Introduction

In the second round, we will highlight the next civilization from the main game – The “Goths”. This is part of my plan on introducing all civs separately. In order to do so I will give you a quick historical overview and then present the game settings which will be connected to the civilizations.

So, after talking about the “Celts” in the first round, we are now coming to the next Germanic tribe.

The Goths

If you had to summarize the history of the “Goths” in one sentence it would be like: They were a Germanic tribe which was a huge pain in the ass for ancient Rome and led to its downfall.

But there is much more to them then just being a barbaric society which harassed the Romans. I read this quote which sums it up pretty well:

THE LEGACY OF THE GOTHS IS DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE, UNTIL ONE REALIZES THAT WITHOUT THEM, THE MODERN WORLD WOULD NOT EXIST.

Like mentioned in the quote above it is kind of hard to find THE origin of this civilization since there are many theories surrounding it. Some say they came down from Scandinavia, some say they rose in Poland.

However, in the third century after Jesus was born, they started to do what they are famous for – annoying Romans. They started their invasion in 238 CE by attacking the city of Histia in modern-day Hungary. In the following decades, the Goths won many times over the Romas who had deep structural struggles within their empire.

In the next century, the Goths separated into two main branches, the Visigoths, who became foederati (federates) of the Roman Empire, and the Ostrogoths, who joined the Huns.

Summed up the Visigoths got later pushed into Hispanic areas by the Franks – this can be seen by some Germanic names in modern Spain. The Ostrogoths fought wars with and against the Huns and ultimately got destroyed when their leader Totila was killed by the Byzantines in 552 CE.

It is difficult at first to determine exactly what the legacy of the Goths is to the modern-day world until one realizes that, without them, there would not be one. Western civilization continued after the fall of Rome, an entity that was disintegrating daily and would have fallen anyway even if the Goths had never set a single boot on Roman soil; it was the Goths who preserved the light of western civilization, even as they helped to topple the empire that had given rise to it.

As you might have noticed they share history with many other civilizations found in AoE, so we will definitely come back to the Goths at some point in the near future.

The Goths in Age of Empires II

Ingame the Goths are mainly considered a great infantry civilization. They have many unique bonuses which makes their infantry supreme to most other civs.

On the one hand their infantry is cheaper from the start of the feudal age (-35%), on the other hand it gets produced way faster – their unique tech “Perfusion” makes barracks work 100% faster, their team bonus makes all your teams barracks work 20% faster.

Of course, their unique unit “The Huskarl” is infantry as well. And what a special one. While the other infantry units (expect eagle warriors) have their weakness against ranged units, the “Huskarl” has a huge amount of pierce armor which makes it a powerful counter-unit to archers for example. Since it withstands arrows so good it is also a great raiding unit – probably the best in the game. A little extra plus for this is the stronger attack vs. buildings that all Goth infantry gets. But the best thing is yet to come – with the tech “Anarchy” you can produce the “Huskarl” in your normal barracks. And this makes it easy to spam them.

Last but not least they are allowed to have ten population more than other civs in “Imperial Age” – this may just be the little extra strength you need in order to win.

While their strength clearly lays within their offensive power, their weakness clearly is their defense. They are the only civilization without stone walls and they also have no tower upgrades.

So, if you play against the Goths, you should focus on early pressure – Once they are fully boomed in “Imperial Age” it gets really hard against them.

If you want to know more details about this unique civilization, watch this video:

Gameplay Settings:

The games are played as 1v1 Goth wars, meaning that both players must choose the Goths as a civilization. The following settings have to be used:

Data set	Original Game
Game	Random Map
Map Style	Standard
Locations	#1 Arabia #2 Continental, #3 Highland
Map Size	Tiny (2 player)
Difficulty	Standard
Resources	Standard
Population	200
Game Speed	Normal
Reveal Map	Normal
Starting Age	Standard
Ending Age	Standard
Victory	Conquest

Information and Registration

Requirements
In order to participate you need an Steam account, Age of Empires II HD and a stable internet connection.
Modus
We play "Best of three", meaning that you have to win two out of three games in order to win. If you win the first two, the third round is optional.
Prices
The winner will receive 10 SBD.
Registration
Registration is open from this second until 6 PM Central European Time (CET) on Saturday the 4th of November.
If you want to register, post "I am in" in the comment section of this post.
Playing
After the registration has closed I will post the matchups and the tournament tree. You will have at least three days’ time for your match.
The players will be trusted to arrange their matches for themselves - If this won't work out, I will have to think about a different solution for the feature.