Malay/Strategy

Strengths
The Malay is a naval civilization with strong economic bonuses. Their Fishing Ships and Fish Traps are cheaper than normal and Fish Traps provides unlimited Food. This means that the Malay can save a lot of wood in the long run that can be used for ships in water maps since they do not need to rebuild their Fish Traps, and saving up land space since they do not need to waste land space for Farms or rebuild their Fish Traps. The Malay also have a strong navy, only missing out in Heavy Demolition Ship. The Malay also have fully upgradable Arbalests and Elite Skirmishers as well as fully upgradable Halberdiers, giving them a solid anti-infantry option. Their unique unit, the Karambit Warrior, serves as a cheap, fast, cannon fodder to protect the more fragile units and takes only half the population space. They also have a reasonable naval defense with the Harbor unique building and having Bombard Towers and Keeps and only missing out in Arrowslits, Fortified Walls, and Architecture. Their Militia-line infantry will cost no gold once Forced Levy is research, allowing the Malays to excel in trash wars should gold runs out and the Two-Handed Swordsman upgrade is sufficient enough to deal with other trash units. Their Monk line is also solid, having every Monk upgrade except for Theocracy and Fervor, and is the only Southeast Asian civilization to have the Heresy upgrade. They also have a reasonable siege line, only missing out in Siege Onager and Siege Ram. Finally, the Malay can advance through the ages early with the faster age advancement time, meaning they can reach to the next age before other players can.

Weakness
While the Malays have a strong navy and Fish Trap economic bonuses, their land unit options is very limited. They do not have access to Hand Cannoneers or the Heavy Cavalry Archer upgrade, leaving the Arbalests their only reliable anti-infantry counter. Their cavalry is noted to be the worst in the game, as the not only lack Bloodlines, but they also lack Chain Barding Armor and Plate Barding Armor as well as missing out the Hussar and Paladin upgrades. This makes their cavalry and Battle Elephants less reliable late game since they will end up as paper machete to arrow fire from archers, towers, and castles. To make up for their weaker cavalry, the Malay have cheaper Battle Elephants, putting emphasis on numerical superiority over quality.

While the Malay have a powerful Forced Levy upgrade, they also lack the Champion upgrade. This means the Malay's infantry will be incredibly weak lategame even when the Forced Levy upgrade is put into consideration. This in turn makes the Goths a perfect counter to the Malay, as the Goths can simply spam Huskarl to counter the Malay land army composition of Arbalests, Halberdiers, Two-Handed Swordsmen, Karambit Warriors, and Bombard CAnnons, as the Malay have no reliable and cost-effective answer to deal with the Huskarl (and the Goth's cheaper Halberdiers will make quick work on the Malay's incredibly fragile Battle Elephants). Conversely, the Malays excel well in "trash war" situations when gold is low, and are a formidable foe to civilizations with incredibly poor trash unit lines, such as the Turks and the Malians, since the Two-Handed Swordsmen with Forced Levy basically makes their Two-Handed Swordsmen trash units that counter trash units.

Strategy
The Malay is an unique naval civilization where the economic bonuses focus on Fish Traps over naval warships. While it doesn't seem much since Food isn't the most important resource in water maps, having cheaper Fishing Ships and Fish Traps as well as having Fish Trap provide unlimited food is considered to be more of a wood bonus instead, as a lot of wood can be saved for warship instead. Because of the Malay's strong Fish Trap bonuses, the Malays can simply skip out on building Farms or researching any Farm upgrades in water maps, have most of the Food economy on fish and Fish Traps, and simply retask the villagers focusing on gold and wood instead. That being said, Fishing Traps are far more vulnerable to enemy sea raids than Villagers, so protection of Fishing Ships should be a high priority. Luckily, the Malays Harbors can help protect the Fishing Ships and Fish Traps from raids. The player can also build Harbors near enemy Docks and islands to deny their Docks the ability to build any ships as well as securing control in key areas and objectives. The extra line of sight of Malay's Docks and Harbors makes it easier for Malays to find nearby Fish earlier as well as warn incoming enemy raids.

The Malay Fish Trap bonus also have good synergy with their infantry line, with their Militia line only costing Food once Forced Levy is researched, this will allow the Malay to infinitely spam Two-Handed Swordsmen combined with the infinite food from Fish Traps. Players should consider building Barracks along with Harbors within the enemy's island to add extra pressure in water maps.

In land maps, the Malays are played similarly as the Vikings in land maps, as they need to use the faster Age advancement bonus to get an early game advantage over their opponent. Otherwise, their late game will fall off since their army composition is incredibly limited. That being said, in situations where gold runs low, Two-Handed Swordsmen with Forced Levy should suffice. The Malays should never attempt to build any cavalry units or go for a Knight rush since their cavalry is incredibly weak, missing out in Bloodlines and two important armor techs for their cavalry. If the Malay needs to build any cavalry unit, the Malay should take advantage of the cheaper Battle Elephants, as even without the armor techs and Bloodlines, a Battle Elephant in the Castle Age is far more threatening than their weaker Knights. Those who enjoy playing as the Vikings in both water and land maps can easily pick up playing as the Malay, as their tech tree and civilization bonuses are relatively similar.