For other military units it is quite an easy one, but I am listing what I think are the best just for clarity:
Archery Range - Mongols. Fully upgraded Arbalesters. The best Cavalry Archers in the game. Missing Hand Cannoneers (rarely used) and Ring Archer Armor (doesn’t matter with a meatshield in front). Unlike best archers or Cavalry Archers, I am taking the entire range into account with relevant bonuses and techs. My 2nd option would be Saracens because of full tech tree + trash siege (Skirmishers).
Barracks - usually the least interesting part of the tech tree. While I am tempted for Goths (Huskarl counts towards Barracks), I would prefer Mayans because they give the option of Eagles too. Japanese/Teuton Barracks are limited to the utility of Halberdiers so not very interesting. Incas have full Barracks but nothing too special (Incan eagles are good only against archer units).
Stable - Persians, easy one. Although I would prefer the Frank team bonus over Persian one. With the futility of Steppe Lancers and situational uses of Elephants, I prefer Camels over Elephants. No civ has FU Paladins, Camels and Hussars other than Persians.
Dock - not a water player so won’t comment
Okay, back to the siege workshop. The Ethiopian one is full - the only one in the game. So I take that out of the equation. I won’t consider the Aztecs ones too, simply because their bonus is a subset of Celt bonus. I am not giving options because it can be really anything. The capability of siege also depends on the player too.
I do not use Scorpions too much, so I find the Saracen SW one of the best even without the bonuses.
While many civs like Celts and Slavs have very good mainstream options, Bombard Cannons are very important I believe. Teutons are also quite below for me, for missing Siege Rams. I feel that SR is the most important SW unit. Not to mention, the superfast Drill Siege Towers can also put Mongols in the race for transporting their Pikemen directly to the battlefield.
Just before posting this, I found not even a single civ having Siege Ram, Bombard Cannon and Siege Engineers together other than Saracens. I can use Scorpions with Siege Engineers but not Onagers and Heavy Scorpions without Siege Engineers.
I think ethiopian is perhaps the best on paper if you just ask whitch one. However if we look at the gameplay of different civs I think Celts are the civ you can activlly try to win using mainly the SW. Actually Im finding it difficult to understand your criteria what are you looking for
Siege Workshop?
Mongols… Drill is really cool. Drill + heavy scorp means you can basically kite any foot unit other than Britons ranged units, so they’ll basically just all melt. The faster movement on SO is also pretty amazing, needless to say that you can pull off sick onager shots much more easily with them. They’re also much easier to protect from danger, much easier to pull them back behind meatshield units, etc.
Plus the Siege Workshop itself has fully everything other than Bombard Cannon, but tbh sniping trebs is not a difficult task for the current mongol tech tree, so it’s lack is not really felt with the civ that much.
You dont like a full tech tree, with extra blast radius? pretty fun to use.
I like the Mongol once as well, for the reason @anon45959656 already said. Nothing is more fun then a surprise attack of rams to just kill their main base, while fighting on the other side of the map. These rams fast.
I’d argue Magyars have the best Archery Range when it comes down to it.
FU Arbalest, FU HCA with 1 extra range (!!), FU skirms. That’s pretty bonkers. I believe Magyar CA beat Mangudai, having 1 more range, same damage, and 2 more Pierce Armor. They definitely beat Mongol CA. Plus access to Magyar Huszar, which are a far better meatshield than Mongol Hussar.
Ethiopians are the best in Castle Age I’d say. Late game they’re still incredibly strong, but I’d prefer Magyars or even Mayans in Imperial.
Britons are also up there, no thumb ring is awkward but the range adds a lot of versatility in all ages.
That doesn’t count. A lot of these situations are hypothetical in 1vs1. You won’t get to Siege Onager and Torsion Engines in the same game. You won’t get to Paladins in most 1vs1.
The fact that I am focusing on individual sections is for team games. You can spam Elite Mangudai and have your Magyar Ally go for Paladins as their meatshield.
Back to your reply, while yes, it is a good Archery Range considering Recurve Bow, Magyar economy is not so good and their CA are also lacking before Imperial Age. Their Arbalesters having +2 LoS is good actually.
A civ which can go drush, archers, Crossbowmen and Arbalesters whole day! One of the best archer civs for sure. I maybe biased towards Cavalry Archers and I have a losing streak against Britons. But your answer is definitely great!
Mongols missing the last Armor upgrade for archers denies them definitely the number 1 position.
Actually for siege I’d Koreans are also in the race. More range on their onagers and having BBCs is quite nice. Scorpions are niche so I wouldn’t include them for the rating. Effectively I’d say Ethiopians, Celts and then Koreans, close up are Mongols and Teutons. Bulgarians also nice with cheaper tech.
I think this is the deciding factor. I myself am more of a scorpion guy than a mangonel guy, so I tend to go for the Khmer and Chinese siege workshops.
