The Poles are a civilization that focuses on cavalry. Despite their cavalry focus, the Poles are a "jack of all trades" civilization with access to a large variety of units with a strong economic building, the Folwark. Due to the high strategic planning of the utilization of the Folwark, the civilization is designed for more experienced players than for beginners.
Strengths
The Poles are a versatile civilization with a wide variety of units. Their Archery Range is solid, having nearly all the necessary upgrades for the Arbalester, Heavy Cavalry Archer, and Elite Skirmisher, only lacking the Hand Cannoneer and Parthian Tactics. Their cavalry is solid with the Winged Hussar and Cavalier. Their cavalry can be further boosted with their unique technologies, Szlachta Privileges and Lechitic Legacy. The former makes their Knight-line units cost less gold, while the latter allows their Light Cavalry to deal trample damage. Their infantry is near complete, only lacking the Halberdier; and their unique unit, the Obuch, is an infantry unit that can shred through enemy armor.
Their economy is also solid, with the Folwark immediately gathering 10% of the Farm's total food into the player's stockpile and their Stone Miners slowly generating gold. Their Villagers also slowly regenerate health, making them less vulnerable to enemy raids.
Weakness
While the Poles have a broad and diverse tech tree, they are not without weaknesses. Their cavalry and archers are essentially glass cannon units, as they lack Plate Barding Armor and Ring Archer Armor. The loss of Ring Archer Armor isn't much of a huge loss, as Blacksmith upgrades that boost attack and range are prioritized over armor. However, the lack of Plate Barding Armor makes their cavalry more vulnerable to arrow-fire. For gameplay design purposes, the Poles also lack the Paladin, meaning their heavy cavalry puts emphasis on quantity over quality with Szlachta Privileges and their heavy cavalry will lose out in toe to toe fights with civilizations with stronger cavalry. They also lack the Halberdier upgrade, which forces the Poles to rely on the Obuch to shred a bit of armor on heavily armored cavalry units such as Paladin and Boyar in order for their Pikemen to deal significant anti-cavalry damage. To make matters worse, the combination of Obuchs and Pikemen will not be enough to deal with cavalry units with high amounts of hit points (such as War Elephants and Battle Elephants).
Their siege is average at best, as they have access to the Bombard Cannon and Siege Ram, but they lack Siege Onager, Heavy Scorpion, and Siege Engineers. Their navy is below-average, since they are missing several key technologies such as Shipwright and Dry Dock. Their Monastery is average at best, as they lack Heresy, Atonement, and Illumination.
The Folwark is an economic building that requires long-term strategic planning. Inappropriate placement of the Folwark can set the player back in terms of economic advantage. Proper placement of the Folwark (such as the radius of the Folwark overlapping a bit from the player's Town Center radius of Farm placement) will put the player in a significant economic advantage of food production.
Much like the Malians and Chinese, the Poles can attack and defend equally well without any significant advantages.
Strategy
The Poles are a very peculiar civilization to play. All of their three main bonuses are geared towards economy and Villagers, which allows them to have a very solid economy since the Dark Age. They have a slightly unusual start, due to the Folwark, as this building allows 5 population space. The first Folwark should be placed near the Berry Bushes as soon as they find them, and the next ones should be placed three tiles away from the Town Center in order to allow farmers working around those Folwarks to get Town Center shelter in case of a raid. Also, unlike any other civilization, they should start gathering stone instead of gold early because, their stone miners generate a trickle of gold when working; approximately 2 stone miners equal 1 Villager collecting gold. The gold trickle also increases with each stone mining technology researched. Polish Villagers are also better equipped for Boar hunting, since they can slowly regenerate hit points (5 HP per minute), so the hunter may recover its HP after luring Boars. This regeneration ability also comes handy when recovering from an enemy raid.
The Poles are a natural fit for cavalry rushes, like Scout Cavalry in the Feudal Age. Since Poles are able to gather food quickly due to the Folwark, they can use the food surplus for performing a Scout rush in the Feudal Age, and their team bonus gives +1 attack vs archers. In case the player doesn't want a scout rush, they are also able to perform archer rushes, Men-at-Arm rushes or Tower rushes, since they can gather gold while mining stone. In the case of a Tower rush, their Villagers are able to regenerate if they get caught while performing this strategy.
The solid economy of the Poles also allows for a Fast Castle strategy followed by a Castle Drop or by Cavalry rushes, particularly Light Cavalry rushes. However, Knight rushes are also viable. For a Castle drop, they usually get enough stone in the early Castle Age for placing two Town centers and a Castle; they can then use part of the gold generated by the stone miners for researching Slachta Privileges, which can help for a Knight rush, or for creating Obuchs.
As the game progresses, the typical Pole army will be spearheaded by cheap Cavaliers and powerful Winged Hussars. The Poles have some unfortunate holes in their technology tree, but can still back these units with reasonably strong Champions and Obuchs, along with not fully upgraded (but still useful) Pikemen, Arbalesters, Elite Skirmishers, and Bombard Cannons. Fortunately for the Poles, the combined effects of Szlachta Privileges and their mining bonus will mean that they'll have a healthy supply of gold for longer than many opponents, allowing them to use their stronger unit options for longer.
The Obuch is a very peculiar unit; is an infantry similar in functionality to the Militia line that is highly resilient, as it has beefy hit points (80 non elite, 95 the elite) 2/2 armor, but with lower attack than a Two-Handed Swordsmen even in its Elite Version (8 non elite, 10 elite). However, what makes this unit really special is its unique ability of damaging the armor (both pierce and melee) of any unit they fight. This ability only applies to units and not buildings, and it allows the Obuch to weaken armies of highly armored units before the next wave of Polish attackers comes to the battlefield. Since this unit can tear down Pierce armor, it can also be used as a counter for anti-archer units to a degree, or a counter against rams or Huskarls which can tear down Castles.
In the Imperial Age, the Poles can continue to raid with cavalry. In this regard, they get two very important improvements: The Winged Hussar and the Lechitich Legacy technology. Winged Hussars are basically a better Hussar upgrade that gives more attack, hit points and a useful bonus against gunpowder units. With this in mind, Polish players can defeat armies of gunpowder units, especially Hand Cannoneers. Lechitich Legacy, on the other hand, allows trample damage for the Winged Hussar, which is a great advantage in mass battles. Winged Hussars make the Poles a good civilization in trash wars, despite their lack of Halberdiers.
They have a mediocre navy, so unless control of the seas is necessary, they should avoid the use of ships.
Alliances
The Poles can work well with other civilizations that use the Scout Cavalry line, since their team bonus improves their performance against archer units. These include the Berbers, Bulgarians, Huns, Lithuanians, Magyars, Mongols, Tatars, and Turks. Likewise, the Poles can benefit from other civilizations' team bonuses that support their use of the Scout Cavalry line, including the Huns ( Stables workrate is better) and Mongols ( +2 LOS for the Scout line). Team bonuses that increses the stats of the Heavy Cavalry like the Frank (Knight line +2 LOS) and Persian ( Knight line +2 attack vs archers) team bonuses are also welcomed to Polish players since Polish Cavaliers becomes the cheapest ones in the game after Szlachta Privileges is researched.
Considering the Folwark, having a Chinese ally will further up farm gathering rates since the 10% gather ability of the Folwark takes into account the +10% food for farm from the Chinese Team bonus, Likewise having an Incan ally is useful for the Poles due to the faster farm building team bonus.
Since their unique unit the Obuch is a unit with fast creation speed ( thirth place after Shotel Warrior and Karambit Warrior, and in pair with Samurai) having a Berber ally can be very helpful as Kasbah can reduce more the training time of Obuchs.
A few civilizations do a good job at compensating for the holes in the Poles' technology tree. For example, the Byzantines can compensate for the Poles' weak Spearman line and lackluster archers with their own cheap Halberdiers and fully upgraded Arbalesters and Hand Cannoneers. Likewise, the Japanese have fully upgraded archery range units combined with powerful infantry, and can benefit from the Poles' powerful cavalry.
Compared Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages vs other civilizations
- The Folwark is a unique building for the Poles that replaces the Mill, which functions both as a House and Mill together. When Farms are built around Folwark, the player is given an instant stockpile of food that is gathered from the Farm built. Combined with their stone miners generating gold, this allows the Poles to go for a booming strategy that would allow them to have an economic advantage over their opponent in terms of advancing in the next age and Villager production.
- Their Villagers slowly regenerate hit points, and the effect gets stronger when they advance through the ages. This makes the Poles less vulnerable to enemy raids and offers a layer of protection for their Villagers against civilizations that excel at early game rushes, such as Aztecs, Huns, and Goths.
- The Poles have a very strong cavalry. Despite lacking the Paladin and Plate Barding Armor, they have access to strong Winged Hussars with trample damage and cheaper Cavaliers thanks to their unique technologies. Combined with the extra attack against archers for their light cavalry, this gives Poles a significant advantage against archer civilizations with weak cavalry (i.e. Britons and Ethiopians).
- Their archery range is solid, having nearly all the important upgrades except for Ring Archer Armor and Parthian Tactics. This gives the Poles a significant advantage against infantry civilizations such as Aztecs, Vikings, and Celts.
- The Obuch is a unique unit with versatile application with their armor shred ability. Against Goths, the Obuch can shred pierce armor from Huskarls, allowing their Arbalesters and Heavy Cavalry Archers to deal significant damage to the Huskarls. The Obuch can also shred armor against units with high melee armor such as Teutonic Knights and Boyars, as it allows their other melee units such as Champions (or Pikemen in the case of the Boyar) and Cavalier to deal with high melee armor units easily. Even a combination of Obuchs and Pikeman in the army composition is enough to deal with civilizations with access to Paladins (such as Teutons, Franks, Huns, and Lithuanians).
- Defensively speaking, the Poles have access to nearly all the defensive upgrades such as Bombard Towers, Keeps, and Hoardings; and only miss out in Architecture. Combined with their stone miners gathering gold, the Poles can play defensively against early game rushes and have an edge against civilizations with below average siege such as Lithuanians (that is until Bombard Cannons and Trebuchets come into play in the Imperial Age).
- Having an open and diverse tech tree, the Poles can effectively counter civilizations limited in tactical options such as Goths, Huns, Britons and other "specialist" civilizations.
Disadvantages vs other civilizations
- Despite the Poles having strong cavalry, they lack the Paladin upgrade and Plate Barding Armor, making their cavalry frailer despite their unique technologies. Civilizations with strong Halberdiers (e.g. Japanese, Burmese, Teutons, Goths, Bohemians) or strong Camels (e.g. Indians, Saracens, Malians, Berbers, Byzantines) can make quick work of their cavalry. Berber and Byzantine Camels have a significant advantage because their camels can cost-effectively trade with the Poles' cheaper Cavaliers (especially the former with Maghrebi Camels to regenerate health in order to mitigate Obuch armor shred). Italian Genoese Crossbowmen and Incas Kamayuks can make quick work of the Polish cavalry, since they lack the last armor upgrade for their cavalry.
- While the Poles have very strong Archery Range options, they do not have any significant bonuses for their archer units. Civilizations with archer bonuses (e.g. Vietnamese, Britons, Mayans, Ethiopians) or cavalry archers (e.g. Tatars, Mongols, Magyars, Turks) can trade effectively against the Polish Arbalesters and Heavy Cavalry Archers as well as shredding their Obuchs.
- The Polish navy is somewhat below average, as they lack several key technologies for their navy. As such, the Poles will struggle against civilizations with significant naval bonuses (e.g. Malay, Vikings, Portuguese, Italians).
- While the Polish have relatively decent siege with Siege Rams and Bombard Cannons and can defend equally well thanks to their stone mining bonus, they do not have significant bonuses for their siege and defenses. Civilizations with strong siege weapons (such as Mongols, Ethiopians, Khmer, and Celts) can easily destroy Polish defenses and siege.
- While the Obuch is a versatile unique unit with various applications, it is vulnerable to units with anti-infantry damage (e.g. Hand Cannoneers, Inca Slingers, Byzantine Cataphracts and Aztec Jaguar Warriors) and Japanese Samurai (due to their bonus damage against unique units). Throwing Axemen and Gbetos can make quick work the Obuch due to their superior range. Obuchs will also struggle against units with high hit points such as the Persian War Elephants and Battle Elephants from Southeast Asian civilizations, since the Poles lack the Halberdier upgrade.
- While the Obuch armor shred is permanent, the effect can be removed when the unit is healed up to full. Civilizations with access to self-regenerating units such as Viking Berserks and Berber Camels with Maghrebi Camels can mitigate the Obuch armor shred effect. In a similar sense, civilizations with strong Monks (e.g. Burmese, Byzantines, Teutons, Lithuanians, Spanish, Bohemians and Aztecs) can heal up their armies and convert Polish units since the Poles lack Heresy.
- The Polish do not have any gunpowder units except for Bombard Cannons and Bombard Towers, so civilizations with strong gunpowder (e.g. Bohemians, Turks, and Portuguese) will have a significant advantage over the Polish in the late-game.
Situational advantages
- The Poles' strong cavalry and their Folwark make them an ideal pick in open maps such as Arena, or maps with high abundance of food such as Yucatan and Steppe to maximize the Folwark effect.
- Their stone miners slowly generating gold makes the Poles an ideal civilization with large abundance of mines in an area such as Golden Pit and Gold Rush since it will give the Poles a significant amount of gold in the late-game.
- Due to the Obuch fast training time and cheaper Cavaliers with Szlachta Privileges, Poles are a great civilization in King of the Hill game mode since they can secure the Monument relatively easily. In a similar sense, the Obuch fast training time gives Poles an advantage in the Regicide game mode.
- Thanks to their Winged Hussars dealing trample damage, the Poles are a good candidate for the Capture the Relic game mode, as their Winged Hussars can deny the opponent from capturing the Relic.
Template:Strategies (Age of Empires II)