would be interesting to see how all of the AoK and AoC civs have changed over the 20 odd years we've had them, and maybe how they would fit in the current meta if reset to their former glory.
Man this takes me back. I remember audibly screaming in excitement when the conquerors expansion introduced the automatic farm reseed because i HATED manually doing it.
I really liked this format, one minor change if you do this in the future, you did the winrate for Franks but not for the other two civs. Can you add the win rate over time explicitly to each civ review?
saracen was mentioned as bottom 4 winrate civ. I think it is fine that he only showed the winrate for Franks because it is relevant that they were top 2.
And maybe also show the current bonuses. You placed the past bonuses on the left side of the screen, and I thought the right would be covered by the current passive bonuses. I don't know them from memory.
Really keen to see this as a series, wouldn't even mind it being expanded to further expansions (especially conquerors of course) up to where ever you see fit
Had a thought that somehow if we can merge stronghold 1 engineering with AoE 2, how brilliant it would look like, there would be alot more food options, trees, hunting ofcourse etc etc .....
I really love this evolution video. For "older" guys like me it's a nice trip down the memory lane. I remember Franks in AoK and their knight line was absolutely godly. Then AoC came out and suddenly half the civs could research bloodlines which nerfed Franks to hell.
I do like the idea of giving them Bloodlines and reverting their HP bonus back to knights only, but dialled down, like +8 HP Castle and +15 Imperial or something. This would nerf their dreaded scout rush by forcing them to pick up a tech for boosted scouts while bringing them up to scratch in the late game; improves their Knights for Castle Age a little and their Imperial performance remains largely unchanged, plus a little HP. But realistically speaking they are already a top knight civ so I doubt this is necessary at all, just an idea I like.
Maybe along with these lines, I would like to suggest a video about how the game itself changed from Age of Kings all the way to DE. Like video resolutions, speed in-game, multiplayer options (now he have servers!), fps, mods that people used to use, maybe a little bit of history about the forums used and other clients like Voobly, who were the great players and the tactics they used (there's a video about a tournament with $50k in prize where the level of the winner is basically like a 800 player today lol). Anyway, love the video!
7:14 Originally they took anti infantry bonus damage So that explains why in the manual you can counter the Mameluke with Hand Canooners and Jannisaries
Idk why the perception of Saracens as "The most generic of all civs" was common sentiment. At the time and up until Indians were released, they were the only civ (outside of Meso civs) without Cavalier. They were the only "Camel" civ until Indians were released. They have a wide open tech tree but missing cavalier is pretty huge, it's like the Turks missing Pikeman. It's fairly unique.
I mean, camel were trash up until the removal of it getting bonus damage dealt to it from buildings. That and the fact it did have a wide tech tree (minus the upgraded knights) made my dad at least pick them often as they had a lot of options, but he has always just liked building small amounts of units to counter so that's what he likes versus spam. I wonder if that's a similar sentiment shared by other ultra casuals
Just my interpretation, but camels where garbage as long as they received bonus damage from buildings, the market bonus wasn't as good and Mames were expensive to mass and died to everything, the monk UT was useless as well. So you were pretty much stuck with an open, but generic tech tree until late Imperial age. Now at leas the cheap market can give you an early bonus, Zealotry camels are viable in Castle age, Mames are less vulnerable and they get a new UT buffing their already amazing siege.
I remember a match T90 streamed a while ago, I think it was during Hidden Cup, in that map with two lakes, and the Celt player ended up winning after making what it seemed like an endless wave of Paladins. I think it was Dave who said Paladin is still the stronger unit they can make.
@@sebazpereyra9431 If you're not prepared for it even the worst paladins are pretty strong. Hera built up his Paladins in hiding and by the time his opponent noticed it was way too late for a halberdier switch
I never thought of AoK's visuals as being outdated, but seeing the little bit of footage of it beside DE, the difference is really striking. I've gotten so used to looking at DE that the old visuals look wrong to me now.
Personally I find the basic textures of DE vs the original not that much better. The original really works well for regular monitors, but I could see it would become bad on modern higher resolution screens.
5:15 slight correction on why treadmill crane was removed (for franks and a few other civs on that patch). Reason is not because the castle drops were too strong, it’s to nerf them in deathmatch, which used to be more popular and in the ranked queue
Spirit is arguably the most wholesome creator on RUclips. No swearing no inane babbling and very well thought out videos with heartfelt effort put into them. Combine that with a voice that sounds like that teacher who actually cares about his students in the most genuine way, and you’ve got the perfect RUclipsr.
This was a trip down memory lane. A lot of us who played AoK and AoC back in the day would love this for all the classic civs from AoK and AoC. I remember learning AoK and then Huns blew our minds.
This is a lovely series, and it pushes all the nostalgia and internet history buttons. Would love to see how your beloved Japanese changed, if at all. Another could be on to the Chinese, and their dreaded start, to now their undeniable reputation as one of the best civs in the game.
I’m always so impressed with how SotL always makes new video content on a game that’s decades old without it ever feeling stale. Great work and looking forward to the rest of this series!
I think this is an awesome idea. Not only is it a great trip down nostalgia lane, but might help to ignite important conversations about how the later additions have impacted on the older civilizations.
Yes, please continue this serie. It was very interesting to note how they've changed during the years. I think I first played this game when I was nine, in 2001. I haven't started larning English by that time and had no idea about civ bonuses. I'd like to see more of this content. Please, keep it up!
I don't think there is any value for actual gameplay in such video, yet I just wanted to watch it immediately. The entertainemt value you bring is just outstanding, please do more!
I'd love to see a series of this! Once you finish the Age of Kings civs, I'd love to see a breakdown of the 5 conqueror's civs and how they've changed. Especially Koreans with their 11 range SO and their identity as a tower civ
I cannot express just how much the evolution of the different civilizations as you started with these, begins to paint a picture of the amount of care that went into keeping the game as balanced as possible over the years. To me, seeing the throwing axeman frame delay reduction opened up a whole part of the game I hadn't even taken into consideration. Its a behind the scenes look that contextualizes what I would consider the minutest of details having a large effect on the overall game. Would LOVE to see all the civilizational changes through the years.
I've been playing this game for over 20 years now.... although I was way too young to understand "the meta" when I was kid. I didn't even know such a concept existed, I just played with civs I thought were cool. It's really interesting to see the evolution and general perception of each civ over the years. This is a great idea. I hope to see more vids like this.
I really enjoy this kind of breakdown. When I was in elementary school I first got introduced to AOE2 with Age of Conquerors on my friend's "high-end" computer at the time. I remember he invited me over a few times to watch me play against the AI. We had no idea what civ bonuses were so we were surprised when certain units from different civs had died sooner than expected. Thinking in particular about Japanese melee stomping my melee and me angrily responding with mass onagers. So yes, a miniseries covering the perceptions and changes of the older civs is greatly appreciated. Love your content and appreciate what you do. Glad to see you're still at it.
Interesting to see how Celts doesn't change that much Definitely will love this as a new series! AoE2 so loved, even after 22 years still getting updates, new contents. No other games can be like AoE2
Been playing this game for 18 years and I forgot all of those changes. It is an interesting topic to cover so I'm interested in future videos about other civs. Great work
when I played AoK, I use to play celts as a cavalry/siege civ, because before they added bloodlines they had fully upgraded stable units. So I would say they have gone though a lot of changes
@@robfbms its true, but back in age of kings, missing last armor on paladins was not much big deal because of no one had access to halbs and thumb ring (and no bloodlines for anyone ofc). so both byzantine and celt paladins were viable although not the best ones
Been a hot minute since I heard the word "monotonically", and of course used properly. This is a great video and I smell the potential for a great series of videos as well.
It was quite a ride for the Franks. As a kid, playing AoK, the Joan of Arc campaign was only beatable because you could send hordes of knights and then paladins to the Briton foes, and that was it. No point in their extra range if their arrows did nothing to your buffed up cavalry. All you had to do was get a solid economy going. Even the after mission cutscenes stated that it was the way to go. Even when you played in the Saladin campaign as the Saracens you dreaded Frankish knights, and on the last mission you felt the pain you put the AI in, having to deal with 192HP paladins with... Arrows. Mamelukes were too expensive, so they fought from the other side of the wall 🤣 But then everyone and their momma got Bloodlines and that was it, they became worse than the Persians. At this point in time I wouldn't be surprised if the devs decided to give the Franks Bloodlines just to return to the OG status quo, considering how many choices there are to countering them. Maybe have their +20HP kick off from Castle Age to offset that? It'd be amusing to revive the good old days when people saw Franks and frantically began stockpiling pikes, towers, castles and walls, throwing everything and the kitchen sink just to stop a 212HP roided up behemoth
franks paladins are still fine they might not be that special anymore, but as you see in the winrate, franks are still one of the best civs. they are more balanced now than before
Spirit, I find that stationary units sometimes automatically move out of the way of moving units if it is really crowded. Any idea why that is? Also why does unloading 20 units from a transport sometimes seem to form a long snaking line of units rather than a clump of units around the transport?
This sort of series would offer a perspective into the evolution of competitive games that we rarely get, even with games old enough to have videos like this exist. It's a good idea.
I love this idea, and I would love to see it become a series, not only for the original civilisations but also for the ones that came later on and got changed through the years. One suggestion I would like to make is to show civilisation bonuses side by side as they got changed with every expansion so that we can observe and compare them by pausing the video or something. Love your work. Cheers!
This also highlights why halberdiers feel so OP. They were originally intended to counter Frankish paladins. Well not every civ has Frankish paladins and as such suffer the consequences even more than Franks. Halbs crush any other cav unit...a little too much imo. I think they can tone down the bonus damage of halberdiers slightly because Frankish paladins are no longer the beasts they once were.
This very interesting to me as someone who is more of a casual player but has played the game since the early 00s. I find the commentary of the logic of the devs interesting and would like to see more of these videos.
It would be great to see this as a series. One suggestion would be to show the different expansion/graphics being played as you talk about them. Would be awesome to see the difference in graphics over time as we learn about the stat changes!
What an excellent idea by SOTL to do a summary of all the changes to the original CIVs over the year! I hope this becaomes a series. (PS: Bring back the intro please)
This is a very interesting concept I've been playing AoE (both 1 with rise of Rome expansion and 2 age of kings) since 2003 and in 2006 I got conquerors I've been playing on off to this day and it really brings into perspective just how much of the original ideas were kept or were changed... Keep it going man it's a great concept
Can't speak for anyone else, but I'd love to see more of this. I started with AoC back in the early 00's, but I didn't pay attention to the competitive scene until I picked it back up 5-6 years ago (around RotR). It's really interesting to see the changes that happened while I was away, and how the community saw the different civs.
Just the other day I was considering rebooting up my old discs for the original age of kings just to revisit the original civs but didn’t cause I didn’t want to deal with the old logic and AI. This really itches my curiosity! Thanks for this mini series
I support the series idea! Also, I liked that the first 3 civilizations you covered were the first main civilizations for the campaings in Age Of Kings.
I really like the idea of being a series. You should do it. You could also address other things like "what changes should be done and werent, or changes you would like to see - in order for the civ to have a better identity"
Please do make this a series to be honest, I LOVE this stuff. I especially love how you use footage from the old games just to really drive home how much things have changed, this is wonderful
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I would love to see this series continued. I remember playing on Age of Kings and having to research specific technologies for gunpowder units on top of having to research Chemistry. Like you mentioned in your video, The Conquerors came out very soon after Age of Kings, so I would even enjoy seeing The Conqueror civs (Huns, Aztecs, Mayans, Spanish, Koreans) get their own episode.
Really happy that Mamelukes don't take bonus damage from skirms anymore, but kind of sad the cav archers lost their bonus damage against buildings. That was a fun bonus because they could bust down walls for some quick raiding...
I still have my original Manitoba for aoe and aoe2. I love looking at them and reading the history on the civilisations. I am so happy I've fallen back in love with this game and even though I only okay over versus ai I digest aoe2 content like water when I get a fix for it. Keep up the amazing videos and I'd love to see this become the series you mentioned thinking about.
This is a great video! My friend and I have been talking about how unique Age of Empires 2 is because it has 20 years of design behind it. Please do the rest of the civs I love to how they have evolved (or not) over time
Hi Spirit, great content, keep it coming! Its really nice to see the change over the years from where AoE2 came from up till now. My love for the game is not only about the strats and actions but also for the style and history. I was thirteen when the game came out and I have never really stopped playing. thank you for all the content so far and this comment is to get your inters score up in the youtube algorithm and a first thank you from a longtime fan of your content. Keep it up man, and thank you for all your work!
I remember playing this game as a seven year old in 2000. My brother bought the game and we had an old book with all the civs and tech trees. I still remember thinking byzantines was the best civ because they had the most techs. Seeing this makes it so goddamn nostalgic. Amazing how such an old game has developed over the years and i still f'ing love it.
This really is super interesting. I played AoK when it came out as a kid, but never competitive in any way. So seeing how the game developed over the years until it atleast reached the state I started actually learning about the game is definetly an interesting journey to follow!
Great video. Of course we want to see more! You make the game interesting in many novel ways. If you make more of these, I can assure you that we will watch every last one.
I wasn't going to comment, but I was the 1999th viewer of this. Given the year of the game's release, it must be a sign! I think you should continue this series as it's quite interesting.
I'd like to see this become a series
Aah yes.. the time traveller comment xD
would be interesting to see how all of the AoK and AoC civs have changed over the 20 odd years we've had them, and maybe how they would fit in the current meta if reset to their former glory.
It really should
YES
@@bsn_cs same same 👍🏻👍🏻
Man this takes me back. I remember audibly screaming in excitement when the conquerors expansion introduced the automatic farm reseed because i HATED manually doing it.
That was a real game changer
The begging of auto everything. MBL was not a fan :(
Oh, so the one where you have to manually queue them up that I found really annoying was an improvement? Damn.
i know what you mean - and i always wanted to play the inca 😅
Or when you built mines, mills, lumbers, etc. and villagers didnt go automatically to the resource
I really liked this format, one minor change if you do this in the future, you did the winrate for Franks but not for the other two civs. Can you add the win rate over time explicitly to each civ review?
saracen was mentioned as bottom 4 winrate civ. I think it is fine that he only showed the winrate for Franks because it is relevant that they were top 2.
I think he only mentioned it because of how extreme the Franks have been
And maybe also show the current bonuses. You placed the past bonuses on the left side of the screen, and I thought the right would be covered by the current passive bonuses. I don't know them from memory.
Scorpions actually being able to pierce through in forgotten has major impact on Celts as well, who arguably have the best scorpions
Best scorpions are Khmer ones by far I believe
@@filadelfozuniga3411 in terms of damage yes, but celt scorps are much more useful cuz of their bulk.
@@filadelfozuniga3411 Chinese, Ethiopians and Mongols also have nice scorpion bonuses
Ballista Elephants are the best scorpion-esque unit though
@@jerryne2424 no, because khmer get bombard cannons and celts no
@@gabrielmelnik6796 ya sure? I'm certain they lost bombards in a patch.
Really keen to see this as a series, wouldn't even mind it being expanded to further expansions (especially conquerors of course) up to where ever you see fit
@ Jared B Yeah Exactly Exactly ..... 😊
Saracens are my Fav Civ to play with and I have been playing AoE and Stronghold since early 2000, loves these two games .....
Had a thought that somehow if we can merge stronghold 1 engineering with AoE 2, how brilliant it would look like, there would be alot more food options, trees, hunting ofcourse etc etc .....
I really love this evolution video. For "older" guys like me it's a nice trip down the memory lane.
I remember Franks in AoK and their knight line was absolutely godly. Then AoC came out and suddenly half the civs could research bloodlines which nerfed Franks to hell.
Yeah they should receive bloodlines too.
Then Huns beat the piss out of just about everyone until nowadays they're like a neutered old dog..
I do like the idea of giving them Bloodlines and reverting their HP bonus back to knights only, but dialled down, like +8 HP Castle and +15 Imperial or something.
This would nerf their dreaded scout rush by forcing them to pick up a tech for boosted scouts while bringing them up to scratch in the late game; improves their Knights for Castle Age a little and their Imperial performance remains largely unchanged, plus a little HP. But realistically speaking they are already a top knight civ so I doubt this is necessary at all, just an idea I like.
Maybe along with these lines, I would like to suggest a video about how the game itself changed from Age of Kings all the way to DE. Like video resolutions, speed in-game, multiplayer options (now he have servers!), fps, mods that people used to use, maybe a little bit of history about the forums used and other clients like Voobly, who were the great players and the tactics they used (there's a video about a tournament with $50k in prize where the level of the winner is basically like a 800 player today lol). Anyway, love the video!
Would really love to see the tournament, do you have a link please?
I remember watching a tournament from 2001
It was epic
7:14 Originally they took anti infantry bonus damage
So that explains why in the manual you can counter the Mameluke with Hand Canooners and Jannisaries
Still not a bad counter
@@mttb655321 Well that's true and I forgot the Jannisaries had bonus against infantry
Canooners
HC was pretty hard to go back then, since after researching chemistry you also need to research Hand Cannon for them to be available for training.
@@CrnaStrela It's better now too because more civs have gunpowder bonuses
Idk why the perception of Saracens as "The most generic of all civs" was common sentiment. At the time and up until Indians were released, they were the only civ (outside of Meso civs) without Cavalier. They were the only "Camel" civ until Indians were released. They have a wide open tech tree but missing cavalier is pretty huge, it's like the Turks missing Pikeman. It's fairly unique.
I mean, camel were trash up until the removal of it getting bonus damage dealt to it from buildings. That and the fact it did have a wide tech tree (minus the upgraded knights) made my dad at least pick them often as they had a lot of options, but he has always just liked building small amounts of units to counter so that's what he likes versus spam. I wonder if that's a similar sentiment shared by other ultra casuals
If you dont build a market and dont use camels, it basically feels like a civ without bonuses
Didn’t Turks get rly good camels too? I always thought about Turks- being either GP or Camel+ CA civ as their only option. But I was young back then
Just my interpretation, but camels where garbage as long as they received bonus damage from buildings, the market bonus wasn't as good and Mames were expensive to mass and died to everything, the monk UT was useless as well. So you were pretty much stuck with an open, but generic tech tree until late Imperial age. Now at leas the cheap market can give you an early bonus, Zealotry camels are viable in Castle age, Mames are less vulnerable and they get a new UT buffing their already amazing siege.
I remember people were just going Arb with them
I don't even play AoE anymore, but this was a really interesting look back. Would love to see more.
I remember a match T90 streamed a while ago, I think it was during Hidden Cup, in that map with two lakes, and the Celt player ended up winning after making what it seemed like an endless wave of Paladins. I think it was Dave who said Paladin is still the stronger unit they can make.
@@sebazpereyra9431 If you're not prepared for it even the worst paladins are pretty strong. Hera built up his Paladins in hiding and by the time his opponent noticed it was way too late for a halberdier switch
As someone who was strongly skeptical to DE, I will say that the campaigns added are amazing. And remind me a lot of the old days.
I never thought of AoK's visuals as being outdated, but seeing the little bit of footage of it beside DE, the difference is really striking. I've gotten so used to looking at DE that the old visuals look wrong to me now.
I miss the corpses. Now it's like huge battles never happened.
@@informitas0117 I especially liked the “no rot” mode where corpses stay forever on the ground. What's with it now, they disappear too quickly?
Personally I find the basic textures of DE vs the original not that much better. The original really works well for regular monitors, but I could see it would become bad on modern higher resolution screens.
@@informitas0117 There are mods in the mod vault to change that.
As for me i don't really find the difference except for the destroyed buildings
I guess i'm just too busy playing
5:15 slight correction on why treadmill crane was removed (for franks and a few other civs on that patch). Reason is not because the castle drops were too strong, it’s to nerf them in deathmatch, which used to be more popular and in the ranked queue
This is fascinating. Been playing AOE2 since Christmas 1999, but only rediscovered it in 2019. I'd love to see more if this series.
Spirit is arguably the most wholesome creator on RUclips. No swearing no inane babbling and very well thought out videos with heartfelt effort put into them. Combine that with a voice that sounds like that teacher who actually cares about his students in the most genuine way, and you’ve got the perfect RUclipsr.
Looking forward to learning about the evolution of Byzantines, Japanese, and Teutons!
I second Byzantines!
I Second the Forbidden Teutons.
Replace japanese with spanish and you got the 3 civs i played since i got the game like a fanatic
I prefer the Koreans instead of Japanese.
@@GarkKahn Spanish weren’t in Age of Kings
Having been playing since 99, I'm interested in this series.
This would make a great series. really interested in seeing all the other civs.
This was a trip down memory lane. A lot of us who played AoK and AoC back in the day would love this for all the classic civs from AoK and AoC. I remember learning AoK and then Huns blew our minds.
I’ve been playing this game since AOC when I was a child so I am very interested in an full series. This was a cool video
Been playing this game since 2006 when I was 5. Still playing it now.
This is a lovely series, and it pushes all the nostalgia and internet history buttons.
Would love to see how your beloved Japanese changed, if at all. Another could be on to the Chinese, and their dreaded start, to now their undeniable reputation as one of the best civs in the game.
I’m always so impressed with how SotL always makes new video content on a game that’s decades old without it ever feeling stale. Great work and looking forward to the rest of this series!
Love this. Definitely would like to see a full series for all the original civs!
I like to think the celts dark age militia got nerfed specifically because of one special player.
This is a really cool series, I'd love to see more!
I’d love for this to be a full series!
I think this is an awesome idea. Not only is it a great trip down nostalgia lane, but might help to ignite important conversations about how the later additions have impacted on the older civilizations.
Yes, please continue this serie. It was very interesting to note how they've changed during the years. I think I first played this game when I was nine, in 2001. I haven't started larning English by that time and had no idea about civ bonuses. I'd like to see more of this content. Please, keep it up!
It's fascinating to see not only the changes made, but also how the meta changes. Sometimes based on updates, sometimes just based on new ideas.
It would be cool to see an in-depth look of what each expansion brought to the table.
I don't think there is any value for actual gameplay in such video, yet I just wanted to watch it immediately. The entertainemt value you bring is just outstanding, please do more!
I'd love to see a series of this! Once you finish the Age of Kings civs, I'd love to see a breakdown of the 5 conqueror's civs and how they've changed. Especially Koreans with their 11 range SO and their identity as a tower civ
I cannot express just how much the evolution of the different civilizations as you started with these, begins to paint a picture of the amount of care that went into keeping the game as balanced as possible over the years. To me, seeing the throwing axeman frame delay reduction opened up a whole part of the game I hadn't even taken into consideration. Its a behind the scenes look that contextualizes what I would consider the minutest of details having a large effect on the overall game. Would LOVE to see all the civilizational changes through the years.
I think you forgot the recent buff to the Woad Raider in Castle Age. Otherwise, pretty interesting video!
As an OG player, PLEASE continue this series! I love it
I've been playing this game for over 20 years now.... although I was way too young to understand "the meta" when I was kid. I didn't even know such a concept existed, I just played with civs I thought were cool.
It's really interesting to see the evolution and general perception of each civ over the years.
This is a great idea. I hope to see more vids like this.
what a great reminder of how much the game has changed in more than 2 decades of play!
it'd be cool to see a look at every expansion set that was released over the years
I really enjoy this kind of breakdown.
When I was in elementary school I first got introduced to AOE2 with Age of Conquerors on my friend's "high-end" computer at the time. I remember he invited me over a few times to watch me play against the AI. We had no idea what civ bonuses were so we were surprised when certain units from different civs had died sooner than expected. Thinking in particular about Japanese melee stomping my melee and me angrily responding with mass onagers. So yes, a miniseries covering the perceptions and changes of the older civs is greatly appreciated. Love your content and appreciate what you do. Glad to see you're still at it.
Interesting to see how Celts doesn't change that much
Definitely will love this as a new series!
AoE2 so loved, even after 22 years still getting updates, new contents. No other games can be like AoE2
Been playing this game for 18 years and I forgot all of those changes. It is an interesting topic to cover so I'm interested in future videos about other civs. Great work
Yeah, I'll be waiting for the video where you talk about: teutons "yata-lock" only veterans will know what I mean
Ah the +5 range TCs right? Even more op than Persian Douche.
"Video [...] on an unusal topic" - that is exactly why I watch this channel.
when I played AoK, I use to play celts as a cavalry/siege civ, because before they added bloodlines they had fully upgraded stable units. So I would say they have gone though a lot of changes
For what I can remember, Celtic cavalry never had Plate Barding, even in AOK.
@@robfbms its true, but back in age of kings, missing last armor on paladins was not much big deal because of no one had access to halbs and thumb ring (and no bloodlines for anyone ofc). so both byzantine and celt paladins were viable although not the best ones
@@denizumut1 I agree 🙂
Been a hot minute since I heard the word "monotonically", and of course used properly. This is a great video and I smell the potential for a great series of videos as well.
It was quite a ride for the Franks. As a kid, playing AoK, the Joan of Arc campaign was only beatable because you could send hordes of knights and then paladins to the Briton foes, and that was it. No point in their extra range if their arrows did nothing to your buffed up cavalry. All you had to do was get a solid economy going. Even the after mission cutscenes stated that it was the way to go.
Even when you played in the Saladin campaign as the Saracens you dreaded Frankish knights, and on the last mission you felt the pain you put the AI in, having to deal with 192HP paladins with... Arrows. Mamelukes were too expensive, so they fought from the other side of the wall 🤣
But then everyone and their momma got Bloodlines and that was it, they became worse than the Persians. At this point in time I wouldn't be surprised if the devs decided to give the Franks Bloodlines just to return to the OG status quo, considering how many choices there are to countering them. Maybe have their +20HP kick off from Castle Age to offset that? It'd be amusing to revive the good old days when people saw Franks and frantically began stockpiling pikes, towers, castles and walls, throwing everything and the kitchen sink just to stop a 212HP roided up behemoth
franks paladins are still fine they might not be that special anymore, but as you see in the winrate, franks are still one of the best civs. they are more balanced now than before
@@MrTerapak still, if they were introduced as dlc today, they would have made their paladin more unique
Having watched your videos in a while due to not playing so much anymore but quickly clicked for this one. It appeals to the nostalgic feelings.
Spirit, I find that stationary units sometimes automatically move out of the way of moving units if it is really crowded. Any idea why that is? Also why does unloading 20 units from a transport sometimes seem to form a long snaking line of units rather than a clump of units around the transport?
This sort of series would offer a perspective into the evolution of competitive games that we rarely get, even with games old enough to have videos like this exist. It's a good idea.
Ah the good old days, everything was so simple and excellent, the way they developed it was just so futuristic and all.
I love this idea, and I would love to see it become a series, not only for the original civilisations but also for the ones that came later on and got changed through the years. One suggestion I would like to make is to show civilisation bonuses side by side as they got changed with every expansion so that we can observe and compare them by pausing the video or something.
Love your work. Cheers!
This also highlights why halberdiers feel so OP. They were originally intended to counter Frankish paladins. Well not every civ has Frankish paladins and as such suffer the consequences even more than Franks. Halbs crush any other cav unit...a little too much imo. I think they can tone down the bonus damage of halberdiers slightly because Frankish paladins are no longer the beasts they once were.
Paladin spammer identified ;)
I would absolutely love to see this as a regular series.
Yaayyy!! I can't wait to see your excitement when reviewing japaneses' changes through time 👍
Make this a series. As someone who started playing in probably around 1999, this was cool to see.
4:46 Hey, that's me. Time to ring up my mum, I'm in a Spirit of the Law video again!
This very interesting to me as someone who is more of a casual player but has played the game since the early 00s. I find the commentary of the logic of the devs interesting and would like to see more of these videos.
HOW do you make numbers so interesting??
Please please please do mini series. I loved this.
It would be great to see this as a series. One suggestion would be to show the different expansion/graphics being played as you talk about them. Would be awesome to see the difference in graphics over time as we learn about the stat changes!
I'd love this as a series. I think many will because most of us played the early AOK as kids and came back for HD or even DE. Hits the right spot.
What an excellent idea by SOTL to do a summary of all the changes to the original CIVs over the year! I hope this becaomes a series. (PS: Bring back the intro please)
This is a very interesting concept I've been playing AoE (both 1 with rise of Rome expansion and 2 age of kings) since 2003 and in 2006 I got conquerors I've been playing on off to this day and it really brings into perspective just how much of the original ideas were kept or were changed... Keep it going man it's a great concept
Can't speak for anyone else, but I'd love to see more of this. I started with AoC back in the early 00's, but I didn't pay attention to the competitive scene until I picked it back up 5-6 years ago (around RotR). It's really interesting to see the changes that happened while I was away, and how the community saw the different civs.
Just the other day I was considering rebooting up my old discs for the original age of kings just to revisit the original civs but didn’t cause I didn’t want to deal with the old logic and AI. This really itches my curiosity! Thanks for this mini series
I support the series idea!
Also, I liked that the first 3 civilizations you covered were the first main civilizations for the campaings in Age Of Kings.
I really like the idea of being a series. You should do it.
You could also address other things like "what changes should be done and werent, or changes you would like to see - in order for the civ to have a better identity"
The background gameplay really brought me back. Those graphics man
I like the concept of this series. Always fun to revisit the evolution of a long standing game. Looking forward to the next round.
Please do make this a series to be honest, I LOVE this stuff. I especially love how you use footage from the old games just to really drive home how much things have changed, this is wonderful
SOTL has really been on top of the new expac with quick takes + i think some civ reviews and now this. keep it up man it's very entertaining to watch!
Id love for this to become its own series! Please continue!
This was super interesting. Brought back memories of me hijacking my sister’s copy as a kid.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I would love to see this series continued. I remember playing on Age of Kings and having to research specific technologies for gunpowder units on top of having to research Chemistry. Like you mentioned in your video, The Conquerors came out very soon after Age of Kings, so I would even enjoy seeing The Conqueror civs (Huns, Aztecs, Mayans, Spanish, Koreans) get their own episode.
This should definitely become a series, loved the video!
There is something beautiful about the old, crisp graphics
Really happy that Mamelukes don't take bonus damage from skirms anymore, but kind of sad the cav archers lost their bonus damage against buildings. That was a fun bonus because they could bust down walls for some quick raiding...
What a walk through memory lane.
I love Spirit revisiting the old civs and their evolution!
I've been playing the game since 2000, so this vid was perfect for me. I had forgotten about a lot of the things mentioned.
I love this 'history of' genre of videos. Hopefully this one picks up steam!
I love the concept here. Please do continue and cover the rest of the civilizations. Keep doing good work Spirit!
Loved it! Started playing as little kid in 1999, would love to see all the detailed changes over the years per civ
I would like this to become a series too. Always interesting to see how civs have changed over 2 decades.
I still have my original Manitoba for aoe and aoe2. I love looking at them and reading the history on the civilisations. I am so happy I've fallen back in love with this game and even though I only okay over versus ai I digest aoe2 content like water when I get a fix for it.
Keep up the amazing videos and I'd love to see this become the series you mentioned thinking about.
I’ve been waiting for this concept without even realizing it. Amazing vid! Would love to see more!
It has been a long time since I've seen the old animations...
AoE2 has come a long way
I stop playing 5 years ago and I love your videos.
I think this is how people that like sports fell😆
This is a great video! My friend and I have been talking about how unique Age of Empires 2 is because it has 20 years of design behind it. Please do the rest of the civs I love to how they have evolved (or not) over time
What a great idea for a new series. Looking forward to (hopefully) seeing more of these videos!
I appreciate all the research to make this video. Well done SOTL.
I would love to see a general "evolution of the meta" video where you go over the development of strats and build orders over these last 23 years
Such a great renaissance of your content with this expansion. All the videos recently have been on point.
Hi Spirit, great content, keep it coming! Its really nice to see the change over the years from where AoE2 came from up till now. My love for the game is not only about the strats and actions but also for the style and history. I was thirteen when the game came out and I have never really stopped playing. thank you for all the content so far and this comment is to get your inters score up in the youtube algorithm and a first thank you from a longtime fan of your content. Keep it up man, and thank you for all your work!
I remember playing this game as a seven year old in 2000. My brother bought the game and we had an old book with all the civs and tech trees. I still remember thinking byzantines was the best civ because they had the most techs. Seeing this makes it so goddamn nostalgic. Amazing how such an old game has developed over the years and i still f'ing love it.
Very nice idea for a series! I started playing only at DE, but I find it very interesting to see how the civs changed over the years
This really is super interesting. I played AoK when it came out as a kid, but never competitive in any way. So seeing how the game developed over the years until it atleast reached the state I started actually learning about the game is definetly an interesting journey to follow!
Great video. Of course we want to see more! You make the game interesting in many novel ways. If you make more of these, I can assure you that we will watch every last one.
Please do more! I've been around AoE2 from the beginning but your concise summeries point out many very interesting things that I had forgotten about.
Yes please. Miniseries please.
loved it! playing AgeII since 1999 this really gave me some nostalgia vibes
I wasn't going to comment, but I was the 1999th viewer of this. Given the year of the game's release, it must be a sign! I think you should continue this series as it's quite interesting.