The Maltese are a defensive civilization with a great repertory of defensive buildings and structures. Their units (except Order units) improve their hit points with each Home City Card, and their unique units heal when idle.
Strengths[]
The Maltese are probably the best defensive civilization in the game. They not only have Outposts and Forts, but also Commanderies, Fixed Guns, Depots, and Hospitals. All of these buildings have abilities and attacks that allow the player to perform a turtling strategy, or to gain and retain map control. The Maltese also have a great repertory of Home City Cards that further improve their defenses. In addition to all of this, they have a Grand Master instead of an Explorer, which is a hero type unit able to build Commanderies, Depots, Fixed Guns, and Forts by default.
The Maltese regular units gain more hit points per Home City shipment, and heal themselves when idle, making them very resilient. Finally, another boost to their defensive capabilities is their Sentinels, which can build Outposts and Forts after sending the "Fort Construction" card. With all of these defensive advantages, the Maltese are able to cover and defend large areas of the map that they will also retain control for long time, if the opponents do not take measures against defensive structures.
The Maltese Commanderies enable the player to transport units very efficiently from one point of the map to another, thanks to its special ability Deploy, in which players garrison units inside and then select another Commandery and click on the Deploy button. This ability allows the player to defend well if they need the army urgently at a location. The Deploy ability also allows strategies such as a surprise attack if the player manages to place a Commandery near an opponent or behind their walls. Commanderies are also especially useful on island maps, reducing the player's need for ships for transporting units. Commanderies also act to a degree as a replacement of the Stable, since the Maltese do not have Stables. Commanderies may allow the player to access several unique units from other European civilizations through the "Tongue" Home City Cards. Unlike regular units, all the units trained at a Commandery are "Order" units that upgrade automatically when advancing age, but will increase their training cost.
Depots can be used for both defense and offense, as they deal good explosive damage and can be used as a "mine field" of sorts to deter enemies, forcing them to be destroyed with artillery to avoid taking damage. The player can manually explode them instead, which also explodes other depots in range. Depots also buff the attack speed of friendly gunpowder units, artillery and buildings within a moderate range around it. Players should be careful about building Depots in their base, as the explosion is indiscriminate and damages allies too.
The Grand Master is also able to make Fixed Guns of their own, which can be upgraded into Imperial status. These guns are highly effective against infantry, especially when built, though their fairly high population limits their use. The guns can also be dismantled to refund part of the resources used to construct it, and allows for a Maltese player to use them to put more pressure on the enemy or defend themselves from infantry attacks, especially with walls protecting them.
Finally, the Hospital, the Maltese replacement of the Barracks, heals units that are nearby, increasing the lifespan of the already resilient regular Maltese units.
Army composition[]
The Maltese primary units are Hospitallers and Sentinels. Both are heavy infantry, but play very different roles. Sentinels are also musket infantry with a ranged attack and are able to place Outposts and Forts. They also gain more hit points and damage when near a friendly building, making them the ranged infantry unit to go to when defending. In contrast, Hospitallers are hand infantry, move faster near allied buildings, have an Area of Effect hand attack, and can absorb the damage dealt to nearby allied units, making it the frontal shock troop the player needs either when attacking or defending. The units complement nicely, despite suffering from the same weaknesses against light infantry and artillery. For covering that weakness, the Maltese should train heavy cavalry (like the Order Hussars, Order Lancers, Order Oprichniks or Order Cuirassiers) at Commanderies. The Maltese have good artillery options. However, they should prefer to use the Fire Thrower when sieging, as they not only have bonus damage against buildings, but are also light infantry that can counter heavy infantry and light ranged cavalry.
Weaknesses[]
If the player does not use the "Tongue" Home City Cards, their Commandery unit options will be restricted to Order Hussars and Order Dragoons, which, aside from upgrading for free, are not too special, limiting their cavalry.
The Maltese rely on their Home City shipments for improving their economy more than with just technologies, as they do not have any economic bonus. They also have an experience penalty for their shipments.
The Commandery deploy ability has a cooldown, so if the player does not time that properly, they may lose against a surprise attack.
Fixed Guns have a point blank range penalty, so they will need to be protected by an army or several layers of walls to make the most out of them. They are incredibly ineffective against artillery, and also require population, which could be used for other units.
Unlike most European civilizations and like the Italians, the Maltese only have one Factory shipment, which may affect their late-game economy and is a bottle neck for producing Heavy Cannons.
