Khmer/Strategy

Strengths
The Khmer is a powerful siege based civilization that puts a lot of emphasis on Scorpions. In particular, their team bonus grants Scorpions +1 range and one of their unique techs, Double Crossbow, allows their unique unit, the Ballista Elephant, and their Scorpions to shoot an extra projectile, hence increasing their damage output. The Ballista Elephants also have the ability to cut down trees, thus catching civilizations off-guard in Black Forest maps during the Castle Age. In regards to their unique unit, the Ballista Elephant is basically a more durable version of the Scorpion, but with lower range and attack. Because of the unique combination of being a cavalry unit and siege weapon, the Ballista Elephant can be healed by Monks, an unusual attribute for a siege weapon. In regards to their siege weapons, they have access to every siege weapon in the game except for Siege Onager. Their Battle Elephants are also very threatening, being able to move 15% faster and have a unique tech, Tusk Swords, that boost their offensive prowess, allowing their Battle Elephants to be effective raiding units and close the gap on foot archers. The Khmers also have strong defensive tools as well, allowing Villagers to garrison into Houses if they are being attacked, thus saving their lives from potential devastating raids (although the Houses themselves will not fire back with arrows).

In terms of their tech tree, they are essentially a "jack-of-all-trades" civilization in a similar vein like the Byzantines, Chinese, and the Malians, having the essential units in their tech tree. In fact, one of their civilization bonuses does not require buildings to advance to the next age or unlock other buildings, thus not only allowing the Khmer to save wood and time, but encourage flexibility in terms to gameplay and strategy. In fact, this civilization bonus allows the Khmers to be completely unpredictable and versatile when it comes to their strategies and can catch the enemy off-guard.

Weakness
While the Khmers are a strong siege civilization, they have noticeable weaknesses as well. Their Monks and monastery line is one of the worst, as they don't have access to Atonement and Block Printing, making their Monk rushes incredibly weak. To make things worse, they don't have Heresy and Faith, making their incredibly expensive units such as the Ballista Elephant and Battle Elephants incredibly vulnerable to enemy Monk conversion (especially against civilizations with strong Monk rushes such as the Aztecs and the Spanish), while their cavalry line is very reasonable despite lacking Hussars and Paladins, their infantry and archer line a bit weak, as the Khmers lack Squires, Champion upgrade, and Plate Mail Armor for their infantry while they lack the Arbalest and Thumb Ring in their archery range. However, the Khmers do have Halberdiers for a cost-effective anti-infantry counter, and the Khmers have access to Parthian Tactics, Hand Cannoneers, and all essential archer upgrades in the Blacksmith for anti-infantry capacity.

The Khmers are a civilization that is also incredibly difficult to play properly, since while the ability to build any buildings without any pre-requisite building and the ability to advance to the next age without any pre-requisite building is very strong, it can also backfire hard to used incorrectly. For example, if the Khmers attempt to go for a fast Castle Age for a Battle Elephant rush without building other important buildings, the Khmers will not only have a weaker economy, but their Battle Elephants can essentially be punished with Pikemen or worse, enemy Monks. The Khmers should use this civilization bonus wisely and adjust to their strategies based on civilization matchups, maps, and situations.

Strategy
The Khmers is very unique civilization on their own, since they do not need to build any pre-requisite building to either advance to the next age or unlock other buildings. This makes the Khmers not only incredibly versatile, but also incredibly unpredictable when it comes to gameplay and strategy. It is possible to go for a fast Castle Age rush within under 15 minutes since the Khmers save a lot of wood and time when advancing to the next Age, although such strategy would leave them vulnerable to enemy raids in open maps. The Khmers can go directly for a Archer or Scout rush in the Feudal Age without the need to build a Barracks, hence allowing the Khmers to close out games in the Feudal or Castle Age relatively quickly. Regardless, when playing the Khmers, it is important to adjust to your strategy and be unpredictable on what your are about to do. For example, if facing a civilization with strong cavalry such as the Huns or the Berbers, it doesn't hurt to build a Barracks and counter them with Spearmen.

One of the biggest strengths with the Khmers is their strong Scorpions. Since Scorpions are considered to underused by most civilizations, this makes Scorpion rushes very viable for the Khmers due to their team bonus granting Scorpions extra range and their Double Crossbow unique tech. In fact, a fully upgradable Heavy Scorpion can actually outrange a fully upgradable Siege Onager (except Korean ones) if the Scorpions are microed properly. The Ballista Elephant is basically a tankier version of the Scorpion with lower range and attack, but the natural tankiness itself makes them very threatening against massed infantry and archers. Their ability to cut down trees makes the Khmers one of the top tier civilizations in Black Forest maps, allowing them to catch enemies off-guard when playing defensively. Ballista Elephants should be well-protected though, as they still have their typical cavalry, siege weapon, and elephant based weaknesses (especially Monks), so they need to be protected based on the enemy's army composition.

Across from their powerful siege, the Khmers have one of the best Battle Elephant rushes in the game. Having access to their typical cavalry unit upgrades including all the Battle Elephant Blacksmith upgrades, Bloodlines, and Husbandry, their Battle Elephants also move 15% faster, making their Battle Elephants essentially raiding units and more threatening to enemy foot archers. In fact, Battle Elephant rushes should be considered over Knight rushes since despite being a bit costly, their high mobility combined with the Battle Elephant's tankiness makes them incredibly threatening to towns since Battle Elephants also do bonus damage against buildings. The second unique tech, Tusk Swords, makes their Battle Elephants even more threatening as well.

The Khmers are also very solid in water maps since they have access to every essential naval units and upgrade, only missing out in the Two-Man Saw and Heavy Demolition Ship. In fact, thanks to their civilization bonus not needing to build any pre-requisite buildings, the Khmers can easily skip out on Mill or any other military buildings and simply focus on building a Dock and Blacksmith with Fishing Ships and Fish Traps as their main food income.

In general terms, the Khmers are essentially a "jack-of-all-trades" civilization with emphasis on unpredictably. The Khmers aren't simply just a siege and Battle Elephant civilization and have all the tools needed for different variety of strategies. Those who enjoy playing civilizations with versatile and diverse tech trees such as a Byzantines, Malians, and Chinese can find themselves home with the Khmers (especially for players familiar playing as the Chinese since the Chinese share the same high skill cap as the Khmers).

Alliances
The Khmers have a good variety of teammates that would love the extra range for their Scorpions. In particular, civilizations with relatively strong siege line, such as the Mongols, Celts, Slavs, and Teutons can take effective use for the extra range for their Scorpions. Some of the said civilizations have team bonuses that are greatly beneficial to the Khmers. The Mongols extra line of sight for their Scouts allows Khmers to open up for a Feudal Age Scout rush. The faster workrate from the Celts is a lovely blessing for the Khmers since the Khmers already have a strong siege line. The Slavs's giving military buildings extra population have great synergy with the Khmer's quirk of garrisoning villagers inside houses, thus allowing forward bases of military buildings and Houses at the same time. Finally, the Teuton's conversion resistance and their strong monks and offset the Khmer's weak Monk line and Battle Elephant vulnerability to conversion.

The Chinese will love the Khmer extra range for their Heavy Scorpions, noting that the Chinese mean weaknesses for their Heavy Scorpions is the lack of Siege Engineers, and fully upgraded Chinese Heavy Scorpions with the Rocketry technology will make the Chinese Heavy Scorpions more threatening. If the Khmers wish to utilize their lightning bruiser Battle Elephants, the Huns are also a great ally. Since the Khmers are the only Southeast Asian civilization to have Hand Cannoneers and Bombard Cannons at the same time, the Turks faster creation speed for gunpowder units is also a nice addition.