The Slavs' farmers work 10% faster, allowing them to produce food faster than other civilizations. They possess all economic upgrades except Stone Shaft Mining and Guilds.
The Slavic team bonus allows military buildings such as the Barracks, Archery Range, Stable and Siege Workshop to provide five population. This bonus is useful for rushing strategies and civilizations, because it allows population space to be built up quickly. It is especially effective with other civilizations that have bonuses for these buildings.
The Slavs excel at fielding powerful infantry, as their infantry benefits from full blacksmith upgrades, free Tracking, and the unique technology Druzhina. Druzhina gives infantry the ability to damage nearby units in an area with trample damage, similar to the ByzantineCataphract with Logistica. This makes massed Slavic infantry formidable and deadly, especially when defending their cheap siege units.
Units from a Slav Siege Workshop receive a 15% discount, making them much easier to field en-masse.
Their unique unit, the Boyar, is a strong mounted melee unit that can be used to annihilate lesser infantry and cavalry units. They are mobile, have high amounts of armor and damage, but are vulnerable to ranged units and expensive to produce.
The second Slav unique technology, Orthodoxy, provides Monks with armor, making them harder to kill. This helps them to survive closer to the front lines, and provide combat support.
The Slavs have weak defensive structures. They lack many technologies that benefit buildings, such as Architecture and Heated Shot. Their towers are mediocre because of a lack of the Keep upgrade, and they cannot build Bombard Towers.
Slavic archers are notably weak, as Slavs cannot research the Arbalester, Bracer, and Thumb Ring upgrades.
Before the Definitive Edition, expensive Slav units were highly vulnerable to conversion, because Faith was unavailable at the Monastery. As of the Definitive Edition, Slavs only lack Heresy at their Monastery.
The Slavs do not possess any gunpowder units other than the Cannon Galleon.
The Slavs perform various strategies effectively, thanks to their 10% faster farmers and wood saved from building fewer houses.
The Slavic Feudal Rush (flush) is above average, due to free Tracking (in the HD Edition)/Supplies (in the Definitive Edition) and Barracks that raise population capacity by five. Clicking up to Feudal Age on twenty-two population (typically with twenty-one villagers) and building two Barracks is recommended, and finishing an opponent quickly will help to off-set the Slavs weak late-game defenses. Depending on how starting resources are positioned, a Slav player may be able to skip building a Mill and 4 houses and build a Barracks and a house with the initial wood instead in the Dark Age.
Strategies in the Castle Age become significantly more diverse due to a discount on Siege Workshop units and the Orthodoxy technology. Monks, Mangonels, and Rams are strong additions to any infantry-heavy army, as Monks can heal wounded infantry and Mangonels/Rams are fantastic anti-archer tools. If a Slav player has invested heavily in infantry, it is recommended to research Long Swordsman and any infantry-relevant Blacksmith technologies, starting with the armor upgrades.
The Slavs perform Castle drops and Castle Age rushes with some proficiency, as their Unique Unit is incredibly strong. If the enemy player is fielding infantry or cavalry, the Boyar is an excellent choice because of its stellar melee defenses. Slav players can produce limited numbers of Boyars with effective results, and employ infantry and siege as the main army composition. Boyars perform well as a heavy cavalry substitute, and may catch opponents who are expecting infantry off-guard.
In the early-to-mid-Imperial Age, the strategy is determined by what tactic was chosen in the Castle Age. A typical strategy is to prioritize upgrading Rams to Siege Rams, followed by infantry upgrades and additional siege techs. If the player went for a cavalry-heavy strategy in the Castle Age, Light Cavalry can be upgraded into Hussars for effective economy raiding. The Slavs also have an attractive offensive Monk tech tree that can be utilized, and it is recommended to research Block Printing and Sanctity.
Slavic infantry becomes top-tier in late Imperial Age with the Druzhina unique technology, which allows the Militia and Spearman line to deal trample damage. This means that fewer infantry are required overcome a larger enemy army, especially when the enemy is bunched up or in a choke point.
The Slavic navy is average, missing the Shipwright, Heavy Demolition Ship and Elite Cannon Galleon upgrades. With this in mind, the Slavs should keep their feet dry unless water control is crucial, since their resources are far better spent on troops and siege.
The brand new Siege Tower unit is cheaper for the Slavs due to their siege cost reduction. This siege unit allows garrisoned foot soldiers inside the tower to overstep walls, and has great synergy with the fantastic Slavic infantry.
The Slavic Farming bonus gathering rate, which was bugged until Patch 5.7, is now fixed.
The Tracking technology was replaced by Supplies (the effect of Tracking is still active), but in the particular case of Slavs, Supplies is free, which greatly improves their Feudal Age Infantry Rush (as Supplies makes the Militia line a bit cheaper). Boyars are now trained faster, and they also have Faith, so their army is better defended against opponent Monks. However, their Farming bonus was nerfed to 10%, but still valuable to perform an economy boom or making early rushes.
With update 36906, the Boyar got extra +1 pierce armor for both standard and elite, negating their previous big weakness against massed archers and defensive structures. Combined with the already high melee armor, this makes them one of the strongest units in the game and able to outclass Knights in several ways. However, their speed was reduced to 1.3, much slower than Knights and thus, an easier target to Monks.
The Slavs perform quite well in any map position in team games, but are favored in the flank position. They can also perform as a springboard due to their farming economic bonus. Civilizations with rushing capabilities are ideal allies for the Slavs, with the notable exception of the Huns (who have no synergy whatsoever).
For economic team bonuses, Slavs make a good combination with the Chinese. Slav farms receive +45 food from the team bonus, and the faster Slav farming rate takes full advantage of this extra food.
In terms of infantry, they benefit from the Goth team bonus (Barracks works 20% faster) and the Italian team Bonus (Condottiero available in Barracks). A team of Goths, Italians, and Slavs can make a devastating combination, thanks to their amazing team bonus synergy. The Burmese also perform well in place of the Italians.
Other siege-oriented civilizations are good partners for the Slavs. A Celtic ally makes all Slav Siege Workshops work 20% faster. This can be devastating, and helps them amass their cheap siege units faster. Slav Siege Onagers also benefit from the Korean team bonus. Depending on the Patch version being played, it either grants the Onagers +1 range or reduces their minimum range. A Khmer ally gives the Slav Scorpion line +1 range, giving the Slavs access to cheap, long-range Heavy Scorpions.
Many civilizations make great use of the Slavs' military housing team bonus. An Incan player benefits from having a Slavic ally, as Incan houses already hold ten population and the Slavic team bonus grants military buildings five population space. Wood saved from this bonus also benefits a Goth ally, because they are able to spend less wood on houses and more on Barracks, which are essential for the Goth infantry spam strategy. Cuman players also benefit greatly from this bonus, as they can build Siege Workshops in the Feudal Age. In return, they provide free Elite Kipchaks for the infantry-oriented Slav armed forces after Cuman Mercenaries has been researched.
A Slav-Burmese alliance amplifies the best parts of both civilizations. A Burmese ally can adopt a strong rush or sling strategy, abusing free Lumber Camp and infantry attack upgrades to quickly train strong infantry or boom up to Castle or Imperial Age. Both the Burmese and Slavs benefit from strong Monk tech trees, and from the Burmese team bonus of revealing the location of Relics at the start of the game. The Slav housing bonus saves the Burmese time and resources, and wood can be sent back to the Slavs for farms.
As the Slavs have good Monks with better armor, they further increase its capabilities in alliances that improve them. Allying with Byzantines makes them better healers, while Lithuanian allies grant Slav Monasteries an efficiency bonus to produce armored Monks quicker.
The Teutons may be considered as a great defensive partner for a Slav player, thanks to their anti-conversion team bonus and superior defensive structures. Both civilizations have great siege, and the bonuses somewhat make up for the Slavs' inherent weaknesses.
The Boyar crushes most melee units with its high attack and melee armor, and therefore civilizations reliant on infantry or cavalry (like the Aztecs, Goths, Celts, Franks, Magyars and Huns) may struggle against them. Boyars are also a good response against the Bulgarian Konnik in its two versions because of the Boyar's high melee armor.
The Slavs possess a strong economy with a bonus to population via military buildings, so civilizations that are susceptible to early-game raids (like the Indians, Italians, Spanish, Turks, and Vietnamese) may find it difficult to respond. This is especially true on open maps like Arabia, and if starting from the Dark Age.
Slavic Monks have nearly all upgrades (except Heresy) and armor from the Orthodoxy unique tech, so they perform well against civilizations like the Khmer, Burmese, Persians, and Indians, all of whom have slow-moving, non-ranged units (like the Battle Elephant).
Any cavalry-centered civilization (like the Franks, Magyars, Huns and Persians) will find it much harder to fight Slavic Halberdiers when fielded en-masse after Druzhina is researched, as their Halberdiers will deal trample damage to surrounding units. This also gives the Slavs a slight advantage in "trash unit" wars.
The Slavic Champions also benefit from the Druzhina tech, giving them a considerable advantage in large, hectic, mass-unit battles. Any civilizations that rely on quantity over quality of troops (like the Malay, Goths, and Magyars), or high-quality trash units (like the Vietnamese and Berbers), will find difficulty against them.
Civilizations with poor defensive capabilities, like the Goths and Magyars, will fold more easily due to the cheaply-produced Slavic siege lines; the mass-produced siege may even overcome civilizations with strong defenses, like the Incas, Teutons, and Byzantines. Slavic Onagers and Rams pose substantial threats to civilizations that rely on archers (like the Mayans, Vietnamese, and Britons), and Slavic Scorpions can decimate civilizations that field huge numbers of units (like the Goths and Malay).
The Boyar has 1 base pierce armor, slow movement speed (for cavalry), is expensive, and has little conversion resistance, which is further exacerbated by the Slav's lack of the Heresy tech. Civilizations such as the Aztecs, Burmese, Saracens, and Spanish can field monks to capitalize on this. They are also susceptible to any civilization with strong anti-cavalry capabilities, and fall easily to the Italians' Genoese Crossbowman, Indian Imperial Camel, Incan Kamayuks, and even the Japanese Samurai and Persian War Elephants with their high melee attacks.
The Lithuanians may be an unpleasant rival for the Slavs for several reasons, and probably the main reason is their unique unit, the Leitis, which has an attack that ignores the armor of any unit. This makes the Orthodoxy technology useless against them (also, the Lithuanians have all upgrades for Hussars and a bonus attack if they snatch Relics), so Slavic Monks will suffer against Lithuanians. The Leitis also leaves the Slavic Boyar basically "naked", eliminating the Boyar's main advantage (its armor).
The Slavs' gunpowder units only include the Petard, Cannon Galleon, and Demolition Ship, and therefore fare poorly late-game against civilizations with strong late-games (like the Turks, Portuguese, and Spanish), or civilizations with Bombard Cannons or Hand Cannoneers. This disadvantage can also be exploited in closed maps like Black Forest, as civilizations can rush to the Imperial Age after stopping rushes with early-game walls.
Slavic archers are mediocre at best, as they lack important upgrades like Bracer, Thumb Ring, and Arbalest. In this regard, they have difficulty against any civilization with strong Skirmishers (like the Vietnamese), decent Onagers (like the Koreans and Celts), powerful cavalry (like the Persians and Franks), or simply better archers (like the Mayans and Britons).
The Slavs do not receive the Architecture, Bracer, Keep, and Arrowslits techs. Any civilization with robust anti-building units (like the Huns' Tarkan) or siege (like the Celts, Turks, Ethiopians, and Teutons) can destroy Slavic buildings with ease.
In seige-vs-siege battles, the Slavs may encounter difficulty against civilizations with buffed siege, like the Ethiopians' increased blast radius siege units, the Celts' faster-firing and higher-hit point siege units, and the Teutons' increased melee armor siege units. Civilizations with decent light cavalry, or specialized anti-siege units (like the Magyar Huszar or Mongol Mangudai), can tear apart Slavic siege.
The Druzhina tech is costly and only available in the Imperial Age; Slavic infantry may dissolve against other early-game infantry civilizations like the Aztecs, Burmese, and Japanese. Archer-focused civilizations like the Britons, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Mayans still counter Slavic infantry. Byzantine Cataphracts still threaten Slavic infantry in large-scale battles even after researching Druzhina, as the Cataphracts also deal trample damage after researching Logistica.
The Slavs' reliance on both Monks and siege makes them inherently weak to civilizations with decent light cavalry (like the Berbers, Huns, and Magyars), or to the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans' Eagle Warriors.
Large contingents of Mayan Plumed Archers or Incan Slingers can be a problem for the Slavs if they don't make use of skirmishers.
Mayans, Incas and Aztecs have access to the Eagle Warriors, which can very effectively counter siege units, Monks, and to some extent Boyars. Regarding their Monks, they are vulnerable to light cavalry, so civilizations with good light cavalry (like Berbers, Huns, and Magyars) can easily counter them.
The Slavs are advantageous on the Fortress map because players start with a Barracks (providing an extra 5 population space for them and their allies) and Farms (instead of sheep or boars).
Heavily-armored Slavic monks are well suited for the "Capture the Relic" game mode.
The Slavs can perform well on the Black Forest map ,as their cheaper Onagers enable them to cut paths through the forest to unsuspecting enemies.
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The Age of Kings
The Conquerors
The Forgotten
The African Kingdoms
Rise of the Rajas
Definitive Edition
