The Persians, the civilization with elephants! I remember this as the first civ I used that completely destroyed my friends! At the time we didn't have much experience with the game or lacked the knowledge of some mechanics, but eventually they counter-attacked. Learn more about playing with the Mongols in Age of Empires II. Well-protected onagers can counter the mangudai. Since mangudai are mounted units, they are weak against camels and mamelukes, the problem is that the camels will probably fall before getting near them. Since they rely heavily on cavalry archers and siege, the best bet would be a horde of resistant cavalry with high piercing armour, so the traditional Paladin is a choice.
Weakness: Another civilization that is hard to counter when well-played. As a bonus, the Mangudai's fiery arrows have bonus damage against siege units as well! Yep they can be unstoppable. This civilization simply has the best combination of toys available. Strength: The Mongols' strength is a no brainer, it's their combination of fast-firing mangudai, hussars at the front and their fast-moving siege at the rear. The Mongols, a civilization I picked up after the Saracens and that eventually became one of my war buddy's favorite civ. Learn more about playing with the Koreans in Age of Empires II. To fight an army of wagons, I'd recommend fully upgraded paladins with siege onagers, or else plenty of huskarls, the Goth's heavily armoured and cheap unique unit, to outnumber the wagons and cannons. In this particular case, stone and wood can become scarce. All these powerful units are costly and to have an army of them you need resources. Weakness: Again, I'd say the weakness is the economy. However, war wagons en mass can be a tricky enemy! Combine them with bombard towers and cannons, as well as pikemen to protect them from charging horses and you've got yourself an army! Strength: The particularity of the War Wagon is that it is a Cavalry Archer with range, power and HP! Their weakness lies in their poor hack defense and their slow movement for cavalry. They have a decent mix of units, bombard towers and the ever-annoying War Wagon! The Koreans eventually rose to become my favorite civilization from during my friendly games. Learn more about playing with the Turks in Age of Empires II.
Otherwise, good luck, you're gonna need it. I think the first thing to consider when facing a Turks player is to try and cut off their economy routes as soon as possible since they need a lot of resources to grow strong, especially stone. Heck you could even take down 2 civilizations working together with their cannons.
Weakness: Know how to use the Turks, and I see no weakness. Their Janissary's inaccurate, but abusive firepower can also be of help if your enemy starts to get too close. Strength: Being the civilization with the longest range for bombard towers and bombard cannons (+2!) thanks to their unique tech, they can outrange and bombard pretty much anything, thus being the civilization of choice by experts.
The truth is, the Turks are overkill in the right hands, and if I had to choose the best civilization, I'd say the Turks. The Turks was a civilization I only started using in my later days of the game, so I could never unlock their true potential in my local games. Learn more about playing with the Saracens in Age of Empires II. When talking combat, I'd say the best bet against a horde of camels is a nice army of archers and siege to support, like the all-powerful scorpions. That could become a problem for the economy.
Weakness: One of the downfalls of the Saracens is that the Mameluke is the most costly unique unit in the game, in terms of gold. Strength: The Saracens's strength comes from their camels which have +30 HP thanks to their unique tech! Their unique unit, the Mameluke, is the legendary ranged mounted unit that can play with infantry, annihilate cavalry and raid complete towns! They also have the complete tech tree of the siege workshop at their disposal (only lacking the Heavy Scorpion), so their siege is at full-power and serve their superior camels and mamelukes well. I still remember when I started using them, my friends followed and then everyone wanted to use them! We tried to play with exclusive civilizations to make it more unique to each player, and our games more interesting.
Age of Empires II is returning! The game that was first launched in 1999 forever influencing the strategy genre in PC gaming once again graces our screens! So what better way to celebrate other than talking about its epic civilizations? In this article I write about my most used and favorite civilizations back in the days of The Conquerors.