The Britons are an archer civilization with a simple-yet-effective unique unit, the Longbowman, and bonuses aiding their offensive and defensive capabilities. These make them an easy-to-use, fairly flexible civilization.
Strengths[]
Their archers gain bonus range in the Castle and Imperial Age and are trained faster. This bonus is especially useful against enemy Skirmishers and Mangonels, as they can micro around these units, unlike any other civilization. In total, with Yeomen, their foot archers gain +3 range, giving them the ability to outrange almost any unit, and making them very hard to approach. Due to their range Longbowmen can cut down opposing forces before they can even get close. If in a large enough group, they can be almost impossible to counter. Their unique unit, the Longbowman, has the longest range of any archer, with 1 more than Arbalesters. Adding to this are their Warwolf Trebuchets, which deal blast damage and have 100% accuracy, the latter of which also makes them some of the best at Trebuchet vs Trebuchet combat. Cavalry and Battering Rams are the main threats of Longbowmen, but the Britons have full infantry technology tree (apart from Gambesons) so they can build Halberdiers and Champions to provide close combat protection.
The Britons also excel in naval combat due to their nearly full dock technology tree, only missing Elite Cannon Galleon. They also possess solid economic and defensive options.
Weaknesses[]
The Britons have poor cavalry, lacking the Hussar and Paladin upgrades, any regional units, and Bloodlines. Their siege weapons are similarly lacking, missing the Siege Ram, Siege Onager, and Bombard Cannon, and while they do have Warwolf Trebuchets, the slow mobility of the latter means they can struggle to push a position when the player needs them to aid their other units. They also have few good answers to enemy rams, as their archers can get distracted by them and incapacitated. This also means they do not have many great anti-Skirmisher options outside of their infantry. As great as their archers are, they lack Hand Cannoneers and Thumb Ring, though their inherent archer bonuses compensates for this.
Strategy[]
The Britons are best opening with a small group of Men-at-Arms and transitioning into archers after. Going straight into archers is possible, but not recommended on open maps due to how slow archers are to build up, due to relying on Fletching. Heading to the Castle Age quickly is advised to take advantage of the Britons' extra range, as well as the standard Crossbowman and Bodkin Arrow upgrades. In the Castle Age, the Britons should upgrade the Archers into Crossbowmen, and research as many relevant Blacksmith technologies as possible.
Britons can switch into Longbowmen in the Castle Age, but Crossbowmen and Arbalesters are decent enough options when creating many Castles is not reasonable. Trebuchets make for a good Imperial Age supplementary option, as Britons lack proper siege. The Britons must always keep some melee units on hand (usually Champions and Halberdiers, as their cavalry is too weak to be reliable), as enemy units will often use rams to soak up archer fire and approach safely to the archer lines.
Strategy changes in The Forgotten[]
Yeomen was moved from the Imperial Age to the Castle Age, allowing Britons to strike with archers heavily earlier than in The Conquerors, though the expensive cost means that it is generally better to advance to the Imperial Age and receive the free +1 range and Bracer upgrades. The new technology Warwolf allows Trebuchets to do blast damage (damaging enemy buildings and units near the projectile's impact) so a combined force of archers and Trebuchets makes the Britons even better in a siege in this expansion. Furthermore, Warwolf gives Trebuchets 100% accuracy against stationary units, allowing a Britons player to easily win a Trebuchet battle assuming similar numbers.
They can now build Cannon Galleons. Warwolf and Cannon Galleon are critical changes since they eliminate the two main weaknesses of Britons before the expansion (absence of a more powerful siege weapon and a siege ship). Thanks to this, they now have a solid navy since they have full technology tree apart from Elite Cannon Galleon (but no civilization bonuses that make their navy dangerous).
Alliances[]
Britons in team games are great at supporting their teammates, as their long-range archers can aid allies from long distances, even when besieging an opponent or when defending a location. As with most archer civilizations, pairing them with a strong cavalry civilization such as Franks or Lithuanians can be a good idea. Their team bonus helps any ally that creates Archery Range units. The Britons perform best in the flank position to rush with archers early on. It is recommended to pair them with civilizations that have the mobility and anti-building pressure that they lack. Any archer civilization will appreciate their team bonus.
Aztecs: The Briton team bonus stacks with the Aztec bonus of producing military units 11% faster, which is useful for producing Atlatl-equipped Skirmishers faster. The Aztec bonus will provide the Britons with more gold from Relics for their Archers and Trebuchets.
Berbers: Their team bonus enables allies to train Genitours at Archery Ranges, and with the Briton team bonus, those also are trained faster. The Kasbah technology is also appreciated, as it will allow the Britons to faster spam Longbowmen and Trebuchets equipped with the Warwolf technology. On top of all of these, the Berbers are also a powerful cavalry civilization that can cover the Britons in this department.
Cumans The Briton team bonus stacks with the effect of the Steppe Husbandry technology for Cavalry Archers. Their Archery ranges also cost less wood. Being a cavalry civilization, they can cover the Britons' weaknesses well.- Incas: The Incas team bonus is extra impactful for the Britons as they gather food from their free Llama faster, and in return the Incas can make use of the Briton team bonus to speed up the creation of their Slingers and Skirmishers.
- Magyars: Their team bonus (Cavalry Archers trained faster) stacks with the Briton team bonus for the Cavalry Archers on the team. The Magyars are also a dedicated cavalry civilization that covers the Britons in this issue.
- Persians:Despite the Britons not gaining much from the Persian team bonus, they make a great pairing, since the Persians are a powerful cavalry civilization whose unique unit, the War Elephant, is a great meat shield for archers. The Persians will also faster train their "trash archers" and Cavalry Archers. The players also benefit from a faster and better-defended trade route, as the Persians can build Caravanserais.
- Portuguese: Their team bonus of researching all technologies faster stacks with the Briton team bonus for the Archery Range technologies and upgrades. The Britons also benefit from the Portuguese team bonus for researching Castle, Blacksmith and university technologies required for fully improving their archers, while the Portuguese can faster train Hand Cannoneers. Later on, if stone, wood, or gold become scarce, the Portuguese can provide the team with these resources through Feitorias.
- Saracens: The Saracen team bonus grants anti-building bonus damage to Briton Archers, an especially useful trait, as they already outrange Castles and towers. The Saracens also have great archer options to benefit from the Britons' bonus, and the cavalry and siege options to supplement the Britons. Their Bimaristan technology also allows the Saracens to help masses of wounded units, as this makes Monks to heal on an area near them.
- Tatars: The Briton Archery Range team bonus favors the usage of Cavalry Archers, and the Tatars may share some of their Sheep spammed by their Town Centers to their Briton ally. Being a cavalry civilization, they will cover their partner in that regard.
- Vietnamese: They provide Battle Elephants as viable meat-shields and an alternative of Paladins, together with Bombard Cannons as support, allowing the Longbowmen to return fire against hostile Monks and missile units. They can also reveal the locations of enemy bases at the beginning, allowing Briton players to conduct surgical raids or rushes effectively, particularly archer rushes. The Briton team bonus assists the Vietnamese's own archers, and the Vietnamese team bonus provides Britons with Imperial Skirmishers.
Compared advantages and disadvantages[]
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Advantages vs other civilizations[]
- The extra range on their archers allows them to outrange several units they normally wouldn't, such as the Mangonel and Skirmisher. This gives them an advantage against civilizations that rely on units that normally get countered by archers, as it makes it harder for them to utilize their counter units. Additionally, because their mid-game is so powerful, they have an advantage against civilizations that don't do as well in the mid-game.
- With the Warwolf technology they have an advantage against civilizations that have slow armies as the Trebuchets can whittle them down.
- Defensively they have an advantage against civilizations without good answers to archers thanks to their high range allowing them to keep enemies away.
- As their Skirmishers are produced faster and benefit from the Yeomen technology, they are also at advantage vs other prominent archer civilizations. They are also a great asset in Trash Wars so they can defeat civilizations with poor trash units such as Turks.
Disadvantages vs other civilizations[]
- Despite having the longest range among archers, the Britons' archers are vulnerable to enemy Rams, especially as their cavalry is poor. Civilizations with good Siege Rams can be problematic for this reason. Civilizations with good Siege Onagers are also a good counter to Britons archers if they can get into the fight.
- Their ability to push is poor, as they lack Bombard Cannon and Siege Ram, so their ability to raze bases is weak.
- Despite having good early economy and being able to raid with archers at Feudal Age they have a disadvantage in open maps like Arabia against civilizations with early aggression since most of the Briton bonuses start to kick out in the Castle Age onwards.
Situational advantages[]
- As Briton Villagers gather faster from Sheep, they can get an advantage in maps where they can find more Sheep than the usual eight around their town center, especially in revealed map matches, these include Oasis, Yucatán, Nomad, and Ghost Lake to name a few.
- If playing matches starting at Castle Age onwards, Britons are theoretically able to make a Town Center Rush as their Town Center discount starts at that point, this advantage also can apply if playing Nomad maps starting at Castle Age, so they save enough wood to make 3 Town Centers since the start of the game in that situation (as players starts with 475 wood and 300 stone).
- In closed maps like Black Forest, Britons have an advantage thanks to their Towers buffed with Yeomen while also their archers being able to shoot their arrows even from behind the forest in some points.
- In enclosed maps like Fortress, Arena, and Hill Fort, their unique technology "Yeomen" and their archers also gives them an advantage, as walls - and in Fortress's case towers - are already placed so they can defend their town with their long-ranged archers protected by a wall.
