One of the first choices you will be faced with in a new game of Age of Empires II - Age of Kings (AOK) will be your selection of a civilization. While gameplay is well-balanced in AOK, knowing your civilization's strengths and weaknesses will give you an advantage over your competition.

Britons

Unique Unit: Longbowman.

Strengths: The Briton's strength lies in their prowess with the bow. Archers train 20% faster and have a greater range than the other civilizations. Their unique unit, the longbowman, has a greater range than any other archer unit in the game and a troop of them can be a devastating long range attack force.

Weaknesses: The Briton's face some technological disadvantages which can hurt them later in the game. They can not produce gunpowder units or some of the Imperial Age siege weapons.

Tips: Use you archery advantage to the utmost. Place archers on hilltops or in towers to thin enemy ranks long before they reach your units. Build enough skirmish units to provide a barrier for your archers and rely on their superior range to decimate the enemy. Place longbowmen in flank formation whenever possible to concentrate their firepower on the enemy.

Byzantines

Unique Unit: Cataphract.

Strengths: The Byzantine empire is a seafaring one. They have access to all seafaring technology and their fire ships posses more attack points than those of other civilizations. On land, the Byzantines are more of a defensive people, and their buildings have greater strength than those of other civilizations.

Weaknesses: A lack of production bonuses makes the Byzantines inefficient at gathering resources. They are also at a disadvantage in available siege technology.

Tips: Concentrate on harassing enemy production to try to even the resource-gathering playing field. Use your naval advantages to their utmost on maps with water areas.

Celts

Unique Unit: Woad Raider.

Strengths: Celtic infantry units move faster than any other and siege weapons fire at a greater rate. Other than these, Celtic advatages are minimal.

Weaknesses: The Celts suffer from a lack of availability of late game technology.

Tips: Aggression is key to Celtic victory. Use your speed advantage early in the game and pound away at the enemy with raids on his/her production facilities and units. Doing so will slow the enemy's progress to later ages when the tide of technology will turn against you. Later in the game when the Woad Raider becomes available, use this unit's superior rate of attack to swarm the enemy before they can retaliate.

Chinese

Unique Unit: Chu Ko Nu.

Strengths: China's large population base is represented by the fact that it starts the game with three additional villagers. Lower technology costs help the Chinese to advance faster than other civilizations.

Weaknesses: Despite their technological advantage, the Chinese lack gunpowder and siege units in the late game.

Tips: Use your edge in research to advance through the ages rapidly and improve your units. Hit your opponents hard before they can advance to the later ages themselves.

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