Umayyads getting slept on. They open up the tech tree to Patronage and Settlers an era earlier - rushing these things with Collective Minds can be a game changer. That being said, giving up the Khmer's bonus' and district is a pretty tough pill to swallow to so it really depends on how you're doing vs your opponents and how much space is left on the map/luxuries you have access to.
Hey Jumbo the Umayyad culture card shows up as you're talking about the teutons and the Umayyads don't have theirs displayed when you're talking about them.
teutons are actually really overlooked. Their unique quarter will guarantees that your religion dominates the map, and there is a lot of bonuses to that (to addition it does give a lot of production). Conisdering that their bonus basically gives +1 Gold and +1 Science, while Dutch legay trait, which comes era later gives only +1 Gold per population.
Yea, I'm a new player and I actually wanted to try Teutons because they were kinda rated low and I found them rather fitting to my current strategy in that game (it was 4th or 5th difficulty). Well, I basically secured an easy victory of that era. The bonuses aren't anything OP but they are really good considering that your religion should be widely spread. The unit is pretty good too.
With the Khmer you forgot to mention that they are able to fully exploit river tiles because they exploit both food and production and because they count as farmers and makers they can connect the two groups of districts. edit: also keep in mind that the unique district type is important because it counts for adjacency, infrastructure, and exploitation so the Teutons district is not only giving you faith and influence it is also acting like a normal makers quarter and giving you industry.
It's disappointing the Teutons don't get a worker slot with their district. I play them a lot and always end up with loads of districts, low stability, and few workers
Khmer are definitely the most desperately in need of a nerf culture in the game, though. I'd argue just because of how dominant they are, there ought not to be an A tier culture at all in this era - only the Khmer (S), a few B, a ton of C, and a couple F. Moving every ranking save the Khmer down 1 tier seems pretty appropriate in the current state, honestly.
The teutons + Angkor wat play is pretty slept on. Arguably this is one of the highest food generation civs in the game especially for mega cities where you end up with 500 districts or more over 30 territories or so (actual influence yields on a Ming tea house in the late game which scales per district just the same as the Kaiserdom). Just converting that to food is like 15k food alone but it’s probably not going to outclass Khmer as a medieval civ which is a bit too easily available. Also Spanish or even ottomans can do this play as well but you do miss out on Ming for influence generation. And as a whole high faith is not very well implemented as a fame accumulator so it’s not actually strong for it.
I agree with this ranking the most out of the ones you've done so far. My only major criticism is that you ranked Khmer too low ;) I'm especially glad to see the Ghanaians get some respect! I also think they're often underestimated. If I had to nitpick, I'd argue that the Byzantines are more flexible than the Norse. The Norse rely heavily on new world access, good coasts, and a good naval war. The Byzantines can go peaceful trader with all their money bonuses, or aggressive war-monger with their ridiculously strong EU. The horse thing isn't really a huge problem in practice because horses are so common and you'll know where they are well before this era. I'd probably swap those two cultures, but that's minor and probably comes down to personal preferences and play style.
Great job on compiling this eras tier list again! But quite frankly, I dont really understand the placement of the mongols. Yes I agree they are pretty strong offensively, but other than that they basically do nothing. They essentially have no long term benefits from their trait or emblematic districts which is a clear disadvantage to any other culture. An A Tier culture should be useful at more things than just one imo.
I haven't played the Mongols, but I played one game as the Huns, and if you pick them when you're already really ahead, they can crush opponents underfoot while growing pops to boot. That said, this is a game with so much snowballing that pretty much any culture can crush opponents who are behind underfoot, so it doesn't feel particularly unique.
@@derekrocco4344 The Mongols and Huns have the same strategy, but the Mongols come way too late in the game. Even the Huns are only good in the first half of that era before everyone can stabilize, so they need to strike fast. The Mongols just can't get value at that point. Keep in mind that many other cultures are leaving the Classical Era with really strong Anti-Cav units, which aren't available yet at the start of the Classical against the Huns
I can't find myself choosing anything but the Khmer when i arrive at the Medieval era, they have so much going for them. They are eventually going to add cultures everywhere in future updates/DLCs and still I will ignore them for the Khmer.
Try going for teutons if you have enough food, with enough techs and a couple industry resources their EQ nets about 50-60 industry on average Their EU also helps if another empire is stronger than you and they have their own state religion ( like the AI Tjilbruke for example) giving you a good chance for comeback
I would just put the norse in S++ tier in the case of a map with a new world. The possibility to arrive to the new world first and start expanding from the get go basically an era before the other cultures is insanely op in my opinion.
Khmer boost you so far ahead it doesn't matter, though. Just power through the medieval era in 10 turns (standard pace) and research shipbuilding next era. In a wide-sea huge new world map with lots of luxuries, I'd buff Norse to the 2nd or 3rd best culture in the era, but they're nowhere near the Khmer.
I have the same problem with this list as the previous two. Most of the ratings are fine but it fails to take into account some synergies and situational uses properly while emphasizing others . For example the Teutons. I pick them fairly regularly when the Khmer are gone and I know I have a good chance to get the Angkor Wat . A single wonder or situation can put a C tier Into high A tier. On the other hand , he mentions the Norse being good because you want to look for new land in that era . In a bubble though I would put the Norse into hard fail . Those inconsistencies lead to some very strange ratings in my eyes.
longbow is OP, because you can easily mass longbows for their cost and fire from over mountains. I just had the largest war ive ever had in humankind in a 2v1 on the offensive and just dominated both my enemies, and the agrarian power and their district just snowballed my pop. Easy A tier, if khmer wasnt actually broken id say they were one of the best in the game
I find it weird that so many expansionist cultures seem to have almost nothing in their kit that helps them earn expansionist stars. It really feels like the expansionist system was an afterthought
if your playing an expansionist game you've already picked cultures that give you influence to help expand really, that's why I think the Teutons are a MUST PLAY for an expansionist run. Maybe even the Britains in the industrial era too though their EQ can ONLY be built in leige territories or something. I just played them and didn't build a single EQ, I have NO idea, I mean I'd vassalized people (GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER! I meant in earlier games, not in THAT one)... that doesn't let you build quarters in their territories does it? And even if it did, how would that benefit you? Wouldn't that make them more likely to rebel? How the heck does this help me as an expansionist anyway?? Cool idea though, a quarter you could build in vassalized countries to keep tabs on your vassals maybe it makes a computational tag thingy that inhibits their need to rebel. Incredibly cool idea, just wish I had the chance to test it, I didn't have any vassals when I picked him.
@JumboPixel You are sleeping on the Teutons. They are very good follow-up to builder cultures, as their emblematic district is great for shoving it into your maker's quarters triangles. Not only they provide adjacency, but also generate a lot of faith (more than a holy site if you surround it with 6 districts, even more if you just have many districts in a city), which actually lets you dominate as the world religion. This then synergizes well with their trait, which scales incredibly well into the lategame. As a bonus their emblematic unit is extremely strong, when charging it's able to one shot many other units of its era and stays strong even against units from later eras. I've looked down on them too, but now that I tried playing them I think they're a A grade culture. And I'm Polish, so I'm really biased against Teutons ;)
Even if you convert the whole world to your religion, that's going to be, what, 500 gold and science, tops? That's not that great considering what an investment it is to spread religion. If religion were stronger Teutons would be up there, but as-is their emblematic district is just another Maker's quarter.
@@derekrocco4344 I'm actually now playing the game where I was Teutons in Medieval era. Biggest map, 10 players, turn 304/450. I make 554 science and gold out of Teuton's trait, almost the entire world is following my religion (achieved before I was done with Medieval era). It will grow even more. Is it really that big of an investment to spread religion? I built 4 holy sites, 1 cultural wonder that is a holy site, and Teuton's emblematic districts in my cities. I don't think I sacrificed much to get the results. IMO hundreds of gold and science gained as a bonus when playing non scientific nor trade culture is a very decent bonus.
Wow, in my experience teutons would smash mongols 9 out of 10 times) and they scale pretty good in with you pop for the rest of the game. I can't agree on them being c- tier)
I absolutely agree, the teutons are my second favorite medieval culture behind the khmer as their emblematic unit is one of if not the strongest of the era, easily beating the varangian guard just because of their charge ability. The kaiserdom is a makers quarter which means that you can surround it with other makers quarters, get a ton of industry and faith without having to do much. I feel if they were a builder culture rather than an expansionist one they would get easy S tier for me but even so, the teutonic knight is so powerful that adding a couple of pikemen to your army and you can smash through cities. I have literally taken cities having almost completely teutonic knights and then adding siege weapons because they one-shot archers and two-shot crossbowmen.
but their big thing is faith and faith is worthless, aside from a strong emblematic unit that can't besiege cities with walls they kinda have nothing. F tier for sure from me.
@@derekrocco4344 well, faith gives you griefences and +2 combat strength, which is already enough for me to justify it) and you also can grab some wonders to make use of it
Once again industry ends up being S tier XD. I agree with your list. I do think the Franks could be abit higher since we only have one science culture, and their district counts as a science one. Not only are you getting amazing influence an faith, but you get a decent science also.
Now that I've actually finished watching, I think you did a great job ranking, makes a lot of sense. Would probably drop the Norse down a spot or two within the tier, just because they are map spawn dependant (e.g. landlocked) and map type dependant (e.g. 90% land). They are a surprisingly good fill in for an agrarian culture, but only if you got the tier 1 food perk from religion.
Umayyads and Teutons ratings are both very questionable in my opinion. The Umayyads can beeline to Settlers in only THREE techs. Settlers are insane, especially if you picked the Persians for the +2 city cap before. You should give them another try. The Kaiserdom of the Teutons is a Makers Quarter, so it exploits production as well. It’s basically a productive Holy Site per territory. Synergizes very well with the Aksumite’s Obelisk. Best culture to gain a world religion which adds tons of grievances and other religious synergies. I’d place Umayyads in highest A and Teutons in B around British level.
Are you aware that your showing the Umayyads details on screen while discussing the Teutons? I got very confused for a while there until I saw the label at the top of the info box.
The Teutons EQ also counts as a makers quarter, which won’t save them, but makes them slightly better than awful at least. If you miss the Khemers they’re the only other culture in this era to provide an industry bonus.
Good video, been enjoying your Humankind series. But can I make a request? Please tone down the overemphasis when you say things like “Really”, “But”, “Perhaps”, etc. It can be very grating and blows up my speakers when you do it
Bruh the battles are so stupid sometimes. 6 jaguar warriors get attacked on the shores but only one of them can fight while the others just stand there because they need their space. So one of them decides to go for a swim to try to let the others attack but nope, your turns over now, so they need to stand there and look pretty for another turn while the swimming guy gets pelted with arrows and everyone else watches.
18:30: you're underselling the Orda. First: it gives yields, including influence, second: it allows you to create Mongol hordes from the population with it. So within a turn of choosing mongols, if you have five outposts with four population you can create 20 mongols from the aethyr.
Yup! You can always spend influence on outposts to make nomadic units though. The Ordu is no different to a regular outpost in that way. (In case you don’t know, any nomadic unit can be bought with influence on outposts. For example, units during the Neolithic era)
I agree with most of your rankings, but I naturally have a difference of opinion on a few of them. I would boot Mongols down to low B tier, maybe even C tier. While they are good on the offense, I'd still rather have several of the medieval era unique units, specifically the ballista elephant, longbowmen, and Varangian Guard. Most battles in the game are sieges, not field battles. And all three of those units are also very good in field battles. As you pointed out, their bonus is awful and their unique "quarter" is a negative. While fun, if I wanted that sort of playstyle I would just pick the Huns in the classical era, as they are far better at that role. I would probably bump Norse up as well, though that's mainly because I always play with New World on and they can start settling it faster than any other culture. On other map types, B is perfectly reasonable so I understand the placement. I'd also place the Umayyads in A tier (though below the Ghanaians, who truly do have insane gold yields). It has basically nothing to do with their unique units, bonus, or quarter (though the quarter is perfectly fine), it is simply due to the value of all scientific cultures. Being able to reach the early modern era before the vast majority of the AI is amazing. You will beat the AI to putting manufactories on any shared luxuries. The wonderous effects from luxuries are insanely important for both the yields and the stability. And the early modern era has a lot of other useful techs. If there was any other medieval scientific culture then I would certainly put the Umayyads in C tier, but they are the only scientific culture in the era and that makes them extremely powerful. Other than that I mostly agree with the other rankings based on your criteria. The Byzantines are insane if you have a lot of horses, but that's a big if. Anyways, good video.
What does the community think of overtaking free cities, only to release them - to use them as pillage fodder later - somehow it is close to what pillaging cultures actually did ^^'
How does the English ability scale over time? Just reading the ability, it appears to scale only with whether you attach territories to the city. If you never attach another territory to a city, how does the food improve over time? Asking for a friend.
Yea Byzantine is kinda hit or miss. It's really situational in what you want to do in the game at the time but I feel that's what makes the whole changing cultures system cool and interesting compared to civ so I don't see some of these feast or famine cultures as bad except in the first era when there's too many unknowns.
The Khmer are simply the best culture in the game. Incredibly broken. Consistently if I am losing the game in the Medieval Era, picking the Khmer alone saves my game. The devs have got to remove the food bonus from the Baray; it is way op.
I think removing +1 prod / pop would be a better fix, honestly. Maybe give it 2 industrial worker slots to compensate a bit and synergize with having lots of pops? It needs a massive, massive nerf-hammer, and nerfing 5 food wouldn't do it.
Its very funny how cultures with influence buildings have low ranking ... its imposible to do anything at huge map, at highest dificultty, and with slow speed.
I know you like the Teutons as much as I do so I believe I can count on you to do the right thing o.0. j/p I anxiously await YOUR opinions... and I'll ofc have MY opinions at the ready to correct yours :D
Aztecs, my SECOND favorite culture in the medieval era, this is MY take on them (and you didn't mention the legacy trait WHICH IS HUGE) Legacy trait: this is like 89% of the reason you pick the Aztecs! It gives +2 land movement speed on all units! You may not think so, but speed is KING allowing you to respond quicker, reinforce quicker, war quicker (little known perk, movement speed INCLUDES in battles too!), cover more territory when scouting or running from foes. It also adds -20% modify industry cost not as important IMO but nice to have. Some like the base FIMs abilities, I like the abilities that CANNOT be touched otherwise. other than a few legacy traits, movement speed can only be modified by one tenet, exo-suit tech and the lighthouse wonder, and NOTHING adds 2 land movement speed to all units IN THE GAME. Do I feel the same about the Norse ability that adds Naval movement? Well it's almost worthless in battle as naval to land combat abilities are poor at best if not plain ineffective. Boats are just incredibly weak especially as the ages roll bye. The Enigmatic Quarter is all right. I just love EQs that don't harm stability and add stability themselves. But that's just me, my last 3 games were militarist/ expansionist only so... the sacrifice ability is barely something I pay attention to, I hadn't used it. I suppose if you remembered to, but memory isn't my thing lol. It's like the triumphant arch, just more useful as you COULD use it every turn (and pop is plentiful!) but less useful as it doesn't auto-fire when it can be utilized :/ I'm just lazy. The Enigmatic Unit is just trash. PURE trash it's a WEAKER great swordsman I'd rather have Praetorians from an era earlier! or possibly even Hopplites! They don't have anti-cav bonuses and they unlock when GS unlock BUT they upgrade to Halberdiers. maybe their combat strength is meant to line up with pikemen YET they unlock slightly later as greatswords and have to be hard built? pass- not even a HARD pass it's just a PASS, TRASH PASS. They do not take iron to build though and 2 iron is rather easy to get but NOT impossible to not get by this time (access to iron is an era BEFORE so not even a good excuse, even your allies should have iron if your not taking over the world already!) Overall I give them a high A grade based mostly on their INSANELY USEFULL Legacy trait if not the fact that their EQ is no fus and it help a LITTLE BIT. It's funny how in all your aztec clips your getting TRASHED by Huns/ Mongols... get better clips lol
*sigh* get ready for ANOTHER long reply, YOU FORCED ME TO DO IT! I am... disappointed with your Teuton judgement. DON'T GET ME WRONG I LOVED your Norse judgement EVEN MORE than I would have given them! I mean that point where you can get them out of deep water quicker than most is BEUTIFUL I never even thought of that! Anyway Teutons, C'mon man, I thought you seen the light! Here's MY take on them. Legacy trait: I'm SOOOOO bummed that when it says 'follower per state religion' what it really means is followers in YOUR EMPIRE per state religion (yeah I'm tired who cares about WORDS YOU MADE ME DO THIS!!) so yeah, you have maybe 60 science AND 60 gold bonus it would have been nice if it was WORLD WIDE... but I guess it's fine cuz even if it was, the cpu generally can't manage high pops with any efficiency it seems, most cities are under 20 even late game. Anyway what are you asking of an ability? any other ability in this era will not give you this many FIMs either so why are people so stingy on this? Sure the scalability is only so-so but it will get maybe 4x as large over time, it's nothing to scoff over. Also (and this is just me, not taken into account) if your playing expansionist/ militarist only you will do ANYTHING to get fims so Teutons is a MUST lol just saying. Emblematic Quarter: trash what can I say? I'm tired let's go, it's trash YOU MADE ME DO IT!! Emblematic Unit: S-tier for the era. You shouldn't be at the point where your religion has spread everywhere yet so these ponies should hit like a TRUCK. And their always great vs independants that by default follow Anime-ism. Overall I give them a low A based mostly on their efficiency in era and S-tier unit! Sorry edit is HALF this man FIMS, 120 overall FIMs from the MOMENT you enter the medieval era is HUGE.
reading through the comments it actually sounds like it, even the Umayyads. I'd say even the Aztecs, but I get the feeling I'm the only one that likes them lol.
Dunno if I'd rank Mongol this high. Huns are super powerful because of the timing you have access to them. However, Mongols are in a bad timing era wise. If you play at HK difficult, it is kinda hard to rush to Mongols and play like the Huns. Usually AI will be at Medieval before you. Rushing the AI into Huns is easier and also with more potential. By the time you get to Medieval, most lands in your continent are taken and AI in HK simply has better stuff than you military wise. You can beat the AI as they sux at combat, but it's not a free ride like with Huns. Maybe best scenario would be getting 2 food cultures in a row, rush the era stars and get Mongols. Also, AI seems to love to get Mongols too, so you definitively need to rush to use them anyway. Going Huns into Mongol seems like a natural progression and flavorful, but it is a trap. After Hunning your way to take the continent, you need to get a totally different culture to catch up with neglected stuff and reap the benefits. Mongols are useless if you took the continent already and you are behind tech wise to go to the next continent too. The only setting I find useful for Mongols is play Pangaea and in lower difficult where I can ascend fast (also not having to deal with the +2 CS makes combat less stressing). Otherwise, if you wanna play this style going Huns is more than enough and Mongols doesn't offer much and it is redundant at best. By the time they are available, they become very inadequate for my taste. They aren't total dumpster fire. Just the timing is very narrow for them to work like the Huns. I'd have them at top of C. I wish they were a more refined Huns. Mongols in history were not just a horde. They found cities and absorbed conquered people into the army. I hope they get an overhaul and not be just like Huns gameplay wise. Maybe they should get benefits from vassal states (like being able to recruit their EU and get Money, Influence, and Science from them) and automatically ransack a conquered city. After all they were fine if an enemy surrendered, but they were absolute brutal if they resist as what they did with Baghdad and Kiev.
I'd gotten the Huns in just 1 of my games... turns out it was a islands game where they were pretty useless anyway -_-. at least as the Mongols you have a good while beforehand to feel out if your stuck on an island or not :/.
Only reason to play the Mongols at that point in the game is if you are already playing the Huns and want to continue terrorizing the continent you’re on.
@@yukipaw1702 I played a game where I was just trying to take over the world and conquer everyone. They played well into that strategy 😆 I went Hittites - Huns - Mongols - Ottomans - British - Soviets. Controlled every territory and had eliminated all players by turn 551 (600 turn game at Nation difficulty) and honestly probably underperformed. That was only my 3rd game.
Actually not really. If you play Huns, you should have taken the continent you are on by the time you get Mongols, so you won't have much to conquer with them. After Huns, you wanna get a different culture to reap the benefits. The only reason I would go Huns->Mongols would be a Pangaea map, so continuing this play style kinda makes sense. Still not really great. Medieval gameplay changes enough that Huns playstyle is less effective.
@@a.m.hofmeister725 Not really. Huns and Mongols would synergy better if you picked a food culture prior and when making outposts pick food over industry. The +1 from Assyrians is nice, but the ransack bonus from Goth isn't that needed. I think the Plundered Wages Civic is more than enough. Assyrians -> Celts -> Mongols I can see. Assyrians -> Goths -> Mongols, you are too far behind everything useful by the time you get to Mongols. You need a good base to go Mongols. Assyrians and Goths are pretty weak as is. Picking both back to back is playing with handicap.
Umayyads getting slept on. They open up the tech tree to Patronage and Settlers an era earlier - rushing these things with Collective Minds can be a game changer. That being said, giving up the Khmer's bonus' and district is a pretty tough pill to swallow to so it really depends on how you're doing vs your opponents and how much space is left on the map/luxuries you have access to.
Hey Jumbo the Umayyad culture card shows up as you're talking about the teutons and the Umayyads don't have theirs displayed when you're talking about them.
teutons are actually really overlooked. Their unique quarter will guarantees that your religion dominates the map, and there is a lot of bonuses to that (to addition it does give a lot of production). Conisdering that their bonus basically gives +1 Gold and +1 Science, while Dutch legay trait, which comes era later gives only +1 Gold per population.
Yea, I'm a new player and I actually wanted to try Teutons because they were kinda rated low and I found them rather fitting to my current strategy in that game (it was 4th or 5th difficulty). Well, I basically secured an easy victory of that era. The bonuses aren't anything OP but they are really good considering that your religion should be widely spread. The unit is pretty good too.
Their knights are also very OP
With the Khmer you forgot to mention that they are able to fully exploit river tiles because they exploit both food and production and because they count as farmers and makers they can connect the two groups of districts.
edit: also keep in mind that the unique district type is important because it counts for adjacency, infrastructure, and exploitation so the Teutons district is not only giving you faith and influence it is also acting like a normal makers quarter and giving you industry.
It's disappointing the Teutons don't get a worker slot with their district. I play them a lot and always end up with loads of districts, low stability, and few workers
Also the good thing about longskips is that they sale NO ocean penalties! Really good for the new world!
yes, this is why I think Jumbo was a bit TOO generous with the Norse. They don't have too scoot out of deep water really xD.
I think with a Khmer nerf and c rank buffs, the medieval era will be the most balanced era in the game where everyone has equal parts to shine
Khmer are definitely the most desperately in need of a nerf culture in the game, though. I'd argue just because of how dominant they are, there ought not to be an A tier culture at all in this era - only the Khmer (S), a few B, a ton of C, and a couple F. Moving every ranking save the Khmer down 1 tier seems pretty appropriate in the current state, honestly.
The teutons + Angkor wat play is pretty slept on. Arguably this is one of the highest food generation civs in the game especially for mega cities where you end up with 500 districts or more over 30 territories or so (actual influence yields on a Ming tea house in the late game which scales per district just the same as the Kaiserdom). Just converting that to food is like 15k food alone but it’s probably not going to outclass Khmer as a medieval civ which is a bit too easily available.
Also Spanish or even ottomans can do this play as well but you do miss out on Ming for influence generation. And as a whole high faith is not very well implemented as a fame accumulator so it’s not actually strong for it.
I agree with this ranking the most out of the ones you've done so far. My only major criticism is that you ranked Khmer too low ;)
I'm especially glad to see the Ghanaians get some respect! I also think they're often underestimated.
If I had to nitpick, I'd argue that the Byzantines are more flexible than the Norse. The Norse rely heavily on new world access, good coasts, and a good naval war. The Byzantines can go peaceful trader with all their money bonuses, or aggressive war-monger with their ridiculously strong EU. The horse thing isn't really a huge problem in practice because horses are so common and you'll know where they are well before this era. I'd probably swap those two cultures, but that's minor and probably comes down to personal preferences and play style.
Great job on compiling this eras tier list again!
But quite frankly, I dont really understand the placement of the mongols. Yes I agree they are pretty strong offensively, but other than that they basically do nothing. They essentially have no long term benefits from their trait or emblematic districts which is a clear disadvantage to any other culture.
An A Tier culture should be useful at more things than just one imo.
Totally agree. And they are not even that great at offense with their short range, as they have to fight against pikemans and other emblematic units.
I haven't played the Mongols, but I played one game as the Huns, and if you pick them when you're already really ahead, they can crush opponents underfoot while growing pops to boot.
That said, this is a game with so much snowballing that pretty much any culture can crush opponents who are behind underfoot, so it doesn't feel particularly unique.
@@derekrocco4344 Huns are GREAT but Mongols are just copying wannabees with an even worse legacy trait.
@@derekrocco4344 The Mongols and Huns have the same strategy, but the Mongols come way too late in the game. Even the Huns are only good in the first half of that era before everyone can stabilize, so they need to strike fast. The Mongols just can't get value at that point. Keep in mind that many other cultures are leaving the Classical Era with really strong Anti-Cav units, which aren't available yet at the start of the Classical against the Huns
Yooo! New tier list! You the best Jumbo.
English are A I reckon. Strongholds so good but indirect fire in medevil can make or break wars for me.
Ranged unit with no indirect fire make baby Jesus cry.
I can't find myself choosing anything but the Khmer when i arrive at the Medieval era, they have so much going for them. They are eventually going to add cultures everywhere in future updates/DLCs and still I will ignore them for the Khmer.
CumEER
Try going for teutons if you have enough food, with enough techs and a couple industry resources their EQ nets about 50-60 industry on average
Their EU also helps if another empire is stronger than you and they have their own state religion ( like the AI Tjilbruke for example) giving you a good chance for comeback
I would just put the norse in S++ tier in the case of a map with a new world. The possibility to arrive to the new world first and start expanding from the get go basically an era before the other cultures is insanely op in my opinion.
Arguably also if you have an entire continent/island to yourself and have no further means of expansion
Khmer boost you so far ahead it doesn't matter, though. Just power through the medieval era in 10 turns (standard pace) and research shipbuilding next era.
In a wide-sea huge new world map with lots of luxuries, I'd buff Norse to the 2nd or 3rd best culture in the era, but they're nowhere near the Khmer.
I have the same problem with this list as the previous two. Most of the ratings are fine but it fails to take into account some synergies and situational uses properly while emphasizing others . For example the Teutons. I pick them fairly regularly when the Khmer are gone and I know I have a good chance to get the Angkor Wat . A single wonder or situation can put a C tier Into high A tier. On the other hand , he mentions the Norse being good because you want to look for new land in that era . In a bubble though I would put the Norse into hard fail . Those inconsistencies lead to some very strange ratings in my eyes.
Jumbo you have the Umayads chart by the Tutons part !
longbow is OP, because you can easily mass longbows for their cost and fire from over mountains. I just had the largest war ive ever had in humankind in a 2v1 on the offensive and just dominated both my enemies, and the agrarian power and their district just snowballed my pop. Easy A tier, if khmer wasnt actually broken id say they were one of the best in the game
I find it weird that so many expansionist cultures seem to have almost nothing in their kit that helps them earn expansionist stars. It really feels like the expansionist system was an afterthought
It definitely needs to be replaced. It's this gross bastard-child of militarist and aesthete that kind of blends with religion and fits nowhere.
if your playing an expansionist game you've already picked cultures that give you influence to help expand really, that's why I think the Teutons are a MUST PLAY for an expansionist run. Maybe even the Britains in the industrial era too though their EQ can ONLY be built in leige territories or something. I just played them and didn't build a single EQ, I have NO idea, I mean I'd vassalized people (GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER! I meant in earlier games, not in THAT one)... that doesn't let you build quarters in their territories does it? And even if it did, how would that benefit you? Wouldn't that make them more likely to rebel? How the heck does this help me as an expansionist anyway?? Cool idea though, a quarter you could build in vassalized countries to keep tabs on your vassals maybe it makes a computational tag thingy that inhibits their need to rebel. Incredibly cool idea, just wish I had the chance to test it, I didn't have any vassals when I picked him.
@JumboPixel You are sleeping on the Teutons. They are very good follow-up to builder cultures, as their emblematic district is great for shoving it into your maker's quarters triangles. Not only they provide adjacency, but also generate a lot of faith (more than a holy site if you surround it with 6 districts, even more if you just have many districts in a city), which actually lets you dominate as the world religion. This then synergizes well with their trait, which scales incredibly well into the lategame. As a bonus their emblematic unit is extremely strong, when charging it's able to one shot many other units of its era and stays strong even against units from later eras.
I've looked down on them too, but now that I tried playing them I think they're a A grade culture. And I'm Polish, so I'm really biased against Teutons ;)
Even if you convert the whole world to your religion, that's going to be, what, 500 gold and science, tops? That's not that great considering what an investment it is to spread religion.
If religion were stronger Teutons would be up there, but as-is their emblematic district is just another Maker's quarter.
@@derekrocco4344 I'm actually now playing the game where I was Teutons in Medieval era. Biggest map, 10 players, turn 304/450. I make 554 science and gold out of Teuton's trait, almost the entire world is following my religion (achieved before I was done with Medieval era). It will grow even more.
Is it really that big of an investment to spread religion? I built 4 holy sites, 1 cultural wonder that is a holy site, and Teuton's emblematic districts in my cities. I don't think I sacrificed much to get the results.
IMO hundreds of gold and science gained as a bonus when playing non scientific nor trade culture is a very decent bonus.
Wow, in my experience teutons would smash mongols 9 out of 10 times) and they scale pretty good in with you pop for the rest of the game. I can't agree on them being c- tier)
I absolutely agree, the teutons are my second favorite medieval culture behind the khmer as their emblematic unit is one of if not the strongest of the era, easily beating the varangian guard just because of their charge ability. The kaiserdom is a makers quarter which means that you can surround it with other makers quarters, get a ton of industry and faith without having to do much. I feel if they were a builder culture rather than an expansionist one they would get easy S tier for me but even so, the teutonic knight is so powerful that adding a couple of pikemen to your army and you can smash through cities. I have literally taken cities having almost completely teutonic knights and then adding siege weapons because they one-shot archers and two-shot crossbowmen.
but their big thing is faith and faith is worthless, aside from a strong emblematic unit that can't besiege cities with walls they kinda have nothing. F tier for sure from me.
@@derekrocco4344 well, faith gives you griefences and +2 combat strength, which is already enough for me to justify it) and you also can grab some wonders to make use of it
Once again industry ends up being S tier XD. I agree with your list. I do think the Franks could be abit higher since we only have one science culture, and their district counts as a science one. Not only are you getting amazing influence an faith, but you get a decent science also.
Now that I've actually finished watching, I think you did a great job ranking, makes a lot of sense. Would probably drop the Norse down a spot or two within the tier, just because they are map spawn dependant (e.g. landlocked) and map type dependant (e.g. 90% land). They are a surprisingly good fill in for an agrarian culture, but only if you got the tier 1 food perk from religion.
Umayyads and Teutons ratings are both very questionable in my opinion. The Umayyads can beeline to Settlers in only THREE techs. Settlers are insane, especially if you picked the Persians for the +2 city cap before. You should give them another try.
The Kaiserdom of the Teutons is a Makers Quarter, so it exploits production as well. It’s basically a productive Holy Site per territory. Synergizes very well with the Aksumite’s Obelisk. Best culture to gain a world religion which adds tons of grievances and other religious synergies.
I’d place Umayyads in highest A and Teutons in B around British level.
That's English, British are later :) and SO messed up too lol
Are you aware that your showing the Umayyads details on screen while discussing the Teutons? I got very confused for a while there until I saw the label at the top of the info box.
The Teutons EQ also counts as a makers quarter, which won’t save them, but makes them slightly better than awful at least. If you miss the Khemers they’re the only other culture in this era to provide an industry bonus.
Good video, been enjoying your Humankind series. But can I make a request? Please tone down the overemphasis when you say things like “Really”, “But”, “Perhaps”, etc. It can be very grating and blows up my speakers when you do it
Bruh the battles are so stupid sometimes. 6 jaguar warriors get attacked on the shores but only one of them can fight while the others just stand there because they need their space. So one of them decides to go for a swim to try to let the others attack but nope, your turns over now, so they need to stand there and look pretty for another turn while the swimming guy gets pelted with arrows and everyone else watches.
18:30: you're underselling the Orda. First: it gives yields, including influence, second: it allows you to create Mongol hordes from the population with it. So within a turn of choosing mongols, if you have five outposts with four population you can create 20 mongols from the aethyr.
Yup! You can always spend influence on outposts to make nomadic units though. The Ordu is no different to a regular outpost in that way.
(In case you don’t know, any nomadic unit can be bought with influence on outposts. For example, units during the Neolithic era)
I agree with most of your rankings, but I naturally have a difference of opinion on a few of them. I would boot Mongols down to low B tier, maybe even C tier. While they are good on the offense, I'd still rather have several of the medieval era unique units, specifically the ballista elephant, longbowmen, and Varangian Guard. Most battles in the game are sieges, not field battles. And all three of those units are also very good in field battles. As you pointed out, their bonus is awful and their unique "quarter" is a negative. While fun, if I wanted that sort of playstyle I would just pick the Huns in the classical era, as they are far better at that role. I would probably bump Norse up as well, though that's mainly because I always play with New World on and they can start settling it faster than any other culture. On other map types, B is perfectly reasonable so I understand the placement. I'd also place the Umayyads in A tier (though below the Ghanaians, who truly do have insane gold yields). It has basically nothing to do with their unique units, bonus, or quarter (though the quarter is perfectly fine), it is simply due to the value of all scientific cultures. Being able to reach the early modern era before the vast majority of the AI is amazing. You will beat the AI to putting manufactories on any shared luxuries. The wonderous effects from luxuries are insanely important for both the yields and the stability. And the early modern era has a lot of other useful techs. If there was any other medieval scientific culture then I would certainly put the Umayyads in C tier, but they are the only scientific culture in the era and that makes them extremely powerful. Other than that I mostly agree with the other rankings based on your criteria. The Byzantines are insane if you have a lot of horses, but that's a big if. Anyways, good video.
What does the community think of overtaking free cities, only to release them - to use them as pillage fodder later - somehow it is close to what pillaging cultures actually did ^^'
I'm like 90% sure that the Mongol Horde is NOT considered a "mounted unit," and CAN climb walls. I distinctly remember getting a city taken like that.
so basically you ranked every industrial culture S tier :D
Two powerful cultures! Although with upcoming changes to them in late April, my views might change
Just so you know, the graphics of trait, etc for the Teutons are actually for the Umayyads, and then there's nothing for them.
How does the English ability scale over time? Just reading the ability, it appears to scale only with whether you attach territories to the city. If you never attach another territory to a city, how does the food improve over time? Asking for a friend.
I really like the Aztec power when I can combo it with large pops and other reduction buffs for cheap armies
Yea Byzantine is kinda hit or miss. It's really situational in what you want to do in the game at the time but I feel that's what makes the whole changing cultures system cool and interesting compared to civ so I don't see some of these feast or famine cultures as bad except in the first era when there's too many unknowns.
I might have to try the norsemen on my next run, I want to do a naval-empire campaign!
Especially if you can get all the special docks next to one another then go Dutch.
I have to because I’m on an island
Teuton umayyads?
New version with the additional cultures from expansion packs?
After the first expansion releases later this year
@@JumboPixel 👌
Holy fuck! Varangians have honour code just as naginata samurai? I never realised that!
The Khmer are simply the best culture in the game. Incredibly broken. Consistently if I am losing the game in the Medieval Era, picking the Khmer alone saves my game. The devs have got to remove the food bonus from the Baray; it is way op.
I think removing +1 prod / pop would be a better fix, honestly. Maybe give it 2 industrial worker slots to compensate a bit and synergize with having lots of pops? It needs a massive, massive nerf-hammer, and nerfing 5 food wouldn't do it.
@@derekrocco4344 I really like that idea! That would probably fix it!
Its very funny how cultures with influence buildings have low ranking ... its imposible to do anything at huge map, at highest dificultty, and with slow speed.
I often go influence to stop defiant cities as well.
I know you like the Teutons as much as I do so I believe I can count on you to do the right thing o.0. j/p I anxiously await YOUR opinions... and I'll ofc have MY opinions at the ready to correct yours :D
Aztecs, my SECOND favorite culture in the medieval era, this is MY take on them (and you didn't mention the legacy trait WHICH IS HUGE)
Legacy trait: this is like 89% of the reason you pick the Aztecs! It gives +2 land movement speed on all units! You may not think so, but speed is KING allowing you to respond quicker, reinforce quicker, war quicker (little known perk, movement speed INCLUDES in battles too!), cover more territory when scouting or running from foes. It also adds -20% modify industry cost not as important IMO but nice to have. Some like the base FIMs abilities, I like the abilities that CANNOT be touched otherwise. other than a few legacy traits, movement speed can only be modified by one tenet, exo-suit tech and the lighthouse wonder, and NOTHING adds 2 land movement speed to all units IN THE GAME. Do I feel the same about the Norse ability that adds Naval movement? Well it's almost worthless in battle as naval to land combat abilities are poor at best if not plain ineffective. Boats are just incredibly weak especially as the ages roll bye.
The Enigmatic Quarter is all right. I just love EQs that don't harm stability and add stability themselves. But that's just me, my last 3 games were militarist/ expansionist only so... the sacrifice ability is barely something I pay attention to, I hadn't used it. I suppose if you remembered to, but memory isn't my thing lol. It's like the triumphant arch, just more useful as you COULD use it every turn (and pop is plentiful!) but less useful as it doesn't auto-fire when it can be utilized :/ I'm just lazy.
The Enigmatic Unit is just trash. PURE trash it's a WEAKER great swordsman I'd rather have Praetorians from an era earlier! or possibly even Hopplites! They don't have anti-cav bonuses and they unlock when GS unlock BUT they upgrade to Halberdiers. maybe their combat strength is meant to line up with pikemen YET they unlock slightly later as greatswords and have to be hard built? pass- not even a HARD pass it's just a PASS, TRASH PASS. They do not take iron to build though and 2 iron is rather easy to get but NOT impossible to not get by this time (access to iron is an era BEFORE so not even a good excuse, even your allies should have iron if your not taking over the world already!)
Overall I give them a high A grade based mostly on their INSANELY USEFULL Legacy trait if not the fact that their EQ is no fus and it help a LITTLE BIT. It's funny how in all your aztec clips your getting TRASHED by Huns/ Mongols... get better clips lol
*sigh* get ready for ANOTHER long reply, YOU FORCED ME TO DO IT! I am... disappointed with your Teuton judgement. DON'T GET ME WRONG I LOVED your Norse judgement EVEN MORE than I would have given them! I mean that point where you can get them out of deep water quicker than most is BEUTIFUL I never even thought of that! Anyway Teutons, C'mon man, I thought you seen the light! Here's MY take on them.
Legacy trait: I'm SOOOOO bummed that when it says 'follower per state religion' what it really means is followers in YOUR EMPIRE per state religion (yeah I'm tired who cares about WORDS YOU MADE ME DO THIS!!) so yeah, you have maybe 60 science AND 60 gold bonus it would have been nice if it was WORLD WIDE... but I guess it's fine cuz even if it was, the cpu generally can't manage high pops with any efficiency it seems, most cities are under 20 even late game. Anyway what are you asking of an ability? any other ability in this era will not give you this many FIMs either so why are people so stingy on this? Sure the scalability is only so-so but it will get maybe 4x as large over time, it's nothing to scoff over. Also (and this is just me, not taken into account) if your playing expansionist/ militarist only you will do ANYTHING to get fims so Teutons is a MUST lol just saying.
Emblematic Quarter: trash what can I say? I'm tired let's go, it's trash YOU MADE ME DO IT!!
Emblematic Unit: S-tier for the era. You shouldn't be at the point where your religion has spread everywhere yet so these ponies should hit like a TRUCK. And their always great vs independants that by default follow Anime-ism.
Overall I give them a low A based mostly on their efficiency in era and S-tier unit!
Sorry edit is HALF this man FIMS, 120 overall FIMs from the MOMENT you enter the medieval era is HUGE.
Khmer is op. Best district, best unit and immediate flat food and industry bonus to snowball from there.
I've never heard someone say Byzantine that way before
I thought they should all be s teir list as you said on steam:)
reading through the comments it actually sounds like it, even the Umayyads. I'd say even the Aztecs, but I get the feeling I'm the only one that likes them lol.
your video was off with wording and video.. your tuetons showed umayyads... lol
Dunno if I'd rank Mongol this high. Huns are super powerful because of the timing you have access to them. However, Mongols are in a bad timing era wise. If you play at HK difficult, it is kinda hard to rush to Mongols and play like the Huns. Usually AI will be at Medieval before you. Rushing the AI into Huns is easier and also with more potential. By the time you get to Medieval, most lands in your continent are taken and AI in HK simply has better stuff than you military wise. You can beat the AI as they sux at combat, but it's not a free ride like with Huns. Maybe best scenario would be getting 2 food cultures in a row, rush the era stars and get Mongols. Also, AI seems to love to get Mongols too, so you definitively need to rush to use them anyway.
Going Huns into Mongol seems like a natural progression and flavorful, but it is a trap. After Hunning your way to take the continent, you need to get a totally different culture to catch up with neglected stuff and reap the benefits. Mongols are useless if you took the continent already and you are behind tech wise to go to the next continent too.
The only setting I find useful for Mongols is play Pangaea and in lower difficult where I can ascend fast (also not having to deal with the +2 CS makes combat less stressing). Otherwise, if you wanna play this style going Huns is more than enough and Mongols doesn't offer much and it is redundant at best. By the time they are available, they become very inadequate for my taste. They aren't total dumpster fire. Just the timing is very narrow for them to work like the Huns. I'd have them at top of C.
I wish they were a more refined Huns. Mongols in history were not just a horde. They found cities and absorbed conquered people into the army. I hope they get an overhaul and not be just like Huns gameplay wise. Maybe they should get benefits from vassal states (like being able to recruit their EU and get Money, Influence, and Science from them) and automatically ransack a conquered city. After all they were fine if an enemy surrendered, but they were absolute brutal if they resist as what they did with Baghdad and Kiev.
I'd gotten the Huns in just 1 of my games... turns out it was a islands game where they were pretty useless anyway -_-. at least as the Mongols you have a good while beforehand to feel out if your stuck on an island or not :/.
The Teutonics should be buffed up and change to a faith culture
"Horse deposits"? :-)
Lol Byzantines is pronounced "BIH-zen-teens" not "BYE-zan-TINES"
Greek metric comment
Only reason to play the Mongols at that point in the game is if you are already playing the Huns and want to continue terrorizing the continent you’re on.
Synergies with Assyrians and goths?
That just means you are left with 2 eras unable to attach outpost or find new cities which hurts quite a bit
@@yukipaw1702 I played a game where I was just trying to take over the world and conquer everyone. They played well into that strategy 😆
I went Hittites - Huns - Mongols - Ottomans - British - Soviets. Controlled every territory and had eliminated all players by turn 551 (600 turn game at Nation difficulty) and honestly probably underperformed. That was only my 3rd game.
Actually not really. If you play Huns, you should have taken the continent you are on by the time you get Mongols, so you won't have much to conquer with them. After Huns, you wanna get a different culture to reap the benefits.
The only reason I would go Huns->Mongols would be a Pangaea map, so continuing this play style kinda makes sense. Still not really great. Medieval gameplay changes enough that Huns playstyle is less effective.
@@a.m.hofmeister725 Not really. Huns and Mongols would synergy better if you picked a food culture prior and when making outposts pick food over industry. The +1 from Assyrians is nice, but the ransack bonus from Goth isn't that needed. I think the Plundered Wages Civic is more than enough. Assyrians -> Celts -> Mongols I can see. Assyrians -> Goths -> Mongols, you are too far behind everything useful by the time you get to Mongols. You need a good base to go Mongols. Assyrians and Goths are pretty weak as is. Picking both back to back is playing with handicap.
😂😂perrr