CBA Civilization Guide

This guide will try to cover the most relevant aspects of the civilizations you can get while playing in CBA: strenghts and weaknesses of the basic units, razes needed to get villagers, kills needed to advance through ages, best units to produce (once you get villagers) and basic strategies. I will try not to look into the details of walling, technologies, diversions, deleting, feeding, farming and that kind of stuff, as this guide will be twice as long as it is now.
Hope this will help players to use their given civilizations better.
When you know who you are strong against, its easier to win! :D

BASIC RULES OF CBA

- All players must set their civs to random
- Works only with team configuration 1111 vs 2222 (Newer versions of the scenario will auto fix teams)
- Deleting any of your 3 front gates or 4 initial towers will get you kicked instantly (any other building given or built can be deleted)
- You need to destroy enemy buildings (raze) in order to get villagers (number depends on which civ you are playing)

1 - AZTECS

- Basic unit: Jaguar Warrior
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 250
- Imperial Age: 400

- Strong against: Infantry (Malay, Goths, Vikings, Celts, Incas, Teutons, Ethiopians...)
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Archers (Britons, Mayans, Koreans...) and Gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish, Portuguese)

- Best units: Arbalest, Eagle Warrior

- Strategy: Pretty devastating against any other infantry civ, except for japanese (but can be fought as well if there is no other counter for them in your team). There will be no problem to get your razes. When reaching imperial, and based on which units your enemies are creating, you should decide to go arbalests or eagles, for the main bulk of your army. If enemy is making melee cavalry you should counter them with pikemen (they have +8 attack bonus) or arbalests. If enemy is making archers instead you should go for eagles, which are a pretty decent counter. If you are playing against persians you should consider making some monks as well, as their HP bonus can allow you to convert elephants with ease.

2 - BERBERS

- Basic unit: Camel Archer
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Cavalry archers (Koreans, Mongols, Indians, Burmese...), infantry
- Weak against: Saracens, Goths, Incas, Italians, Spanish

- Best units: Camel, Hand Cannoneer, Genitour

- Strategy: If you are fighting against a team with cavalry archers go to their base and try to farm kills as much as possible while your teammates set a raze for you. If nobody can set one raze for you usually its better to keep farming kills until castle or imperial age because razing will be easier.
When reaching imperial, and depending on the units your enemies make, you should go for ranged units if they are making archers (you can counter them with genitours), and only go camels if your enemy is making melee cavalry. Camels are quite expensive and very vulnerable against ranged units. Although berber camels can regenerate HP over time, i think its a gold waste and overall not worthy to confront them to ranged units.

3 - BRITONS

- Basic unit: Longbowman
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Infantry (Celts, Teutons, Franks...), Light cavalry archers (Berbers, Mongols, Saracens...)
- Weak against: Goths, Vietnamese, Mayans, Huns, Indians, Malay, Spanish, Koreans

- Best units: Arbalest, Tower

- Strategy: You should never go raze yourself on the start. Britons need a single raze to be set for them. The best you can do is defend your base and your team's from incoming attacks, while they set for you. Be ready to raze as soon as it is set because the briton player usually gets the first raze always (you can use your teammates units to get some cover while you raze). You should produce crossbowmen as soon as possible, and once you reach imperial you should produce arbalests massively, as their +6 range bonus can overwhelm your enemies quite fast. It is important that you build some stables as well, to protect you against the rams the enemy will surely send against you.
When fully upgraded, briton's towers deal considerable damage, so they can be an option for defense if you manage to build a group of them.

4 - BURMESE

- Basic unit: Arambai
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Clumped units (Any civ), Buildings
- Weak against: Archers (Britons, Chinese, Koreans...), Saracens, Incas, Italians, Turks

- Best units: Cavalier, Champion

- Strategy: This civilization is quite easy to raze with, so you can get your villagers quite soon and set razes for your teammates as well. Arambai are quite strong, but they are very innacurate so they perform at their best against clumped units. Once you get your villagers you can help your team to defend and build kills while you get to imperial, where you should produce cavaliers. They get +6 attack bonus against buildings (as well as the arambai) so they can be devastating against a non walled enemy or anyone who likes to build outside his base. The extra attack bonus of the burmese infantry makes it another interesting option to consider.

5 - BYZANTINES

- Basic unit: Cataphract
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: All Infantry (Goths, Celts, Aztecs, Incas, Ethiopians, Teutons, Vikings, Malay...)
- Weak against: Japanese, Slavs, Persians, Turks

- Best units: Paladin, Hand Cannoneer

- Strategy: Pretty few people seem to know this, but no other civilization (except for japanese) has any attack bonus against cataphracts. Incas, saracens and italians will struggle against byzantines so its best to attack them as they usually suppose a big threat to any teammate that has cavalry as their basic unit. If these civilizations can be countered by your team, then you should focus on any other enemy infantry civ. Its pretty easy to build kills and get to imperial fast (if you farm against an infantry player). Then you should produce paladins or hand cannoneers instead if there is enough melee cavalry on your team.

6 - CELTS

- Basic unit: Woad Raider
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 250
- Imperial Age: 400

- Strong against: Light cavalry (Magyars, Burmese...), Light infantry (Malay, Goths...), Buildings
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Slavs, Teutons, Aztecs, Archers (Britons, Koreans...), Gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish, Portuguese)

- Best units: Paladin, Ram, Tower

- Strategy: These guys are fast and have atack bonus vs buildings, so you should try to set razes for your teammates if they need it (britons, mayans, vietnamese…). If you are facing persians, huns or goths you should raze one of their front gates fast and then rush their castles. Taking advantage of celt's speed, make a big group of units and keep pressure on their castles, as this will buy your team some time to raze theirselves. Once imperial is reached you should make paladins. If your enemies are making archers it is best to make rams, as they have massive health bonus and can destroy bases quite fast and give your paladins some cover from arrows as well.
Their towers can shoot +20% faster once the unique technology is researched and can be fully upgraded, so if you have enough villagers its a good idea to reinforce your base with some towers.

7 - CHINESE

- Basic unit: Chu Ko Nu
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 250
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Celts, Franks, Saracens, Teutons
- Weak against: Goths, Vietnamese, Mayans, Huns, Indians, Koreans

- Best units: Cavalier, Arbalest, Ram

- Strategy: If you make a large group of units you can get your razes quite fast, but usually its better to defend yourself and your teammates while they raze. In castle age chinese have HP bonus on their walls and gates, so they are the best option to wall other players (goths, persians, magyars). Keep an eye on your mates and see if they need walling. If you get to imperial without razing dont worry too much, as these guys get attack bonus vs buildings on imperial. Then you can ask your teammates for support while you raze. Once on imperial you should make cavaliers or arbalests depending on the units the enemy is making, but dont expect too much of them as they are quite average.

8 - ETHIOPIANS

- Basic unit: Shotel Warrior
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: Already start on Castle Age
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Infantry (Goths, Celts, Malay...), Archers (Britons, Mayans), Buildings
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Aztecs, Gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish)

- Best units: Arbalest, Ram

- Strategy: The extremely high attack of the shotel warrior makes him a great unit for razing, but they are very weak as well. They are fearsome when rushing enemy castles in large numbers. They start on castle age and have 1+2 pierce armor, so they like to fight archers or non armored units the most. If nobody in your team needs your help, get your razes fast and start producing crossbowmen as soon as possible, which can be fully upgraded once you reach imperial age. Archer line of units fires +15% faster so take this in consideration. If facing persians, huns or goths you should use the same strategy as celts and rush their castles asap.
Ethiopian siege rams have an impressive area of effect, so count on them as well.

9 - FRANKS

- Basic unit: Throwing Axeman
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 250
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Elephants (Khmer, Indians, Persians), Light cavalry (Magyars), Light infantry (Malay, Ethiopians), Buildings
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Slavs, Teutons, Aztecs, Archers (Britons, Mayans, Koreans...), Gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish, Portuguese)

- Best units: Paladin

- Strategy: Axemans can raze quite fast due to their bonus vs buildings (try to send large groups). Raze preferably against infantry civs, as archers can decimate your guys severely before you can finish your job. Be extremely cautious when facing teutons or slavs, as you have absolutely no counter to stop them (ask your allies for help). Franks are fearsome in late game, because if they get villagers it means a non-stop spam of paladins. Notice as well that their stables work 40% faster and their fully upgraded paladins get HP bonus too, so they can face anyone. One important factor you must remember is that gold will be scarce when you start to make paladins. Many frank players spam and send them against camels or halberdiers, burning their gold reserves quickly and not getting any significative advantage, so keep this in your mind... ¡resource management!

10 - GOTHS

- Basic unit: Huskarl
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: All Archers (Britons, Mayans, Vietnamese, Italians, Indians, Berbers, Mongols, Koreans), Buildings
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Teutons, Ethiopians, Celts, Huns, Slavs, Aztecs

- Best units: Huskarl, Halberdier

- Strategy: This is a very special civilization, as it requires some specific strategy. You should apply pressure to enemy archer civs (specially the ones that only need one raze) as soon as possible. Even sending 8 man squads will work perfectly and will buy you all some time to raze. You will probably be the first objective of the enemy and you should always ask for help defending your base, as goths job is cancelling archer civs more than trying to defend their own base. If you have managed to get villagers, build 2 barracks on the sides of your castles to block incoming attacks, because goths cant build stone walls. You should ask your team for walling as soon as possible (noob tip: dont build palisade gates!! they are free razes for the enemy!!). You can build towers and use them as if they were stone walls (but beware of enemy razing them). If your base is defended, then you can go and rush enemy castles. Once on imperial you should make either huskarls against archers (you can build them in barracks too) or halberdiers against cavalry.

11 - HUNS

- Basic unit: Tarkan
- Razes: 5
- Castle Age: 200
- Imperial Age: 400

- Strong against: Buildings, Archers (Britons, Mayans, Indians, Koreans, Berbers, Mongols, Vietnamese…)
- Weak against: Japanese, Teutons, Vikings, Saracens, Incas, Italians

- Best units: Paladin

- Strategy: Another special civilization, just as goths. Extreme-offense applies for them. Ask for help defending as soon as possible, as you will be priority number one for the enemy team. The playstyle is quite similar, rushing enemy castles as soon as possible. It is best to forget about killing any units and focusing only on opening all enemy bases. Once this objective is accomplished they wont know where you are going to attack, so if they are smart they will keep some troops in their bases to prevent you from rushing them. Needless to say that this is invaluable for your team, as it will make razing or defending much easier for them.
Try to make a diversion sending a few units to one base and then sending the large army into another one (preferably archers or non defended ones).
Due to the high number of razes required, it is best to raze only the neccesary front gates to open enemy bases, and leave the rest to your teammates. You will be able to get the rest of your razes easily from towers or castles. Once on imperial you can keep making tarkans on stables (if there are many enemy archers or exposed buildings) but usually its better to make paladins only.

12 - INCAS

- Basic unit: Kamayuk
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: 250
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: All cavalry (Persians, Huns, Magyars, Slavs, Berbers, Koreans, Khmer, Indians, Mongols, Burmese...)
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Aztecs, Teutons, Malians

- Best units: Arbalest, Eagle Warrior, Slinger.

- Strategy: Inca player can counter any melee cavalry with ease. They can fight ranged cavalry as well, but your casualties will be higher (beware of byzantines as you wont have bonus against them). They have the only ranged melee unit in the game,so they perform extremely well when clumped and in large numbers. Best strategy is to find an enemy cavalry civ and attack his gates with one group of kamayuks while killing incoming units with another group of them. Incas have some good options once in imperial age: eagles and kamayuks have immense pierce armor, so they can fight archers very well. Eagles are vulnerable to melee units so consider replacing them with arbalests if you are fighting cavalry or slingers if fighting infantry.
If there are persians or huns on the enemy team you should make them your primary objective, and apply pressure to them from the very start (their gates are quite weak as well, so you if you have the odds in your favour you can get your raze fast)

13 - INDIANS

- Basic unit: Elephant Archer
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Archers (Britons, Mayans, Mongols, Chinese), Buildings
- Weak against: Japanese, Incas, Saracens, Italians, Malay, Vikings, Huns

- Best units: Imperial Camel, Hand Cannoneer, Cavalry Archer

- Strategy: Elephant archers have a hidden bonus against buildings, and this can make razing quite easy when they fight in large numbers. One effective way to play them is sending them to farm on one enemy archer base. They endure arrows extremely well, and your enemy will be forced to ask for help. You can even send elephants to a base and forget about them while they build kills. Despite their slowness, they have high pierce armor, HP, and attack bonus vs buildings that allows them to rush castles if needed (only in large numbers). Once in imperial you can get elephants with 3+6 pierce armor (when parthian tactics and ring armor are researched) so consider this if you are struggling against britons or mayans. Best unit without any doubt is the imperial camel, and this is what you should be producing massively unless the enemy doesnt make cavalry. In that case you should make hand cannoneers, as their +1 range bonus makes them quite powerful.

14 - ITALIANS

- Basic unit: Genoese Crossbowman
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: All cavalry (Persians, Huns, Magyars, Slavs, Berbers, Koreans, Khmer, Indians, Mongols, Burmese...)
- Weak against: Vietnamese, Goths, Malay, Mayans, Ethiopians, Vikings

- Best units: Arbalest

- Strategy: Quite similar to britons, they will have a hard time razing themselves, so it is best to use the same strategy and protect your team while they set a raze for you. Your objective once you get villagers is either defend your team against enemy cavalry or pressure cavalry civs if your team is not in danger. You should make persians, huns and khmer your primary targets from the very beggining, and defend your allies against them or attack their bases directly.
Once in imperial you should make arbalests only, as their extra +1 pierce armor bonus makes them able to withstand enemy archers. Remember that they are very ram-vulnerable as well, so build some stables too.

15 - JAPANESE

- Basic unit: Samurai
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: All units (Specially non ranged civs), Buildings
- Weak against: Byzantines, Aztecs, Khmer, Archers (Britons, Koreans, Mongols...), Gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish, Portuguese)

- Best units: Cavalry Archer, Hand Cannoneer, Champion, Halberdier, Tower

- Strategy: They have attack bonus against all unique units (except for khmer battle elephant, which is not considered a unique unit), so you can send them against anyone. Its better to avoid ranged civs, because although samurais can kill them as well, they will suffer a lot of casualties.
If there are persians, huns or goths in the enemy team, and if your teammates cannot counter them, its a good idea to send a few samurais to each of the bases of your team to defend them against rushes. They dont stand out in imperial age, but cavalry archers can be fully upgraded and will perform well. Consider making halberdiers or champions if the enemy makes cavalry because japanese get +25% swing rate for infantry. Their towers are very strong (they can rival even korean's) so keep this in mind. If you manage to build a large group of them they will suppose a great threat to the enemy due to the extra arrows they fire.

16 - KHMER

- Basic unit: Battle Elephant
- Razes: 4
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Light infantry (Malay, Goths, Celts...), Archers (Britons, Mayans, Vietnamese, Chinese….), Buildings
- Weak against: Saracens, Incas, Italians

- Best units: Cavalry Archer, Hand Cannoneer, Cavalier

- Strategy: Although you can consider them a surrogate for persians, they are faster in early ages and this allows them to be more unpredictable. They can raze and build kills with ease (when facing the correct enemy). They are able to make powerful rushes against castles too. Avoid anti-cavalry civs at all costs. Try not to raze more than necessary and set for your allies instead.
It is best to produce cavaliers or cavalry archers depending on the units the enemy is making. You can keep using battle elephants as well if you managed to defend all your castles (they are quite powerful when fully upgraded)

17 - KOREANS

- Basic unit: War Wagon
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Archers (Britons, Mayans, Mongols...), Teutons, Franks, Aztecs, Portuguese, Malians, Buildings
- Weak against: Saracens, Incas, Italians, Berbers

- Best units: Hand Cannoneer, Tower

- Strategy: Their fast movement speed, high attack, HP and pierce armor makes them a serious threat to the enemy on the early ages. They can raze anywhere fast, and will be hard for your enemies to defend against. Their huge size allows them to body-block damaged gates to prevent the enemy from razing. Their raze requirements are quite low in my opinion, so you can get villagers fast and wall your mates if they are being focused. The extra fortiying speed they get helps with this as well. They dont have any powerful unit on imperial age, being the hand cannoneer the best option to use. Their cavaliers and infantry cannot be fully upgraded, so their biggest weakness is a ram attack. Build some barracks/stables to compensate for this (although you will surely still have to ask for help). Their fully upgraded towers get +13 range in total and can be built pretty fast, so they make a powerful defense to rely on.

18 - MAGYARS

- Basic unit: Magyar Huszar
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: Already start on Castle Age
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Archers (Britons, Vietnamese, Mayans, Berbers, Indians), Siege Weapons (Portuguese)
- Weak against: Japanese, Saracens, Incas, Italians, Teutons, Slavs

- Best units: Paladin, Cavalry Archer

- Strategy: You should try to raze yourself asap (ie: against an archer civ) or be set by your allies. Be careful against incas, saracens or italians, as they will try to farm on you.
Your gates are quite weak so the enemy may try to focus on you to let their 1-raze civs get villagers.
Once you get villagers and taking advantage of the castle age already researched, you should start producing knights and cavalry archers, as you will be able to fully upgrade them once on imperial age. They represent a force to be reckoned due to the mixture of paladins and cavalry archers (who get +1 range and +1 attack). Try to build kills against archers to get to imperial age fast.

19 - MALAY

- Basic unit: Karambit Warrior
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: Already start on Castle Age
- Imperial Age: 300

- Strong against: Archers (Indians, Britons, Mayans, Vietnamese, Berbers, Koreans, Mongols, Italians...)
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Aztecs, Teutons, Ethiopians, Malians, gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish)

- Best units: Arbalest, Two-Handed Swordsman

- Strategy: They are similar to goths but at the same time different. They perform well against archers, although they dont have any damage bonus againt them. They also dont have any bonus against buildings but their massive numbers can compensate for this and you can get your single raze fast. Karambit warriors are particularly effective against indians, because elephant archers can only deal 1hp per arrow to them.
Many civs will try to farm on you because karambit warriors are extremely weak against melee, so be ready to ask for help.
In contrast to goths, they can wall theirselves, so once you get villagers you can be more or less safe. As they already start in castle age, its best to start producing crossbowmen asap. Another option is the two-handed swordsman, who will cost you no gold to produce. This will allow you to mix them with arbalest, splitting your resources effectively.

20 - MALIANS

- Basic unit: Gbeto
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Buildings, Persians, Light infantry (Goths, Malay...) and Light cavalry (Magyars, Saracens...)
- Weak against: Byzantines, Teutons, Slavs, Archers (Britons, Mayans…), Gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish)

- Best units: Camel, Cavalier, Champion, Pikeman, Hand Cannoneer

- Strategy: Probably the best razing unit in the entire game (with all due respect to the huns). Your job usually consists of setting razes for the civs in your team that needs them the most (britons, mayans, malay…). Then, due to the gbeto speed, you will be able to raze for yourself anywhere fast. Try to send large groups of units when razing or setting. Gbetos have strong attack and nice range, but they are very weak so dont try to endure in long fights. Try to attack and retreat so you dont give the enemies free kills.
Once in imperial they have a lot of great units to choose from. Camels and cavaliers get +5 attack bonus and infantry gets +3 pierce armor bonus. This allows you to make a very powerful and balanced army in the late game.

21 - MAYANS

- Basic unit: Plumed Archer
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Teutons, Saracens, Burmese, Franks, Malians, Archers (Britons, Italians, Berbers, Mongols...)
- Weak against: Goths, Vietnamese, Koreans, Huns, Indians, Malay, Persians, Khmer, Magyars

- Best units: Arbalest, Eagle Warrior

- Strategy: One badass civ if you ask me. Pretty similar to britons, but due to their speed, pierce armor and high HP they can counter most archer civs. You have 2 options to get your raze: be set by your teammates or build kills until castle age and then try to raze yourself. You should always defend your team until one of these conditions is met. Their archer line of units (but not plumed archers) have a massive damage bonus against buildings (even better than saracen cavalry archers) so they are a very interesting option if you are struggling against a very fortified opponent. Just mass arbalests and they will destroy any building in seconds. It is best to mix arbalests with eagles, as these last ones get +40 HP bonus and can deal with archers extremely well.

22 - MONGOLS

- Basic unit: Mangudai
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Infantry (Teutons, Celts, Aztecs, Japanese), Siege Weapons (Portuguese)
- Weak against: Goths, Vietnamese, Koreans, Saracens, Incas, Italians, Huns, Berbers, Britons, Mayans

- Best units: Ram, Cavalry Archer

- Strategy: Their playstyle usually consist of mid-field interception. Weakening and killing slower enemies. If you find an area poorly defended, get a large group of mangudais and raze or set there. They are fast and their attack is fine, but until bloodlines is researched they are pretty weak, so you should use guerrilla tactics and retreat when necessary.
Their cavalry archers fire +20% faster, and although they lack ring armor, its your best unit to produce. Another significative unit is the light calvalry/hussar who gets +30 HP bonus. They are cheap and can be relevant against enemy archers if you lack gold.
You should not forget your best weapon: mongol rams are like formula one cars. If you can build a large group, nobody will be able to stop them.

23 - PERSIANS

- Basic unit: War Elephant
- Razes: 4
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Almost any civilization, Buildings
- Weak against: Saracens, Incas, Italians, Malians, Franks

- Best units: Paladin, Hand Cannoneer

- Strategy: I really enjoy playing persians. They are very slow, but so powerful that they can devastate practically any other civ in the game. On the other hand they are very weak to saracens, incas and italians in the early stages of the game. Keep in mind that you will be hardly focused. Ask your teammates to protect you since the very beggining so you can unleash your elephants and set razes for them.
They need a significative amount of razes to get villagers, but they can destroy buildings so ridiculously well that it is better not to abuse razing front gates and attack towers or castles. If you send a large group of elephants against an open base it will usually mean 1-2 castles destroyed and your enemies will be forced to ask for help. Once you reach imperial you have two interesting options: either start making paladins or, if you managed to keep all your castles standing, keep using fully upgraded elephants as there will be no one able to stop them. Best counter for persians at this point is micromanaging monks to convert the elephants, so be careful and build a monastery if possible to reasearch faith.

24 - PORTUGUESE

- Basic unit: Organ Gun
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Clumped units, Infantry (Celts, Franks, Teutons), Archers (Chinese, Britons, Berbers, Italians...)
- Weak against: Mongols, Magyars, Goths, Celts, Malay, Koreans, Vikings, Vietnamese

- Best units: Hand Cannoneer, Cavalier

- Strategy: Their slow speed can make it hard for these guys to raze, but if you manage to send a decent group of them to one gate they can destroy it really fast. It is usually better to defend your team while they set for you and then ask them for cover while you raze, as portuguese are very vulnerable to mid-field interception due to their slow speed. They outstand against clumped units. You should use staggered formation against archers or incoming razing troops, as it will take full advantage of their splash damage. Clump them instead when they attack your units. Portuguese hand cannoneers are affected by balistics in imperial age, so it is their best unit without any doubt. Remember to make some cavaliers as well to protect you against rams.

25 - SARACENS

- Basic unit: Mameluke
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: All cavalry (Persians, Huns, Magyars, Slavs, Berbers, Koreans, Khmer, Indians, Mongols, Burmese, Spanish...)
- Weak against: Teutons, Incas, Italians, Britons, Byzantines, Japanese, Vikings, Mayans, Turks

- Best units: Camel, Cavalry Archer

- Strategy: Due to their mobility, they suppose the biggest threat to enemy cavalry in the entire game. When facing huns or persians, make them your first objective. Try to apply pressure on them asap to alleviate your team bases. If there are teutons on the enemy team be extremely careful. Usually the teuton player will focus the saracens, as mamelukes can only deal 1 dmg to teutonic knights. You may need to ask for help. If teutons attack you dont even bother fighting them back, go and try to get villagers asap or block the sides of your castles with mamelukes instead. If your allies dont defend your base it will be game over for you quite soon anyway.
They are quite good at razing when in large numbers.
On imperial age their cavalry archers are devastating. They can be fully upgraded, and they get +3 attack against buildings. Add this to their considerable speed and you can destroy almost any base easily and fast.
Dont forget about the camels!. They get +30 HP bonus so they are a great counter for paladins.

26 - SLAVS

- Basic unit: Boyar
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Infantry (Franks, Goths, Celts, Aztecs, Malay, Vikings...)
- Weak against: Japanese, Saracens, Incas, Italians

- Best units: Cavalier, Champion, Halberdier

- Strategy: They can raze and build kills very fast due to their high attack and huge melee armor, but only if confronting the right enemy. They can practically neutralize franks so that is the best civ you can farm kills from. They are perfect supporters for your teammates when they need help to raze. Just kill units and let your mates do the job.
They are not particularly good in the late game, as they lack strong ranged units and paladins. You should be producing cavaliers and infantry. Remarkable is the fact that their infantry gets splash damage on imperial age, so its a good option to use against enemy melee cavalry.

27 - SPANISH

- Basic unit: Conquistador
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Infantry (Teutons, Celts, Vikings, Ethiopians…), Archers (Britons, Berbers, Chinese...)
- Weak against: Goths, Saracens, Incas, Italians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Huns, Turks

- Best units: Paladin, Hand Cannoneer

- Strategy: They are very versatile: they can raze pretty fast on large numbers and they are very effective in mid-field interception. They like to fight infantry the most, but can perform great against archers too (due to their decent pierce armor). You should be aware of who in your team needs to raze and set for them first. You will be able to raze even protected gates later without any worries.
Hit-and-run tactics will work greatly with them.
If you already got villagers, help your teammates to defend because this will build you some kills as well. They are pretty strong on imperial age and the best unit they can make is the paladin, who can be fully upgraded.
Their hand cannoneers get +15% fire rate and can be really helpful alongside with paladins.

28 - TEUTONS

- Basic unit: Teutonic Knight
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 250
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Saracens, Goths, Incas, Celts, Malay, Magyars, Franks, Vikings, Buildings
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Archers (Britons, Koreans, Mongols...) and Gunpowder units (Turks, Portuguese, Spanish)

- Best units: Paladin, Hand Cannoneer

- Strategy: They are slow, but devastating. Try to send a large group into the enemy bases, as this will allow you to raze with some troops while the rest of them endure the damage. Beware of mid-field interception: spanish, mongols or berbers can easily decimate you before you can reach any base. If there are saracens on the enemy team you should make them your first priority, as they have absolute no counter for you. Open his base first and then start sending wave after wave to his castles. He will have to ask for help or he will be defeated. This will buy some time for your allies to get their razes. Stop sending if he has been reinforced with archers or gunpowder units (dont feed). Once on imperial age make paladins massively and maybe give them some support with hand cannoneers.

29 - TURKS

- Basic unit: Jannisary
- Razes: 3
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 600

- Strong against: Light cavalry (Burmese, Berbers, Mongols…), Infantry (Celts, Teutons, Aztecs, Vikings, Incas, Ethiopians...)
- Weak against: Goths, Huns, Vietnamese, Britons, Mayans, Koreans, Indians

- Best units: Cavalry Archer, Hand Cannoneer, Cavalier, Camel

- Strategy: When clumped, they can deal with any enemy, but they have a slow fire rate and they lack accuracy, so they are not invincible. Razing is usually easy for them but try to avoid archer civs when razing. Place your troops right next to the enemy gate and it will be destroyed in a blink of an eye. You should set for your mates before razing yourself, in the case they need it. Building kills is nothing special for them, but again, try not to feed enemy archers and choose infantry instead.
They are quite good on imperial age: Their cavalry archers get 100 HP total (bloodlines researched) and can be fully upgraded so they are invaluable in the late game. Hand cannoneers get +25% HP and are a great addition to the army if you are facing heavily armored units like paladins, elephants or infantry. Despite their melee cavalry is quite good in fact, they lack paladins. Cavaliers and camels can be produced instead.

30 - VIETNAMESE

- Basic unit: Rattan Archer
- Razes: 1
- Castle Age: 300
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Archers (Britons, Mayans, Italians, Berbers, Mongols, Koreans, Chinese, Portuguese, Turks)
- Weak against: Goths, Huns, Persians, Slavs, Magyars, Malians, Malay

- Best units: Arbalest, Imperial Skirmisher

- Strategy: They are an archer civ that can kill almost every other archer unit in the game. Their massive pierce armor makes farming kills quite easy against archer civs. They will need help to get their raze on the other hand. Help your teammates to defend while they set for you.
If facing britons or mayans apply pressure to them and try not to let them raze, as they only need a single one as well. If everything went correctly you should reach imperial age soon. Once there, start making arbalests if the enemy makes cavalry, but switch to imperial skirmishers if there are many enemy archers on the field. You wont have many other choices, but the +20% HP bonus for the units created in archery range can compensate for this.
Your melee units are nothing special. Although your cavaliers cannot be fully upgraded, they will still give you some protection against rams.

31 - VIKINGS

- Basic unit: Berserker
- Razes: 2
- Castle Age: Already start on Castle Age
- Imperial Age: 500

- Strong against: Archers (Mayans, Italians, Indians, Chinese….) Light cavalry (Magyars, Burmese…), Light infantry (Celts, Malay, Goths, Incas…), Buildings
- Weak against: Japanese, Byzantines, Aztecs, Teutons, Gunpowder units (Turks, Spanish, Portuguese)

- Best units: Arbalest, Champion

- Strategy: They are very versatile at the start because they can fight either archers, infantry or cavalry (they have a damage bonus vs cavalry). They start in castle age as well and this can turn the odds in your favour as you will be able to produce crossbowmen or knights sooner, once you have razed. The best use for these berserkers is castle rushing. They can destroy them pretty fast if their numbers are high enough. Nothing special to be said about their units in imperial age, as they are quite average. You will get the most profit by using arbalests, which can be fully upgraded. Their cavaliers can help a bit as well, but they lack armor. Infantry on the other hand got a significant buff since last ROR expansion, and now they get attack bonus vs cavalry as well, so champions can be useful against camels and paladins.

SOME TIPS

• You will surely need help from your teammates during the match, so be polite and ready to give them a hand when they ask you for it (defending, razing, walling…)
  
• Make your allies a signal on the minimap when you see a rush or any other significant threat.
  
• Try to watch who your partners can counter and who they cant, try to plan a global strategy with them at the beggining of the match. You all must be aware of who of you will raze first and who you will be focusing on.
  
• As soon as you get villagers you should wall yourself: backwall first, frontwall next, and then you can send a villager to wall your teammates. (There are some cases where this is not neccesary that soon; when there are no enemy melee civs that can rush your gates/castles for example)
  
• Try not to get more razes than you need, leave the rest of the razes for your teammates (Although its fine to extra-raze when any player in your team is being hardly focused and cant get out of his base to raze. You can raze again to be able to send a villager to wall them)
  
• Keep always at least one villager in your main base, as getting villagers when the map is crowded can be extremely difficult sometimes
  
• Dont focus on producing a single type of unit only. Its usually better to make a couple of buildings that can make another type (ie: dont build archery ranges only, make a couple of stables to protect you against rams)
  
• Wait until castle or imperial age before creating troops. Dont build cheap feudal units like basic archers, spearmen or scouts. They are free kills, will lower your resource pool and will allow the enemy to get to castle or imperial age faster. This can also be applied to sending basic units against civs that can counter them (ie: sending longbowmans vs goths). Remember; dont feed the enemy!
  
• Delete buildings before the enemy can get a raze from them (this even applies to castles!). The only buildings you cant delete are your 3 front gates and your 4 initial towers.
  
• Delete the gate next to your castles to destroy your entire perimeter wall, this will give your troops more space to move
  
• Try not to build outside your main base, unless you are going to permanently keep an eye on those buildings and delete them before the enemy can get a raze
  
• Try not to build inside, in front or block your teammates bases. Give them some room to organize their forces and respect their personal space

[KILLER_MANDARIN_2014]

Of course there are countless situations where one type of unit (weak in theory) can overcome the expectations and counter stronger units if properly managed. If you can imagine or have faced those situations, this guide is not for you. It wasnt made to provide players with a profound analysis or deep tactics. It's just a quickstarter guide.

By the way, sorry but i've not been able to update it lately. I hope i will in the future.
Thanks a lot again!

[KILLER_MANDARIN_2014]

Thank you all for your comments and support guys. I really appreciate it.

I'd like to point out something though, to avoid further confusion.
I've seen a lot of comments regarding very specific situations, like "X will beat Y in this scenario" or "this unit is not weak vs Z"

This guide was made with the intention to be simple and intuitive, and refers exclusively to CBA games. The things here cant be used in random games. Who is strong/weak vs who is only refering to the unique units, not the civilizations themselves. And of course, its just my personal opinion based on my own experience.
I just tried to help the people new to this mode by giving them the very basics.

[zerolun]

>Georgy
i think berbers and saracen dont have bonus on each others

[Teddy]

your guide says berbers are weak against saracen
but they both get bonus vs each other
and berber has 6 range instead of 3
or 2
berber > saracen?

[zerolun]

Scout or skirm in fuedal age never better then longbow. I had experience on using longbow vs ratten. If the player is less skillful then you, you can still win by:
1. Do runner. So he can get less kill on you.
2. Hit and run. Long bow have 1 more range then rattan.
If you hit castle age, then your longbow would have 6+4 range which will out range the rattan even more.

[okikoki]

We had 3 archer civs against the only player who was with vietnamese civ.

[okikoki]

Well it is better if you need kills.Scout cavarly or even skirm does better against rattan then longbowmen.

[zerolun]

but scout or fuedal skrim cant be better then yuor unique unit

[okikoki]

There are some exceptions when buiding feudal units is a viable option like 3 v 1 and the last remaining enemy has a good defense like rattan archers against my civ archers then i go scout cav or skirm.

[PAPA TRUMP 2020]

great guide, although i thiink you real underestimate a full on skirm rush, sure it could be easly countered but some noobs go full arbalests