i always picked the civilizations with the nicest rooftops

Dev1: What should we give the Franks? Dev2: 25% bonus to collecting Berries D1: What? why? D2: Because the French can't live without wine obviously

"to be frank..." lol

Oh please Spirit. I have a 0% winrate with all these civs! Granted, I also have a 0% winrate with every other civ. But that's irrelevant.

Video starts at 0:00

FAKE NEWS! Best civs are: -Mirror Civ -Random Civ -Spectators

I miss that Spanish villager one shotting the Cobra car

When facing against Franks, a player thinks "Yes! This match is gonna be gg easy", and then starts playing lazy. That's why Franks win. *Their bonus is a mindset nerf to the opponent.*

Can you also do the worst?

I am so glad, because for all these years I have been watching the (great) videos of Spirit of the Law, I always thought Franks were the most underestimated civilization of all, downlooked as just a knight civ, when their castle drop(s) and unique unit can actually be very interesting!

"1V1 me bruv" is becoming science, what a time to be alive

my friend first time play AOE choose Huns, there are no option to build house, he thought instalation files are corrupt. so he has to reinstall the game 🤣

It says something that in a highest win ration list, most are still just in the 50 percentages, and only one is above 60%. Its a really well balanced game.

Objection! someone called huns "one trick pony" in the overeview. now suddenly they are "flexible"?!

Your vids are a treat to watch, I love the sound editing, as well as how rigorous you are with the data, great vid, as always

Hey Spirit, I HOPE you read this. I watch the "Change my mind"-setup in the past weeks quite frequently, and I want you to know that i laughed SO hard about the image at the 30 Seconds-mark. Love your vid's!!

I don't even play AoE2, but your videos are simply the best. Very entertaining and informative. Congrats.

I love your vids, great job!!!

What a redemption for the Franks! Charlemagne be laughing from the hereafter :D

Love the boppy music transition when it goes to number 1. Was waiting for that lol

It was obvious. The team that had La Hire was going to win.

Oh man... your analysis are by far the best ones regarding AoC. You are such a scholar. Thanks for this. I really hope the developers of Age II DE contact you often before making balance decisions. After having gone through the change log up to patch 5.8, I didn't spit out my coffee with the Franks. Boosted in every single age, Free bloodline was too much, plus squires. No weakness for Franks. I hope in the future versions of the game each civs "at least" will have "a chance" to stand against stronger ones in the most popular maps. Balance in early ages is critical.

This was so well done! Subbed

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I'VE BEEN MAINING FRANKS SINCE 1998!!! MY SUPERIOR MILITARY GENIUS OF THROWING AXEMEN BACKED UP BY PALADINS HAS FINALLY BEEN PROVEN BY SCCIIEEENNNCCEE!!!!

I haven’t played an years. But I always liked the Huns house bonus because it saves a little bit of time and you don’t have to worry about losing buildings to support your population.

In History, France has surprisingly the largest number of battle victories ever and the highest success rate. The game is therefore quite accurate.

A new video!!! Thanks for your effort!

Keep up the great work SOTL, it's been your videos that have gotten me back into AOE2, even if you haven't realized the Teutons are obviously #1

Not surprised Saracens aren't on the list. Everyone knows they dominate the team games, due to their team bonus.

This is a great video, it rekindled my interest in the game abit

Amazing video! So happy to see Incas on top 5. Love it Franks there too, really nice stables and Knight Rush is a common and easy strategy for noobs and regular players. Also it's nice t see all 3 mesoamerican civs on top 8.

Love the content, keep up the great work!

I went to the Franks data page and saw that they have the highest win rate against Saracens... the civ that supposedly has a strong knight counter unit. Saracens need buff.

now do bottom 5 civs, the worst of the worst ^^

Amazing content, as always. Thank you!

I've been looking forward to this video for years

*SPOILER* I think the fact Franks are #1 is because of how strong a fast castle is at lower levels of play. Let's face it, most aoe2 players aren't pro (like myself) and strategies like fast castling that wouldn't be viable at top level are for most players. This explained by the fact they have the 3rd fastest castle time of any civ. That paired with the fact they're also viable at pro level now too (because of berries and scouts getting bonus), it makes sense they're at the top. Still wouldn't have picked Franks though, was expecting Mayans.

The Franks surprise me. I’ll admit that I gravitate towards them (favorite civs are Franks, Teutons, and Byzantines) because of paladin/cataphract, but I’m not a pro player. I assumed those civs are for us casual players, and I can beat other Franks and Teutons players easily on random civ, but that may be due to me knowing them inside and out. I struggle against civs like Britons or Italians (damn those Genoese Crossbowmen!) for the same reason. Great video.

great vid as always

Spirit of the Law, dude you are a champion :) thank you for all you do mate

What?! 60%?! That's impossible, your scouter must be broken!

I've stopped playing AoE 2 so many years ago and yet your videos are always so fun to watch. Like Lowko and Starcraft 2

Nice list, and intresting results!

Yes. I will always click on a new Spirit of the Law video, despite not actively playing AOE 2. It's just so relaxing. You go, guy.

Genuinely surprised not to see the mongols there.

I always hit the like button before watching your videos, Spirit :3

I love the way you do the videos

Awesome data analysis! Thanks for making this game so fascinating with every video! A question that came up while watching this video: What games were analysed? Only games from high-rated players? Because i guess that stronger players tend to use a civ the correct way, whilst bad players just don't know the advantages of their civs and just fight with random units.

With the term science I was expecting some out of context comparison like: "Top 5 civs with the most tech upgrades while having the best tech discounts" I dunno if something like that would make sense to do in the first place but have it as a free idea to make more videos, since I really like your comparison videos :D

I see spirit video, hit like, then proceed to watch

A little loud on the music towards the end, Spirit, but apart from that, great video, as always! :D

The 5:15 editing and the "to be frank" were my favourite parts in this video :D

"Que trépasse si je faiblis !" - Godefroy de Montmirail, #Knights spam ftw :D

Given how the French are actually the most militarily succesful country in history (>inb4 WW2 surrender memes) it kinda adds up

When you were talking about Franks the music volume was a little bit high, for the rest great video as always!

I was so surprised to see Franks at the top. I've only recently started to play AoE2, and I love it. I also only recently decided to main Franks as my civ without any knowledge of this 1v1 data. Go Franks!

I love Franks, so i am happy

YES ! JEANNE! Our castles and knight will blot out the sun!

That text effect at 5:13 is really nice

Great video! May we expect another video where you analyze the changes in the top 5 civs in team games? ^-^

what is the song/music that plays when you annonce the #1? also, i find it funny (or interesting) to see the 3 no-stable civs in the top 8

This is off topic but watching this makes me appreciate how AOE3 they got rid of the stone and also farms/ plantations are infinite unlike AOE2 you have to keep re planting them. It’s so much nicer especially when trying to boom your eco while attacking it’s hard to micro manage the farms

that beat drop/music after place 1 was revealed added alot to the video imo!

i love this game too! great job bro!

I think you need to do an update to this video for the new AoE II: DE and for the changes to this civilizations. Greetings from Chile Sorry for my english :P

The editing took me by surprise, also the missing intro.

Your videos are best ASMR or something, helps me feel better

I know this is an old video, but I'm very impressed by the attention to detail and statistics here.

People think Franks are weaker then they actually are simply because they are predictable. But heres the thing, being predictable doesn't matter if you can't defeat them even when you know what they are going to do. Frank cavalry is so strong that pikes are really the only good counter against them in the castle age. Problem is, the Franks unique units absolutely wreck pikeman and their fast castle time as well as the castles themselves being cheaper means its very easy to transition into them. They also got crossbows. Theres almost no army composition in the game that can beat Frank cavalry backed by throwing axeman and the few armies that could beat that usually requires the imperial age and tons of upgrade and research. I'm sure lots of people at every skill level would find Inca and Aztec more dominant simply because you never know what they are going to do. But thats exactly what makes Franks really overpowered, the fact that you always know what they are going to do and still lose! Even Indians, which people often say are their counter, have negative win rates against them even at over 2000 rating! It would be like arguing that Hulk is a weak Avengers because all he can do is smash while the others are so much more versatiles. Yeah but all the Hulk needs to do is smash. And all the Franks need are their cavalry.

Franks were not only french. After Charlemagne/Karl der Große/Carl the Great the Franks split into west and east frankia which later formed the preprepre-states of France and Germany (and the Benelux etc)

great work

This was great!

Although Franks have the best win percentage overall, it looks like Slavs are the only civ without a lower than 50% matchup against anyone. That mean the Slavs are favoured to win in every single matchup (except against Ethiopia, which is neutral).

Nothing is more manly than large groups of men hurling axes at each other.

Wow! Amazing Vid. Cheers SOTL. Would you be able to do a similar vid which covers the best Civ (and, or Civ combos) for team wins (according to science)??? Thanks bud. Your vids are top quality.

Loved the vid Missed the intro

lol, now i know why Franks are one of my most prefered Civ's since the release of the game :-D

Franks make sense to me. Their bonuses aren't "sexy" in that they stand out as particularly unique like Huns and their lack of houses, but they're all quite effective and fairly subtle. Stuff like the substantially cheaper castles and the improved farms means they can not only castle age rush well, but also just get those castles out faster (less stone needs to be collected) and put out more of them, which means good early castle harrassment. The free bloodlines makes scout rushing in feudal very viable. Having a few of their cheap castles means you can get to imperial and research the key upgrade techs you want without halting production of units if you are laying down a castle in enemy territory too, especially if you're picking up conscription. And like you said, the berry picking speed, though seemingly so minor a thing, gets them through the dark age period quickly and into their improved farming economy well.

Excellent Choice!

I think a 2v2 and 3x3 comparison with the same factors looked at would be a cool video too.

SOTL: so who do you think is first? Burmese? Malians? Indians? Japanese? Me: lol i bet is something unexpected like Franks SOTL: Franks Me: * Freaks out *

I love the game, but I'm really bad. Last night, I played Vikings vs Aztecs (computer) on Normal, and lost.

5:10 nice video editing. Haha Kudos!

The text editing with the scouting Eagle Warrior blew my mind. Well done, sneaking it in like that. There is also a stat on the website that is strange. How is the Franks' relic gold income so much higher than the average? They don't get a bonus for relics, do they?

Sotl is still underestimating franks he doesnt see how strong eco bonuses are. If you add up everything, (+150 res from berry faster collection rate +400 from mill upgrade + 150 from no bloodline) , *franks get 700 extra ressource by early castle age which is the equivalent of 5 knight +50 food.* *5 more knights than a generic civ is game breaker, whether frank wins or buys enough time to transition into one of the strongest late game composition.* There are no bad option they dont need like other early civs to win before late game, they can but they dont need it. As a quick comparison, -slavs needs to collect 4500 food from farms (so basically after dark age) in order to equal frank bonus. -Berbers need to spend 4400 ressources into knights which is the equivalent of 32.5 knights to equal frank bonus

When You said Franks were no. 1 I thought it was a joke like you did in the top 5 archer video where you give no. 1 spot to the saracens

I love your captioned pictures Spirit XD

Very interesting. Watched this video several times to take it all in xD

3 of my favorite civilizations in the game are Franks, Mongols and Portuguese... Luckily one of them made the cut. Please make a top 5 navy video sometime soon ;(

When is civ remake overview? Like teutons, britons?

Great video

I like that this video also gives good insight into the online meta game.

SotL I reckon that Franks are benefitted by their comparatively simple strategies - they tend to be easier to play for inexperienced players (like myself!)

How can you not mention the Throwing Axeman? They're amazing unique units

Very interesting. Please do a similar video on the best civ pairs for team maps.

Thanks for the intro song, I love it ! What's the outro song though ?

Sorry but I think it should be Saracens because that team bonu- I mean Spanish, because *_Nobody Expect the Spanish Inquisition_*

Damn! I thought number 1 would be the Mongols...

Love your videos 👍🏼 could you do another game play video? You haven’t done one in a long time 😕

Thanks for the video. Please make a bottom 5 too, please. I feel like I can learn a lot from that. I'm going to guess the bottom 5 will be the civs with the worst eco bonuses.