Factions in Age of Empires II

Britons
With the Franks and Celts, the Britons are one of the civilizations belonging to the Western Europe region. Its major strength is in its archeries and long-range military units. Its unique unit, the British Long Bowman, is the unit with the longest firing range in the game.

Byzantines
With the Saracens, Turks and Persians, the Byzantines are one of the civilizations belonging to the Middle Eastern culture. Its major strength is its defense in their buildings and units. Its towers and other [buildings] have more hit points (hp) and stronger in attack. Their unique unit is the Byzantine Cataphract, a heavy cavalry unit that has a bonus against infantry.

Celts
With the Franks, and the Britons, the Celts are one of the civilizations belonging to the West European culture. Its major strength is its infantry units, siege weapons, and speed. They have extra bonus in their buildings and units. The Celtic infantries are 15% faster than their counterpart units in other civilizations. Even more importantly, their siege weapons fire 20% faster. This important attribute means you can destroy other civilizations' buildings 20% faster. Their unique unit is the Woad Raider, the fastest infantry unit which have attack bonus toward siege weapons and archers.

Chinese
With the Japanese and Mongols, the Chinese are one of the civilizations belonging to the East Asian culture. Their major advantage is the cost of development and technology. They start off the games with 6 villagers instead of 3 villagers. It is a more important attribute than it may sound, because it greatly enhances your speed to collect resources, create buildings, and to advance to the Feudal Age. They also incur cheaper cost in researching any technologies. In Feudal Age the cost of research is cheaper by 10%, 15% in Castle Age, and 20% in Imperial Age. Their unique unit is the Chu-ko-Nu, a very powerful archery unit has a very strong attack, for they fire 3 arrows at a time, but shorter range.

When playing Chinese; remember that they're best when emulating other civilization especially in the Conquerors expansion. For example if they were facing Byzantines they could act as Turks by adding more trebuchets against the defense line of Byzantines while guarding the trebuchets with heavy scorpions, arbalests, monks and some light cavalry/heavy camels or both, or if they were facing Britons they could emulate the Mongolian or Hun attacks; while against Persian; they simply employ Heavy Scorpions, Arbalests and heavy camels+light cavalry to handle the enemy. Or if they were facing Saracens they could emulate Britons by putting Arbalests, Chu Ko Nu and Monks on same line to slew heavy camels, elite mamelukes and other Saracens' range units.

Franks
With the Celts and Britons, the Franks are one of the civilizations belonging to the Western European culture. Their major advantage is their Strong Cavalry. The Franks are able to build castles at a 25% discount. It allows them to build the strong unique units and siege weapons, and advance to Imperial Age, faster than other civilizations. All of their cavalry units have 20% more hitpoints; this is their best advantage when the game proceeds to a later stage. Their Paladins (the strongest cavalry units) in Imperial Stage is extraordinarily strong. Interestingly, their unique unit is the Throwing Axeman, a short-range throwing axe attack unit. The Throwing Axeman is a good defense unit. Stacking 8 of them in your castle can be very effective. They are also very good against buildings because of their anti-pierce armor, which makes them resist arrows. A very effective combination is a 15 Throwing Axeman and 25 Paladin army, because you have the tanks/damage dealers (Paladins) then the Throwing Axemen annihilate opponent buildings.

Goths
With the Vikings and Teutons, the Goths are one of the civilizations belonging to the Eastern and Northern European culture. Their major advantage is their Strong Infantry. The Goths are able to build infantries at a cheaper cost. Their unique unit is the Huskarl, a very strong infantry unit. They are very cheap as they do not cost gold, and they are nearly immune to archer units.

Japanese
With the Chinese and Mongols, the Japanese are one of the civilizations belonging to the East Asian culture. Their major advantage is their Strong Infantry. Their unique unit is the Samurai, a speedy infantry unit with extra attack speed.

Mongols
With the Chinese and Japanese, the Mongols are one of the civilizations belonging to the East Asian culture. Their major advantage is their strong and fast Cavalry Archers and the siege weapons. They are good at hunting; they collect food 15% faster by hunting than other civilizations. Their unique unit is the Magundai, a special cavalry archer that runs & shoot faster. They are the best at raiding the town centers of enemies and engage in hit-and-run battles with slower units.

Persians
With the Turks, Saracens and Byzantines, the Persians are one of the civilizations belonging to the Middle Eastern culture. Their major advantage is their strong economy and their strong cavalry. They start the game with 50 more food and wood than other civilizations. The villagers have 15% of work rate. Their knights have +2 attack bonus versus archers. Their unique unit is the War Elephant, a special cavalry unit that is extremely strong. They have a lot of hit points and attack, and their hit is effective to all the enemies surrounding them. But they are very slow and vulnerable to conversion of monks.

Saracens
With the Byzantines, Turks, Persians, the Saracens are one of the civilizations belonging to the Middle Eastern culture. Their major advantage is their stronger Cavalry Archers and the naval units. Their foot archers have +1 attack bonus versus enemy buildings, and cavalry archers +3 bonus. Their war galleys have 2 times attack speed. Therefore, they are a very strong army in destroying buildings using long-range units. Their unique unit is the Mameluke, a special camel unit that throws knives. They are very good against cavalry units but they are very expensive.

Teutons
With the Goths and Vikings, the Teutons are one of the civilizations belonging to the Eastern and Northern European culture. Their major advantage is their economy, defensive technologies, and their extremely strong unique unit. Their towers and town centers have attack bonus, their monks heal your units faster, and their farms cost 33% less. Their unique unit is the Teutonic Knight, arguably the strongest infantry units. They have double as much hp and attack than most other units, and cost almost twice as much too. They are extremely slow but they are almost invulnerable to most attack.

Turks
With the Saracens, Persians and Byzantines, the Turks are one of the civilizations belonging to the Middle Eastern culture. Their major advantage is their cheap and strong gunpowder units. They have discount in researching Chemistry and other gunpowder technologies. Their gunpowder units have 50% more HP. As gunpowder units cost a lot of gold, to compensate, their gold miners are 15% faster. Their unique unit is the Janissary, a special gunpowder units that have no minimum shooting range. They are the only gunpowder units that are available at the Castle Age. Due to their strong gunpowder force, they could easily rise to dominance in later stage of the games. en je moeder

Vikings
With the Teutons and Goths, the Vikings are one of the civilizations belonging to the Eastern and Norther European culture. Their major advantage is their stronger infantry and great naval technologies. All of their warships have 20% training discount. All of their infantry units enjoy 10% more HP at Feudal Age, 15% in Castle Age, 20% in Imperial Age. They are the only civilization which have two unique units (except that in the expansion set the Koreans and the Spanish also have two unique units). Their unique units are the LongBoat, a very powerful warship, and the Berserker, a very powerful infantry unit that regenerates health slowly over time.