Goths

The Goths are a major civilization featured in Age of Empires II. The Goths were a collection of Eastern Germanic tribes that constantly warred with the Roman Empire during its later years, known for bringing Rome to its knees and traveling all over Europe, bringing devastation with them, and in game they are an infantry civilization. Following the fall of the Empire, the Goths divided into the Ostrogoths (East Goths) who settled in Italy, and the Visigoths (West Goths) who settled in the region that would later become Portugal and Spain. The leaders of the Goths and their Age of Empires II equivalents were the Huskarl, the Gothic unique unit. As the Goths were known for their raiding prowess, the medium infantry Huskarls have high pierce armor and shrug off damage from fortifications. This also makes them very powerful against archers, and they also move quick enough to chase them down. The Goths were known as flexible nomads with mostly nonexistent formal government, so their castle unique technology Anarchy allows their leaders, the Huskarls, to be trained at the Barracks like normal infantry, as early as the Castle Age. Their imperial unique technology Perfusion allows them to train infantry extremely fast. As the Goths were known for being able to mass soldiers very quickly, they are able to spam more units already available to all civilizations, thanks to their infantry costing less as they advance to Feudal Age onwards and their Barracks producing faster than other civilizations. As raiders, Gothic infantry get extra attack versus buildings. Being nomads gave them other distinct advantage: their villagers can hunt bigger game effectively and carry more meat than other civilizations. Finally, the Goths get a higher population limit than other civilizations to reflect their ability to field armies quickly.

They are one of the ancestors of the Spanish and Portuguese civilizations. Hence, this is why the Goths have access to gunpowder units such as Hand Cannoneers and Bombard Cannons since both the Portuguese and the Spanish used gunpowder in warfare to expand their empires (although this can also be for gameplay balance purposes since the Goths have a lackluster Siege and Archery unit line).

Overview
The Goths are an Infantry civilization, as a result, infantry is the way to go since the Goths' advantages predominantly focus on their remarkably good Infantry. The Goths have an excellent Barracks line, with Champion and Halberdier plus all the upgrades from the Barracks available and all upgrades from the Blacksmith except Plate Mail Armor. They have the following bonuses to infantry, their infantry is much cheaper, have +1 attack bonus versus buildings and fast creation. Their unique unit is the Huskarl, a quick infantry unit with a pretty high attack and arrow resistance, which is usually created from the Castle; however after The Conquerors expansion pack, they can research their unique technology Anarchy in the Castle Age, which allows Huskarls to be created from the Barracks. In the Imperial Age they can research another unique technology: Perfusion, which allows all Barracks units to be created 50% faster. With both of these technologies, Huskarls can be created very quickly. So, it is advised if playing as the Goths to advance to Imperial as fast as possible, to gain advantage of the technology as well as to let go of the Goth's early game weakness. It is advisable to create as many Huskarls as possible when playing as the Goths. Their Archery Range lacks Arbalest and Thumb Ring, but all the Blacksmith upgrades are available. Unlike their Central European neighbors, the Teutons and the Vikings in Age of Empires II, they have the Heavy Cavalry Archer upgrade, faring better than the two civilizations' Cavalry Archer. Their Cavalry misses the Paladin upgrade, Camels and Plate Barding Armor, but Blast Furnace and the other the Stable upgrades are ready for research. Unlike their neighbors, the Teutons, they receive the Light Cavalry, an upgrade to the Scout Cavalry. From the Siege Workshop the Goths miss the Siege Onager and the Siege Ram. The Dock gets a decent line, making the Goths very capable on the water, only missing the Dry Dock upgrade. The Goths endure a hard time against civilizations with better infantry quality such as the Aztecs, Japanese, Slavs, and Teutons, as these civilizations have better infantry bonuses and can easily destroy the Goth Huskarls in addition to Goths lacking Plate Mail Armor. Generally speaking, the Goths have no trouble against archer civilizations, like the Mayans and the Ethiopians, because the Huskarl is resistant to arrow fire (especially as the two mentioned civilizations don't have access to the Champion upgrade).

Unique Unit: Huskarl (anti-archer and arrow-resistant infantry)

Unique Technologies:  Anarchy  (Huskarls can be created from Barracks, available in Castle Age), Perfusion (Barracks create units 100% faster, available in Imperial Age)

Civilization Bonuses

 * Infantry are 35% cheaper starting in the Feudal Age.
 * Infantry have +1 attack bonus vs buildings
 * Villagers have +5 attack bonus vs wild boars and carry +15 food from hunting
 * +10 population cap in Imperial Age
 * Team Bonus: Barracks work 20% faster

The Age of Kings

 * Goths have access to Treadmill Crane.
 * Infantry are 10% cheaper in Feudal Age, 15% cheaper in Castle Age and 25% cheaper in Imperial Age.

The Conquerors patch 1.0c

 * Infantry are 35% cheaper starting in the Feudal Age.

The Forgotten

 * Treadmill Crane removed from the technology tree.

Campaign
The Goths are present in many campaign scenarios. However, in Age of Kings campaigns, they are used as a substitute for different civilizations, usually Slavic and Eastern-European ones. In Conquerors expansion, they are present as both Ostrogoths and Visigoths in some scenarios, while in The Forgotten they have their own campaign. In The African Kingdoms, they are present in the Tariq ibn Ziyad campaign.

The Goths are featured frequently during the Barbarossa campaign. Many of the enemy teams are of the Goth civilization during the first part of the campaign, although during the later missions the enemy tend to be Teutons, Saracens, and Franks. In the first mission, Holy Roman Emperor, Goths are used as a civilization of Austria. In Barbarossa's second scenario, Henry the Lion, faction of Poland uses Goths civilization.

In Genghis Khan campaign, Goths are used in the fourth scenario (The Horde Rides West) for the faction of Russians and in fifth scenario (The Promise) as Polish faction.

Goths are the primary enemy (Saxons) in the Hastings scenario of the Battle of the Conquerors campaign, where they have stone walls despite the fact that when playing in random maps they don't.

The Goths are also seen in the Attila the Hun campaign on the "Catalunian Fields" scenario as the divided Ostrogoths and Visigoths. The Ostrogoths are allied to Attila, however the Visigoths are on the opposing team, allied with the Western Roman Empire (blue/Byzantines).

In The Forgotten expansion, the Goths finally feature in their own campaign, following the exploits of Visigothic king Alaric I around the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. They are also featured in Bari campaign, mostly as Lombards.

In The African Kingdoms expansion, they are one of the main adversaries in the Tariq ibn Ziyad campaign, and usually represent Visigothic towns and cities. They appear in all of the scenarios except the last one.

Barbarossa campaign

 * Holy Roman Emperor
 * Austria
 * Henry the Lion
 * Poland

Genghis Khan campaign

 * The Horde Rides West
 * Russians
 * The Promise
 * Polish

Attila the Hun campaign

 * The Great Ride
 * Naissus


 * Walls of Constantinople
 * Marcianopolis


 * Catalaunian Fields
 * Ostrogoths
 * Visigoths

Hastings scenario

 * Hastings
 * Harold's Raiders
 * Harold the Saxon
 * Saxon Navy

Alaric campaign

 * All Roads Lead to a Besieged City
 * Player
 * Goths
 * Goths refugees


 * Legionaries on the Horizon!
 * Player
 * Athaulf's Forces
 * Goths


 * Emperor of the West
 * Player
 * Alaric
 * Saurus


 * The Sack of Rome
 * Player
 * Athaulf
 * Goths

Bari campaign

 * Arrival at Bari
 * Lombards


 * The Rebellion of Melus
 * Friendly Lombards
 * Rebels

Tariq ibn Ziyad campaign

 * The Battle of Guadalete
 * Locals
 * Roderic's Army
 * Visigoths
 * Consolidation and Subjugation
 * Visigoth Garrison
 * Merida
 * Guadalajara
 * Divide and Conquer
 * Theodemir of Murcia
 * Locals
 * Kingdom of Asturias
 * Narbonne
 * Crossing the Pyrenees
 * Locals
 * Asturians
 * Visigoths

Language
Their in-game language is Old or Middle High German, which is also spoken by the Teutons. Historically, however, they spoke their very own Gothic language, which was related to Old Norse and Old High German, and was spoken between the 4th century and became extinct near the 8th or 9th century. That being said, the Goths settled into areas in Germany where the Teutons also reside in.
 * Ja? (yes?)
 * Heisse? (order?)
 * Bereyte (ready)
 * He, ja (why, yes)
 * Reyte (right)
 * Das ich soll (that I shall)
 * Des ware (truly)
 * holza (to cut wood) -or- holzer (lumberjack)
 * jägere (to hunt)
 * fischere (to fish)
 * suocha (to seek, gather)
 * gebuure (to go farming)
 * houwa (to quarry, cut)
 * buuwere (to build)
 * Flickmann (tinkerer, repairer [of small objects])
 * Se stöörme! (storm them!)
 * Sassa! (to battle!)
 * Striitet! (fight!)

Trivia

 * Despite being portrayed as an infantry-rush civilization in Age of Empires II, contemporary authors characterized them as fielding large amounts of heavy cavalry, supported by light cavalry and horse archers.
 * The Goths have the weakest defenses in the game; they are the only civilization unable to build stone walls or gates.
 * Before The Forgotten expansion, the Goths are the only civilization that possess two unique technologies and are able to create their unique units at Barracks.
 * The Goths are also given Hand Cannoneers and Bombard Cannons despite the fact there were no historical records of the Goths using gunpowder in warfare. One reason is gameplay balance purposes, as the Goths have a relatively weak siege and archery line. Another one is that it refers to the Goths' transformation into the Portuguese and the Spanish in the Middle Ages (as many of the Goths eventually settled into the Iberian peninsula, as shown in the Tariq ibn Ziyad campaign where the first three scenarios have the player mostly facing against the Visgoths instead of the Spanish or the Portuguese).
 * In the The Conquerors instruction booklet, the Goths are represented by a Hussar, as opposed to the other civilisations, who are represented by their unique unit(s). This may be due to a possible misunderstanding, as "Huskarl" and "Hussar" sound similar.