Hello guys! I love aoe2 a lot but the civilizations are a lot and i want to choose a very good cavalery and archer civ. In ur opinion what is the best archer and cav civ( with a little justification if possible) i can think of magyars and tatars only…
Cav civs are typically paladin civs, especially if you mean team games. So, to mention some:
- franks (very good eco, extra hp)
- teutons (extra armor)
- Lithuanians (extra attack). Go letis if your opponent has a limited amount of archers.
Other good cavalry civ missing paladins are Indians and khmer, but mainly for TG. Berbers are also very cool for 1v1.
Archer civs are the same for 1v1 and TGs, mainly Britons, Mayans, Ethiopians, Chinese, Vietnamese. Every civ here have at least decent eco, with solid arbalests and (except for Ethiopians) a very good late game archer UU
To me best Cavalry Archers Civilization is Mongols. Magyars also nice. Mongol lacks a armour tech but Cavalry Archers needs damage instead of durability because you will tank them with other units.
Other nice options: Turks, Tatars, Huns, Cuman Kipchacks.
Cav Franks
Archer there are many good civs, i think the best is Vietnam, but thats an opinión
Cav archers mongols
As I think you speak of civs being able to go cav and archers there not that many. They all lack a bit on either on or the other but byzantines may be an addition to the ones mentioned by you before. Most paladin civs have week archers and most strong archer civs lack paladins. Just take a look in the techtree and see what you think would be needed and what’s okay for your playstyle to be missing.
Do you want a good archer civ and a good cav civ (so 2 different civs) or do you want a civ, which is decent at going archers AND decent at going cav?
I got it
And Magyars are probably the best civ for you, excellent cavalry with free attack upgrades, and the archery range is complete plus having one of the strongest cavalry archers.
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No hand cannons 
But otherwise if you look for the impossible task for cavalry and archery magyars might be best but they are not very straight forward to play due to lacking economic fuel to go into either that easily.
Magyars looks like your best option: they have full upgraded paladins and arbalesters (with extra LOS) and discounted scouts, with the free blacksmith attack upgrades for both knights and scouts.
Another options:
Portuguese dont have palladin, but their cavalier is fully upgraded (same as their arbalesters) and both cavaliers and arbalesters benefit from gold discount. Big problem is that they dont have hussars but they dont need it (and you can spam light cav easily with a couple of feitorias). Also they can transition a bit faster between both units if needed.
Similarly, chinese have fully upgraded cavalier and arbalester with a discount to every tech, so transitions between them are easier. And they have camels.
Malians have good crossbows in castle age: free gold mining, wood discount for buildings. Their cav is good to thanks to farimba. So you can start with archers and transition into cav. They have camels too. Byt their archers are lackluster in imperial age.
Vietnamese, besides good archers, imperial skirmisher and rattan archers, have standard cav until imperial, which is good. Also, you can try a decent scout rush with them because of their bonuses (the eco wood discount helps to have more farms working, and you can use your scout to push deer or lame sheep in dark age because you know the starting enemy position). And they have elephants for teamgames. Although their cav miss the last attack upgrade.
Turks light cav with free upgrades and extra pierce armor is good. Also turks collect gold faster which is important for a knight or archer rush. Free chemistry, camels. they are like tatars in the sense they dint have arbalester but they have very good cav archers.
Persians have paladin with extra attack to archers and gold_free crossbows without all upgrades (their archer style prefer quantity over quality). Their eco is decent for both. Also, camels and hand cannoners.
Extra: Malay can try earlier archer rushes thanks to their advancing age bonus and have a temible elephant rush
Remember than in 1v1, most games at open maps are decided in castle age or early imperial. Thus, palladin upgrade is not a win condition there. This is the reason I provided you a list of civ without fully upgrades arbalester or cavaliers, just in case you go for early aggression.
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Assuming you mean civs that have both good archers and cav, no.1 is probably chinese (if you can manage to have a good start). Then depending on what stages of the game you are talking about you could make the case for tartars (downside no arb), portuguese (downside no hussar), Khmer (downside no thumb ring), magyars (downside no persistant eco bonus), vietnamese (downside no hussar, no blast furnace).
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a civ that has both decent archers and cavalery
In that case I’d go with Portuguese.
Though beware they’re neither “very good” at archers (Mayans are strictly better) nor at cavalry (Berbers are strictly better)
Still, they’re good if you use their flexibility. And their cavalier are a good hussar substitute (because of the gold discount combined with gold from feitorias)
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If you are looking for a civ with good cavalry and archers in the late game (ignoring early game strategy), you could go for:
- Magyars: fully upgraded Paladins and Hussars, fully upgraded Arbalests, excellent cavalry archers
- Khmer: best Battle Elephants (cavalry), fully upgraded Hussars, Arbalests only missing Thumb Ring
and to a lesser extent:
- Chinese: no access to Paladin, but fully upgraded Cavaliers and Heavy Camels, fully upgraded Arbalests
- Saracens: not a typical cavalry civ (they don’t even have Cavalier), but they specialize in Camel Riders (cavalry) and have excellent Archers as well, with bonus attack against buildings.
- Vietnamese: like Khmer, they have access to Battle Elephants (with extra HP) and their archers are one of the best in the game, they have Rattan Archer as a unique unit with extra pierce armor
- Byzantines: cavalry missing the important Bloodlines upgrade and Blast Furnace, but access to Paladin, discounted Camel Riders and unique Cataphract, fully upgraded Arbalests
Their cavalry also miss blast furnace, but that is a late game issue. And Cataphract doesn’t need it.
Their elephants are the worst from the 4 battle elephants civ (worse attack but extra HP), buuuut they have imperial skirmishier to guard them from enemy halberdiers. Even if they lack blastfurnace, that is a nice combo for teamgames, because imp skirms kill halbs in one hit less. Also, they lack hussar but light cav is good enough for raiding and rattan archers are good raiders too.
Also, their economy bonus is very noob-friendly when going for archers.
Same as Vietnamese, they lack hussar, but with 3-4feitorias they can spam light cav even while being raided in the very late game (quantity over quality in this case). I would save the gold for siege in that case (infinite light cav spam is not a little issue for enemy).
Please, @Micriab123 , tell us what is your final decision
Yes, you are right, I edited my post.
That is debatable. Malay elephants are cheaper but lack two armor upgrades and Bloodlines.
Still, they are used more often than vietnamese and burmese elephants (mainly in 1v1 during castle age). But malay elephants are a particular “quantity over quality” caveat that hinders comparisons, i agree.
Of the three other battle elephant civs, vietnamese elephants are worse than burmese and khmer ones. Those ones are more solid taking setlements down.
However, i like vietnamese elephants. They are good as a meattanks specially together imp skirms to kill halbs and together BBC to destroy some buildings. You only musnt use them alone.
Also, vietnamese ecobonus is better for booming in arena than burmese one because you can have an instant 3TC plus monastery boom in castle age. That is good for setting up an elephant comp (and with free conscription they are easier to mass).
You could see things the other way around and make some compromises with your archers rather than with your elephants. Then Khmer become a better choice since you get vastly better eles and a better eco, all this at the mere price of lacking thumb ring.
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