Khmer

The Khmer are the Southeast Asian civilization based on the Khmer Empire. They are featured in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas as a siege and elephant civilization.

The capital of the Khmer Empire was Angkor, which is among one of the largest pre-industrial cities. At its peak, the city supported one million people. This is reflected by two of their bonuses: Villagers can garrison inside Houses, and they don't need to build certain buildings to unlock other buildings or to advance to the next ages. Like their Persian and Indian neighbors to the east, Khmer Empire were known to employ war elephants widely for both tactical and logistical purpose. To reflect this, their Battle Elephant moves faster and can be upgraded to deal more damage with the Tusk Swords unique technology.

Like their Chinese neighbor to the North, the Khmer Empire were also known to employ ballista technology. Consequently, their Team Bonus increases the range of Scorpions. In addition, Khmer also possess a ballista-carrying unique unit named the Ballista Elephant. Furthermore, the number of missiles fired by both Ballista Elephant and Scorpion can be increased with the Double Crossbow unique technology.

Overview
Khmer are classified as a Siege and Elephant civilization in the game, thanks to their team bonus, their faster Elephants and their two Unique Technologies, that encourage them to exploit 2 different types of Elephants, as well as Scorpions, hinting that they are based on expensive units (somewhat similarly to the Slavs and Teutons, both possessing mighty, brute force units and siege). Their balanced tech tree, however, pushes them towards a jack-of-all-trades/generalist civilization, similarly to the Malians, Byzantines and the Chinese. In fact, they aren't as dependent on mighty, vulnerable-to-conversion (they lack both Heresy and Faith) units as possibly thought.

But, they operate at a very different way than both balanced and "siege" civilizations, thanks to 2 quirks; the no-requirement bonus and the fact Villagers can garrison in Houses. This specific combination is unlike anything else ever implemented in Age of Empires II, and in fact, the Khmer might be the closest to an "unconventional" civilisation. Having no set chain of requirements, other than Age, means that they can eschew buildings a player doesn't feel like needing, in order to execute unpredictable maneuvers.

Rushing, booming and even turtling (they only lack Bombard Towers and Arrowslits) can be considered, depending on civilization matchup, map settings, default age and alliances. They lack direct economic and early game bonuses, but their Villagers will be safe, as long as Houses are around, and no-requirement means that resources can be diverted away from certain structures towards anything else. One, if bold enough, can even totally ignore Mills or other essential structures. Elephants and Scorpions, among others, offer solid late level power and their balanced tech tree provides a wildly unpredictable army. They operate well with siege civilizations (especially Slavs and Teutons, see strategy section) and ones that provide team bonuses to generic unit lines (e.g. Goths or Huns) and the Chinese. They may struggle against ones with great Monks (Spanish, Aztecs) or great early game.

The Khmer might be the most mentally challenging civilization to play, even harder than the Chinese, as they require both careful planning and extreme micromanagement to play properly, and to select the appropriate allies that can optimize gameplay. Despite these disadvantages, with unique actions including "house-hopping" (a Villager can build Houses in a way so that attacked Villagers can "hop" from House to House to shield themselves), building early Castles close to an enemy and (combined with the Slavs' team bonus) they can even construct "forward bases" (Villagers + Khmer houses + military buildings with population boost) close to enemy resources, in order to execute a form of attrition warfare (by harassing and starving a nearby enemy base).


 * Unique Unit: Ballista Elephant (siege cavalry)
 * Unique Technologies: Tusk Swords (Battle Elephants +3 attack), Double Crossbow (Ballista Elephants and Scorpions shoot two projectiles)

Civilization Bonuses

 * No buildings required to advance to the next Age or to unlock other buildings
 * Battle Elephants +15% faster
 * Villagers can garrison in Houses
 * Team Bonus: Scorpions +1 range

In-game dialogue (Khmer)
The units speak Khmer, the official language of modern Cambodia. An Austroasiatic language (related to the Vietnamese one), it is one of the few major languages of Mainland Southeast Asia that is non-tonal (along with Malay).

Villagers

 * Chas - yes
 * Tae anak mean lomdab? - do you have order?
 * Meankar banhcheatinh? - have orders?
 * Peaky banhchea - command?
 * Aroun suostei - good morning
 * Khnhom nung tow tinoh- I will go there
 * Ban yl - understood
 * Troemotrauv - all right
 * Nung chuosachoul - will repair
 * Nung bramoul - will gather
 * Nung pongrong - will cultivate
 * Nung kab chheu - will chop down wood
 * Nung chik dom th- will dig stones
 * Nung sangsang - will construct

Military

 * Bat - yes
 * Peaky banhchea - command?
 * Bamnng robsa anak? - your wish?
 * Khnhom nung tow - I will go
 * Khnhom yl - I understand
 * Towmoukh! - forward!

Trivia

 * If a player picks the Khmer civilization, the bottom left and middle of the navigation bar will show the image of human face and human-bird creature respectively. The face is based from the statues found in Bayon Temple depicting the face of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion. The human-bird creature is known as Garuda, a mythical creature in Hindu mythology commonly depicted in Angkor reliefs.
 * The Garuda also shows similarities to the modern emblem of the monarhy of Thailand.
 * Khmer Houses can be compared to Atlantean Manors from Age of Mythology: The Titans; both can garrison Villagers. However, Manors support more population, soldiers can garrison inside and also cost some gold alongside wood.
 * They are the only civilization outside most Age of Empires III civilizations (Asian ones, however, need to construct Wonders) that can advance to the next Age without requirements.
 * Although Khmer are one of the newest civilizations in Age of Empires II series, they have long been considered as the new potential addition by Ensemble Studio. During the development of The Conquerors expansion, Khmer - along with Tibetans and Koreans - were considered as one of the new factions to represent Far East region. Eventually, the developers picked Koreans because they were impressed with turtle ship and attracted by potential sales in South Korea.