Age of Empires II: DE | 5 Best Civilizations for Beginners

Age of Empires 2: DE lets you choose from over 40 different civilizations. Each civilization is built on the same foundations, and their ultimate playstyles work around the same principles. Age of Empires 2: DE has several unit types. Most civilizations have access to some or, more rarely, all of these unit types. These are the melee infantry, ranged infantry, cavalry, ships, and siege. There are also the special unique units that each civilization has access to. These unit types counter each other, so some civilizations are countered by each other.

Despite this, most civilizations are well-rounded, so they usually have units that can support and counter their main units. Others have units that are generally strong and hard to counter. This guide will look at the 5 best Civilizations to play if you are a beginner.

Franks

The Franks are undoubtedly a powerhouse in the game. They are a straightforward cavalry civilization, mainly focusing on the Knight line. Late-game Frankish paladins are some of the scariest units to encounter. They supplement their paladins with decent melee infantry. Their unique unit, the Throwing Axemen, delivers melee attacks from range.

The Franks are reliant on gold as they have very poor trash units, but with your strong cavalry, you wouldn’t need to worry about your games lasting that long. Despite missing out on the elite skirmishers, they still get the Halberdier. You can deal with most Paladin counters, including the Champion and the Throwing Axemen, be it other halberdiers or camels.

The Franks also benefit from an easy playstyle and are one of the most played civilizations in the game. With an easy-to-understand playstyle and a strong unit to play around, the Franks are a pick for new players and veterans.

Britons

The Britons are your average archer civilization. Your archers have the longest range of any in the game. This allows you to deal with skirmishers and the mangonel line far more easily. These two units are your biggest counters in the game.

You have access to decent Halberdiers to fend off any enemy cavalry. Their entire infantry line can give most civilizations a run for their money. This, of course, means that your own cavalry as the Britons will be lackluster. 

The unique technology Warwolf provides makes your trebuchets do blast damage and have 100% accuracy. This will make the slugging match against enemy trebuchets far likelier to go your way.

Again, you will enjoy a simple game plan as your main focus will be on your archers and Halberdier. This is ultimately why the Britons are one of the best civilizations for beginners.

Huns

The Huns are the civilization for those who think building houses is annoying and that walls are for cowards. Throughout the game, in a normal 200 pop game, you save on a thousand wood, not to mention the time spent by the villagers and your own focus in the game. 

They are incredibly versatile, especially in the early game, but their versatility ends after the mid-game. Like the Huns, ending things as fast as possible is important, as later, you will find yourself gold-starved.

The Huns have cheaper, powerful, and versatile cavalry archers. They can also switch between Knights and Crossbowmen, all of whom have access to all their technologies at Castle Age. They have the unique unit Tarkan; a strong cavalry unit made to quickly bring down buildings.

The Huns, however, lack good siege units or defense and are more geared towards an aggressive and fast play style. Despite having access to Halberdiers and Champions, missing out on key upgrades makes them inferior to most civilizations without upgraded units, except the Imperial Age techs.

Together with the Tarkan, you will often find yourself quickly swarming the enemy base, given you play your cards right. The Huns are good for anyone who wants a fast-paced game with a somewhat versatile early-game unit roster, making them one of the best civilizations for beginners.

Goth

So, do you think bows and horses are too fancy? Do you just want to beat people up with a stick? Well, Goths are the faction for you. You can access some of the cheapest infantry in the game to serve many roles.

Your Halberdiers can effectively deal with any enemy cavalry. Your Champions are the general all-purpose frontline, and if the enemy pulls out archers to try to counter you, you can simply ruin their day with the Huskarl.

The Huskarl is the unique unit for the Goths, which is created fast and has ungodly pierce armor. This means that they are really hard to kill with archers. Their unique technologies allow them to create Huskarls faster, so even if you encounter counters to your Huskarls, you can just overwhelm them with numbers.

The Goths also benefit from a somewhat versatile tech tree, allowing them to pull out a few different units for counters. For such an aggressive civilization, a good defense is a good offense. Goth players have to make do with Palisade Walls and Watch Towers.

They also have poorly performing archer and knight lines and an unexceptional siege. This further highlights them as an early-game civilization, with their late-game prowess only stemming from spamming lots of units. The Goth playstyle is simple and aggressive, making it appealing to beginners.

Mongols

Channel your inner Genghis Khan as you play one of the best late-game civilizations in the game. The Mongols keep much, if not all, of the fame from their historical counterparts. 

They have a pretty effective dark age, with a 40% father gather rate for hunters. They are also a raiding civilization, with bonuses that really benefit their hit-and-run playstyle. Their main unit is the Cavalry Archer, which excels at raiding.

They also use Light Cavalry and the Steppe Lancer, who are also great at raiding. The Steppe Lancer is a unique unit that can attack enemy units from two tiles away. This makes them great at choke points and when massed in groups.

Their main unique unit is the Mangudai, one of the easiest unique units to use and one of the best units in the game overall. The Mangudai is a powerful Cavalry Archer with a bonus against siege units. Thanks to their unique technologies for the late game, the Mangudai are supplemented by their faster siege.

They have some of the best early economies, with great potential for rushes and some of the best late games. They suffer through a very unremarkable mid-game, however. They miss out on the main mid-game units with no other real economic bonuses and underwhelming infantry and archers.

What they lack in versatility, they make up for in the raw strength of the Mangudai. It is one of those units that can only be countered by skirmishers or camels, countered by their [somewhat mediocre] infantry or [somewhat good] siege. The most common way to run the Mongols was with Mangudai and the Mangonel line, supported by Steppe Lancers or the Scout line.

The Mongols benefit from being a really good late-game civilization with immense death ball potential, making them one of the best civilizations in the game.