Spanish (Age of Empires II)/Strategy

The Spanish are an offensive civilization with a powerful navy and versatile amount of units. They can research all naval technologies, which makes them formidable in the water. However their biggest naval advantage is that their Cannon Galleons benefit from ballistics. This allows them to fire much faster and more accurately. In addition to performing their regular duties more efficiently this allows them to effectively engage warships and no longer need an escort. The Spanish unique unit is the Conquistador, a mounted hand cannoneer. Like the regular Hand cannoneer they have a large but somewhat inaccurate attack. They have the advantage of being mounted which gives them an edge in speed. They are somewhat fragile so are best used as support units in formations with Knights, which can take absorb damage that would kill the fragile Conquistador while the Conquistador provides effective combat support. The Spanish also have the Missionary, which is a mounted monk that cannot pick up relics. Missionaries move much faster than normal monks and since a Spanish army will be mostly composed of cavalry this is a big advantage. As a result they don't slow down an advancing army as normal monks would. The Spanish unique technology, Supremacy, gives villagers a large increase in attack, hitpoints, and armor. This allows them to go in the front lines and build military buildings to reinforce and support a Spanish army without getting killed. They are also capable of defending themselves against certain units though they are still not dedicated combat units.

However despite their large number of advantages the Spanish do have some drawbacks. They have poor foot archers, unable to research the Crossbowman upgrade. Their siege weapons are merely average, missing the Siege Onager and Heavy Scorpion.