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[ENG] Civilizations #04: Khmer · Start the game already!

0:35
If you're looking for a challenge in Age of Empires 2,
0:39
the Khmer are exactly the right civilization for you.
0:43
At first glance, the Khmer seemed like an easy civilization
0:46
to play because alongside the Khitans, they probably have the
0:50
best food economy in the entire. Game you're usually.
0:53
One step ahead of your opponent. And thanks to their wide tech
0:57
tree, they can play almost anything they want.
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They even have strong elephants and scorpions that shoot from
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Narnia. And as if that weren't enough,
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they even have elephant scorpions.
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What more could you possibly ask for?
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And yet, I personally sometimes struggle quite a bit with the
1:17
Khmer, and it took me a while to understand just why.
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Sometimes the Khmer are like that annoying best friend who
1:26
constantly trips you up while you're trying to walk alongside
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him. They have a few bonuses that can
1:33
quickly become a trap if you don't play the game perfectly.
1:36
On top of that, the commerce weakest face is their late game.
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Unfortunately, it's also my personal weakness, so those
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things tend to stack. The real difficulty, however,
1:49
comes from the fact that you have to snowball your early
1:52
advantage with the commercial. You would not fall apart in the
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late game. That's anything but easy to me,
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and means that when everything is going well, you don't get
2:04
much time to. Breathe.
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The Khmer wants you to build a lead early on, maintain control
2:11
of the game, build a strong economy.
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And keep your. Opponent small with constant
2:16
rates. Their strong economy makes them
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beginner friendly on the one hand, but on the other hand
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their playstyle makes them quite hard to truly master.
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As you can already tell, today we're dealing with the very
2:28
exciting civilization. So let's slow things down a bit
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and talk about. Who the Khmer actually were?
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If you're not an Age of Empires player and you hear the word
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Khmer, most people probably think of the brutal rule of the
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communist Khmer Rouge. But that was only about 50 years
2:47
ago and has nothing to do with the historical Khmer who
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inspired this civilization. In the game, when we talk about
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the Khmer, we're talking about a group of people who lived in
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what is now Cambodia. Even today, the Khmer language
3:02
is still spoken there. The Kummer most likely
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originated in southern China or northeast India.
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We don't know exactly why, but they migrated farther and
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farther SE until they eventually founded the Kummer Empire in the
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year 8O2 in what is now Cambodia, located between Laos,
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Vietnam, and Thailand. All of these are countries that
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didn't exist in their current form in the year 802.
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Culturally, the Khmer were strongly influenced by India,
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which is easily seen, probably with the fact that they have
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been Hinduists for the longest time, and after that up until
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today, the majority of the population follows Buddhism.
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So with the Khmer Empire in the 9th century, a new empire
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emerged in Southeast Asia. Its capital was Angkor,
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established in the year 889. The region has a warm climate
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all year round. Half the year is a monsoon
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season with heavy rainfall, the other half is relatively dry.
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Much of the empire was forested and featured incredible
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biodiversity, including, of course, elephants.
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This empire would become one of the most influential powers in
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Southeast Asia. The Mekong, one of the longest
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rivers in the world, flows through the region and was
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crucial to the commerce economy. After a period of internal
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conflicts that deeply divided the empire, Suryavarman the
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First managed to unify the country.
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He ruled the empire as king from the year 1010 to 1050, and the
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story of this reign is told over 5 missions in the Khmer
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campaign. In the 12th century, the empire
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reached its peak. It controlled territory from
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Malaka in modern day Malaysia all the way to northern Laos,
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including parts of today's Vietnam and Thailand.
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Massive expansion indeed. And with great power came great
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culture. During this time, the legendary
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temple complex of Angkor Wat was built, still a national symbol
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of Cambodia today. This temple complex is also the
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Khmer wander in the game, specifically the central temple
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shrine of Angkor Wat. Around the year 1200,
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approximately 1,000,000 people lived in Angkor, making it
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likely the largest city in the world at that time.
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And then comes a turning point. King J Wadaman the 7th is the
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first ruler to replace the traditional Hindu Linga cult
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with Buddhism. Buddhism had already reached the
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Khmer in the 9th century through a different empire, but this
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religious shift had consequences.
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The kings lost their God like status and that weakened the
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empire from within. In the 13th century a new rival
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emerged in the West, the Kingdom of Sukhothai.
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It quickly developed into a serious competitor for the camo.
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Its successor, the Kingdom of Ayutaya, invaded Angkor in 1353
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and managed to capture the city. The Thai withdrew again soon
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after, but the era of stability for the commerce was over.
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Wars against the charm and the Shan prevented recovery.
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In 1431 the city was captured once again and this time it was
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final. The capital was moved to Phnom
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Penh, Anchor was abandoned to the jungle and fell into ruin
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and with it the old Empire. In the centuries that followed,
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the region was marked by constant warfare against the Tie
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in the West and the Vietnamese in the East.
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In the 16th century, there was a brief respite.
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However. Burma grew stronger and erased
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the pressure from the West, allowing the Khmer Empire to
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experience a short late flourishing.
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Ultimately, the decline continued.
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In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Vietnamese conquered the
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Mekong Delta and Thailand took the Northern territories.
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The Khmer Empire shrank, and with it the power that once
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radiated from Ankor. Ankor, once the largest city in
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the world, once the centre of a mighty empire, became a symbol
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of rise and fall. It's temples still stand today,
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are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and tell the
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story of the Khmer's former greatness.
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The Khmer experienced a rapid expansion and contraction of
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their empire and were dominant in their region for a time, yet
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almost constantly involved in conflicts.
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They never managed to form alliances with other empires
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that could have given their realm additional stability for a
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for a longer period of time. Unlike many civilizations in the
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game, the Khmer only fought with their direct neighbors and never
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launched conquest campaigns into more distant regions.
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The Khmer have one of the strongest economies in the
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entire game because unlike other civilizations, they don't have
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to drop off food from farms at a building like a mill or a town
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centre. Instead, the food is added
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directly to your stockpile the moment a villager gathers it.
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This has the wonderful advantage that their food economy is far
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more efficient than that of other civilizations, Kitan
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pastures aside, of course. In the feudal.
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Age. They can collect about 15% more
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food in the same amount of time as other civilizations do, even
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though their farmers actually work 5% slower as part of the
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bonus. Most of the inefficiency in
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farming comes from villagers walking back and forth between
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the farm and their drop off site.
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Farms placed further away become increasingly inefficient, which
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is why players usually build additional mills between farms
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to keep walking distances short. For other civilizations that
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rely heavily on a strong food economy, the wheelbarrow and
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hand cut upgrades are essential for maximizing efficiency since
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they increase the villages movement speed and carrying
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capacity, meaning they walk both faster and less often.
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The Khmer on the other hand don't really need those upgrades
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for farming because their villages don't have to walk at
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all when gathering from farms. In practice you still research
9:45
these upgrades as Khmer since all your non farming villages
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benefit from them, but you probably do it later on.
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Other civilizations want to get these upgrades as quickly as
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possible when facing the Khmer though, so they can at least
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somewhat keep up with Khmer farm efficiency.
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But let's be honest, there's nothing more satisfying than
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watching that food counter tick upward faster and faster with
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every new farm until it eventually skyrockets.
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For me, this bonus is so defining for the Khmer that I
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barely even remembered that they only received it three months
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after the release of the definitive edition, which makes
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it four years after they first joined the game.
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By the way, the bonus is tied to commer villagers, not farms.
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So if you steal an enemy farm with your commer villagers, you
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don't need to build a mill. Conversely, if a non commerce
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civilization steals a commerce farm, they still have to drop
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the food off at a building. I probably don't need to explain
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that the real Khmer did not magically teleport their food to
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local markets. So what inspired the developers
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to create this bonus? Historically, the Khmer lived in
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traditional agrarian society, heavily dependent on rice
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cultivation and fishing. The farmers, who made-up the
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majority of the population, planted rice along lake shores
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and riverbanks on irrigated plains around their villages.
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Or on. Hillsides When the lowlands were
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flooded, these rice fields were affected by an enormous and
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complex irrigation system consisting of canal networks and
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massive reservoirs. The system enabled the
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development of large rice based communities surrounding Khmer
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cities. In orchards near the villages,
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they grew sugar palms and fruit trees and all kinds of
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vegetables, producing additional agricultural goods such as palm
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sugar and palm wine, coconuts, again various tropical fruits
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and vegetables. In short, the Khmer farmed
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everywhere it was possible to farm in addition to fishing,
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whether it's on mountainsides or in the plains.
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Food didn't have to be transported across the entire
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realm for this reason, even if some of it was moved to supply
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the capital. Unless you belonged to the
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nobility, you were likely working in rice farming or
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fishing. And thanks to the climate and
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geography, this work continued year round, ensuring multiple.
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Harvests per year. And a steady and reliable food
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supply. In the game, this bonus
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manifests not only through the unmatched speed of food
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production, but also through the somewhat adventurous and very
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opportunistically placed farms Khmer players tend to build.
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Let's say you have a few too many villagers gathering wood in
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one spot. Then you can simply drop a farm
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right then and there and start working without walking
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anywhere. Villages sent to the front to
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build, say, a siege workshop or even a castle, can also start
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farming right on the front lines if you want them to.
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In fact, a castle offers them excellent protection while
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farming, until you need them again for something else, maybe
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a second castle. Speaking of protection, that's
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the perfect segue into the next civilization bonus.
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Instead of mills, you can place houses between your farms
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because Khmer villagers can hide inside them.
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Up to five villages can be garrisoned into a single house.
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They won't die in there of course when attacked, but they
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also won't work, which means they are unproductive.
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And that's exactly 1 of the traps I mentioned in the intro.
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So this is something that I know best from the Mapland madness
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because it's a map where you simply can't fully wall your
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base. It's kind of wide open and it's
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very popular to open with scouts and raid the opponent for this
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reason early on, especially their exposed golden wood.
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The Khmer are a popular civilization on this map because
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those exposed villagers can instantly jump into their houses
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when danger appears. The trap however, is that the
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opponent can just camp those houses.
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So even though your villagers stay alive, they might as well
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be dead in terms of usefulness. On top of that, it takes a lot
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of intention to send all those villagers spread out across your
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eco back to work when you've been raided.
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Once the enemy pulls out, it's very easy to lose track of all
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your villagers in those houses, and the idle time that results
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shouldn't be underestimated. So in short, the bonus does save
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many Khmer lives, but if you want to use it efficiently and
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actually rely on it, you need to be a really good player who
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immediately puts the villas back to work.
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The Khmer have 4 civilization bonuses, and this is probably
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the one I'd most likely would like to swap out for another one
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if I had to. I also keep wondering what the
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inspiration for this bonus even was.
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It's actually kind of strange that not all civilizations have
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this ability, since it would make perfect sense for villagers
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to go and hide inside their homes to seek shelter.
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Normally a villager wouldn't try to outrun a mounted unit, they'd
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clearly try to hide somewhere, most likely their houses.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm actually glad this isn't a universal
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mechanic. The game is already defensive
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enough and if every civilization had this, raids would be even
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less rewarding. But I really don't know why the
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Khmer of all people are the exception in the game.
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Farmer houses were usually bamboo huts built on stilts to
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protect against the frequent flooding around the rice fields.
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These dwellings weren't really located in bigger towns or
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cities, but as close to the fields as possible.
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But that only applied to farmers really.
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And after all, around 1,000,000 Khmer lived in the capital,
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presumably densely packed and very urban.
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Anyway, I learned a lot about different Khmer roof
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constructions and how you could read a household social status
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from the structure of their home, but not a single source I
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looked at ever said that the Khmer were the first
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civilization to not only build houses, but actually enter them.
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Jokes aside, this bonus does have one more upside though.
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If you like playing Regicide as the Khmer, you can also hide
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your king inside a house, not only your villages.
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Not many people know this. I, for example did not, and I'm
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pretty sure that a tiny house is the last place your opponent.
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Will look for your king. The second major trap of this
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civilization, the one that in my eyes makes them so difficult to
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master, relates to their next civilization bonus.
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Advancing to new ages or unlocking buildings has no
17:13
building prerequisites. This allows the commerce to
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reach the castle age extremely. Quickly.
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By focusing entirely on food production.
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After all, they don't need any wood for futilage buildings.
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You can build your farms without building a mill first.
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You can build a siege workshop without having to build a
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blacksmith and something that's rarely relevant.
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But probably on certain water maps it can matter that you
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don't need a mill to build a market, even though the commerce
17:43
aren't exactly strong on those kind of maps since they prefer
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farming over fishing. But hey.
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You never know what random civilization ladder game might
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throw at you, so now you know. This bonus also enables very
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aggressive openings with early up times because you don't need
18:02
a barracks to build a stable or an artery range, freeing up more
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wood for additional production buildings.
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But be careful, skipping the barracks is dangerous since it
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denies you access to Spearman, which are especially important
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in scout wars. This civilization bonus is
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probably the best example of why the Khmer are a tough
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civilization to play. To really take advantage of it,
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you need to learn specialized build orders and be comfortable
18:35
playing aggressively. But if you.
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Put in the effort. You can catch your opponent off
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guard early in the game or surprise them with risky fast
18:44
castle strategies. On Arena, for example, the Comer
18:48
can launch an insanely fast three TC boom simply because
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they advanced through the ages so quickly.
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Just put everything on food, collect just enough wood to
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build your farms, don't forget to gather 100 gold, and you can
19:04
hit Castle age in as little as 11 to 13 minutes.
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But you always have to keep in mind, while it's tempting to
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skip the barracks or maybe even the entire Feudal age, you're
19:16
also taking risks that players familiar with Khmer weaknesses
19:21
may exploit. And this is the Khmer dilemma in
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a nutshell. Ideally, you don't want to build
19:29
a barracks because then you're giving up a valuable bonus.
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On the other hand, you do kind of need one in certain
19:37
situations. That's why you often see bills
19:41
like scouts into Archers, with the Archer range placed
19:44
immediately after the stable to deal with enemy Spearman.
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That in turn reinforces the point that while the Kammer
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bonuses do open up new possibilities, they also make
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you slightly predictable. With a Khmer, I find myself
20:01
having to scout more thoroughly than with other civilizations
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and really anticipate what my opponent will do, especially in
20:08
the early game, so I can decide whether I will take certain
20:13
risks or rather not. As for this bonuses historical
20:18
inspiration, I'm afraid I have no explanation whatsoever.
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Honestly the bonus doesn't even match the historical Khmer at
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all. In my mind, this idea of gaining
20:31
access to new technologies without prerequisites, the
20:35
actual effect of the bonus, sounds more like something I'd
20:38
associate with a politically more stable civilization.
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But the Khmer were almost always embroiled in conflict, if not
20:46
with their neighbors, then internally.
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At one point the Mongols even knocked on the door, but the
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Khmer bribed them with so much gold that the Mongols were
20:56
satisfied and moved on. During their peak, the Commerce
21:00
were considered the wealthiest empire in Southeast Asia, but if
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that were the rationale, then I'd have expected them to
21:08
receive a gold bonus. Instead, I think this bonus was
21:12
purely a design choice to make the Commerce stand out from
21:15
other civilizations. And after all, unlike the farm
21:19
bonus, this one has been part of their toolkit from the very
21:22
beginning. Things look quite different when
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it comes to the Commerce Final Civilization bonus.
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Their Battle Elephants move 10% faster.
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The game even describes the Camur as a civilization focused
21:37
on elephants and siege weapons. And even though elephants play
21:41
only a very minor role in today's matter, the Camur
21:44
actually have a lot to offer when it comes to these majestic
21:48
creatures. Just imagine what that must have
21:51
been like standing on a battlefield.
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And just like in Jurassic Park, you suddenly hear a deep
21:58
rumbling. Not from the sky, from the
22:01
earth, but from enormous, pounding beasts that make the
22:05
ground shake beneath your feet. War elephants with riders on
22:09
their backs approach. And they weren't just there to
22:13
impress. They were weapons like living
22:16
tanks. With their strength, they could
22:19
haul heavy siege engines, tear down walls, smash through gates.
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But in direct combat, that's where they became a true
22:28
nightmare for pretty much everyone on the battlefield.
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In battle, they often stood right in the middle of their own
22:36
formation, like a mobile fortress.
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Whether attacking or defending. It wasn't really a problem for
22:44
those elephants. Their sheer mass made them
22:47
almost invulnerable. Arrows and Spears and swords.
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Most of it just bounced off them or stuck halfway in, but not
22:56
preventing them from fighting on.
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And the riders on top? They sat like they were sitting
23:02
on a tower, well protected, overlooking the chaos, and armed
23:06
with long lances or ranged weapons.
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And then there's the charge. Elephants could reach up to 30
23:13
kilometers per hour, and if the Camar bonus is somewhat based on
23:19
like, real events, they were probably going for 33 kilometers
23:23
per hour. No infantry armed with Spears or
23:27
Pikes could simply stop that. It was.
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Pure. Force.
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The animals stormed into enemy lines, trampling soldiers,
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swinging their trunks, tossing men aside like dolls.
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Anyone who survived was at least terrified, and entire battle
23:44
lines would collapse. Elephants were completely
23:48
unpredictable once they were in rage, they didn't distinguish
23:52
between friend or foe, making them a considerable danger to
23:56
their own troops as well. But that wasn't even the worst
24:00
part. The real weapon of war elephants
24:03
was the fear they instilled. For soldiers who had never seen
24:08
an elephant in their life, it was sheer panic.
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That's why special counter tactics were needed.
24:15
Troops trained to face elephants used fire, loud noise and
24:19
focused attacks on their legs. And unlike horses, elephants
24:23
could only run for about two minutes straight at full speed,
24:27
making long distance charges difficult in the game.
24:32
Luckily, elephant units have no friendly fire, and one of their
24:36
weaknesses is that due to their slow movement speed, they are
24:41
especially vulnerable to enemy monks.
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Converting them cannot. As is typical for elephant
24:49
civilizations, the commerce cannot research heresy, so
24:52
converted elephants don't defect, they die, which is not
24:57
exactly ideal. The Kummer elephant speed bonus
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therefore addresses one of their biggest drawbacks, making it a
25:04
very cool bonus. Of course, real Kummer elephants
25:08
weren't faster than others, at least I don't think so, but they
25:11
were a major part of Kummer and regional warfare for centuries.
25:17
Besides the Kummer, the Burmese, Malay, Vietnamese and now also
25:22
the Bengalis have access to this regional unit, each with their
25:26
own bonus. What they all share is that
25:30
Battle Elephants deal 25% trample damage and can be
25:34
upgraded to Elite Battle Elephants once you have 1100
25:38
food and 700 gold lying around. The upgrade increases their HP
25:43
from 250 to a whooping 300, their attack from 12 to 14,
25:49
their piece armour from 2:00 to 3:00, and their bonus damage
25:53
against building. It's a very.
25:55
Expensive upgrade for an already very expensive unit, but one
25:59
that becomes incredibly strong as long as they're not charging
26:03
into a pack of monks. And as I said, that's exactly
26:07
the problem with elephants. With a large enough group you
26:10
can overrun monks, but on the way there you risk donating your
26:15
opponent an absurdly powerful unit that you then have to fight
26:20
yourself, which you never want. That's why, especially at the
26:24
pro level, players tend to avoid elephants.
26:28
They're low mobility just because of their low speed makes
26:33
them far less flexible than other faster cavalry units and
26:37
kind of prevent them to react to enemy attacks rather than having
26:44
to always run after your enemy. But there's more.
26:49
Thanks to their civilization bonus, Khmer Battle Elephants
26:52
are already faster than those of other civilizations, But in the
26:55
Castle Age, their unique tech turns them into even deadlier
27:00
weapons. Researching Tusk Swords gives
27:03
Battle Elephants an additional plus three attack.
27:07
With all Blacksmiths upgrades, Elite Battle Elephants can reach
27:11
up to 21 attack, making them one of the strongest units in the
27:16
game. Their usual counters like camels
27:19
and especially halberdiers stand little chance against these
27:23
little monsters. At best they can take cost
27:27
effective trades, but if enough elephants are on the field,
27:30
they're almost certainly lose every fight.
27:34
The problem is simply getting there.
27:37
The path is long and expensive, which is why you almost never
27:41
see fully upgraded Khmer Elephants in competitive play.
27:45
That is kind of a problem for the commerce, since quite a lot
27:49
of their bonuses and technologies really invest into
27:54
elephants and are probably very seldomly used during a game.
27:59
Historically, Tusk swords were indeed a real weapon.
28:02
Pairs of curved blades bolted onto an elephant's ivory Tusk.
28:07
They could be up to 1 1/2 meters long, turning the already deadly
28:12
tusks into brutal cutting weapons.
28:15
The concept originated in India, and because almost no
28:18
archaeological finds exist, there's no real evidence that
28:22
the Khmer actually used them. The museum pieces in New York
28:26
and Leeds are one of the very few that are actually existing
28:30
up until today. Those are Indian as well.
28:33
So honestly, it might make more sense if the Bengalis had this
28:38
technology rather than the Khmer, but since elephants could
28:43
also be a danger to their own troops when panicked, Tusk
28:47
swords were probably never widely used anyway.
28:51
Whatever the case, while preparing this episode, I
28:54
replayed the Khmer campaign, researched Tusk swords in the
28:58
very first mission and had a blast even without the elite
29:02
upgrade and the later missions when you actually get to elite
29:06
elephants. And you can have so much fun
29:11
with just an entire army of elite battle elephants with Tusk
29:15
swords because they will level entire cities.
29:19
For an extra dose of elephant fun, let's look at the Khmer
29:23
unique unit, the Ballista Elephant.
29:26
In the intro I called them Elephant Scorpions, and with
29:30
good reason. They are classified as siege
29:33
cavalry and function exactly like scorpions do, except that
29:38
these scorpions are strapped to the back of an elephant.
29:41
In their base form, they have 250 hit points.
29:44
Just like battle. Elephants, making them far
29:47
tankier than regular scorpions. They also benefit from
29:51
Ballistics and have no minimum range.
29:54
They do however have to less range than regular scorpions, so
29:58
they kind of serve a different purpose than regular scorpions
30:01
do. But they can chop trees, which
30:05
ordinary scorpions cannot, and that's actually a big deal in
30:09
the Castle age. Aside from villages of course,
30:12
they are the only unit that can cut trees in the Imperial age.
30:17
Only trebuchets, onages and heavy rocket carts can do the
30:20
same. It sounds like a quirky detail,
30:23
but it's actually a very popular tactical trick.
30:27
On a map like for example Hideout, a single ballista
30:30
elephant in the Castle age can chop through the central forest
30:34
and open a path for a swarm of facades, or rather light cap in
30:38
the Castle Age to flood into the enemy economy.
30:42
On map like that Black Forest, ballista elephants are widely
30:46
used to cut clearing forests, to create more space for fighting,
30:51
or to sneak behind enemy lines. Aside from that, Ballista
30:55
elephants are simply an absurdly strong unit.
30:59
Once you have enough of them, they become nearly unstoppable.
31:02
The best counter, strange as it sounds, is to prevent your
31:06
opponent from ever massing them in the first place.
31:10
Especially when paired with Hazaz, Ballista elephants are
31:13
almost unbeatable. The Hazaz clear out enemy siege,
31:17
which is the main threat to the elephants and the Ballista
31:20
elephants pretty much do all the rest.
31:24
They really are only counted by Onagers and Siege Onagers
31:28
especially their weakness to onagers comes from their newly
31:33
acquired siege armor class, which they share only with the
31:37
Hossite wagon Onagers, Siege Onagers and Hoof Nieces deal
31:42
plus 50 bonus damage against this armor class.
31:45
Manganels and Bomat Cannons deal plus 40.
31:48
Villagers deal +6 and Rocket Karts +5.
31:52
But as far as I know that last part doesn't really matter
31:55
because ballista elephants also gain plus 10 armor from their
31:58
heavy siege class, which greatly reduces those smaller sources of
32:02
damage. By the way, Hussite wagons I
32:05
think don't get this bonus damage bonus armor which makes
32:10
the numbers more relevant for them and villagers fighting
32:13
against them much more viable in a staggered formation.
32:17
All of this isn't a big problem for ballista elephants since
32:21
their formation greatly reduces the damage they take, but if
32:26
they are packed tightly into narrow choke points like on
32:29
Black Forest, usually they can suffer heavy losses from well
32:33
placed onager shots. And for the true number nerds
32:37
among you, the Saracens Unique Technology Counterweights
32:41
increases the bonus damage of Saracen Manganiels, Onages, and
32:45
Siege Onages against the Heavy Siege Armor class as well by an
32:50
additional 68 and 11 damage respectively.
32:54
Also, Burgundian Bombed Cannons gained +2 bonus damage against
32:59
this armor class as well. So what do we learn from all of
33:03
this? Ballista elephants, when mast
33:05
are almost impossible to stop. They are often accompanied by
33:10
hazards acting as cannon fodder, and if you're playing against
33:15
them, you absolutely want to prevent the game from ever
33:18
reaching this point. And as is often the case with
33:22
hybrid units, it's easy to lose track of which upgrades apply to
33:27
them. Since ballista elephants are
33:29
also cavalry units, they benefit from bloodlines and husbandry
33:33
and the cavalry armor upgrades from the blacksmith.
33:36
They can be healed by monks and converted without needing
33:40
redemption. Villagers, however, cannot
33:42
repair them from the university. They benefit from Ballistics and
33:46
chemistry, much like they benefit from siege engineers.
33:51
And if you've ever noticed your ballista elephant refusing to
33:55
deal its usual Pierce through pass through damage, here's the
34:00
explanation. When a ballista elephant attacks
34:03
a target directly in front of it at mealy range, the attack loses
34:08
its scorpion like characteristics.
34:11
The projectile doesn't continue travelling forward to deal to
34:14
deal it's typical pass through damage, it simply drops onto the
34:19
first target. Similar similar to arrows fired
34:23
from a tower after researching murder holes.
34:26
The reason is that the projectile spawns directly above
34:29
the unit, causing its directional vector to point
34:34
straight downward, effectively shooting the arrow into the
34:39
ground. Stat wise, Ballista elephants
34:42
are extremely impressive. Whenever you see them in
34:45
competitive play, you know something wild is about to
34:48
happen. A statement you can't make about
34:52
many units in the game like this, but if you want to push
34:56
things even further, you can research the Imperial Age Unique
35:00
Technology Double Crossbow. This lets both Ballista
35:05
Elephants and scorpions fire an additional projectile to keep
35:09
things from becoming completely overpowered.
35:12
The secondary projectile has a slight spread and deals less
35:15
damage than the primary shot. The secondary projectile of
35:20
scorpions and ballista elephants deals 6 PS damage and plus three
35:23
bonus damage versus elephants. This secondary projectile of
35:28
heavy scorpions deals 12 PS damage plus and and plus four
35:33
damage versus elephants, so slightly better stats.
35:37
So while the secondary projectile of ballista elephants
35:39
benefits from chemistry, this is not the case for scorpions once
35:45
you subtract the typical Imperial Age armor values of
35:49
your enemy units. These extra hits with a
35:53
secondary projectile don't really amount to anything game
35:57
changing for standard scorpions or for ballista elephants,
36:00
meaning the upgrade is mainly worthwhile for heavy scorpions
36:03
in my opinion. I don't think this technology
36:06
gets researched very often, and if it does, it's usually more of
36:10
a power move than a necessity. Don't get me wrong, by the way,
36:13
I do think it provides value, but I doubt it's ever truly a
36:18
game deciding. Personally, I can't really
36:22
remember a single time I've researched it outside of the
36:24
campaign, and if this tech turns out to be far more useful than
36:29
I'm making it sound here, at least you know why I
36:32
underestimated it. There's still a question of
36:35
whether ballista elephants actually existed at all.
36:39
As wild as they look in the game, they really must have been
36:43
almost just as bizarre. In reality, it seems that the
36:47
ballista itself was not of Khmer origin.
36:50
It was more of a combination of different elements of Chinese
36:54
military technology that were creatively mounted onto the back
36:59
of a war elephant and repurposed this way.
37:02
And this idea appears to have been first introduced by the
37:06
Khmer. The elephant mounted ballista
37:10
appears in the reliefs of both Banter Kumar and the Bayon, both
37:15
Khmer temples. However, the depictions in the
37:18
Bayon are more detailed and show more complex mechanical
37:22
components, while those at the other temple present a somewhat
37:26
simplified version of the weapon.
37:29
In the Bayon, the elephant ballista is loaded with soldiers
37:33
wearing Cham uniforms, suggesting that the Kummer
37:37
ballista might have been integrated into the Angkorian
37:40
army by Cham mercenaries. Cham was a smaller Kingdom east
37:47
of the Kummer Empire and something like its arch rival,
37:51
locked in almost constant conflict with the Kummer over
37:54
centuries. In both temple depictions, the
37:57
ballista elephant appears only in grand military parades, which
38:02
kind of suggests that it was likely never actually used on
38:05
the battlefield. Nevertheless, I dare say the
38:09
ballista elephant stands as evidence of the technological
38:13
sophistication of the Khmer military and its weaponry, and
38:17
is therefore a fitting choice for the Khmer unique unit.
38:22
The double crossbow was also not a Khmer invention, yet the
38:27
double crossbow itself is fascinating and was surprisingly
38:31
widespread in the region 1. Development in crossbow design
38:35
involved installing multiple bow limbs to increase the weapons
38:39
tension, resulting in double and even triple crossbows.
38:43
According to some depictions from the 12th and 30th
38:47
centuries, the Comer dynasty used double crossbows as part of
38:51
their arsenal. This practice was adopted from
38:54
China, where such weapons were used in sieges and in the
38:58
defence of fortresses. The Camar however mounted these
39:02
weapons on the backs of war elephants, even though these
39:06
multi weapons were not explicitly designed to fire fire
39:11
multiple bowls simultaneously as the game does depict it, but
39:16
rather to release a single more. Powerful shot.
39:19
The second projectile is therefore more of a creative
39:23
liberty on the developer's part, and honestly, I'm completely
39:27
fine with that because it's just so much fun to fire volleys of
39:32
balls into enemy armies and watch them die.
39:35
To be completely honest, researching elephant warfare has
39:39
led me to some of the most disturbing material I've
39:42
encountered while preparing basically any of the podcasts I
39:47
have prepared so far. What I'm about to describe is
39:51
not easy to hear, especially if, like me, you kind of admire
39:56
elephants and are actually aware of how endangered and wonderful
40:01
they are. So I won't hold it against
40:04
anyone who wants to check the show notes and skip ahead to the
40:07
next section. You won't miss anything
40:10
important since I've already covered everything about the
40:13
elephants and their bonuses. So consider this your trigger
40:16
warning. But I think it's kind of
40:18
important to talk about how these Khmer people and the
40:23
people from the Southeastern Asian region have actually
40:29
managed to, you know, jump on the back of a giant creature
40:33
that probably can crush you to death if they wanted to.
40:37
Elephants are by nature very peaceful creatures.
40:41
They are certainly capable of aggression, but they mainly
40:44
display it when provoked or threatened, mostly in self
40:47
defence. Unlike horses, elephants are not
40:51
domesticated and they are not really tameable.
40:55
They can only be made war ready through extreme violence,
40:59
torture and trauma. Elephant calves were separated
41:03
from the families and in some cases their parents were killed
41:07
before their eyes to traumatize them.
41:10
The calves would then be confined in extremely tight
41:14
cages and tortured by burning them and stabbing them and
41:17
beating them, while also being subjected to constant noise and
41:22
loud screaming to keep them from sleeping, sometimes without even
41:26
giving them food or water. This process is known as
41:30
crushing, and because elephants have such excellent memory, they
41:34
will never forget their trauma for the rest of their lives.
41:38
This continues until the calf finally breaks and that point
41:43
the mahout, which is the elephant handler and probably
41:47
later the rider. This mahout would, in quotation
41:51
marks, rescue the calf, caring for it and nursing it back to
41:56
health. The baby elephant sees the
41:59
mahout as a saviour and forms a deep bond with him, allowing him
42:03
to ride it and remaining loyal even under stress, including in
42:07
battle situations. This form of subjugation and
42:11
torture was long unknown to the public and shockingly is still
42:16
common practice in countries like Myanmar and Thailand today,
42:20
often to train elephants for tourism.
42:23
At some point I had to stop researching because it became
42:27
almost unbearable for me to read up on this and see the pictures
42:33
of these poor creatures. I think I'm particularly
42:36
sensitive to this. Reading about cruel things
42:38
happening to people is somehow easier for me to process than
42:42
atrocities committed against animals, especially highly
42:46
intelligent animals like elephants.
42:49
So one thing I know for certain is that when humans fight
42:54
against each other, it's almost always not just the humans that
42:59
suffer from it. And in this particular case, it
43:02
almost drove elephants to extinction.
43:04
And the amount of suffering they have to go through to well back
43:09
in the day fight humans and today entertain humans is almost
43:16
on well. It is unbearable for me to to
43:18
know. I for one, if I ever travel to
43:21
Thailand where elephant riding is a very popular tourist
43:25
attraction, I will never climb on an elephant.
43:29
I even if someone swears to me that the elephants are well
43:33
treated and they didn't have to suffer this, I just can't bear
43:37
the thought of that and I probably won't trust them.
43:40
So this is the end of that true part of the podcast.
43:45
We're back to safe spaces. And to wrap up the commer
43:49
bonuses, it's worth noting that even regular commer scorpions
43:54
without the double crossbow technology are better than your
43:58
average scorpion from another civilization because their team
44:02
bonus, I mean the commer team bonus gives both them and allied
44:07
scorpions an extra range. This additional range, combined
44:11
with the accuracy boost from Ballistics makes them even more
44:15
effective against mounted Archers like Cav Archers, which
44:19
are commonly used as a counter to the otherwise strong Kammer
44:22
cavalry. Extra range is an incredibly
44:26
powerful bonus, just think about how nearly invincible English
44:30
Archers are thanks to it. For the Kammer, this means they
44:34
can defend even more effectively behind their own walls with
44:37
scorpions against ranged units, ordeal damage slightly earlier
44:41
on attack giving the the opponent less time to react.
44:46
A larger group of commerce scorpions is honestly never a
44:49
bad idea no matter what comp you're going for.
44:52
With the Romans it's somewhat easier because they are so much
44:56
cheaper, but with the commerce I'd say it's deadlier.
45:00
If that works out and you later invest into heavy scorpions,
45:04
then the double crossbow upgrade or technology is definitely
45:08
worth considering. In my opinion.
45:11
Considering their bonuses, ballista elephants and unique
45:14
texts classifying the Camura as a civilization focused on
45:18
elephants in siege units is very fitting.
45:21
In competitive play. However, elephants play a much
45:24
smaller role than these bonuses might suggest.
45:28
So next let's look at how the Camura actually play out, what
45:32
army compositions are common or possible, and what strategic
45:37
options they offer. Combat on water is probably
45:57
their biggest weakness, not because they have bad ships, but
46:00
just because they have the most average ships they can have and
46:04
really lack any kind of relevant bonus for water combat.
46:09
But aside from naval warfare, the fact that their infantry is
46:13
kind of limited is also a weakness because they lack the
46:16
last armor upgrade in Imperial age in the blacksmith, which
46:20
effects both the militia line and the Spearman line.
46:23
They don't have Champions, but at least they have Halbedias.
46:27
The arranged units lack Thumb Ring, which kind of has their
46:32
cavalry arches, though they can otherwise fully upgrade them.
46:36
Most Camaro compositions therefore focus primarily on
46:40
cavalry, which they can spam almost endlessly thanks to their
46:43
strong economy and can fully upgrade them.
46:46
Aside from the Paladin upgrade, they also have Arbalists with
46:51
all upgrades except for Thumb Ring.
46:53
And despite their cavalry focus, Arbalists are basically always
46:58
an option. Although they can create hand
47:01
Cannoneers and even elite cannon galleons, they cannot build
47:06
bomber cannons or bomber towers. What surprised me the most was
47:11
how weak Khmer monks are compared to what I expected from
47:15
my research. One thing I can say about the
47:19
Khmer is that they were initially heavily influenced by
47:22
Hinduism and later by Buddhism. Their Hinduistic kings were seen
47:27
as almost gods and incarnations of Vishnu and Shiva.
47:31
I mean the wonder in the game is the largest temple complex in
47:35
the world and the Khmer built temples wherever they lived.
47:40
Religion played a central role in their lives and the game.
47:44
This part of Khmer identity is not represented adequately.
47:49
I would say. Not only do they not have
47:52
bonuses for monks, they also cannot research relatively
47:56
important technologies in the monastery.
47:58
That they cannot research heresy in in the in the castle age
48:02
makes kind of sense for balancing reasons since it would
48:06
interact with their elephants, but the inability to research
48:10
atonement is a bit more surprising to me.
48:13
And in the Imperial age, they also lack block printing, two
48:17
key upgrades against monk heavy civilizations.
48:21
Even though monks are very likely to be used against the
48:23
Khmer, especially against their elephants and other cavalry, I
48:28
don't get the impression that the Kummer would suddenly become
48:31
overpowered if they had these two technologies, or at least
48:35
one of them. One argument for the lack of
48:37
block printing is that onages are the counter to large groups
48:41
of blister elephants, and if the Kummer could convert these more
48:45
easily, there would be no counter left.
48:48
However, I would argue these are edge cases in everyday play.
48:54
Monks need to be effective in a variety of other situations as
48:57
well, and I think those are more prevalent for the Khmer enemy.
49:01
Bombard cannons already counter the Khmer fairly well,
49:05
especially since the Khmer don't have any themselves.
49:08
And if they don't even have monks with block printings, they
49:12
are also kind of left without a counter to those bombard
49:16
cannons. So let's take a look at which
49:20
unit compositions would work best for the Khmer.
49:24
I want to emphasize again that thanks to the unique feature
49:27
that they don't need buildings as prerequisites for advancing
49:31
ages or constructing later buildings, the Kummer can
49:35
execute some special build orders and strategies, which
49:38
does require quite a lot of training.
49:41
Standard builds, of course, are still perfectly viable for
49:45
Kummer. The simplest and most obvious
49:48
opening for basically any cavalry civilization is scouts
49:53
into Knights, and this is especially true for the Kummer
49:56
since they can skip the barracks entirely.
49:59
This makes the Kummer one of the few civilizations that can
50:03
comfortably afford an early double stable opening.
50:06
They lose the option to build Spearman, but in return can
50:10
field overwhelming numbers of scouts early on.
50:14
This is of course only possible with relatively early farms, but
50:18
these are already the Commerce great strength.
50:22
The commerce then can even skip wheelbarrow as they don't need
50:25
the upgrade for their food economy.
50:28
This food that you've you've saved with the upgrade can be
50:31
converted into more scouts, more villages, or just a faster
50:35
castle age without harming your own economy.
50:39
In the castle age, transitioning to Knights then becomes a breeze
50:43
thanks to the strong farms. You can field Knights while
50:45
adding one or even 2 town centers.
50:48
Or if you want to keep the game short, skip the extra TCS and
50:52
build even more stables. You just need to make sure you
50:56
collect enough gold to keep up with your food economy.
51:00
A different approach would be Scouse into Arches, which is one
51:03
of the most demanding feudal age strategies because the tech
51:07
switch is resource intensive and delays the castle age.
51:11
Therefore it's important to deal damage during the fuel age to
51:15
not have wasted all these units and especially resources.
51:21
The commerce ability to skip the barracks plays perfectly into
51:24
the strategy. I personally like to build a
51:27
stable first, then use the same villager to build an archery
51:31
range right afterwards, and after that I will follow up with
51:35
a blacksmith to get fletching. You just need to get a feel for
51:39
when to send villagers to gold. If you don't want to start with
51:44
scouts for raiding but instead go straight for arches, it's
51:47
best to do this as soon as you reach the feudal age.
51:51
Typically I can field 3 to 4 scouts and still have enough for
51:55
fletching. After that, I can continue
51:57
building scouts and arches as desired, or pause to advance to
52:02
the castle age. As a particularly flexible
52:06
civilization, the Camura have strong arches as well as
52:09
cavalry, so this strategy plays to their strengths and scales
52:13
well into the mid and even the late game.
52:16
Many civilizations can perform a fast castle and then transition
52:20
into Knights, that's no secret, but only the Camura can, at
52:24
least to a certain extent, do this quite consistently, even on
52:29
open maps. Since they don't need to spend
52:32
wooden buildings other than those required for gathering
52:35
resources, they can focus entirely on reaching the castle
52:39
edge without without having to build unnecessary buildings
52:43
along the way. The wood you've saved this way
52:46
can be reinvested in walls or skirmishes for defence if you
52:51
deem necessary. This allows for an extremely
52:54
fast castle age up time, although it is built on a
52:57
fragile economy. If you want to skip walls, you
53:01
can take advantage of the fact that villagers can hide inside
53:03
your houses. It's a game of fire, of course,
53:07
but fast castle is already risky anyway, so why not add a little
53:12
extra thrill? Few civilizations can boom as
53:16
effectively as the commerce, so the boom strategy is always an
53:20
option because they don't need buildings to advance ages, it's
53:24
possible, especially on closed maps, to reach the Castle age
53:28
quickly and then add multiple town centres.
53:31
What exactly you focus your boom on depends on the situation, but
53:36
with strong siege weapons and two types of elephants, the
53:39
Camero have plenty of expensive and powerful units to build
53:42
their economy around. This, though, brings us to
53:46
strategies for the late game. I've already suggested that the
53:52
Commerce supposedly weakest phase of the game is the late
53:56
game, so here I want to propose a few army compositions for that
54:00
final part of your match. How about some Scorpions and
54:04
Halberdiers with some Hussars? Commerce Scorpions can deal
54:08
significant damage in large numbers, especially in choke
54:11
points or behind walls, thanks to their extra range and unique
54:16
technology. It's common in the Imperial Age
54:19
to eventually launch a push together with Halberdiers.
54:23
Halbs are typically the unit of choice for this because they
54:27
cost no gold, complementing the siege units in a very efficient
54:32
way, and counter enemy cavalry, which is usually used to destroy
54:36
your seat. However, this is a little harder
54:40
than it might sound because you need to position your Halbs
54:43
close to the Scorpions to reliably protect them, and since
54:48
the enemy tries to snipe your siege weapons, they are probably
54:52
trying to divert your helps from the scorpions and you need to
54:57
kind of babysit them and keep them close to your siege.
55:00
Skirmishes are a little problem for this composition because
55:04
they are strong against helbadeers and commerce.
55:07
Scorpions deal damage only to Pierce armor, which the skirts
55:13
of course have plenty of. For this reason, adding Hazars
55:17
is very useful both to kill enemy skirmishers or to raid the
55:22
opponent's economy and draw attention away from your
55:25
Scorpion and help mass. Ultimately, in the late game,
55:29
Khmer composition often rely heavily on Hazars.
55:34
With 70 or more farms, you can consistently produce Hazars from
55:38
15 or more stables. When you reach this point, take
55:42
a moment to just enjoy the live feed of your food economy.
55:47
The speed with which the number takes up is just so incredibly
55:51
satisfied thanks to their mobility.
55:54
Hazas should be used in two ways.
55:57
Ideally, stables are built on multiple flanks to constantly
56:01
raid the opponent, while some Hazas from other stables join
56:05
the main army to support the Scorpions.
56:08
For opponents, the most efficient way to destroy
56:10
commerce scorpions is probably with onages or bombard cannons,
56:15
which Hazas can quickly eliminate.
56:18
Enemy helps should not pose much of a challenge since the push is
56:22
supported hopefully by a large mass of scorpions.
56:26
If resources are abundant and mobility is less critical, you
56:30
can replace Hazas with elephants.
56:32
With Tusk swords and their bonus movement speed, Comer elephants
56:37
are strong enough to take on nearly any unit composition in
56:41
the game. The only exception, as always
56:44
with elephants, is monks. Thanks to the strong farm
56:48
economy, the Comer can afford this expensive unit better than
56:52
most other civilizations with access to elephants.
56:55
Somewhat like the Malay whose elephants are cheaper.
56:58
Like Scorpions, Elephants are nearly unbeatable in large
57:02
numbers, making this more of a late game composition requiring
57:06
resource surplus. Aside from lacking the Thumb
57:10
ring, Khmer have fully upgraded Obelisks thanks to their strong
57:14
farms. They can include Hazars early in
57:17
the Imperial Age to protect their Obelisks while also
57:21
raiding. So Hazars and Obelisks are a
57:24
deadly combination for the Khmer.
57:27
This combination is considered ordinary only due to the lack of
57:31
Thumb ring and the basic nature of these two units without any
57:35
military bonuses, but what can also call it a solid late game
57:41
core composition Obelisk paired with halps, former standard anti
57:46
cavalry composition. Here the Khmer are not fully
57:50
leveraging their bonuses since The Archers lack thumb ring and
57:54
Halps in the Imperial Age miss their final defensive upgrade.
57:58
Still, both unit types are at least above average, making this
58:03
a very strong composition against cavalry heavy opponents.
58:08
The classical late game composition of Knights and
58:11
Skirms is also possible for the Kummer.
58:15
Again besides missing Thumb Ring, Commerce Skirmishes are
58:17
fully upgraded and provide the perfect complement to Knights
58:21
and One V ones. Their strong farm economy makes
58:24
it even easier for Kummer than for other cavalry civilizations
58:28
to produce these two food heavy units, and probably makes it
58:33
possible for you to research armour upgrades early if gold
58:37
runs low. Switching to Hazas in time
58:39
ensures smooth operations against civilizations with
58:44
strong infantry or opponents specifically countering your
58:47
cavalry. The Khmer access to hand
58:50
Cannoneers in the late game can be a huge advantage paired with
58:55
Hazas, both as a meat shield for the valuable hand cannoneers and
58:59
as a mobile rating force. This forms a solid army
59:02
composition. You just need to carefully
59:05
protect your gold units. In team games.
59:08
The Kammer can theoretically fill both the Archer and cavalry
59:12
roles. However due to the lack of thumb
59:15
ring, they are better suited for cavalry in my opinion.
59:18
It is even possible to open directly with two stables, since
59:23
in the feudal age many scouts are needed and spearmint aren't
59:26
built anyway, they would just get picked off by Archers.
59:31
The same argument could be made for arches though, as numerical
59:34
superiority is perhaps even more important there, and the tight
59:39
double range build order which is standard in team games is not
59:43
only easier to execute, but can be done with much better
59:47
economy, hopefully leading to a faster castle age and having to
59:51
rely less on a market. So in two V2 games the there are
59:55
arguments for both roles. I believe the fast uptime for
59:59
power spikes favours arches, while the tectory and strong
1:00:03
food economy favour cavalry. Since 4V4 games are often played
1:00:08
like 2 simultaneous 2V twos, I think the same logic applies in
1:00:13
3V threes. I'd prefer to play as the pocket
1:00:16
though, building up my fantastic farm economy and leaving the
1:00:20
flanks to Archer civilizations. That actually have relevant
1:00:23
bonuses on close maps. The dynamics change a little
1:00:28
here. Khmer can contribute strong
1:00:31
units to the army composition, like scorpions, elephants or
1:00:34
ballista elephants. Even if the Cav plus Archer meta
1:00:38
isn't dominant behind strong walls, they can execute a boom
1:00:43
Few civilizations can match, but teammates must keep the other
1:00:47
opponents sufficiently occupied so that the Khmer player can
1:00:51
fully develop. And if you hit the right timing,
1:00:55
you can save the day and play the hero role and carry the team
1:00:59
to victory. Maybe even with elephants.
1:01:04
And this leads to us to the next section of this podcast, which
1:01:08
is what kind of maps the Khmer would prefer to play on.
1:01:12
I believe that thanks to their flexibility and broad tech tree,
1:01:17
Khmer are a solid choice on many map types.
1:01:21
On open maps especially, they shine through aggressive
1:01:25
openings, often starting with scouts to capitalize on their
1:01:28
strong food economy and early uptimes.
1:01:31
But that's not all Khmer have to offer.
1:01:34
Theoretically, they can execute basically any standard opening
1:01:38
and on open maps can reach the castle age without a fast castle
1:01:44
while keeping comparable timing for nights.
1:01:47
This makes them highly unpredictable, so it's crucial
1:01:50
for opponents to scout Kummer early and thoroughly throughout
1:01:54
the game. But even then, since they might
1:01:57
skip a couple of buildings, it is kind of hard to get the
1:02:01
necessary information to find out what a Kummer player is
1:02:05
really up to. For open maps the Kummer needs
1:02:08
to expand and maintain their advantages early to avoid
1:02:12
falling behind in the late game to due to missing military
1:02:16
bonuses on closed maps. This issue doesn't arise as much
1:02:20
on closed or semi closed maps. Kmur excel reaching the castle
1:02:25
age in record time and initiating a strong boom.
1:02:28
Afterwards they have access to strong late game compositions
1:02:32
with their halves and siege units and elephants and so on.
1:02:36
Once this point is reached the your opponent has very few
1:02:39
options and they are under pressure from the start to
1:02:42
prevent you from getting to this unit composition.
1:02:45
Quare can also spontaneously defend against aggression as
1:02:49
they can quickly build any type of recruitment building, even if
1:02:53
they were previously solely focusing on booming.
1:02:56
On semi closed maps, houses can provide additional protection if
1:03:01
for example, you're building a dock and gathering some fish for
1:03:05
it or trying to establish an outpost.
1:03:09
Houses are also useful on aggressive maps like Socotra or
1:03:13
Land Madness, helping Commerce survive or create chaotic
1:03:18
scenarios. Houses can save your own
1:03:21
villages in many ways during villager fights or even trap
1:03:25
enemy villages, allowing escapes through the houses and then
1:03:29
trapping the villages if you have the presence of mind to do
1:03:34
so and the skill. Personally I even struggle to
1:03:38
get my units to jump out of the right side of a building, so I
1:03:42
am definitely not qualified to do these kind of stunts.
1:03:46
For water maps, Khmer aren't poorly equipped though they lack
1:03:50
a specific bonus that is useful for naval battle.
1:03:54
For landing roles however, they are quite well suited as
1:03:57
villages can be safely housed on the enemy island and all types
1:04:02
of recruitment buildings can be built right away.
1:04:05
Not spending 175 wood on a barracks is particularly helpful
1:04:10
on islands. The same applies to hybrid and
1:04:14
nomad maps. Kummer have everything needed
1:04:17
and the barracks wood savings are extremely useful.
1:04:21
However, they lack specialized bonuses that civilizations
1:04:25
designed for these maps possess. Also, there's the curious case
1:04:30
of not having a mill and therefore not being able to
1:04:33
build a market because the mill is a prerequisite for the market
1:04:37
on hybrid maps. Because you've just been so
1:04:39
focused on having a fishing economy, and this is not a
1:04:43
problem for the Camura as well. On the other hand, relying on
1:04:47
fishing can be frustrating for Camur because their farms are
1:04:51
just so strong and you don't want to forego them.
1:04:55
At the same time, you do need. To use the fish.
1:04:58
On a map like, you know, hybrid maps, which makes fishing
1:05:02
somewhat inefficient option for them.
1:05:04
Either way, it just kind of feels like the chimera kind of
1:05:08
lost in the sauce on hybrid maps.
1:05:11
So where do the chimera stand in the current meta?
1:05:15
Hera released a fairly recent tier list for Arabia as of
1:05:19
October 2025, so the videos are only about a month old at the
1:05:24
time of this recording. In it, he ranked the Khmer as
1:05:27
one of the few S tier civilizations for Arabia.
1:05:30
Since Arabia is still considered the benchmark map, this is quite
1:05:34
a prestigious acknowledgement for the Khmer.
1:05:37
So you'd think the Khmer are one of the top tier civilizations in
1:05:42
E sport tournaments. According to AOE stats, the
1:05:45
Khmer are also fairly popular civilization and are being
1:05:50
picked among sift pickers on Arabia.
1:05:54
At the same time, it's clear that Kummer have a significantly
1:05:58
better win rate in the hands of players at 1900 ELO and above.
1:06:02
So the top 1% of players compared to the mid ELO range
1:06:07
around 1000 ELO. Of course, these are more fun
1:06:10
facts than reliable statistics, but they at least support the
1:06:13
assumption that I have that Kummer are not an easy
1:06:17
civilization to play. In the recently played Lin Yuan
1:06:21
Cup, despite A varied map pool including Arabia, the Kummer
1:06:26
were only used in four out of 23 sets, which honestly surprised
1:06:31
me a little. In Warlords 4, they were played
1:06:34
just six times out of 36 sets and only once in the playoffs,
1:06:39
so not a lot of games. My next thought was that pros
1:06:44
might prefer to play Kummer on more unconventional maps to
1:06:48
explore their unorthodox strategies.
1:06:51
So I took another look at Sudden Disaster 2.
1:06:55
In 60 three sets Kamura were only used 18 times and they won
1:07:00
just five out of those 18 games. So I thought maybe closed maps
1:07:05
is where the Kamura will shine and looked at Walhalla 2 from
1:07:09
earlier this year in March and I found that Kamura have been much
1:07:14
like in Sudden Disaster 2 played in every 4th set, specifically
1:07:19
in this case in eight out of 31 sets with this time quite a
1:07:24
balanced win rate. So it surprised me to see the
1:07:28
Khmer being so under represented in tournament games or at least
1:07:33
in A and St. tournaments in recent like in 2025.
1:07:37
And it seems that Khmer performed less spectacularly in
1:07:41
E sports tournaments than on the ranked ladder.
1:07:44
Another noticeable trend is that in all these tournaments, Kummer
1:07:48
were much more often played at the beginning of a tournament
1:07:52
than later rounds, almost as if the pros realised during the
1:07:56
event that their commerce strategies weren't quite working
1:08:00
out. So I'm curious to see what the
1:08:03
future holds for the Kummer, but at this point it kind of seems
1:08:08
disappointing when it comes to competitive play.
1:08:12
At last, I would like to dedicate a small part of this
1:08:17
podcast to the Kumar campaign because they do have their own
1:08:20
campaign. Forward March, we do not stop
1:08:25
until the sun falls beneath the tree line.
1:08:28
I am Sangama, Honour General of the Kumai Empire, tasked with
1:08:34
quelling of rebellion just a year after the passing of the
1:08:39
revered Surya Varman, his successor faces staunch
1:08:43
opposition. This chaos threatens to
1:08:46
dismantle the empire that took nearly 5 decades to build.
1:08:52
The Kumar campaign tells the story of Surya Varman the 1st
1:08:56
and covers roughly the period from the year 10 O 2 to 1050,
1:09:02
focusing on the unification of the Kumar empire and his reign.
1:09:06
The campaign can be played either in the original single
1:09:09
player mode or as a Co-op campaign and includes 5
1:09:14
missions. Surya Varman the First is also
1:09:17
playable as a hero unit, specifically as an elite
1:09:21
Elephant rider. As a special feature beyond the
1:09:24
usual hero traits like healing yourself and not being able to
1:09:28
be converted, he deals his full damage as trample damage, unlike
1:09:33
your regular Battle Elephant who deal only 25% of that damage and
1:09:37
trample damage. Originally the campaign was
1:09:40
rated 2 swords, so medium difficulty by the game, but it
1:09:44
has since been downgraded to only one sword.
1:09:48
Indeed, for experienced players the campaign is fairly easy and
1:09:51
even on hard difficulty, because you can generally boom
1:09:55
comfortably and then overwhelm enemies with strong units
1:09:59
without being too constrained by artificial limitations like
1:10:03
being pop capped. The first mission serves as an
1:10:07
introductory scenario in my opinion, where Suryavarman the
1:10:10
First leads his troops to Angkor and claims the throne.
1:10:15
While the enemies put up some resistance and it was fun to
1:10:19
fight opposing elephant riders, even converting each other's
1:10:23
elephants back and forth. I emerge successfully from every
1:10:27
battle. Capturing the city was only
1:10:29
slightly tricky because you were limited to the Castle Age and
1:10:32
had only 100 population space. In the second mission, the
1:10:36
objective is to suppress internal rebels in the north and
1:10:40
east and eliminate a central adversary.
1:10:43
Again, you are limited to the Castle Age, but at least you
1:10:47
this time have access to the full 200 population cap.
1:10:51
This makes the mission, however, very easy, and I particularly
1:10:55
enjoyed the map as I could recognize the lake and Mekong
1:10:59
River from my research. Starting in the Castle Age
1:11:03
allows you to begin attacking enemies relatively quickly, so
1:11:07
even though this mission is easy, it's also kind of a fun
1:11:09
one. The third mission prevents
1:11:11
building any structures and tasks you with successfully
1:11:15
escorting a chariot as a gift for the Kohler ruler to form an
1:11:20
alliance. At the beginning, you choose
1:11:23
which troops to use, and if you are of the right mind, you will
1:11:28
always pick elephants. Of course, there are multiple
1:11:31
ways to reach the objective, which increases replay value if
1:11:35
you're into that sort of thing, and allows for some interesting
1:11:38
discoveries. When exploring the map with our
1:11:42
new allies, we then face a new enemy, the Malay split into two
1:11:47
different factions. The map is a massive water map
1:11:51
with two islands between 2 land masses.
1:11:54
I first cleared my side and then starting in the imperial age,
1:11:59
focused on building a strong fleet.
1:12:01
The enemy honestly didn't put up much resistance even though they
1:12:05
were Malay, and after landing on the enemy side I established a
1:12:09
base with a castle and defeated the enemies 1 by 1.
1:12:13
I was kind of surprised to be playing a water map, but it was
1:12:16
fun to fight alongside a previously one ally, even if
1:12:21
they weren't particularly helpful.
1:12:23
It was also satisfying to decimate opponents from the
1:12:26
coast with elite cannon galleons.
1:12:28
This battle can also be played from the allies perspective by
1:12:32
the way, in the Dravidian campaign, which I haven't done
1:12:36
yet, so I can tell you what the experience is like, but I think
1:12:39
it's a very interesting fun fact.
1:12:42
By defeating the Malay, the influence of the Khmer Empire
1:12:46
increased once again. The final mission shifts the
1:12:50
focus back to land combat. The arch enemies, the Cam or
1:12:54
Cham appeared AS2 factions, one's as Vietnamese, one's as
1:12:58
Malay again, along with the Burmese as antagonists.
1:13:03
As your opponents are of three different civilizations, this is
1:13:07
quite the refreshments. Have seen lots of different
1:13:10
units and lots of different elephants.
1:13:13
And this mission you can either defeat three of the five enemy
1:13:17
factions or build and defend a wonder.
1:13:20
The commerce start in the South and center of the map,
1:13:23
surrounded by their enemies. There's also a neutral
1:13:26
Vietnamese faction that can be made an ally for I think it was
1:13:30
1000 gold, but this is only possible after quite a while
1:13:34
into the mission, and I think getting them to be allied with
1:13:38
you is particularly useful if you are attempting the Wonder
1:13:42
victory at last. By winning this mission,
1:13:46
Suryavarman the First demonstrates the Khmer Empire's
1:13:49
dominance in the region with a few fragile years of relative
1:13:53
stability during which the Empire will expand.
1:13:57
There's also an achievement you can earn during this last
1:13:59
mission by collecting all nine relics scattered across the map.
1:14:04
Honestly, the best part of the campaign is that the maps are
1:14:07
beautifully designed and there are many opportunities to play
1:14:12
with elephants, which is usually impossible on ranked maps.
1:14:16
Releasing fully upgraded elite elephant riders on an entire
1:14:19
city is simply a spectacular sight.
1:14:23
I personally struggled to really connect with the campaign's
1:14:26
protagonist or find the story particularly compelling, but I
1:14:30
had played it shortly after the Alexander the Great campaign,
1:14:34
and after being almost moved to tears by the voice acting in the
1:14:38
campaign's final mission when he just screamed his insanity in my
1:14:42
into my ears while I was desperately fighting for
1:14:45
survival on legendary difficulty, It's kind of hard
1:14:48
for an older campaign to compete, really.
1:14:51
I therefore recommend the Comer campaign to anyone who
1:14:56
particularly wants to have fun with elephants.
1:14:59
And that, my friends, was my overview of the Comer.
1:15:04
I think the Khmer are a very well designed civilization.
1:15:09
As I mentioned earlier, I wish that their culture, which is so
1:15:12
strongly influenced by religion, were better reflected in their
1:15:16
bonuses. But that's something that only
1:15:18
became clear to me through research, not something I would
1:15:22
have said based solely on the game.
1:15:24
If anything, I probably would swap out any monastery bonus or
1:15:31
monk bonus for the hopping into houses bonus.
1:15:34
But then again, as silly as that is, it's also kind of a
1:15:37
trademark of the commerce. Or maybe we'll just leave the
1:15:41
sieve as they are. Like all elephant civilizations,
1:15:45
it's a bit unfortunate that elephants rarely get to shine.
1:15:48
Still, the Kummer have such unique bonuses that you don't
1:15:52
really miss the elephant. There's just tons of other
1:15:55
things to explore with the Kummer.
1:15:57
They regularly present us with interesting decisions throughout
1:16:01
the game thanks to their design. Do I skip the barracks or play
1:16:05
it safe? Do I invest in walls or rather
1:16:08
use the house bonus and put the resources maybe into aggression?
1:16:13
And then there's their fantastic food economy, which gives me a
1:16:17
feeling of satisfaction unlike almost anything else in the
1:16:21
game. You can have a lot of fun with
1:16:23
the Khmer both in competitive and casual play, where the
1:16:27
elephants can wreak havoc relatively carefree.
1:16:31
All in all, the Khmer are probably very well finished in
1:16:34
terms of design. I assume that developers will
1:16:38
tinker with elephants here and there until the end of time, but
1:16:41
the overall elephant matter will likely remain the same
1:16:44
nonetheless. Otherwise, I see no real need
1:16:48
for changes, especially since the inspiration from the
1:16:50
historical camera is quite recognizable.
1:16:54
So that's it for the camera podcast.
1:16:56
If you'd really like to do me a big favour, I'd appreciate it if
1:17:01
you'd follow the podcast on Spotify and ideally give it a
1:17:06
rating that helps with metrics and increases the podcast
1:17:09
visibility. You're also welcome to send me
1:17:12
feedback, corrections, and addition to this episode either
1:17:16
via Discord or send me an e-mail at age of cast@gmail.com, that's
1:17:22
ageofcast@gmail.com, or directly as a comment on Spotify.
1:17:27
If possible, you can also support the podcast via Patreon
1:17:32
over at patreon.com/start the Game Already.
1:17:35
That's patreon.com/start the Game Already, and you'll find
1:17:39
all of these information in the show notes.
1:17:42
Thank you so much for listening until the end and I wish you
1:17:46
lots of fun with the camera and I'll see you in the next
1:17:50
podcast.