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More on the Britons
Let's look at the strengths and weaknesses of the British civilization in Age II.

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Strengths
The Britons of Age II have many of Britain's historical strengths, but also its historical weaknesses. The strengths of the British civilization lie in the fact that it has access to all bow-using archery range units and has great expansion capabilities, thanks to its cheaper town centers. The Britons are thus a powerful offensive civilization, able to field superior ranged units. They can take over key resource areas by laying down multiple town centers and guarding them with garrisoned archers. And the shepherd bonus gives them an advantage in the Dark Ages as well, letting them advance to their more-powerful ages earlier.

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Weaknesses
Most of the Britons' strengths don't come into play until the second or third age, since the archery range is a Feudal Age building, and multiple town centers can't be built until the Castle Age. The Britons also lack gunpowder units. Their ranged units do have great range but can be cut down quickly by the sturdy troops of other civilizations. Says designer Greg Street, "A mounted charge of French knights or a blur of scimitars from a Saracen Mameluke can take care of even the most upgraded British archer." The Britons also are weak in siege engines, lacking most of the upper-level units from the siege workshop.

Designer Ian Fischer gives us a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the British civilization and also introduces us to the unique longbow unit.

"For the Britons, one of the historical aspects we keyed on was their disdain for gunpowder weapons. Long after most cultures had adopted firearms, the Britons remained reliant on their longbowmen. They did have a point. Their longbows were arguably superior to the primitive gunpowder weapons of the time, but they didn't account for the economics of the situation. Longbowmen took years of training (and thus expense) before they could be fielded, while hand cannoneers were (relatively) far cheaper and easier to train.

"In the game, this translates to a lack of gunpowder units for the Britons, their technology tree does not include hand cannoneers, bombard cannons, or cannon galleys. [British history also gives us] their unique unit, the longbowman. With their speed, range, and power, the longbowman will be the unit that archer aficionados want to have on the battlefield." - Ian Fischer

Click here to open an avi of the longbowman.

Unique Unit: Longbowman
Every civilization has a unique unit that becomes available in the third age, the Castle Age. This unit also gets an upgrade in the fourth age, the Imperial Age, to make it a superunit. The Briton unique unit is the longbowman, which is the game's most powerful archer unit, with great damage and even greater range. Designer Greg Street explains this powerful ranged unit.

"The Briton unique unit is the longbowman. While British archers and crossbows have a great range due to the British bonus, the range of the longbow is tremendous. It is greater in fact than any other unit except for the trebuchet; even fully upgraded towers cannot outrange the longbow. The only downside to the unit is that it does have a minimum range, so if infantry or cavalry close to hand-to-hand distance, the longbowman will be forced to back up in order to do damage. It is quite impressive to see a group of fully upgraded longbowmen firing flaming arrows over trees or walls to hit enemy units or buildings from halfway across the screen." - Greg Street

Next: The stables