The Vietnamese are a team-focused archery civilization with many bonuses that favor the late game. Their unique units, the Imperial Skirmisher and the Rattan Archer, provide tremendous anti-archer capability and make the Vietnamese a fearsome opponent to other archery-specialized civilizations.
Strengths[]
The Vietnamese can field resilient archers, thanks to their bonuses and unique units. They can train every unit at the Archery Range except the Hand Cannoneer and can research every important unit upgrade except for Parthian Tactics. Their Imperial Skirmisher upgrade is a unique unit upgrade for the Elite Skirmisher, and their Rattan Archer is an archer with high pierce armor and reasonably high attack; both of these units excel against other archers. All Vietnamese archers have more hit points than traditional archers, giving them greater durability against Onagers and allows them to trade favorably enemy archers.
The Vietnamese shine in multiplayer, as their civilization bonus reveals the location of each enemy Town Center. This saves the Vietnamese player valuable scouting time and allows them and their teammates to adjust their strategy according to enemy position. They also have a decent economy, as they save the wood costs of their economic upgrades. Later on, Paper Money grants them a permanent trickle of gold.
They also have access to every important unit upgrade for their infantry and cavalry lines, only lacking Hussars and Paladins. Their Battle Elephants are also much more durable thanks to the Chatras unique tech, combined with their access to Bloodlines. Their defenses are also fairly solid, with all of the available options.
Weaknesses[]
The lack of Blast Furnace hinders the offensive power of their infantry and cavalry. Their siege line is also one of the worst of the Southeast Asian civilizations, lacking the Siege Onager, Siege Ram, and Heavy Scorpion upgrades, meaning they must rely on Bombard Cannons with Siege Engineers or Battle Elephants to destroy buildings. A lack of the Masonry and Architecture techs makes their buildings relatively brittle.
Strategy[]
At the start of the game, the Vietnamese have a massive head-start with the ability to see enemy Town Centers at the start of the game (or revealed after being built, like in Nomad-style games). This allows the Vietnamese player to figure out the enemy's strategy earlier.
In the Feudal Age, the Vietnamese will start to save up a decent amount of wood thanks to their civilization bonus, which allows them to produce more archers. The extra hit points on their archers make them more resistant to enemy attacks. Opening with Men-at-Arms or Scout Cavalry is not a bad idea if the player sees their opponent is making Skirmishers.
During the Castle Age, the player should continue to focus on building Crossbowmen and Elite Skirmishers. While their Knights are not partially strong, they are still useful with Bloodlines. Later on, players should also consider building a Castle for access to the Rattan Archer, free Conscription upon reaching Imperial, and access to the Chatras technology for bulky Battle Elephants. Even without Parthian Tactics, a Cavalry Archer rush can be viable due to access to Bloodlines combined with the hit point bonus (and access to the Heavy Cavalry Archer upgrade in the Imperial Age).
The Vietnamese shine in the Imperial Age, with their durable Arbalesters, Rattan Archers, or sometimes Heavy Cavalry Archers as the main backbones of the Vietnamese army. Halberdiers and Elite Battle Elephants function well as main front-line protection, with Bombard Cannons as the main siege support and both standard cavalry lines functioning as useful shock support. When gold becomes scarce in the late Imperial Age, the Imperial Skirmisher gives the Vietnamese player an edge in "trash wars," despite their lack of Hussars and Blast Furnace. Paper Money can also generate a decent amount of gold to the Vietnamese late-game.
Patch changes[]
The Vietnamese gain a buff where their archers have a flat +20% HP rather than their bonus that scales based on their current age, their Rattan Archers were given more HP, and Chatras are given +50 HP instead of +30 HP. These balance changes were meant to address the weakness of Vietnamese in 1v1 matches, rather than their team-game potential.
Strategy changes in the Definitive Edition[]
The Elite Battle Elephant's base attack was reduced from 16 to 14, which significantly weakened Vietnamese Battle Elephants' offensive potential, due to the lack of Blast Furnace. To compensate for this, the Vietnamese were given Husbandry, which makes their already beefy cavalry archers more practical in the Castle Age and in the Imperial Age.
In addition, Paper Money cost was changed to 500 food, 300 wood, with the research time increased to 60 seconds. This makes the Vietnamese more viable in 1v1 matches, alongside with improving their team-game potential, as the Vietnamese can still get value when researching Paper Money in 1v1 matches.
Since update 35584, as economic upgrades no longer cost wood, they can now boom much more effectively, and the amount of wood saved synergizes well their inherent archer bonuses. This further improves the Vietnamese in 1v1 matches. Also, the wood saved this way lets them focus on other resources and perform a Fast Castle, as the wood saved can be invested in Feudal Age buildings (the total amount of wood saved if researching all Feudal Age economic technologies is 325, which is just enough wood for creating a Blacksmith and a Market).
With update 39284, their Battle Elephants were weakened, with their trample damage reduced to 25%, but with the Chatras technology, this change didn't harm the Vietnamese Battle Elephants too much.
Battle Elephants were further nerfed in update 42848, with a bigger collision size and the bonus against buildings reduced to 4 for standard and 7 for elite, making the Vietnamese Battle Elephants the least effective at taking down buildings.
Strategy changes in Dawn of the Dukes[]
With update 54480, the Chatras technology effect was doubled from +50HP to +100HP, effectively taking their Elite Battle Elephants from 370 HP to 420 HP, making them the land unit with the second highest amount of HP, only behind the War Elephant. As a result, they can now take one extra hit from Halberdiers, lasting much longer in battle than before.
Dynasties of India[]
Paper Money changed its effect: Lumberjacks collect gold instead of giving every ally gold, which is considered a great nerf, since it needs a long run to be profitable and is an Imperial Age technology. Also, it now costs gold and more resources. On the other hand, the change may be considered a buff for one-on-one matches because it gives the Vietnamese another source of gold, giving them an edge in "trash war" situations when Gold Mines run low.
Since the Vietnamese are an archer-focused civilization with a strong late-game, they do not receive Gambesons in update 81058. That being said, their Imperial Age technology, Paper Money, was readjusted to have it cost 550 food, 200 wood, making the technology more affordable in one-on-one matches in situations where the player is low on Gold Mines.
Alliances[]
The Vietnamese are perfectly suited as a "support" civilization due to the identification of enemy Town Centers, and decent but not spectacular archers. The Vietnamese are best when played from the flank position. The Vietnamese perform best with an ally with great cavalry options. The Imperial Skirmisher is situational as a team bonus, as gold is rarely an issue in team games.
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Dravidians: They can use Rattan Archer support to screen their melee infantry (particularly their Urumi Swordsmen) from enemy archers and Cavalry Archers.
Gurjaras: The Gurjara team bonus enables the Vietnamese to train their beefy Battle Elephants faster; in return, the Vietnamese player can support the Gurjaras' Camel Riders with archers.- Saracens: Their bonus damage against buildings will make the Rattan Archer far more threatening to enemy towers thanks to the unit's natural high pierce armor. The Saracens also appreciate ranged support for their camels.
- Teutons: The Vietnamese offer bulky Battle Elephants and great archer options. The Teutons, in turn, offer great siege, fortifications, and an anti-conversion team bonus that shields Vietnamese Battle Elephants from Monks.
Compared advantages and disadvantages[]
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Advantages vs other civilizations[]
- The Rattan Archer is a well-rounded archer with high pierce armor and counters almost all types of archers. They can resist Scorpion bolts, so civilizations that use them will have to take extra precautions and mix in other siege units like Onagers or Rams.
- Civilizations with poor early and/or mid-game may have trouble against an early Vietnamese archer rush, thanks to the Vietnamese HP bonus and enemy location bonus. This is especially true in open maps like Arabia, if starting in the Dark Age.
- The Vietnamese have a small advantage in closed maps like Black Forest against civilizations with poor late-game strategies, thanks to their archers and offensive towers (which only lack Masonry and Architecture).
- Vietnamese Battle Elephants buffed with the Chatras tech are strong in melee fights and arrow-resistant, and therefore archer-reliant civilizations will find difficulty in taking them down. Civilizations should also take precautions against these Battle Elephants due to their ability to counter non-pike melee units. Massed, non-pike infantry are all susceptible.
- The Vietnamese have access almost all Dock units and techs, so they are also able to perform a Galley rush against civilizations with poor early navy.
- The Vietnamese Skirmisher line is bulkier than most civilizations and can be improved to Imperial status, giving them an advantage against other prominent archer civilizations. They are a strong trash unit and perform well against civilizations with poor trash units or poor Militia-line infantry.
- As Paper Money allows lumberjacks to slowly generate gold, this gives the Vietnamese an advantage in "trash war" situations where gold mines are nearly depleted.
Disadvantages vs other civilizations[]
- Despite their pierce armor and bulk, Rattan Archers cost more than the standard Archer line while being no better against infantry and cavalry. Siege-focused civilizations can use Onagers to counter contingents of Vietnamese archers, since Onagers deal melee damage.
- Civilizations with any high hit point, high pierce armor units (like the Korean War Wagon or elephant units) can be a threat to Vietnamese archers if the player forgets to make the archers focus-fire.
- Aside from having Bombard Cannons, the Vietnamese siege line is exceptionally mediocre; any civilizations with decent cavalry, Eagle Warriors and/or better siege can defeat it.
- Vietnamese defenses can be easily defeated by civilizations with strong siege or a by good anti-building unit thanks to the lack of Masonry and Architecture. Civilizations with good rams pose a threat to Vietnamese archers, as the rams have high pierce armor. Civilizations with Siege Onagers and/or strong blast-radius siege also counter Vietnamese archers effectively, especially if the Vietnamese player forgets to micro them.
- The Vietnamese have no naval-specific buff, so any civilization with a better navy can easily defeat the Vietnamese navy. Shipwright is also absent from the tech tree, so the Vietnamese late-game navy is more expensive than that of civilizations with access to Shipwright.
Situational advantages[]
- As mentioned previously in the alliances section, the Vietnamese have more advantages when playing in a team game, due to their 2 team bonuses (one official team bonus, one technically a team bonus triggered by the player), so it logically follows that they provide better boosts in large teams.
- In Nomad maps, they get a distinctive advantage due to their revelation of initial enemy Town Centers, as in this setting those will be revealed as soon as their opponents finish to build them, enabling the Vietnamese to adapt their future strategy even in this map.
- In closed maps like Black Forest, Vietnamese have an advantage as they can wall up, then defend for a while with archers and finishing the game by spamming Imperial Skirmishers, Bombard Cannons and Battle Elephants. This advantage may also be applicable in maps like Arena, Fortress and Hideout, as in these, players start the game walled.
- Having access to Battle Elephants, Bombard Cannons, Bombard Towers and tanky archers, they are well suited for Post-Imperial matches.
- Knowing the exact location of the Town Centers is incredibly useful in Sudden Death modes, as the players are limited to having one Town Center, hence it's easier to locate and destroy the opponents' Town Centers.
- In the Budapest map, the Town center revelation bonus applies to the additional Town Centers opponents have (in this map, every player starts with 2 Town Centers, and the Vietnamese revelation bonus applies to both).
- In maps with an abundance of wood, like Arena and Black Forest, they may get a good late-game advantage, thanks to the gold generation for each lumberjack from the Paper Money technology.
