Goths
InfantryTeam Bonus
Barracks work +20% faster
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"The Goths are an infantry civilization with instant Loom, cheaper infantry that scales with age, and the infamous Huskarl that tears through archers."
Civilization Bonuses
- 1
Loom is researched instantly
- 2
Hunters carry +15; hunted animals last +20% longer
- 3
Infantry costs -15/20/25/30% in Dark/Feudal/Castle/
- 4
Infantry +1/+2/+3 attack vs. buildings in Feudal/
- 5
+10 population space in Imperial Age
Unique Units
Unique Technologies
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Other Civilizations
AoE Coach analysis
Context & meta
Goths are the ultimate infantry-flood civilization. Their infantry costs -15/20/25/30% per age — by Imperial Age, Champions and Huskarls are so cheap they can be produced endlessly from multiple Barracks (sped up +20% by their team bonus). They get +10 population in Imperial Age to field even bigger armies, instant Loom, and a strong hunting bonus for a fast early game. Their Huskarl unique unit has enormous pierce armor and tears through archers — the traditional infantry counter. The Goth game plan is simple and terrifying: overwhelm the opponent with a tide of cheap, fast-produced infantry that never stops coming.
History & balance
The Goth infantry discount and Huskarl have defined the civ since Age of Kings as the "infantry spam" archetype. The Definitive Edition tuned Perfusion (their Imperial unique tech, boosting Barracks production speed) and the population bonus to keep the flood strong but counterable. Anarchy (creating Huskarls from Barracks) lets them mass the archer-killer from many buildings. Because Goths trade quantity for quality and have weak defenses, balance has carefully kept their early game mediocre so the flood only comes online in the late game.
In pro play
Goths are a closed-map and team-game specialist, where they can survive to the Imperial Age flood. Pros build many Barracks and pump Huskarls and Champions non-stop — the opponent simply cannot kill them fast enough. The Huskarl flood hard-counters archer civilizations. In 1v1 Arena and team games on Black Forest, the Goth lategame is one of the scariest in the game. The weakness pros must manage is the early game: Goths have no defensive bonuses and weak walls, so they must survive to Imperial before their power spike arrives.
How to counter it
Goths are extremely weak before Imperial Age — their best counter is to end the game early. Pressure them on open maps with cavalry and archers before the flood comes online, exploit their lack of defensive bonuses and good walls. If the game reaches the Imperial flood, the answer is area damage: Onagers and Scorpions are mandatory to wipe the cheap infantry masses faster than they are produced. Hold chokepoints with siege behind walls. Never try to out-mass a Goth — you cannot win an attrition fight against -30% cost infantry with +10 pop. Out-tempo or out-range them instead.