Which civ is the best one in your opinion and why?
I would like to see your ranking.
I’d like to see this too, i’d be curious.
Shang: cheaper vills means they always win RM games if they rush
Hitties: gigantic tech tree means they almost always win DM games
This is a double topic and has been discussed thouroughly already. There is no clear winner, they all have advantages
Assyrian were the strongest and better than Shang in RM. Going back a long way in the patch cycles Shang however had 35 food villagers not 40 so they were initially the best on first release.
Assyrian having faster villagers was an economic bonus to rival the cheaper Shang villagers and Shang axeman couldn’t catch Assyrian Villagers so limited the effectiveness of a Shang tool rush, particularly given that Assyrian get faster firing tool age bows to counter any scouts.
In Bronze if it gets to chariots then the Assyrian had won as Shang had no military bonuses. Shang did get Scythes however in Iron whilst Assyrian did not but early iron would see horse archers machine gunning everything before scythes.
Brings back memories @“Mystic Taboo” 
In aoe vanilla, Yamato and Assyrian were the strongest civs because of vill speed.
Assyrian spam chariots destroy everything. All top level game that i have been looking are mirror assyrian spam chariots.
@Amphiprion said:
Assyrian spam chariots destroy everything. All top level game that i have been looking are mirror assyrian spam chariots.
I actually hope the balance changes will prevent something like that. Assyrian spam Chariots everytime over and over again just because it’s the best would be really boring.
@DeadVen said:
@Amphiprion said:
Assyrian spam chariots destroy everything. All top level game that i have been looking are mirror assyrian spam chariots.I actually hope the balance changes will prevent something like that. Assyrian spam Chariots everytime over and over again just because it’s the best would be really boring.
Just insist on Random Civ in your 3v3’s it’s what the community was doing on both the Zone and Booby 
This greatly depends on the map, and whether it is random map or deathmatch. For a random map with a lot of water Yamato, Hittite and minoan are the dominant civs due to sea bonusses Especially Minoan is almost unstoppable if you do not attack it before it has Composite Bowmen. Other strong civs are Assyrian and Shang. For non water maps I would say Assyrian Shang and Yamato are the best. Roman is also a powerful alround RM civ. For Deathmatch the strongest civs generally are Hittite, Persian and Choson. Carthaginian is also very strong, it’s 750 HP elephants can wreack some real havoc.
Yeah Minoan bonuses synergied very well on maps like Conti, could have villagers almost exclusively on wood and later gold and rely on fishing ships solely for food for more villagers and compies. Exponential growth.
Outside of team games however in 1v1 you just tool rush them and even if they run their woodies away/escape you can wall off the gold mines with your forward builder and then they are stuck.
Firstly it depends on
Game version: I play the latest Upatch version.
Then:
Game-mode: Random Map, Death Match, Custom scenario
Map type: Water map, Semi-Water map, Mainly land map
I only play random map games or custom scenario’s,
Based on that I’d say overall: Hitties
Insane variety of units, all defense upgrades, and get a lot of nice other upgrades and bonuses.
Long lasting games (where resources (mainly gold) will eventually run out):
- Assyrians (chariots, all temple upgrades, legions)
- Egyptians (very strong chariots, and very long ranged priests)
Personal favorite:
Choson: Strong legions, defense bonus (+2 tower range), cheap priests, and get the helepolis 
You can check the tech tree and bonuses yourself.
The point of balance is that there isn’t a best civ, but I’m inclined to agree with @LegoVogel here, especially since AoE:DE will be based off the UPatch balancing, too!
AOE… was actually pretty well balanced. Playing Tiny RC DM was very equal.
@okilian76 said:
AOE… was actually pretty well balanced. Playing Tiny RC DM was very equal.
I believe so too. Balance has always been a thing in RTS, even long ago already. If you look at how many different civs are labeled as favourite in another thread it means there must be a pretty advanced level of balance present, even in vanilla AOE.