What are the worst unique techs in AoE2?

hey guys spirit of the law here i recently did a list of 15 or so of the best unique texts and it led to some interesting discussion and a surprising amount of interest so for completeness sake in this video we'll look at the top 15 worst unique texts or ones that i think are pretty situational or that i rarely use for some other reason of course there's no truly useless unique tech in all cases but whether it gives a relatively small effect is fairly expensive or just doesn't fit the civilization's playstyle there's a variety of reasons a tech can end up making this list as odd as it might seem i'm also not advocating here to change any of them a civilization can be strong in different ways through sieve bonuses tech tree options or a powerful unique unit and in many cases civilizations with poor unique texts don't actually need them to be improved the main point here is that the ones i'm listing aren't automatic pickups and even if you are grabbing them it's with something special or unusual in mind i'm also picturing 800 to 1200 elo games and a different list could very well exist for expert level play so with that let's begin with the castle age unique tacks the first is the celt stronghold which makes their castles and towers fire faster right away you can see it's not an awful effect it's pretty cheap and 25 faster attack is a decent boost the issue is just that castles and to a lesser extent towers are already great at dealing damage to most units so players already try their best to avoid fighting under them instead they respond with rams bombard cannons or trebuchets which this tech doesn't really help against as a passive civ bonus i think this would be okay or for another civilization that had bracer or other tower bonuses but as something to go out of your way to research for celts it's a bit underwhelming and i think you're generally better off just spending those resources on say three extra nights in the mid game the next is the chinese great wall tech adding 30 more hit points to towers and walls this one's straightforward in principle and has another interesting defensive flavor to it but it's the stone cost that jumps out to me as stone is a particularly limited resource the 200 stone cost is enough for 40 pieces of wall which on arabia can be close to enough to build an entire second layer around your base doubling its strength rather than just adding 30 hp to an existing one it's a similar story on arena as well and in most cases i'd rather have two layers of wall than one that's just 30 stronger for comparison fortified walls is significantly cheaper with no stone cost and adds more hp as well as extra hidden armor and resistance to anti-building bonus damage if you're looking for every last possible hit point on walls and towers then sure you can grab this tech but especially in castlage i think there's more useful ways to spend 200 stone next up is marauders for the huns letting them train tarkins at the stable again it's a pretty cheap text so you might figure why not pick it up and have the option to make tarkins later the problem is just that tarkins aren't made all that often because they lose to the nightline and just about anything else in melee they train slower at stables as well so it doesn't even double their production speed to use an equal number of castles and stables to produce them generally you just stick with the nightline if you're huns and ignore this tech altogether unless you're doing something particularly spicy like a surprise tarkin rash the next one is lithuanian's hill forts giving their town centers plus three range the obvious advantage here is that their town centers are no longer outraged by crossbows or manganelles that sounds pretty good but it's a unique text so you need to get this at a castle plus spend 250 food in gold to me that feels like a lot of investment to negate a relatively specific threat even with the tech you still need villagers garrison and idol to get the benefit while rams are also still just as dangerous as before like a couple of others on the list if it was a free civ bonus it would be really nice but rarely in a real game situation does it feel like the right time to grab it the next one is slav's orthodoxy giving monks plus three melee and pierce armor i can see getting it if you're using a lot of monks to heal but that in itself isn't incredibly common again it's not that often you'll have a castle up to grab this tech while also having a lot of monks and then have this tech save enough of them to make it worth the hassle they go from taking three to four hits from knights or light cavalry and from 6 to 10 from crossbows so it's a noticeable improvement but very situational i have a similar feeling towards the saracens madrasa which refunds a third of the cost of a monk when it's killed theoretically the tech pays back its gold cost after just three months so it sounds good but those are also resources you're putting into hedging your bets if a monk push fails instead of just putting everything you have into making it work combined again with how tricky it is to get an early castle while going heavily into monks i just don't love either of these attacks consider also that in a month burgundians are going to be getting 50 gold back on knights which are a much more popular unit also without having to research anything unlike the saracens even if that does get nerfed down the road it kind of puts this into perspective the final castle age tech i want to include is the mongols nomad which lets them retain their pop cap space when their houses are destroyed i feel like this one has a lot of fans and is maybe more controversial but my thinking is that while yes it can be great if your entire base is destroyed that kind of sounds like game over anyway texts that help you prevent your bass from being destroyed in the first place are inherently better than ones that only help after you've basically lost i guess for me it feels like an odd reaction that as your base is being destroyed you use your castle's research time to grab this tech instead of trying to get more mangadai again maybe there's situations that can come in handy and i'm sure someone has a great story about how it saved them at some point but based on the text cost alone it's kind of wasted if you don't lose at least 18 houses even if it worked for castles and retained their 20 pop space that would probably make a difference for me but unfortunately it only applies to houses so that's castle h and the texts i generally grab the least often for one reason or another now let's switch to the imperial age i'll start with the turks artillery now plus two range on bombard towers bombard cannons and cannon galleons is great don't get me wrong it would be an incredibly strong sieve bonus in the late game instead it's the cost that makes me hesitant about this one 450 stone plus 500 gold is a massive investment and considering you could buy more stone with the 500 gold you're basically giving up an entire castle for this tech which makes it one you really need to consider before getting and commit to it early it feels too expensive to decide once you're in the post-imperial stage that yeah actually you want it because plus two on your bombard cannons would be really nice you could argue it doesn't belong on a list of the worst unique texts since its effect is good the problem is justifying giving up an entire castle for it now you might be thinking of the twon's crenellations as well which also cost stone but in that case it helps castles gain range and more arrows which is useful against bombard cannons in that case it's much easier to see how it could end up paying for itself by saving you a castle or two down the line next up is human mercenaries this one's more just unusual than necessarily bad 650 food and 400 gold for anywhere from 10 to 40 units can give good value with a large team but it's also somewhat odd for allies who have an extra set of 10 units as a one-time thing and often players don't even notice for a lot of civilizations that aren't already going into cavalry archers they just end up being thrown away your allies also need to be in imperial age to get them which feels like a point in the game you already have a lot going on and aren't able to fully utilize 10 micro intensive units that can't be replaced in a similar vein i'm also going to add vietnamese paper money where the vietnamese player pays 500 food and 300 wood to give everyone on the team including themselves 500 gold in a 4 4 there's a ton of value on paper and i've definitely had situations where as vietnamese i was glad i had it but again the one time nature of it means if you don't immediately capitalize on it the effect just goes away second to last is silk road for italians reducing the cost of trade cards and cogs by half this is another one where if you run the numbers it can have a great payoff but for italians who are already a slower civilization it just feels a bit too passive if you're getting a lot of rating in your trade route then of course it can add up but i almost wish this one was a sieve bonus while the net effect helps the italians save a lot in the late game it's awkward to invest in a tech that makes investing in trade cheaper but only after a 60 second delay while you research it it also doesn't help that it's completely useless in one versus one games overall though i'd say the imperial age unique texts in general tend to be stronger than castle age and most of what i'm calling the worst texts are still useful at various points arguably there's a use case for all of the imperial age unique texts that is except for one you know which one i mean the hans atheism in case you forget it adds to the countdown in wonder and relic victories which unfortunately doesn't apply to the most popular game mode conquest in conquest victory mode it reduces the cost of spies which is only useful in games where you have a commanding position like against an opponent with only a few villagers left or if you have so much gold you don't know what to do with it it's as close as you can get to a useless tech on conquest maps and yet it's fine hans are a top tier civilization already and i wouldn't want to see it swap for something stronger it's just good to be aware of how situational it is and makes it a fitting way to end the list so those are my worst or otherwise overly situational unique tags let me know if you think i've been unfair to a unique tech here but if you do tell me another unique tech i didn't mention to replace it with there were three others i was thinking of adding but didn't and i'm curious if i'll see all three mentioned that's all for this one though thanks for watching guys and i'll see you next time [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Spirit Of The Law

Views: 225,780

Keywords: aoe2, age of empires 2, definitive edition, aoe2de, sotl, spirit of the law, aoe2 de, aoe2 definitive edition, unique techs, atheism, worst unique techs, best unique techs

Id: 7z__yayKVwM

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/malefiz123]

Kinda disagree with Silk Road. Yes it's situational, but in it's situation it's an absolute no brainer to pick it up: If you actually plan to set up trade, you make more than 10 carts. You don't have to wait 60 seconds either, because it takes a while for your Vils to reach the corner of the Map and build Markets. So as soon as you decide you make trade you absolutely have to get it. It's an upfront investment but it pays off virtually every single time.

[u/asenhae12345678]

As a main Mongol and Lithuanian, I disagree with Hill forts.

It makes your economy pretty hard to raid, provide a better control of the map and can also be used as offensive strat. Once you can snowball 15 vills and res, a TC forward with lith is unstoppable.

As with with nomads, cant agree more. Useless but thats ok, mongols are OP already lol

[u/phantomaxwell]

Stronghold could the effect of Boiling Oil.

Great Wall will cost less than 200 Stone because of the Chinese tech discount. Its overall a solid, boring effect.

Orthdoxy could give extra Hp to Monks to give them a bit more bulk.

If Kipchiks were good as Castle garrisons, Cuman Mercenaries could have another niche use.