LogFAQs > #953179503

In Age of Empires II, the third Genghis Khan scenario continues to frustrate me while I lack the interest in other campaigns (want to try the civilizations first in Skirmish mode). In the meantime I tried out the Koreans, Incas, and Malians, and only the middle one of them really stood out to me due to their houses granted additional population capacity compared to those of other civilizations (yet I didn't enjoy using the Huns' lack of need for houses. Maybe I was just not in the right mood when using them?). In all three test games I just mounted some raids with swordsmen and archers in the Feudal Age before upgrading them in the early Castle Age and building a big enough army to overrun my foes (still just playing 1v1s), with me winning too early to reach the Imperial Age (except as Korea since they're a bit of a late bloomer civ) or make much use of each civilization's unique unit (though I did build a few War Wagons as Korea).

Come to think of it, the reason I picked those three civilizations specifically was because of a series of Civ4 AI Survivor games run by Sullla on Twitch where all three of them have distinguished themselves in some way - the Incas and Malians for being among the best performers and the Koreans for their tendency to troll other civilizations and even the viewing audience. I made a list of civilizations I want to try out based on a number of factors (for one thing I set a requirement to watch SpiritOfTheLaw's overview videos of each civ, so the Byzantines, Berbers, and Burmese are left out for the time being), so here's the remaining:

1) Goths
2) Bulgarians
3) Spanish
4) Portuguese
5) Chinese
6) Magyars
7) Turks
8) Slavs
9) Teutons
10) Persians
11) Cumans
12) Vietnamese
13) Aztecs
14) Mayans
15) Saracens
16) Lithuanians
17) Italians
18) Franks

And the ranking of the civilizations I have tried out based on how much I liked playing as them:

1) Mongols
2) Indians
3) Japanese
4) Celts
5) Khmer
6) Vikings
7) Incas
8) Britons
9) Tatars
10) Ethiopians
11) Huns
12) Koreans
13) Malians
14) Malay

Somewhat dreading playing as the Goths since I wasn't a big fan of the two "Spammer" factions I tried out so far (Huns and Malay). I think some interest I had in the era of the Fall of Rome was the reason the Huns and Goths ranked as high as they did, with the former initially taking precedence because, uh, the concept of all these horse-riding steppe nomads and their impact on the "civilized" world intrigues me? I think my problem with the Huns is that they just feel like a generic horse nomad civ to me and don't have much of an identity of their own, which I suppose is kind of appropriate given how they sort of just disappeared without much of a trace but doesn't really make them fun to use, at least compared to the Mongols. Also the Huns are a tiny bit out of place in AoE2 given the game's otherwise focus on the middle ages, though the barbarian incursions they caused no doubt played an important part in shaping Europe for the next millennium or so.

Speaking of civilizations I like historically, my all-time favorite games of Civ4 I played were as the Persians, Greeks, and Egyptians, so maybe ancient history appeals more to me? Just to add, the only two games of Civ5 I could bring myself to finish were as the Huns and Zulus, which only the latter being all that enjoyable. Most of the time I try to play Civ5 I just get bored of it, not that it's all that bad of a game or anything. Just one that feels lacking in meaningful choices compared to its predecessor to me.

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