Just curious, english is that good faction?

[Raja Eru Gaming]

so far i play a match people often use english with the same tactic massing longbow man
it not that hard to deal with but just curious they using it to often?

[Harris]

I main English, and.. well, they're nowhere near being OP.

They have a single unique unit, which is longbowmen - essentially archers with some bells and whistles. They get bonus damage against light infantry, which is spearmen and HRE landsknehts. They are okay against anything doesn't come with a lot of armor - other archers and crossbowmen (French aside), and light cavalry. Also, villagers. Paradoxically, the unique unit of a civ that's supposed to be about turtling is only/especially good at early raiding and harrassment.

You can use longbowmen effectively to apply early pressure. But men at arms and knights will wipe you from existence, you barely deal any damage to buildings so need rams to make it working. In other words - basing your army solely around longbowmen is a bad idea - it makes you vulnerable, predictable, and limits your options.

I am playing English primarily because of how comfortable and straightforward their economy is. I can build some cheap farms and have no need to chase those sheep and deer around the map, so ways less micro every time. Imperial age gives me enclosures, letting me double my mills as gold mines - for the same amount of vills. Also, this gives an infinite supply of gold without any gimmicky tricks like market, trading and such.

Thus, I feel that English should focus on gold units, rather than wood units. I tend to go men at arms as English, as they're available early, non-meta, get a unique upgrade of 2 melee and 2 ranged armor, which is huge for an already durable unit. Maa are generalists - you can go up against anything with them, even buildings. And to counter them, enemy needs to get either crossbowmen (who ever builds those?) or mangonels. As for siege units, the only bonus English get are towards trebuchets, which does not make them any better. So I tend to use bombards, and largely avoid siege units otherwise.

This also means I tend to build Abbey of Kings lately rather than Council Hall. You can easily build two archery ranges should you need them, but a powerful mass healing is something you can't really get at this point in the game, and something very useful when your units are sturdy like men at arms and tend to survive combat more often than not.

Also of note are English's defensive abilities. Double arrows from TC and vills that are able to kill scouts with their shortbows. It disables early rushes against them and gives you more room for mistakes.

All in all, a good civ for a newbie or someone who likes their games comfortable and with as little hassle as possible.

[Elriadon]

They do it because it's easy. French are even easier.

[cofigabo]

@Harris i play English too with not too bad success. Main problem is against French. How do you play them against French? Personally mix with longbow and piquemen but defensively. But it is hard to contain full French cav as the game is moving forward

[Dayve]

They're a defensive civ that can be good at early raiding with longbows. As with all defensive civs they're never going to compete at the top spot because you don't win games by defending, you win by attacking.

[Harris]

Originally posted by Dayve:

you don't win games by defending, you win by attacking.

That's the problem of all RTS. If you build keeps I build cannons. I blow your keeps and I'm left with my cannons, while you're left with nothing.

This makes English stuck in a weird spot. They're not exactly a defensive civ. And that early longbow rush doesn't exactly make them an offensive civ either. You can't kill buildings with a bow. Neither do longbows scale well into late game, when everyone use either gold units or siege units, both very resistant to missiles.

Originally posted by AliD:

How do you play them against French?

Throw longbowmen out of the window right away and do what you can to survive that combination of strong economy and powerful knights. Every trick in the book goes - from hiding behind a stone wall to getting the Wololottery achievement by converting 25 knights at once (lmao). You'll find that even spearmen aren't good enough, so you'll be reliant on your men at arms to tank once again.

But let's get serious though - if the French player is competent, we're doomed :)

In all honesty, against a regular, not very good player, a HORDE of men at arms, supported by some longbows and some cannons was all I ever needed to win. I'd say the key upgrades for English are Armor Clad (Age III) and Enclosures (Age IV). Meaning they work best when they hide behind their stone wall and allowed to boom. This works surprisingly well in team games.

[Nick Papagiorgio]

I dig playing as the Abbasid faction because towards the end of the game I have countless lads and too many monies and camels

[Harris]

English do get a good late-game economy with +30% to mills gathering speed and free gold from said mills, but the trick is getting there.

French get faster vills production with every age, Abbasids get vills for half the cost from age II, Mongols can train double vills with stone, Chinese also get some dynasty bonus. To compensate, English must get a second TC or King's Palace.

I feel they play and progress more naturaly in team games - their whole economy and upgrades are geared up well for building up a late-game force. In 1v1 however they kinda need that longbow rush to somewhat disrupt their enemy, then hide behind a stone wall and boom while the enemy regains strength.

[Raja Eru Gaming]

i mainly focus on abbasid faction
but it true longbowmen good for early age raiding it hit hard but on late i still meet player still massing that only LOL i deal only with catapul it all done

[Grey]

English have an extremely good economy throughout all ages, as well as insane buffs for turtle strategies involving their bows, walls, towers and castles.

Spamming Longbows, men-at-arms and stone walls while going for the wonder victory seems like the thing to do. Idk if that's what your opponents have been going for though. Could just be players new to RTS and derping around for all we know.

[Raja Eru Gaming]

Originally posted by Grey:

English have an extremely good economy throughout all ages, as well as insane buffs for turtle strategies involving their bows, walls, towers and castles.

Spamming Longbows, men-at-arms and stone walls while going for the wonder victory seems like the thing to do. Idk if that's what your opponents have been going for though. Could just be players new to RTS and derping around for all we know.

yeah maybe you right, maybe if the ranked are open we meet more various strategic player

[TsudaTumiko]

They are OP, there is no way you can harass an English player, they landmark castles is also OP, it has a MG42 firing continuously and if you don't detect the long bow rush early is gg