Title is a bit misleading, came here expecting an Italian giving the overview of AoE2.

"Cataphracts, negating your attack bonuses since 1999." I DIED xD

Italians should get a bonus when selling food on the market. Because italian food is so gooood :O

6:38 - Bombard Cannon converted then instantly killed by the already fired cannonball from it's own team

so condittieri can destroy a bombard tower faster than an otherwise identical building because somebody put cannons in the bombard tower #AOElogic

The Italians' main weakness is a Brit making a one-pot pasta vid on KZfaq

Strange that Italians don't get Siege Engineers considering they were the most advanced gunpowder civilization on early high Medieval Ages (XIV and XV)

Am I the only one whose day is made when Spirit uploads something? :P

So Italians have an anti-gunpowder melee unit and an anti-cavalry archer. Spainish are all about gunpowder and has a unit that is a cavalry gunpowder, so they're double screwed. Italians are anti-Spanish.

Hey man, just wanted to say this is probably a good civ to redo since it's had a lot of changes, particularly to the condot and the fishing bonus. - Condots now have their own armor class which takes bonus damage from non-gunpowder anti-infantry like jaguar warriors and cataphracts. - Malian condots correctly receive the pierce armor bonus. - Fishing ships are now 20% cheaper rather than +2 LOS which makes Italians a lot better on water maps. - Pavise no longer applies to skirms.

Hello, dear Spirit. I found your channel couple days ago - and now i'm having great times watching literally every your video before the sleep. Good memories + your awesome content, that's literally amazing. Thanks for your work and keep it up! Love your vids!

that onager ownage ownagers

Italians huh do they switch to the enemy team half way through the game?

8:25 i knew it! I once lost a force of Paladins to Genoese crossbows at a choke point which left me quite shitless...

Dude, I just found you channel like one or two months approx. but really I appreciate all your analysis and videos. I'm learning a lot with them.

Hey Spirit of the Law, i'll explain ya swiftly about the inside joke regarding the "heresy" monastery tech lack: It's common knowledge that throughout the whol post Roman empire history, Italy kind of became a land split between city states, little duchies, small kingdoms etc, and frequently puppeted from foreign states for their own gains (especially in between 10th - 17th centuries). And let's just say that briefly: we'd historically never cared much about the jersey we wore during conflicts or struggles, as long as there was a personal/political gain to have, usually short termed hehe Salutations from a fellow italian and AoE players, who really likes your youtube channel! Keep up the good work!

This video of yours is the only think keeping me sane during the overtime I had to do. It's past midnight.

holy shit you put a LOT of effort into this. subbed

Awesome video. Very analytical and detailed. Good job man!

Just subscribed to your channel this week and have been binge watching your videos for days. Great stuff!

Woo! Spirit has uploaded, even after not playing this game for a couple of months just seeing your videos pop up is more exciting then any clickbait thumbnail :D

You forgot one huge thing, Spirit! As Italians have always been one of my go-to civilizations, you goofed up with the Condotierro, and totally forgot to mention how they do against trash spam, specifically skirmishers. They are superior to Champs in terms of this, in my opinion, because people can't use skirmishers to outnavigate Condos. They're fast, so they're much better at chasing down units they're good at countering, whereas Champs can sometimes be lured with trash, then they can just retreat and bring in the archers, or knights to clean up the champs. Condos fare better than Champs, in case of archers too, so in scenarios where you have a lot of trash to deal with, I like the Condotierro quite a bit. Also, if I'm not mistaken, they have 10 points of resistance against Anti-Infantry damage, so they may take less damage from Jaguar Warriors, Cataphracts, etc. (but still would get owned regardless) As far as the 15% cheaper gunpowder units, I view that as mostly good for their bombard cannons being cheaper than trebuchets, giving me a cheaper ranged siege weapon. Not having a halberdier won't be dire if you mix up pikes with Genoese Crossbowmen, in fact, the carnage is very real with that combo, and if you're like me at all, you like a good archer/spear combo. Just throw in a handful of hand cannoneers that you save resources on, to make up for the lack of anti-infantry damage, and that's a heck of a deathball combo that is very hard to counter. Just keep Hussars handy (thank God they added that) so they won't try to answer you with Onagers. Overall, Italians have a whack ton of variety, and even have a strong early game if you know how to use them right, so they're not awful until Imperial Age. The Archer rush is really strong because you can hit Feudal quite a bit faster, and if you build a castle right when you get to Castle Age, you can get Pavise and go with a full foot-archer based strategy that is hard to deal with.

1500 views in the first hour. impressive. keep them coming! would love to see some comparison charts between all the different civs at some point. thanks for taking the time to do this

8:02 This is why I watch your videos man. These personal touches just make my day.

I'm guilty of not spreading the word for this channel, in the fear my frenemies might benefit from it and I start loosing again :c Keep em coming!

Trade prolly helps Italians keep up Genoese Crossbowmen. Great video! DO CHINESE OVERVIEW NEXT PLS

Yes! I've been waiting for this review, Thanks you SOTL! :)

I've been binge watching his overviews because they are so entertaining and helpful lol

9:02 - THE MONGOLS...! Oh...

9:16 Best Meme ever!

Awesome video dude i was waiting for this one a long time

Spirit, I constantly enjoy your videos. They are somehow gripping, yet have a simplistic format with complex content (if ya know what I mean). Love your content and love your character! Keep it up and I hope all is doing well :)

I don't even play AOE 2 but this was so enjoyable to watch that I watched it all, also I know a lot about the Italians of AOE 2 now :D

ill join the boat for a Chinese overview (: they are a very fun civ to play as! also, fantastic video! keep it up!

I have waited this overview for so long, thanks! =D

This is one of the best gaming tutorial channels period. I wish I had someone this easy to understand for all my how-to videos.

Good video again, Spirit! One thing though I found weird, you grade Goth Calvary B+ when it doesn't have last calvary armor, but Italian only got B- when it has the upgrade. No big deal though, it is hard to keep track of all the grade of all Civ. Good job anyway!

Spirit of the Law video? a good end to a bad day. Molto bene

I always listen to your intro, just thought I'd put that out there. Prolly favorite part of new videos.

God, love that intro song @Spiritofthelaw and keep up the good work with the awesome vids man!

Its likely that the Italians don't get Heresy because up until the end of the 19th century there was a fair portion controlled directly by the Pope (See: Papal States) Also, even without being controlled in a Theocratic state, the Italians still have an intimate relationship with the head of the Western Church (Catholicism vs Eastern Orthodoxy) so the close proximity to, and long historical relationship Italy has had with Il Papa is probably the cause for not having the "Heresy" tech.

Always happy to see a new civ review! I'm curious to why you gave the Italians a lower score for naval?

very nice video as always :) I wanna thank you so much to spend your time for Videos on aoe. it rly. helped me allot to improve my skills :) have a nice Weekend Spirit!

Another awesome video... as always.

This one needs an update, as I feel the Italians are really good rn

Their unique tech should have been Pizza: All units cost 50% less food, Villagers collect food 50% faster

Very well-made and organized video!

When I got the FE expansion, I never expected the Italians would be one of the civs that worked for me. I played some Random Civ picks on Salt Marsh and Yucatan. In some of these games I ended up playing Italians and to my surprise I did well with them. They are far from my favorite civ but they have some really nice tricks up their sleeve. A mix of Genoese Crossbowmen + Hand Cannoneers + Light Cavalry was a very well balanced army. Their whole feel was like playing an army of the later gunpowder era, with lines of musketeers firing volleys, while the cavalry supports them.

Thing with trade ships is you need the docks to be pumping galleys whereas markets are free to build carts.

_Siamo noooi, siamo noooi, i migliori di Age of Empi siamo noooi..._

Great video!

I like your videos so much. I study aok and English at one time. Perfect

Gli italiani sono incredibili!

who else loves their intro tune

the last time I've played AoE 2 for like 1-2 hours was like 5 years ago (I'm 13 btw). but for some reason this is one of my favorite chwnnels. Keep up the good work!

Great review! must give them a try.

The Genoese crossbowman has also a bonus against cavalry archers, just I don't know how much

Condotierro also does bonus damage agains turtle ships but it's rather useless knowledge XD

good review. I'll have to try them again in the future.

I don't even play this game, but I still watch your in- depth videos not understanding pretty much anything, however, I enjoy every minute of it.

The genoese elite crossbows also do 6 damage per hit against galleons..... I have no idea what they do vs other ships but i think they are a nice suprise-counter if your opponent is raiding your farms from the shore with galleons whereas normal archers would fail ^^

As the Portuguese have an unique building, the Feitoria, the Italians could use one too... the Pizzeria! It should give some sort of food trickle or something like that :D

AoE needed these overviews back when it first released.

Good Overview as pretty much always. Your uploads get high priority in my Sub. list. I don't mind if you upload once a week or every 2 weeks as long as you keep it at this quality and reliable. Prefer steady reliable content over some frequent videos that end up being a flash in the pan.

The Roman Catholic Church had the Inquisition, so no heresy.

Howdy

i really like youre intro dude

I love this series. !!!

Interesting to see how much of this is not valid in 2020 anymore. The fishingsips-bonus and the gunpowderbonus buffed, and actually makes the italians not half bad anymore

How to play Italians: Pass me the spaghetti

The onager montage and the cataphract quip were hilarious!

Great video. I suggest a small follow up video to show the changes in the Age of Rajas

can you please make a chinese civ overview?

WOAH THAT'S A SPICEY MEAT-A-BAWL!

Just one word - AWESOME

After a long and hard day your video gave me a smile and I didn't watch yet

"Ontage" should be spelled "owntage"

I'm glad you're covering the Italians, I do enjoy playing as them. But I have an idea, why not cover all of the cheats and cheat units (I know most of them off by heart). That would certainly be fun. If you don't feel like doing that, I'd like to see a Portuguese review :D FETIORIA SLING FTW! *SUPER MEGA EDIT TIME:* I have a reply I took while doing a regicide game, how would I be able to upload it anywhere, and if you can, can you check it out? :D

I swear, you are my favourite KZfaqr.

This was a rewarding video.

Hey!

9:18 those damn cataphracts man :(

For some reason I loled extremely hard at the Onager Montage :D

great video

I don't really get the picture with Heracy. I may be missing something

Yes! Finally, my favorite civ. edit: you say the siege is trash and just looking at it i'd have to agree, but onagers + gen Xbows are SUPER gross, even with no siege engineers. The only thing that can even come close to a block of gen xbows and onagers are other onagers or bombard ccns. But for that you have the hussar and your own bombard ccns.

Spirit Of The Law is a genius.

Really nice ^^because of you i might give them another chance xD

The reason they don't get heresy is because Italy contains Vatican City, which sets the rules for the rest of the Catholic world. They can't be heretical because they're the people who say what is and isn't heresy.

Creating a new religion, and pissing off the most powerful force on the planet at the time, just so you can have more wives... Henry VIII was pretty baller.

This is by far my most favorite episode due to the 'Ontage' !

their access to hussars in the new expansion is crucial! hussars work incredibly well backed with genoese crossbowmen hand cannoneers and bombard cannons. it is a complete and unique army composition.

Fun fact: If you are on the same team as the Japanese and one of the German civs then all of your units are 50% less effective when fighting the Britons and Franks.

No Chinese overview yet?! Come on man... ;((((

Yay! Glad to see you haven't stopped making videos - I like them very much! Just out of interest, is the intro music at the start an original creation?

during the skirmisher against double numbers arlberst one from the generic civ was shooting the Italians skirmishers

Please , do aztec overview

Sure of all nations the Italians dont get siege Engineers :D get your facts right aoe^^

0:06 I LOVE THIS INTRO

Awesome video laughed my ass off with the cataphract meme :,D