP.
No Chinese overview yet?! Come on man... ;((((
some racists think they are funny, spoiler, they are NOT
me love you long time
The Italians are my favorite to play
Sure of all nations the Italians dont get siege Engineers :D get your facts right aoe^^
I laughed harder about your comment than I thought I had been going to
Thank you.
Good Overview as pretty much always. Your uploads get high priority in my Sub. list.
I don't mind if you upload once a week or every 2 weeks as long as you keep it at this quality and reliable.
Prefer steady reliable content over some frequent videos that end up being a flash in the pan.
Creating a new religion, and pissing off the most powerful force on the planet at the time, just so you can have more wives...
Henry VIII was pretty baller.
#Thug life
He wasn't "baller", he was a wretched man, a hypocrite and a heretic who stole Church property, closed the English monasteries, and tortured and murdered Catholic priests.
His actions severed the people of the isle from the One True knightly salvific Ark of Christ and his Vicar on Earth and consequently brought about severe turmoil and enmity between Europe (Rome) and the island that hasn't healed ever since furthermore it opened the British people to Judeo-Masonic infiltration like nowhere else in the world.
Only the Roman Catholic Holy Church has the authority vested from God the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost to lead, guard against and vanquish evil in this world, for which it is most hated by all AntiChrist principalities.
fullfist His actions initiated the rise of the largest and most powerful empire this world has ever seen, I'd say he did his country pretty well.
+Ben Shepherd he didnt 'create' it, he just adopted it and he was still pretty much catholic.
+Young Savage he did neither. I think Elizabeth 1st made the morals and COE. All Henry did is get the papacy doc. to be able to divorce. Of which wasn't a thing you could do unless your partner died.
which...his 2nd,3rd and 5th wives all did, so really he did nothing wrong :)
And it was the females fault of not giving him a son...:P
Those onagers hitting all those knights in the intro is always so satisfying to look at.
"Take that, Britons!" - Spirit of the Law, 2015
Please , do aztec overview
Do they need an overview? They are just incredibly strong.
+tiger d what I want to know is does garland wars make up for a lack of halberdiers? If not they have a weakness to horse units
dethdad123 and Hitkid123's channel It does not make up for it completely. Garland makes their pikes have better base attack stats. But the increased attack is much less than the halberdiers' higher anti cavalry bonus.
+dethdad123 and Hitkid123's channel It really doesn't. Halberdiers get a massive attack bonus against cavalry; far more than the +4 that Garland Wars provides.
+Sean - Yeah, and the lack of a proper halberdier, combined with mediocre archers makes it very hard for the Aztecs to counter Cataphracts. Aztecs are really underpowered towards the late game because all they've got going is the cheap Jaguar Warrior spam and great monks, and neither means much against good paladin rushes, massed onager shots or enemies with heresy researched.
0:06 I LOVE THIS INTRO
It’s still weird that romans have never had a role in AOE, the biggest civilization ever..
Rise of Rome exists
Also, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if Rome really was the biggest civ ever. It certainly is one of the biggest and longer lasting ones, but I'd argue that the Han Chinese have been around for a longer period of time and have had periods where they were at least equal to Rome at its height in terms of population and area. And thats not counting shorter-lived empires like the Mongols or British that were nonetheless bigger at their peaks than Rome was.
The Romans in the first game (granted, in an expansion), as well as the Byzantines in the second game represent their influence decently. If you want a campaign for the Byzantines, there's one from the Forgotten expansion, the Bari campaign.
Spirit Of The Law is a genius.
What is the strongest Civilization ?
TURKS RIGHT :D
There is no strongest civ. even the "top tiered" civs have downsides. As for the turks, they have horrible trash which makes their late game really weak.
+VERGO I Japans and Britons
+Realjsh010 Not to mention the split between good water civs and good land civs. Vikings, Japanese, and Saracens are all fairly good on the water, but struggle on land. If I had to pick the most well-rounded civilization, I'd have to go with Byzantines, but none of the civs are actually bad.
it is hard to say best land civ but vikings are the best in water. you may ask best civ with map and game type to make answer less arguably.
+VERGO I There is no " strongest civ" . all civs have advantages and disanvantages. it depends on the situation, the game mode you are playing, the map you are playing and your prefered gamestyle ( turtle, Boom or Rush) for example Vikings are very strong on watermaps and have early game advantages but have large drawbacks in the late game. Byzantines for example are very strong at turtling ( defending) but are fairly normal outside of that tactic.
This is by far my most favorite episode due to the 'Ontage' !
their access to hussars in the new expansion is crucial! hussars work incredibly well backed with genoese crossbowmen hand cannoneers and bombard cannons. it is a complete and unique army composition.
Really nice ^^because of you i might give them another chance xD
For some reason I loled extremely hard at the Onager Montage :D
Just one word - AWESOME