The Berbers are a cavalry-oriented civilization with well-rounded mounted units. They benefit from 15% cheaper Stable units starting in the Castle Age and 20% cheaper in the Imperial Age and their Villagers and ships have a 10% movement bonus.
The Genitour and Camel Archer are the Berber unique units and are mounted anti-archer and anti-cavalry archer units, respectively. The Kasbah tech makes allied Castles work 25% faster, and the Maghrabi Camels tech grants minor health regeneration to Berber Camels.
As a team bonus, any player allied with a Berber player can produce Genitours at their Archery Range.
Strengths
The Berbers excel against cavalry and archery civilizations, most notably the Mongols and Huns. Their unique units and techs can counter the majority, if not all of, the units that Hun and Mongol players rely on. Both unique units can be used to defeat Mangudai and Hun/Mongol Cavalry Archers and their regenerative Camels can fight Mongolian Hussar and Hun Paladins/Tarkans. They lack Paladins, but have extremely cheap Hussars and Cavaliers to fight Mongol Archers. With Bombard Cannons they can out-range Hun and Mongol siege weapons.
Faster Fishing Ships and Villagers means a better economy to support a larger, more advanced army. When necessary, the faster Villagers can also be used to scout for boars and surrounding resources with less gathering downtime.
The Berbers have one of the most powerful Castle Age Knight rushes in the game due to their 15% reduced cost. Their Camels and Hussar are also affected by this bonus and are backed up by full upgrades, giving a powerful advantage against other cavalry civs. Notably, the Berber Hussar line is cheaper than the Magyars, allowing the Berbers to go toe-to-toe effectively in "trash unit" wars. This Stable discount eclipses those of other civs while also affecting more units, and is not to be underestimated.
Aside from lacking the Arbalest and Parthian Tactics upgrades, the Berbers have a fully-upgraded Archery Range.
Faster ships also allow the Berbers to respond to naval attacks quickly, and they posses a solid naval tech tree, despite lacking Shipwright.
Weaknesses
The Berbers are comparatively vulnerable on defense, lacking the Keep and Architecture upgrades. They lack Halberdiers, making Camels essential. Siege Onager and Siege Rams are absent from their siege lines, meaning Bombard Cannons and Heavy Scorpions will be the main siege units of choice. Cavalry Archers will be less useful in the Imperial Age, as they lack Parthian Tactics, and are generally made obsolete by the better Camel Archer counterpart (This assumes that wood is not an issue, as both the unit itself and its elite upgrade will be more wood-intensive). Without Shipwright, Ships will be more expensive and thus harder to mass.
The Berbers may be weakest to infantry-heavy civilizations, especially the Goths. The cheap Huskarl/Halberdier flood from a Goth player will make short work of the main line of Berber Heavy Camels, Camel Archers, and Genitours. Berbers miss out on Arbalest, but do get access to Hand Cannoneers, making this perhaps the Berber's best anti-infantry counter. Conversely, the Berbers are a formidable opponent to any civilization that relies on Cavalry Archers (such as the Mongols and the Huns), thanks to their strong anti-Cavalry Archer capacity with Genitours and Camel Archers.
The Berbers sometimes struggle against the Indians, due to the Indians' superior Imperial Camels and Hand Cannoneers inflicting misery on the Berbers' Skirmishers.
Strategy
The Berbers are a versatile civilization in many strategies and on all kinds of maps and are able to boom and rush effectively. Early in the game, their villager speed bonus gives them a small economic edge as they can save time when retrieving resources or when moving between resources. This bonus also helps heavily when performing a Feudal Age or Tower rush as the Villagers will reach the enemy towns earlier in order to create forward military structures like the Barracks or Watch Towers. Their Villager bonus also helps defensively, as they will have a better chance to escape from enemy military units. The first unique unit of the Berbers is the Genitour, which is built at the Archery Range. The Genitour is a mounted Skirmisher with slightly less range, but more health, speed, and attack. Just like the skirmisher, it only costs food and wood. Since the Genitour is mounted, it receives +20 hitpoints from Bloodlines, giving it a considerably larger health pool than its cousin, the Elite Skirmisher.
The Camel Archer is the unique unit of the Berbers from the castle and is a Cavalry Archer that has a bonus against other Cavalry Archers. This includes the War Wagon, the Elephant Archer and the Mangudai, making it a formidable counter unit. Its stats compare well to the standard Cavalry Archer, meaning it can be fielded more readily without knowing what an opponent is making. At the same time, it is an excellent harassment unit, and can be used for raids like any other Cavalry Archer.
With a Heavy Camel/Camel Archer combo they arguably can counter the typical Hussar/Cavalry Archer tactic employed by civilizations such as the Turks, Mongols, Huns, and Magyars. This combination, however, performs less effectively in a regular raid than those civilizations. Their two unique technologies benefit the Heavy Camel/Camel Archer combo, as Kasbah will improve the Camel Archer creation speed while Maghrabi Camels will give both units slight health regeneration, thus prolonging the lifespan of the Berbers' camelry. Kasbah also enables to the Berbers to create Petards and Trebuchets faster, enabling the petard-spamming tactic and making Castle drops more effective.
On water maps, the Berbers have an advantage early-game but may struggle a little in the late game. Proper scouting and prevention of other civilizations' naval buildups are crucial in early to mid-game to maximize the Berbers' naval presence and protect their excellent naval economy. Since the Ship speed bonus applies to all naval units, fishing ships and trade cogs will move more quickly between resources and the Berbers enjoy having a tactical speed advantage over opposing navies. Hit-and-run tactics work particularly well. As an added bonus, their transport ships will reach the land faster to unload troops.
Alliances
The Berbers are formidable allies in most kinds of maps and in a wide variety of situations, thanks to their unique technology Kasbah and their team bonus that allows Genitour to be built at all allied Archery Ranges. Kasbah enables allied players to produce their unique units faster along with their petards and trebuchets, so it is advisable for a team that includes Berbers to make the Berber player their spring in order to research this technology early. It stacks with the Ethiopian technology Royal Heirs, making the Shotel Warrior the unique unit with the fastest creation speed in the game. Kasbah has a natural synergy with the Turkish team bonus, faster gunpowder unit creation. Considering that the Spanish Conquistador, the Turkish Janissary, and the Portuguese Organ Gun are gunpowder units created at the castle, a team including Turks, Berbers, and Spanish/Portuguese is a dangerous combination.
The Berbers' Genitour is a great addition for many allied civilizations, especially the ones with civ bonuses and technologies that benefit the unit:
- Aztecs: Genitours are created 15% faster and benefit from the Atlatl upgrade (+1 range and attack). They are the only mounted unit naturally available to the Aztecs without conversion.
- Huns: Genitours are 15% cheaper in the Castle Age and 20% cheaper in the Imperial Age. They work better in conjunction with the Hun cavalry than the slower skirmishers.
- Mongols: Genitours fire 20% faster and benefit from the almost full mounted archer tech tree (only lacking Ring Archer Armor). They work better in conjunction with the fast Mongol cavalry than the slower skirmishers.
- Saracens: Genitours gain +3 damage against buildings and can serve a supporting function in raids. They also benefit from the full mounted archer tech tree.
- Turks: A fully upgraded Turkish Elite Genitour will receive +20 hitpoints, +1 armor, and +2 pierce armor when compared to that of the Berbers. As a Trash Unit it ties in very well with the heavily gold-reliant Turkish army.
- Vietnamese: Genitours receive extra hit-points for each age researched, can amass quickly with free Conscription, and benefit from the full mounted archer tech tree.
A team containing Berbers and Magyars will have arguably the best and more diverse trash unit army, as they will have Genitours from both players, cheaper regular Hussars, and Magyar Huszars. Having Britons and Berbers on the same team will help that team to spam Archers faster, including the Genitour. A Vietnamese teammate also grants Berbers Imperial Skirmishers and gold bankroll from Paper Money in exchange for hardier Genitours and Kasbah to mass-produce Rattan Archers at lightning speed, hence also a nightmarish pair of "trashers" for their opponents.
Berbers benefit greatly from team bonuses that improve their Cavalry and Camels. Having a Indian ally (+6 Camel attack versus buildings) will further the already cheaper and versatile Camels and Camel Archers. Having a Hun ally (+20% faster stables) will further the creation speed from Stable units that, in the Berbers case, are already cheaper.
On water maps, having a Viking ally (-15% Dock cost) can help with taking the water in early game. The Berbers also make a good synergy with the Japanese (+2 Galley line of sight), making the Berbers' Galleys excellent scouts with their faster speed. The Spanish bonus (+33% Gold from trade) applies to the Trade Cog, so the faster Berber trade cogs will generate gold even faster. The Malay also grant Berber players far-sighted docks for them to build up solid coastal defense, in exchange for Kasbah technology to spam Karambit Warriors at lightning speed and Genitours to back their infantry swarms with covering javelin fusillades, particularly after Forced Levy has been researched.
Template:Strategies (Age of Empires II)