Summary of the three new DLC civilizations! (early access)

Hey guys, Spirit of the Law here. I have

some access to an early preview of the

upcoming Last Chieftain's DLC coming out

next Tuesday. And while there's been a

trickle of info about the civilizations

and unique units up to this point, we

can finally take a good look at things

in a bit more detail and answer a lot of

questions. In this video, we're going to

do a condensed summary of all three new

civilizations, including a lot of

specifics about units and techs. We'll

start with the champion, which is a unit

that replaces the militia line and eagle

warrior for Incas in the new saves. Like

we've been told, we can see it's going

to be good against archers thanks to

speed and pure summer, a lot like the

eagle line, and even has some anti-

siege bonus it borrows from those as

well. That said, it's not shock

infantry, so it doesn't take all the

eagles extra bonus damage while also has

a bit of bonus damage against shock

infantry and buildings. So, in that

respect, it shows a militia line

influence. It then costs 45 food and 25

gold. Very similar to the 50 food and 20

gold of the swordsman line and has

reasonably cheap upgrade costs until you

get to the Imperial H1. In a quick test

to get a rough sense, they're noticeably

worse than the militia line in melee,

losing headto-head, for instance. Though

I might feel okay going champion against

a men arms opening just because you can

outmaneuver them. And the long sword in

particular is actually pretty close to

even as you can see. That mobility and

pierce armor combo is really a big deal

against archers. And that's where it's

going to feel a lot like an eagle

warrior without some of that unit's

other downsides, but also without their

bonus against cavalry. Keep in mind,

they have a 30-se secondond creation

time for the first two levels in dark

and feudal age, dropping to 21 seconds

once you get the champion warrior

upgrading Castle Age. So, the production

rate is going to limit their early

damage as much as anything, I suspect.

Obviously, he's your starting scout as

well, and seems to have the same speed

and line of sight as an Eagle Scout. So,

no real advantage or disadvantage that

jumps out to me there.

The next general thing to know about

these new sibs is their settlement

building, which is a universal drop off

building, replacing all camps in the

mill. Plus, it's also a house. I

speculated this might be 150 wood, but

it turns out it's just 125. So, you're

paying for a regular camp plus house

without any extra cost. I know it was a

concern a few people had, but it turns

out just one settlement fulfills the two

dark age building requirement when aging

up, as I guess it counts as a lumber

camp plus a mill if you want to think of

it that way. Here, I can advance with

just one built on a woodline. Whereas

for a regular civilization with one

lumber camp, they'd have to build a

second dark age building to advance. And

as another intangible upside, it's also

very aesthetically pleasing and

efficient for farms.

The third big thing to know about these

cives is the overhaul coming to

slingers, which are very different now,

is they're a trash unit. Previously,

they cost 30 food and 40 gold in castle,

but now cost 70 food and just 10 wood.

They're a little different stats-wise

now as well with lower HP and their

anti-infantry bonus had dropped from

plus 10 to plus4, but now have a new

plus4 against monks and plus three bonus

against siege units. Keep in mind none

of these three new sibs nor the Incas

have hazar, so they still only have

three trash units in total. It's just

they have the anti- archer, anti-

cavalry, and anti-infantry/sort

of anti- siege choices. Suddenly, a lot

of the bonuses to improve slingers are

making a bit more sense as it's now

essentially a food unit, and we'll see a

lot more of it. So, that's the shared

units and building, but now let's get

into the civilizations and answer some

of the looming questions about unique

units and techs. We'll start with the

2P, who open with 25 extra of each

resource to start the game. Their second

bonus is they can put five villagers

inside each of their settlements or

camps, which don't fire arrows or

anything like that, but just keep them

safe, a bit like houses for Camar. The

next bonus is that their units return

15% of their cost when defeated or you

delete them. Either way, you get the

resources back. Your archery range and

blacksmith upgrades then cost half as

much food, saving 313 food on the way to

arbolster, 230 for halbadier, and 438

for champion total. From their bonuses

and tech tree, they seem to be pretty

flexible in terms of army compositions,

combining some sort of archery range and

infantry unit with the champion and

slinger as one possibility. And both of

those units have unique tech to speed up

their attack rate by 25%.

In terms of unique units, the first is

the Blackwood Archer at the castle.

These have very low attack and cost 35

wood and 45 gold. Actually 10 would more

than a typical crossbow. But in this

case, that gets you two units costing

just one pop space combined and being

made in a very quick 14 seconds. That's

why compared to a crossbow, the roughly

half HP really jumps out. And the

concept here is very simple to

understand as you just want to overwhelm

your opponent. The in-game description

says they're good in high numbers but

die at close range. I think somewhat

predictably they beat half their numbers

of crossbows pretty convincingly, which

I think makes sense as they have roughly

double the archers combined attack power

and if you think about it actually have

more HP in total at the start of the

fight. The flip side is if they run into

magnels, scorpions, or any sort of

defensive building, then they'll just

completely melt. In Imperial Age, the

elite version then doesn't gain any more

attack other than bracer and chemistry.

But a unique tech can then add in poison

damage, which seems to be a steady drip

of three extra damage per shot and does

appear to stack. The UI is a little

tricky to interpret as it gives the

stacking poison damage as damage per

minute, while it only lasts for a few

seconds and constantly updates as new

poison is added and old poison is

removed over time. The fact that Gulam

and Huscaro here go from 70 to just 20

shots highlights how dangerous this

upgrade is. Albeit this might exaggerate

it a bit as it has less time to work

when units are being focus fired. The

archer line and defensive buildings also

benefit from this tech as well with the

arbolster actually getting plus five

extra damage from this instead of the

blackwood archers plus three. TP are

lacking thumb ring but even so their

arbolasters went through this group of

paladins 57% faster than a generic civ

with thumb ring's extra fire rate. It's

too early to make balanced judgments,

but it seems hard to go wrong in the

late game with Blackwood Archers or just

Arbolasters as 2P. The other unique unit

is the Ebra warrior from the barracks.

So far, TP lack tankiness in their melee

units as just something to put in front

of your archers, and that's where this

guy comes in. He's 30 food and 60 gold,

so not cheap by infantry standards, but

already in castle age has a very solid

80 HP plus an area attack. Here we can

see that in action. And unlike your

typical area damage that affects all

units around him, it's basically full

damage to the targeted unit and what's

immediately behind it. Again, it's easy

to understand this unit's role, clearing

out generic enemy melee units for a

price, which is a role your habadier and

champion lines are unable to fill and is

arguably the only unit the civ has that

gives some durability in melee.

That's the 2P as an archer and infantry

combined armed civilization. Next, let's

look at the Mapuche, who are a cavalry

and counterunit cy. Their bonuses are

extra food from foragers as their early

eco boost. Their settlements train

spears and skirmishers, basically giving

you multiple free production buildings

throughout the game. Their infantry,

slingers, and skirmishers have more HP.

Their two mounted units generate gold

from kills, and they reveal enemy

castles on the map, which doesn't work

as an advanced warning of castle drops,

by the way. Basically, they just appear

out of the fog when completed, stay

highlighted for a few seconds, and then

fade to an explored part of the map, so

you don't have active sight on what

they're producing. Moving on to their

unique units, the first is the bolis

rider at the archery range. This is a

lot like a cavalry archer with a

comparable wood and gold cost and

similar HP, attack, and range, though

bonus damage takes it in a bit different

direction. Instead of a bonus against

spears, these have plus two bonus

against cavalry and camels, which will

help a bit against the things that they

can't hit and run. Really though, this

is a hit and run unit at heart with an

occasional charge attack that lowers its

target speed by 15% for a few seconds.

It wears off long before the recharge is

done, so it's not like they're

constantly slowed, but still seems

annoying to fight against. They also

have 90% accuracy, so it feels like

they'll do a lot of the same things as

cavalry archers with a couple of extra

advantages. Much also have a very nice

unique tech in castle age as well,

giving a few units some pass through

damage, doing what seems to be 30% of

their usual damage to units immediately

behind their target. You can get a

general sense of its reach here. And

notice it's quite sensitive to the angle

of projectiles, such that slingers get a

lot more reach than the other two here.

Extra damage on your cavalry archer

replacement and your ranged trash units

is kind of great. And their other unique

tech reduces the cost of your team's

unique units, plus your bolis riders by

15%. Considering all unique units are

balanced using their cost within the

context of their civilization's late

game economy, that has me a little

nervous there's some unforeseen

interactions here. Then again, maybe a

trash unit focus for Mapuche is so awful

in team games that this becomes their

main contribution to the team. We'll see

how things play out and the sort of

thing is very difficult to predict. The

Mapuche's other unique unit of the

castle is then the Kona, which like most

cavalry have decent HP, then appearing

to give up some attack and melee armor

for more pure summer, making it

naturally suited to countering archers

and maybe giving some pop efficiency

against infantry. It's 65 food and 40

gold, so not crazy expensive in the late

game and gives you a nice melee complent

to bolis. Notice there's no armor

upgrade here in Castle Age as the

civilization lacks cavalry armor

upgrades and the stable. So no

bloodlines or husbandry to pick up

either. And the only thing to grab is in

fact the blacksmith attack upgrades.

Their special ability then someone

addresses their low attack by increasing

their damage against injured units which

you can directly read from the attack

value. It temporarily adjusts plus one

attack for every 15% of the target's HP

that's lost up to plus 6 damage once

it's below 10% health. You're always

kind of incentivized to finish off

damage units already. So, I don't know

how you'd intentionally take advantage

of this, but it does mean it will often

end up hitting harder than it stats

imply over time. So, that's the Mapuche,

which kind of take you in two different

directions. The trash counterunit path,

where you can mass those easily from

settlements, get more HP, and pass

through damage, while the other

direction is those two mounted units,

which unfortunately both cost gold. So,

it might end up being a little tricky to

pair those. As natural as that might

seem at first, it's probably too early

to predict, but I'm expecting some trash

opening shenanigans with this civ and

then either bolis rider spam in the

midame or aa and skirmisher or slinger

pairing to combine some mobility with

DPS.

The last civ in the DLC is the Moisa,

who have an archer and monk focus,

though in some ways they're fairly

similar to 2P by encouraging a combo of

archery range and barracks units with

the monastery thrown in as something

extra. The first bonus is advancing to

the next age costs half the usual gold,

which actually saves 500 gold by

Imperial Age and is right up there with

the best gold bonuses in the game. I'm

not even sure Turk's faster gold miners

get an extra 500 gold by Imperial and

certainly not consistently. The next

bonus is her settlements cost 25% less,

so just 94 wood. But remember, a

universal camp plus a house. And they

also heal nearby units one HP every 4

seconds when those are within three

tiles. That's faster than P's passive

healing in feudal, but only applies to

units directly around their settlements.

The next bonus is their champion archery

range units get progressively more melee

armor, maybe making their crossbows a

little better against knights, for

instance. Though, keep in mind their

archers lack the final armor, so they're

down two pierce armor late, and the

champion lack the final attack upgrade.

So, there are some counterbalances here.

Their monks then regenerate faith 50%

faster, so in about 40 seconds to

recharge instead of the usual roughly 1

minute. And finally, caravan and guilds

are free. Plus, your natural gold

sources last 15% longer as a team bonus,

so you get a lot of gold value in the

late game between better cell prices and

the longerlasting gold mines. The unique

techs that make your archer line and

champion move 15% faster. Plus, the

slingers get an extra range and train

faster in Imperial Age with the second

tech. Altogether, the crossbow line

seems like a very solid game plan,

giving you cheaper castle and imperial

age advances, free melee armor, plus the

cheaper settlements as a wood bonus that

when combined with the fact you need

fewer settlements from doubling up on

resources, probably altogether ends up

being just as good as the Japanese camp

discount. The faster archery line tech

also seems very good and might sound

broken, but still leaves them about 10%

slower than plumemed archers, so it's

not necessarily unprecedented and is

locked behind a castle. As for unique

units, the first is made at the barracks

and monastery called the temple guard.

They're pretty expensive at 80 food and

45 gold, but have very high HP and

almost the durability of a knight

without bloodlines, but then higher

attack plus an extra bonus against

cavalry. Despite being a monastery unit,

they actually don't take anti- monk

bonus damage from eagles or scouts, but

they are shock infantry, so a lot of

infantry will have a bonus against them,

hence the description, they're weak

against the militia line. The fact it's

made from the monastery suggests a use

case on arena after fast castling,

skipping a barracks entirely, but being

able to make a couple of them to control

relics and fight off scouts. Notice the

civ does like halbadier, which I think

is to try to encourage this unit in the

late game. So, it should be generally

useful as a blocker against heavy

cavalry or as a damage sponge against

skirmishers. They also have a special

effect of increasing their attack rate

the longer they fight the same unit,

going from 2 seconds to 1.2 two seconds

between each attack, which increases

their DPS by about 2/3.

The Muska's other unique unit at the

castle is then the Gua warrior, which at

first glance is a bit of a weird one as

it's a skirmisher with bonus damage

against archers, spears, and cavalry

archers, plus a slower 3-second reload

rate, but cost 50 wood and 60 gold. So,

it's not a trash unit, and they also

have two less range in castle than elite

skirmishers. The upside is they have

much higher attack, especially once you

upgrade them in Imperial, and are also

quite a bit faster. They then add in a

quirky mechanic where if a Guer warrior

dies, all the ones around it slowly

regain 5 HP, which might not sound

crazy, but means if 10 of them go down,

in theory, that could fully heal all the

other ones around it. In practice, a lot

of that is going to be wasted on full

health units. Plus, it doesn't stack, so

it'll never be as efficient as it sounds

on paper. They're clearly still a good

anti-archery unit and their higher

attack makes them much more versatile

than your typical skirmisher justifying

the gold cost. It's a tricky unit to

predict as they still have minimum

range. So in theory, cavalry should

handle them just fine. But the more of

them you get, the more that group

healing is going to kick in as a wild

card. So that's Moisa with a good archer

and champion line augmented with the

temple guard against probably mostly

cavalry and the Guer warrior against

mostly archers. With all three new sips

covered, that concludes our 15-minuteish

rundown of the most important things to

know about the upcoming civilizations.

I'll be curious to see how Inca come out

of all this as well. Between the slinger

becoming a trash unit, the settlement as

an implicit wood bonus going to the Inca

as well, and the champion replacing

their eagle and militia lines, probably

to offset the settlement being better

than regular camps. I noticed the Inca's

food discount for their units was

dropped by 5% for each age. Overall, the

DLC seems solid, and I'm loving the new

architecture set in particular. At this

point, I would say my biggest concern

isn't with any of the new saves, but

simply the civilization selection screen

that now goes one row farther than they

can show at any one time. So, I expect

in 10 years, we're going to be hearing

from newer players who say they never

even realized Vikings were in the game.

That'll do it for this one, though.

Thanks for watching, guys, and I'll see

you next time.