Goths/Strategy

The Goths are a purely offensive civilization that focuses on its infantry. They have great rushing capabilities due to their ability to rapidly produce infantry.

Strengths
They are great at rushing since their infantry are cheaper and created faster than those of other civilizations. In addition, their Pikemen or Halberdiers are also cheap and very useful against enemy mounted units, Huskarls are useful against enemy archers, and both Huskarls and Champions are good for destroying buildings due to the attack bonus. Also, they get additional population space in the Imperial Age.

Their unique unit, the Huskarl, is an infantry unit that is almost immune to archer fire. They are powerful units and usually form the core of a Gothic army. The Goths already have a 20% bonus in Barracks production speed and they get another 50% boost with Perfusion, one of their unique technologies. Their other unique technology, Anarchy, allows Barracks to create Huskarls. This allows the Goths to rapidly produce an army of infantry and can swamp an opponent with sheer numbers. The fact that they are able to produce an army much faster than others also means opponents are often unprepared to fight off a massive attack. If an attack fails they can rebound very quickly (especially with the help of Conscription and Perfusion) and have a massive army again before the opponent can recover, assuming they have enough resources. Because of their ability to rapidly train a large amount of soldiers the Goths are quite powerful on Deathmatches, where the large amount of resources gives them a distinct offensive edge.

Weaknesses
The Goths have some large drawbacks. They have the weakest defense of any civilization in the game as they cannot build stone walls and upgrade their towers. They can only rely on Palisade Walls and basic towers for defense. As such Gothic players must constantly be on the attack since they won't last long if put on the defensive. While the Goths have strong anti-archer capablities their own archers are somewhat lacking. They cannot research Thumb Ring or Parthian Tactics and lack the Arbalest upgrade. Additionally, Goths have severe issues with fighting units with anti-infantry bonuses and very strong melee armor. Cataphracts, Jaguar Warriors, Teutonic Knights, and Boyars are devastating to the Goth's infantry armies.

Strategy changes in "The Forgotten"
Treadmill Crane was removed.