AOE2 Definitive Edition Britons guide: Best units & strategies

One of the most prominent civilizations in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition are the Britons. Here is everything you should know about the best units and strategies for this faction in AOE2.

Based on medieval England, the Britons are a civilization that appears in several campaigns as enemy factions, as well as the main playable civ in the Edward Longshanks campaign. Their prominence in the game since the original AOE2: The Age of Kings release makes them a popular civilization in random maps and multiplayer.

If you’re wanting to try out the Britons in your next match, here are some of the best units and strategies to use in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.

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AOE2 Britons: best units & strategies

Your best bet while playing as the Britons in AOE2 is to focus on ranged units. Training archers at the Archery Range, and Longbowmen later once you are able to build a castle, will provide you with a large advantage when fighting the enemy. 

The reason for this is due to archers being trained faster than other civilizations, as well as them having a higher range and decent accuracy. This makes them incredibly useful as defense units during a siege, as you can pick off enemy infantry from behind the safety of a walled base.

This is also the case with fighting away from your home base. Training a group of swordsmen infantry to accompany your archers will result in a strong offense. When an army of enemy units attack, place a wall of sword infantry between them and your archers to keep them safe. With the combination of both melee and ranged attacks, you’ll stand a good chance against a modest enemy team.

In terms of siege units you’ll want to build a few Trebuchets, which can be acquired in the Imperial Age. These are excellent at long-range attacks on buildings, especially Gates, Town Centers and Castles.

Finally, we’d also recommend setting up a second Town Center in another resource-heavy area. Not only do additional Town Centers cost 50 less wood, but Shepherds also work 25% faster which makes herding cattle incredibly useful to the nearest Town Center or mill. Ideally, this will help you build up a surplus of Food, which can be used to train new units.

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AOE2 Britons weaknesses

Despite the power of their Trebuchets, Britons have fairly weak siege weapons created at the Siege Workshop. You can’t build Bombard Cannons, Siege Onagers, or Siege Rams, meaning attacking an enemy base will be better with melee and ranged infantry units, supported by Trebuchets.

Similarly, we’d also recommend against training cavalry units besides scouts. There are few late-game upgrades for units like Knights, making them quite weak against an equipped foe. Light cavalry will still do their job to scope out the map to find enemies and resources though, so you can still invest in a handful.

Ultimately, your best strategy for playing as the Britons would be to use archers and Trebuchets in your assaults, with infantry supporting to defend these units from any enemy attackers.

And those are our best strategies for using the Britons in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. Be sure to let us know about any other AOE2 strategies that work best for you.