The Britons by TheShadowDawn Grown from the remnants of the invading Saxons and Angles, the Britons grew on their isolated island nation in relative peace, and prospered economically. As they moved into the middle ages, Briton kings subdued neighbouring peoples until they controlled all of the land we know as Britain. Their Longbowmen were renowned for their skill in combat and ability to bring down hordes of enemies of before their hissing rain of arrows. The Britons of Age of Kings have the same tactical archer strength as the Britons of old, long holding the title of �the� archer civilisations of Age of Kings, challenged by the Mayans with the expansion pack. --Briton Bonuses-- - Archery Ranges 20% faster - Town Centers cost 50% less wood - Foot Archers +1 range Castle Age, +2 range Imperial - Shepherds work 25% faster Archery Ranges 20% faster The Britons, with their obvious archer strength � which will be discussed in more depth further on � are bettered by this bonus. It is also one of the bonuses that make the Britons one of the �flushing� civilsations, with the ability to build Archers and Skirmishers faster. Town Centers cost 50% less wood Unfortunately not applicable to the Dark or Feudal Ages, this bonus makes the Britons a prominent �booming� civilisations (rapid economic expansion) with ability to place more Town Centers more quickly, thus increasing villager production speed and thus increasing the resource return of the economy. This gives the Briton an unmitigated advantage in the Castle Age economic quarter. Foot Archers +1 range Castle Age, +2 range Imperial The basic concept of a ranged unit is to do damage to an enemy unit without becoming vulnerable itself; and the Briton archer range bonus enhances this basic concept of ranged combat with longer ranged archers. While an extra one or two range might not sound a great deal, combined with the Briton unique technology Yeomen the Britons have a 3 range advantage on any comparable archer unit, enough space to deal extra damage before the enemy engages. Shepherds work 25% faster Seemingly minor, this bonus gives the Britons a kick-start which greatly benefits them in gaining impetus to hit Feudal earlier and attack earlier, one of their strong points being the �flush� (Feudal Age attack generally with Archers and Skirmishers) and combined with their faster Archery Ranges allows them to produce a devastating attack. --Briton Strengths-- Archers While Briton Archers have the tactical weakness in the form of the loss of Thumb Ring, they do have the expedient advantage of longer range and are proven more effective than regular Archers. Briton skirmishers, on the other hand, are less effective than those that do have Thumb Ring, marginally so. Still, they�re better than those without Thumb Ring. Infantry Lacking nothing for Infantry, the Britons can tote out both fully upgradeable Champions and Halberds as need demands. Both units are critical to their offensive capabilities, Halberdiers overcoming the Archer weakness to Cavalry, and Champions being able to deal damage in close quarters. --Briton Weaknesses-- Cavalry The Britons are hardly a cavalry-bound civilisation; as while they have the blacksmith upgrades, they lack bloodlines, the Paladin upgrade and the Hussar upgrade. Their Cavalry falls into one of the lower tiers for power, and the Briton only uses it through necessity as contingency weapons and raiders. Heavy Scorpions While not largely lacking in siege generally, the Britons are one of the few civilisations to miss the Heavy Scorpion upgrade, extremely useful in combating masses of infantry and cavalry with great ease, and leaves them at a loss when combating these civilisations. Cannon Galleons Along with the meso-American Aztecs and Mayans, the Britons lack even the ordinary Cannon Galleon depriving them of the practical capability to make naval-bound shore assaults on defenses like Bombard Towers and Castles. The rest of the Briton navy is not lacking, though, with all other technologies and upgrades available. --Common Misconceptions-- One large misapprehension many players have towards the Britons is that because they lack Thumb Ring, their Archers are inferior. This is, of course, not true. Briton Archers [and Skirmishers] are more effective at attacking melee units that are forced to engage, and less effective at engaging ranged units, which are thus firing while stationary. The Britons also do not lack for navy, as some players believe at first glance at the tech tree. Lack of Cannon Galleons hurts, of course, but the important upgrades and units are there; all of them, in fact. --Through the Ages-- The Briton Dark Age initially advances at a comparative rocket speed thanks to the shepherd bonus, but proceeds at a fairly normal pace after that. In the Briton Feudal Age, the Briton has the option of �flushing� (Making a Feudal Age attack) his opponent and is benefited by faster produced Archers and Skirmishers, and can hope he can merely outproduce his enemy for military with sheer speed. Other than this, the Briton doesn�t have a huge advantage, and the Britons are better known for being one of the �fast castle� (Fast advancing to Castle Age) civilisations. The Castle Age is probably the Briton�s strong point. Immediately his boom flies forward, able to place two TC�s where at this stage most other civilisations only place one. Following his initial Knight rush, the Briton attacks with Crossbows, which with their extra range are even more effective at killing villagers right under the nose of enemy fortifications. The Briton boom rockets forward with the extra fast TC�s and the Briton takes advantage of this in making full scale assaults with Archers, Knights and Pikes while preparing to go to Imperial. Reaching the Imperial Age the Briton now has some of the most vicious Arbalests in the game and loses no time in keeping pressure in every non-fortified location, while preparing siege backup. As soon as he can afford the Elite Longbow upgrade and if he has enough Castles, the Briton switches from Longbow production to Arbalests, due to cheaper cost and higher statistical effectiveness. Halberd upgrade is next and the Britons are set to take on the world. As late game progresses and if the Briton begins to run short of gold, he begins to focus on Champions and uses Archers as a peripheral concern. Constant vigilance is required to keep his archers out of the line of fire of the inevitable enemy Onagers, and while Cavaliers make an easy option at dispatching them, managed Longbows can overcome the high pierce armour of siege weapons and bring most down in a single volley. Eventually either through poor economy or poor logistics and management, the Britons loses, or through superior economic power and management he wins. --Combined Arms-- Every civilisation in the game has some weakness in some form. Striking at these weaknesses should be a high priority of enemy tactics, as is the game�s nature. To prevent this you must cover these weaknesses at all costs. The best way to do this is by even more extensively accentuating the strengths of the civilisation in question. This reinforces my law of AoK: A unit is only as good as your ability to back it up. In doing this, we create what are commonly called �combos� or using multiple units in our tactics to cover the weaknesses of one with the strengths of another. Ranged combat: Arbalests, Longbowmen The obvious Briton strength, as mentioned numerous times above, Archers are the backbone of the Briton offensive capability right through the ages. Archers use the simple theory of being able to inflict damage upon an enemy without engaging and thus having a ranged attack. In this way, the most common tactic is to gain enough archers that when attacked, they can nullify every enemy trying to cross the intervening space and take as few losses as possible. As to the merits of which to use, Longbowmen are clearly statistically superior and cost less gold, but require to be fielded from Castles and cost more to upgrade; where the regular archer line can be fielded with much greater speed and earlier on, especially since gold is plentiful early in the game. Anti-cavalry specific support: Halberdiers The chief critical weakness of any Archer type unit is combating high HP, fast moving units that can�t be nullified before engaging. Namely Cavalry. The obvious solution is screening and defending ones archers with Halberdiers to deter enemy Cavalry. The elementary Longbows and Halberdiers tactic continues to foil even master strategists as to an effective counter. General combat: Champions A much less gold intensive option, swordsmen become more viable as the game progresses. Eventually their cheaper gold price outweighs the gold-intensive archers and the Briton is wise to begin shifting his military focus to account for the economic strain. Response and raiding units: Cavalry While Briton cavalry falls into the lower tiers, they are still reliant on Cavaliers for dispatching enemy Skirmishers, Onagers, Trebuchets and similar threats, and upon Light Cavalry for raiding enemy farming. --Advantageous alliances-- Japanese Another archer-capable civilisation, the Japanese benefit from the Briton Archery Range bonus while having the sheer power of Infantry to add the balance of power to the Britons Archers. Teutons The Teutons being strong in heavy combat with Paladins and Teutonic Knights and other varied weapons in their arsenal, they account for a powerful complement to the Briton ranged combat techniques, as well as having the Briton�s support in surviving the early ages in good condition. Huns Hunnic Cavalry Archers are further powerful in this alliance with faster production time, and make a deadly counterpart to the Briton�s archer hordes. The cavalry focus of the Hun also makes up for the lacking in the Briton�s stable as well. --Key Technologies-- Blacksmith archer upgrades, Yeoman Being an archer-bound civilisation, getting the Archer upgrades is critical to a successful Briton military campaign, adding tactical power and range to archers and making them marginally more effective in combat. The Briton unique technology, Yeoman, is considerably more expensive and best left as a later-game upgrade to add the final extra power to the Briton�s archers. Chemistry is also a worthwhile upgrade, adding an extra point of attack to Briton archers. Elite Longbowman unit upgrade, Arbalest unit upgrade The Elite Longbowman upgrade is one the cheapest Elite UU upgrades in terms of food, though costs a fair bit of gold; but is critical if you wish to form an offensive on Archers as the game progresses. Luckily you won�t need this until a little later as you�ll find it easier to rely on Crossbowmen earlier on, which is why you�ll want the Arbalest upgrade as well. Remember, generally in AoK it is more profitable to have units than upgrades, and you can buy a lot of Longbowmen for 850 gold. Make sure you are not buying it too early and stripping yourself of the ability to significantly increase the power of your military standing. Halberdier unit upgrade As mentioned earlier in the article, the Briton offensive capabilities are critical on deterring enemy Cavalry and the only effective way to do this is with Pikemen or Halberdiers; which are dirt cheap if you get the upgrade first, anyway. The extra powerful Briton �boom� lends itself to providing food and wood faster than most other civilisations would in the same given time and with the same resources, and in turn this leads to the ability to mass Halberdiers earlier. So the upgrade early on is critical. --Conclusion-- The Britons have an excellent start that leads onto Feudal warfare with their Archery Range bonus, and excellent Castle Age abilities as well. The Briton economy is fairly average, though their booming capability is much better than average thanks to cheaper TC�s. Lack of strong cavalry hurts in late game when you need to incapacitate the enemy economy, and Britons are not extremely effective against siege-capable civilisations. Overall, their main strength is naturally Archers.