Weakness of Khmer on Arabia?

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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So on Arabia there are many civs that are top-tier, among those, Poles, Chinese, Aztecs. Everyone knows Khmer are top 10 or so, but personally it’s the civ I struggle BY FAR the most to beat. It seems their eco, no matter the early damage you give them, is always insane.

Khmer are the only civ that I see COMFORTABLY go, 2x gold comp, 3 stable Knights, and similar. When I play vs Khmer, it seems to me that the opponent rarely has to face trade offs like "more army or 3 TCs, or “3 TCs or Pikeman switch”.

On top of that, they have one of, if not THE best Feudal in the game, where they can practically do any build, including 17 pop Scouts, 17 pop Archers, pre-mill Drush into semi FC (for which they need no buildings and this I feel in Feudal is a huge deal because you can often get away with something like 1 Archery range, no BS Skirm defense), full Scouts. Don’t forget Khmer can always hit you with the classic MAA too! Most people will assume when facing Khmer that they are going vs some 17 pop fast build only to die to MAA and often a 21 pop is (wrongly) seen as defensive Archers/greed to Castle age build.

So here I wanted to ask: what do you think the weakness of Khmer is?

I am 1700 elo btw where people are half-decent so pls don’t give me the Youtube answer “they don’t have a Barracks so just go full Spears vs them” because Khmer can always switch to FC or drop their own Barracks if they see numerous Spears or even an Archery Range.

The biggest problem I have with Khmer is that it seems they have enough food for EVERYTHING in Castle age, Light Cav upgrade to counter my Monks, early Pike switch, Knights with good upgrades with 3 TC behind them, you name it. Sometimes I play vs what feels like a Khmer all-in Knights only to see at end of game he was on 3 TCs the whole time.

Thoughts?

To me it doesn’t rly seem they have a weakness, they also have a turbo Imp due to farms + no buildings required, and in Imp they can always go +4 Cavalier into Hussar, or even Arbalest, hell they even have very decent Halbs to counter the stronger cav civs.

I am starting to think this civ is really not too behind Poles or Chinese in terms of the power they can unleash on Arabia.

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I agree they dont really have a weakness.

But apart from the FC you mention, their strengths are not overly crazy too. All their units are generic (if we ignore BE) and without a discount. Their eco is strong, but not quite at the level of the best civs.

Id say their strengths and their weaknesses are both a bit less pronounced than for other civs.

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Probably he just faced an opponent with better macro.
Khmer are extremely snowbally when they are ahead, so i can understand why it may feel “unfair” against opponents with better macro as it seems you can’t really do anything.
But also, when Khmer fall behind they fall apart way faster than other civs.

There are 42 civs in the game, I don’t think any single player can conclude against other civs just from his own experience. Most of the time the deciding factor isn’t actually the civ but wether the opponnen just played better.

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The problem is that in an equalish game, it is fair to assume Khmer have the better macro. They have 1 of the best farms in the game, after all. And those engagements in early Castle age where, Khmer is on 6 Knights, you are on 4 because he hit Castle age first, quickly snowball into, he is on 20 +2 Knights, while you are on 14.

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4 TCs is a bit greedy vs Khmer.
Also daut you have perfect macro, even at the top level the macro with knights and boom behind is still the most decisive factors in games.
Ofc Khmer are one of the best Civs for this Kind of meta Play.

But that’s why you usually don’t play this type against Khmer. Put more pressure on them. They don’t really like that.

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Outside of Battle eles and scorpions, the civ hasn’t any special common unit, subpar Arbalests without Thumb Ring, bad infantry.

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it’s the timings they can hit + POSSIBILITY of Arbalest, or Cavalier, etc. As Khmer for example you can comfortably mass Xbow in Castle age and hit the Arbalest power spike. Just don’t play Xbow full game due to no TR. Can’t do that with Persians or Franks for example.

Their infantry isn’t bad, Halberdier is rly all you need from the Barracks.

Also I will point out how many top tier civs don’t have an “special common units”, for example Chinese have the most generic tech tree, Berbers have the most generic tech tree, Burgundians tech tree-wise are below average if anything, lacking the possibility to go full Skirms in Imp and their Paladin lacks Bloodlines.

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I agree on you. That is why khmer is one of the most popular civ since their farm bonus added. Additionaly their team bonus more strong than many ut. Also paying full price for units is not a problem, insine farm bonus enough to pay full price.
Maybe their weak side can be forcing them to make barrack, market etc so they cant save wood, if they make all buildings, they cant find the wood for farm and army then theoricaly they will always benefit from 1 eco bonus while most of the strong arabia civs have 2 eco bonus (mayans, chinese,) or 1 eco bonus and 1 unit bonus (hindustanies, gunjaras) .

1 Like
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I agree with this. The general issue is that the time window (in Feudal) to punish lack of Barracks is very small, and specific to both players opening Scouts. If Khmer seems overwhelming numbers of Scouts + Spears (which is the default play between 2 cavalry civs), he can always go Scout + Archers which is the best Feudal comp and beats Scout + Spear. There is a window where he doesn’t have Archery Range, yes, but it’s a small window.

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Early Imp Eagles I guess

11

One more wakness of Khmer actually, they really struggle against full trash + trush. Like what Byz and Chinese do a lot. Cause they don’t have a barracks to make Maa directly.

But imo this thread is more an indicator of how problematic the “easy going” franks are in the current meta. People think if they just go full Franks metaplay they have to win every matchup. But there are just a few civs that actually counter franks in this metaplay. Like Khmer.
But that doesn’t mean you are helpless against these civs with Franks, just play different. Franks are actually quite flexible both in their openers but also in their mid- and lategame options.

You an totally open archers + spears with franks which Khmer also don’t like so much to play against. You can also use your cheaper castles to your advantage. Your Double Gold combo should be basically as strong as Khme double Gold. And if the Khmer player goes full trash you then can even go for your TA.