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 also 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 Forts, Depots, and Fixed Guns 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 Sentinel unit, which can build Outposts. 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 enable the player to defend areas where the enemy army is likely to pass through. This building has a detonation ability which makes the building explode, dealing a lot of damage around it and triggering other Depots in their range to do the same. When using Depots, the player should place several of them in an area in order to blow up enemy armies. This building has a creation limit of 20, which allows Maltese players to make a "mine field" that can deter opponents from passing through. Sometimes Depots can be useful to tear down buildings if built near an opponent building. In any case, they should be used with caution, as their damage affects all units and not only opponents.
Fixed Guns allow the player to cover a large area with their attack, and not only have a defensive value, but is also able to siege enemies. If needed, Fixed Guns can be deconstructed, getting back part of the resources invested on them. Unlike other buildings, it has a population cost of 6 and a build limit of 3.
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. They also gain more attack and hit points 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 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 Hussar, Order Lancer, Order Oprichnik or Order Cuirassier) at the Commandery. The Maltese have good artillery options. However, they should prefer to use the Fire Thrower when sieging, as they not only have multipliers against buildings, but are also light infantry that can counter heavy infantry and light 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 Dragoon, 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 minimum range, so they should always be protected with an army. They also occupy 6 population space, which in some circumstances may be better used for troops.
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.
