The Hittites are primarily an offensive civilization on both land and water maps, but can also make a good defensive civilization depending on the type of map they are used on. The Hittites are best played during the Bronze Age, where their civilization bonuses can be used for maximum effect. Their economy is fairly average, and are less resourceful than their Sumerian or Minoan counterparts. However the Hittites feature a far more dynamic and robust offensive gameplay, since their civilization bonuses for their ranged units can be combined together with a variety of melee units to produce a very strong late game attack.
Military[]
The Hittites specializes in ranged units whose bonuses steadily becomes more powerful as the player advances through the ages, peaking at the Bronze Age as soon as the player builds a Siege Workshop. Both their siege weapons are twice as resistant to enemy attacks and their increased warship Range allows them to penetrate heavily fortified areas along the coast (except for Trireme and Fire galley) much further than even a Ballista Tower with +3 range from woodcutting technologies at the Market. A fully upgraded War Galley can have a range as high as 13 points, the highest range of any Bronze Age unit. Due to this, the player may consider performing a War Galley rush on sea maps, which is deadly to any Iron Age civilizations.
Although their ships are a formidable force in the Bronze Age, their naval power gradually becomes less effective upon the Iron Age since they cannot develop a Trireme or a Juggernaut, making them vulnerable to other civilizations that can create an armada out of the more advanced Iron Age navy. Most importantly, the role played by their long range War Galleys is replaced by the more powerful Heavy Catapult. The Hittites can only create a powerful Bronze Age navy, so an offensive naval strategy in later games will have to be replaced with a land strategy after the Iron Age. Unless a large number of War Galleys are built and escorted by Fire Galleys, a complete naval victory will be difficult to achieve.
The higher attack of Archery Range units means they are very good at archer rushing strategies, especially the deadly Chariot Archer rush. In fact, the Hittite is the second best civilization to rush Chariot Archers, only beaten by the Assyrians.
Once Iron Age is reached, the Hittites can field a varied army consisting of Phalangites, Armored Elephants, Scythe Chariots, Heavy Horse Archers and Elephant Archers in addition to their siege weapons, which should form the backbone of any Iron Age Hittite military. In addition, all of the technologies that provide additional armor, attack and range coming from technologies in the Market, Government Center and the Storage Pit are available for research. Since their tech tree during the Iron Age is more open compared to other civilizations, the Hittites can adopt a wide range of strategies, from brute force offensive maneuvers to hit-and-run tactics. This also makes them more flexible on the battlefield which is useful in standard Deathmatch games where building and maintaining Wonders leads to victory.
Since the Hittites specialize in late games, they are not as effective if played in Random Map games where resources are low and the age is too early to develop a standing army. They are also not adept in producing a large economy from scratch unlike the much quicker Assyrian and Yamato civilizations. While they can certainly field a large army of archers during the Tool Age with their increased attack, an Assyrian bowmen will easily win against a Hittite bowmen in one on one combat.
If the computer controls this civilization in Iron Age deathmatches with a sufficient amount of resources, the Hittites' entire army will consist of Heavy Horse Archers and Heavy Catapults. They may occasionally train an assortment of Chariot Archers if their economy is stagnant.
The computer follows a similar pattern on random map settings, producing Bowmen in the Tool Age and Chariot Archers in the Bronze Age before switching to mainly Horse Archers and Catapults in the Iron Age.
Strengths and Weaknesses[]
Strengths[]
- Features one of the strongest Bronze Age ranged units in the game.
- Have full access to advanced Iron Age cavalry archers from the Archery Range and technologies from the Academy.
- Have full access to armor and weapon related technologies from the Storage Pit as well as all economic technologies from the Market.
- Are powerful from the Tool Age to the Iron Age.
- Excellent in Death Matches.
Weaknesses[]
- Have no access to technologies from the Temple other than Astrology, making their Priests very weak.
- Inability to develop Iron Age technologies from the Dock.
- Lack the ability to field Ballistae.
- Cannot train elite cavalry.
- Not as powerful if played in Random Map.