The biggest takeaway is that Obuch aren't just increasing the damage of themselves, it also improves the damage of every other unit attacking. Never take losing battles versus obuch as their advantage snowballs hard.

Sicilian monk: come to the blue side Obuch: leave me alone Sicilian monk: I tell you how to build fancy towers Obuch: Dang... I'm in

Skirms finally get the chance to deal as much damage as a javaline thrower should do. 🥳🥳🥳

respects to ilicktoesatnight for consistently supporting spirit of the law

I learned from this video that the teutonic knights would be unstoppable in combat if they wouldnt always put their swords away after a strike...

“Hey guys spirit of the law here” is what I needed today

The Poles remind me a little of the Franks. Both have castles incentives, both have good cavalry backed up by decent eco, and both have a unique unit that handles cavalry-counters quite well. The synergies is what makes civs like Franks so hard to deal with and I feel that the Poles have similar (not identical) synergies.

*Nobody:* *Spirit of the Law:* "So here's how this unit compares against *J* *A* *P* *A* *N E S E* "

I guess a good counter would be Onagers who can kill them quickly. perhaps the Shotel Warrior could also be pretty good with it's high attack low hp/armor combo, same for the Gebeto

2:54 Eagle flying overhead while Spirit is talking about “Eagles”. Coincidence? Knowing Spirit, probably not ;)

Its funny to me how alot of YT commenters colour their perception of a unit based on MikeEmpires' videos where everything is in postImp with units charging one another, rather than actual games. Props to Spirit for showing some actual unit comps

I have felt like Obuch is a true power unit of poles, discounted knights are strong yet obvious and not as hard to counter, but going obuch and arbs seems et least as powerful to me and way less obvious. Especially given that it still frees up your food and stables to spam complementary winged bois. At the very least it gives poles flexibility that might prove gamechanging at higher ELO and tournaments. Also consider team games, imagine combing Obuch with Chu-Ko-Nus. Or Mayan skirms at the very least.

11:18 I think SotL frequently underestimates the size of his audience, I think we're at the point were devs are tuning in to SotL to unwind. It's blinking hard on the radar now sir, so it's gonna get nerfed.

The Obuch should have a bigger bonus against buildings - it's swinging a giant hammer!

It's insane how much these guys shine in the campaign, particularly in the 3rd stage

I could see them losing some pierce armour, as the game itself lists archers as a weakness of them but they're better at soaking up arrow fire than Champions.

4:40 Also with high armor units that means they can afford to lose a few points. Lower armor units though are extremely hurt by just 1 or 2 points less.

Teutonic knight: When we attack in a mass, nobody can stop us! Obuch: Hold my piwo

I like that the Obuch seems like a unit that their civilization actually relies on rather than a (at best) situational gimmick, like the uu of some other civs

Man, I just love how much effort you put in those videos. The quantity of data and all the possibilities that you have to come up with is incredible. Every time i watch you video, it seems like a little semstral work at uni. You are awesome, keep it going.

Champions : *"Who are you?"* Obuch : *"I'm you but **_toe-tally_** better"* *"Obuchview"* the puns as always xD

hey spirit, i really respect how you put effort into pronouncing foreign words the right way. it's a small thing but most others don't even bother with it, which is why i like that in every video of yours so far, you've always made the effort to pronounce names as best as you can. no one's expecting a perfect native level pronunciation but the effort is greatly appreciated!

"The obouch was oiriginally made by just copying the seargent's game files." - You don't want to know how often this is done.

It is really an interesting unit and shows that devs experimenting with new ideas in the game can have fun results. Too bad they couldn't even name them correctly.

Great video! Love seeing more unique unit breakdowns.

always interesting to see your indepths analysis on the unique units and as a newbie I appreciate your combination take at the end. would love to see this for every civ, gives me as someone who is rather low skilled a good idea of how to play this civ.

The first time the "Dawn of the Dukes" expansion came out, I intuitively felt that that the Obuch+Arbalester combo is perfect as an army composition.

Obuch and winged hussar is my favorite unit comp with poles. Not much can deal with it

If you attack a 3300 hp Ram with an Obuch you can make it have 0 pierce armor and then finish it with 7 arbalest shots.

Teotonic Knight: Nooooooo, You can't just use ur stupid warhammer to decrease my defence Obuch: Haha, WARHAMMER go Bonki Bonki

Great obuch pronunciation! The 'ch' is usually hard for non-slavs.

At first, I read the title as “The Ouch”

Great Obuchview!

Stop! Hammertime! 🔨

There it is!

I think they are this strong on purpose to balance out not having Halbs and a weak imp heavy Cav. Essentially, you are supposed to counter cav with obuch as supporting unit + damage dealer of choice.

Obuch: I fear no man.... But Arambai....they have no armor.

Using them to combo with others is what makes them most interesting to me, seems especially fun to try to strip the armor off major tanky units in their reach. I'd love a video going in-depth on how to best capitalize on this in practical scenarios, if it's enough to warrant a video after having had more experience using the unit and being up against it.

I think the most important aspect of the Obuch is that it has a beard

Oh, it's you, Obuch. Really interesting video on a unit I hadn't paid much attention to before

2:32 That bird that flew into the scene freaked me out. I was watching some horror video before this.

*Watches all the "X vs Other units" videos.* This shit's OP as fuck

The Obuch is basically "Fucks around and find out"

The Obuch are a very interesting new unit, so thanks for this insightful video, Mr SoTL. 😃👍 I've only seen one game where they were used - the Player massed huge numbers of them and wiped the floor with his opponent. Powerful. 💪 M 🦘🏏😎

That is a sick unit and super fun to play. My favorite atm.

Great video as always. Hope we get breakdown of Bohemians wagon too.

I think their most interesting feature is the one you said for last. Making tough units more vulnerable to cheaper counters seems quite a good idea, and perhaps a way to make the huskarl less threatening if it enters the firing range of castles...

I laughed at this point "hopefully as long as this unit stays niche and under the radar"... Makes a video about it reaching a large audience ;) Love your videos as always, very entertaining, and easy to listen to!

Poles: It's hammer time.

Instant like for a very good pronunciation of "obuch" at the beginning.

honestly, i just open video, upvote, then watch it... this is how great your videos are man

Interesting video. I was most impressed with the statistics of a skirmishers in combination with obuch vs Paladins. Very interesting Also the performance of obuch just as good as pikes vs Paladins. From playing this civ I’ve discovered a few things. It’s almost always a good idea to include the obuch into your army no matter what other units you have. Also because of how this civ tends to float gold it’s almost always a good idea run a double gold unit composition whether it’s obuch and arbs or obuch and cavalier. Nice to know skirms are this effective with obuch and use gold elsewhere.

I would think raising the gold cost to be in line with the sergeant at 35 should suffice. This would keep them from being mass spammed which I believe is the biggest issue among a few.

I love the conviction in how the Polish units say "Do broni!"

Obuch + Lith skrims ? The commonwealth combo

Not sure if its me but I feel the last few civs to come out are getting some insanely strong stuff, often able to circumvent mechanics or tactics that everyone else has to rely on. That's kind of a theme for both aoe2 and aoe3 where new unique units or civ bonuses outshine other options or alter what you'd usually see in terms of compositon or build order.

great vid spirit

Wow. I was like... ok, ok, not bad... then that combo with ranged units? SOLD! :D I did not think about it, but its actually a very simple combo - of tanky hard hitting infantry, that "buffs" all archers behind permanently for the fight (or even multiple fights)! That sounds fun!

It's hard to beat that stylish Purina label shield the Sargents are rocking

...I don't like the high Armor values all the new civs get on their Unique units. Both Serjant and Obuch get high melee and ranged armor, which makes them great all-round fighters.

Winged hussars+Obuch? i can used all time this combo

That Obuch + Skirm combo is sick (although they are much larger in number)

Nobody: That one skirmisher at 1:43 : I should get a raise

My current Polish strat is scout rush, 6 vils on stone (none on gold) gives you more than enough to castle drop immediately after aging up. Then you can get szlachta and switch to knights OR, if you feel cheeky, 15 Obuch can snipe a TC alarmingly well.

Interesting unit especially with the mechanic to hit armor directly and do -1/-1 per hit. Making units do more damage than usual. Best way to counter the polish is to rely on making lots of siege and bonus damage units such as skirmishers and halbs to kill cav units and to use siege such as scorpions against archer units.

seems like they'd also work well in situations with lots of healing

They sound like they could pair well with groups of Pikemen and Skirmishers to counter knight rushes in Castle Age.

They def look more terrifying in comparison because of their huge ass hammer and executioner cap. And I think they got more imposing stature.

Seems to me like the obuch shine as a combo unit, making soft counters and trash units more dangerous.

Very nice pronunciation of the "Obuch" ❤

Hello bro!! good videos as usual

10:40 Shout out to the random skirm walking all the way across the screen for no reason after taking out the paladins.

Well... this seems rather OP

Im pretty convinced Spirit knows more about this game than 80% of the Developers

Would be nice if we could repair armor progressively with villagers

Damn obuch elite skirm combo is crazy

Nice video

Yo man love your video

I would think the point is to mix obuch with yes, ranged units, but in a team game units with trample damage. I also would love to see how that could play out on 256x mod with their gold+stone dealio

I love civs that can use infantry in Castle Age ♥

That smurfs are so OP

Sound OP

Just OP!

My poles gameplan is basically straight arch, castle drop, knights spam and the clean up w obuch. Rarely will you get a civ that can transition through those units to infantry so smoothly. obuch cleans up pikes/halbs if i decide to keep going knights and complements archers if my opponent is going heavy into scouts

They have a lot of strengths like their armor, their synergy with low attack ranged units (mostly the skirm cuz no gold cost for me) and their already low cost. Other UU infantry like woad raiders cost 65 and 25 and after supplies was introduced, they never applied supplies to the existing infantry UU. But the Obuch costs 55 and 25 so it's like it got a 10 food cost reduction. In terms of comparing production speed I like to look at it in terms of how many villagers I need to maintain constant production from one castle. From that perspective I think IIRC Obuch were like 16 farmers and like 6 gold miners. That's a lot. With 6 farmers just for producing vills from 1 tc, that puts the total to 28 villagers. That's around how much you go up with for some arena fast castle into castle age UU build. And those 22 farmers all need farms which is 60*22 wood or like 1320 wood. Finally while the Obuch + Skirm combo beat the knights, the Obuch and Skirm combo cost way more resources. I think pure Obuch also works better. Strong unit. I beat a bunch of Malian Champskarls using mass Obuch recently and I don't think I could do the same with equal costs of Serjeants, Woad Raiders, or Zerks.

About the analysis of champions vs. halbedier it needs to be said that if the opponent does not get the final armor upgrade, that is a huge boost for the champions performance as it kills the halbedier in 4 hits instead of 5. I am not sure if the obuch would still outperform the champion if both were fighting against halbediers with only +2 armor, as obuchs would still need 5 hits.

Hey Spirit! You should cocast with t90- with his pro knowledge and your mechanics knowledge the two of you would be amazing!

The lesson here is to NEVER underestimate a guy with a two handed warhammer. Just ask Sigmar or Robert Baratheon (just to name a few of the many).

I also see a good point against elephants : usually, civs that don't have access to hallberdier tend to be trampled (no pun intended) by mass elephants. While the Obuch isn't a counter to the elephant by any means, it's ability to strip off the opponent's armor makes other units of the poles much more effective in finishing them. Archers in particular benefit a lot from it : elephants are big arrow sponges because of their combinaison of high HP + High pierce armor. Remove the pierce armor and they end up surprisingly squishy against ranged attacks

In conclusion, it's OP AF.

I feel like Spirit of the Law doesn't actually have a Patreon named I_lick_toes_at_night and he's just confessing.

So in summary, Obuchs are invincible and you are all doomed.

Eh? I thought the polish "ch" is more similar to *ch* in "Loch", or *ch* sound in German. Am I mistaken, or is it just an oversimplification, since English-speakers usually do not distinguish between them?

Yeah I find that unless you’re ahead in numbers already there isn’t much to counter them. Archers can move and fire but with that creation speed you’re always being pushed back and it’s hard to take the fight to them. I personally would like to see the armour reduction be temporary and either lower hp or piece armour.

Kudos for trying to pronounce obuch authentically. By the way, the correct plural to obuch is obuchy, with the final y being pronounced like the i in 'in'. Also, in the plural the stress of obuchy shifts to the u, since in Polish almost always the second to last syllable is stressed

ILickToesAtNight always gets me

Thanks Obuchma.

Can you make a video were you explain the difference between HP, Attack, Armour etc. And how they influence the units?

@Spirit of the Law Magyar is pronounced Mud-yar. Just thought I'd point it out since you took advice on pronouncing Obuch.

i like the idea that this unit removes armor. the person with the weapon is using a blunt weapon; which back then heavy clad lads would really *FEEL* it when getting decked by a giant metal hammer like that.