Strengths
The Burmese are classified as a Monk and Battle Elephant civilisation. To reflect this, they have full Cavalry upgrades (except for Paladin), and their unique technology Howdah gives their Battle Elephants +1/+1 armor. The unique technology Manipur Cavalry not only affects Elephants, but all Cavalry and also the Burmese unique unit, the Arambai, and gives them +6 attack against buildings. Thanks to these technologies, fully upgraded Burmese Elite Battle Elephants can be used as a makeshift Siege Weapons.
Their Monks are also exceptionally strong, with access to all Monastery technologies available (save for Heresy in order to give their Battle Elephants a more fleshed out counter) and they even get a 50% discount on them. Their team bonus also helps their Monks by revealing the locations of all Relics on the map, allowing the Burmese player and their teammates to quickly collect them and have a gold lead in the late game. This is especially useful on Arena maps, where the Burmese can quickly advance to the Castle Age behid the safety of their walls.
Another strength of the Burmese is Infantry. Again, full upgrades are available and the Burmese civilisation bonus of +1 infantry attack per Age further cements their supremacy.
Their economy bonus comes in the form of free Lumber Camp upgrades, giving the Burmese a slight advantage over civilisations without economy bonuses.
The Burmese are very strong on closed maps like Arena and Black Forest. On Arena cheaper monk technologies gives the Burmese a slight edge over their opponents in monk strength. On Black Forest the narrow chokepoints help buff the Arambai's poor 20% accuracy. On both maps the Burmese can boom behind the safety of their walls.
Weaknesses
The most glaring weakness of the Burmese is their abysmal Archery Range. Lacking not only Hand Cannoneer, Arbalest, and Thumb Ring, they also are the only civilisation not to get the Castle Age technology Leather Archer Armor. While lacking Leather Archer Armor isn't a huge deal, since attack upgrades for archers is highly prioritized over armor, this means that the Burmese archers and cavalry archers are essentially glass cannon units and will lose out in a lot of archer vs. archer trades, unless the Burmese take advantage of elevation, meaning that their anti-infantry options are limited to Arambai and their below average Heavy Cavalry Archer with Parthian Tactics. To make up for the lack of the Castle Age armor, the Burmese's free Lumber Camp upgrades can allow the Burmese to do a decent Feudal Age Archer rush in superior numbers, but once the Burmese reach Castle Age, the Burmese should transition to their civilization strengths (such as Battle Elephant, Knight, and Monk rush).
As mentioned before, because the Burmese lack Heresy, their strong Battle Elephants are very prone to conversion, prompting the Burmese player to field anti-Monk units (usually Archers), which are really lacking for the Burmese. That being said, the Burmese have access to fully upgradable Hussars as an anti-Monk option.
Another weak spot is the Burmese mediocre late game navy, lacking both the Fast Fire Ship and Heavy Demolition Ship upgrade, as well as, more crucially, Shipwright. As a result, the Burmese have to rely on Galleons, however this is the war ship most commonly used anyways.
Strategy
Even thought Burmese are an Elephant and monk civilization, they have a great bonus that favors the use of infantry very early on the game. The Burmese are able to perform an infantry rush in the Feudal Age, as the extra attack can prove valuable in the raiding, and they also have full Champion and Halberdier upgrades. The infantry will also retain its value in later ages, considering their increasing attack per age. The extra attack bonus for infantry can be compared with the Aztec Garland Wars technology. For example, the basic militia line units will be stronger for the Burmese in the early stages of the game, but once the Aztecs manage to reach Imperial Age and research their unique technology, an Aztec Champion will have +1 attack over a Burmese one (not to mention their Elite Jaguar Warriors that are impervious against other infantry), but the Burmese spearman line will remain maginally better than the Aztecs, as the Burmese have access to the Halberdier upgrade that gives them a crucial boost in their anti-cavalry and trash-fighting capabilities, whereas the Aztecs don't have this upgrade.
The Burmese also have a strong economy. Their Dark Age will be normal, but once they reach Feudal Age, they will receive the Double-Bit Axe improvement for free, which means they will gather wood faster, and this may help to them to focus more on other resources. Booming with the Burmese is very possible, as they have almost all economic upgrades and the Lumber camp upgrades are free.
Using a fast castle tactic will enable the Burmese to perform a Monk Rush. Monastery technologies are a lot cheaper for the Burmese, meaning that Burmese Monks will be better prepared than other monks when performing this tactic, even if the player is not intending to use the monks offensively. Having cheaper monastery technologies is also highly valuable. For instance: Faith, the most expensive technology at the monastery, will only cost 375 food and 500 gold for them. Faith is very useful when facing the opponents' Monks, and having this improvement at a cheaper price will help to invest that gold and food in troops and cavalry, especially elephants.
Burmese players and their allies will know the locations of all relics since the start of the game, and the gold trickle from relics is highly valuable, also having the consideration that gathering the relics is a victory condition in a standard game. One tactic a Burmese player can use against enemy Monks that helps to achieve a relic victory is to send Scout Cavalry and some supportive Skirmishers or Archers to each relic location they can reach on the map since Feudal Age, and set them on patrolling the areas of the relics. This will make it very difficult for opponent monks to approach the relics. Then the player must advance to the Castle Age as quickly as possible and spam monks to each secured relic location.
In Castle and Imperial Ages, Burmese should start to focus more on cavalry and infantry rather than on monks, and use their monks more for supportive and utility purposes (healing expensive units and converting other enemy's expensive units). Burmese Cavalry (particularly Battle Elephants) are a great tool for a siege, thanks to their unique technology Manipur Cavalry that gives +6 bonus damage against buildings to all melee cavalry and the Arambai. Also, their Battle Elephants can be improved with their second unique technology, Howdah, which gives them more armor, making the Battle Elephant a viable substitute to siege engines (considering also that Battle Elephants already have bonus attack against buildings and defensive structures).
The extra attack for the Burmese infantry will have a lot of value, since they not only get all the infantry upgrades, but will allow them win infantry trades against civilizations like Goths' Huskarl if backed by their Arambai to deal with the Goths' Champions. Their unique unit, the Arambai, is a cavalry archer that deals heavy damage, but with very low accuracy. It can be compared to the Spanish Conquistador: a fast unit that deals a lot of damage with low accuracy, but in the case of the Arambai, those traits are more extreme. The Arambai works a lot better in large numbers and against large numbers of enemy units, as they can deliver volleys of darts.
On water maps, the Burmese should use their free Lumber Camp upgrades to gain an edge on the early game and try a Galley rush. Later on, their navy will be average, lacking important upgrades like Shipwright and Fast Fire Ship, so raiding is very important on those kinds of maps. Otherwise, they should keep their feet dry.
The Burmese's biggest foes will be civilizations with strong-anti cavalry capacity (i.e. Indians' Imperial Camels, though the Burmese can punish them by converting their expensive units such as Elephant Archers; Italian Genoese Crossbowmen, and Saracens' Heavy Camels and Mamelukes with Zealotry upgrade), or civilizations with stronger monk bonuses (i.e. The Aztecs and the Spanish have monk bonuses that are stronger than the Burmese, in addition to them having Heresy), since the former civilizations can decimate the Burmese's Arambai and Battle Elephants, while the latter's strong Monk bonuses, in addition to having Heresy, will cause the Burmese to lose out in monk rush trades. Conversely, the Burmese are a top tier foe against civilizations with less mobile army compositions (such as the Teutons and Vikings) or civilizations that don't have Heresy and are dependent on very expensive units to play properly (such as the Persians, Koreans, and Slavs).
Alliances
Despite being branded as a "Monk and Elephant" civilisation, the Burmese, in reality, are quite versatile, boasting offensively powerful infantry and great religion-based bonuses to rival the Aztecs', a great variety of cavalry (boosted intensely by the Unique Technologies) and a lumber bonus that can assist the Burmese economy. Though they have the worst Archery Range, this plethora of tactical perks allows them to potentially execute both booming and rushing strategies, that may be assisted by the right ally.
An obvious teammate could be an Aztec player, and not only because of their spectacular relic synergy that allows them to discover and abuse Relics' gold. The Aztecs offer great early game possibilities, and rather than executing rushes, they could try a Springboard strategy, helping the Burmese execute a rushing Springboard using superior infantry, or boom up to the Castle or Imperial Age to train cavalry, Elephants and Arambai. Speaking of cavalry, the Huns' bonus can be used at late game, so that the Burmese spam anti-building Elephants or cavalry along with the Huns' Tarkans, all while also using infantry and Cavalry Archers to attack any anti-cavalry units that can harass the Hun or Burmese cavalry. Goths can also be used in a similar way, with their team bonus allowing for potentially terrifying Feudal Age rushes of Burmese and Gothic infantry.
Apart from the Aztecs, the other civilisations with decent Monks/religious bonuses (Slavs, Saracens, Spanish) can exploit the revelation of Relics to rapidly secure most if not, all relics on the map, but probably the best choice of these 3 civilisations would be the Slavs; their team bonus can facilitate Feudal Age infantry rushes by saving time (and wood) built on Houses, whereas the Burmese can constantly tribute lumber to the Slavs in order to plant Farms and exploit their Villagers' improved gather rate.
The Chinese are not an obvious choice, but they can prove to be a surprisingly brilliant ally: the Farm team bonus, combined with the better production of lumber, can allow the Burmese to both save and gain extra resources, saving time and wood, while at the same time a Chinese-Burmese alliance offers a great variety of units that can make the team highly unpredictable. And of course, the Chinese offer awesome ranged units that can make up for the abysmal Burmese Archery Range, whereas the Burmese offer strong infantry and versatile cavalry to increase power projection and harass Villagers and towns.
Another interesting (though more efficient at late game) combination could be an Italian-Burmese alliance. Burmese Condottieri can become alarmingly powerful, thanks to the attack bonus, while Italians offer better archers and gunpowder units, and Burmese make up for the Italians' below average cavalry with their own. Lumber tributes can also be put to good use by the Italians' navy.
Berbers can be used similarly, with Genitours offering the Burmese a spectacular trash game (despite being frail), alongside Hussars with anti-building bonuses and Halberdiers with very high attack. In return, the Burmese will assist the Berbers with their better infantry and their Elephants (that make up for the lack of Siege Rams), whereas the Berber Cavalry Archers will reliably stave off Monks and archers (mounted and foot archers) that can severely harass the Burmese. The Burmese can also exploit their free Lumber Camp upgrades to offer tributes that can be put into good use by the Berbers, especially as navy is concerned, similarly to the Italians' case; for example, they can spam ships at early game in order to flood the enemy's Fishing Ships. Vietnamese also offer Imperial Skirmishers to somewhat offset their bad Skirmishers and the two civs may cover each other's weaknesses, the Vietnamese offering superior ranged units, whereas the Burmese can rush revealed positions with Militia and Spearmen. In general, the Burmese can really cooperate well with all 3 civilisations that offer unique units as team bonuses.
An alliance with the Portuguese can be used for a Monk spam, by coordinating the cheaper Portuguese Monks to acquire relics for the entire team. They also bring at late game their excellent gunpowder units, including Organ Guns, making up for the poor Burmese ranged warfare. It should be noted however, that both Mediterranean civilisations (Italians and Portuguese) will offer a powerful late level game, but not a decent early one.
Unfortunately, the Burmese elite units are vulnerable to Monks, and thus a Teuton-Burmese alliance should also be considered in order to shield Elephants and other vulnerable units, while creating a tough-to-beat bulwark, as the game goes on, of fast and dependable Burmese cavalry, hard hitting Burmese infantry, tough Burmese elephants and Teutonic Knights, supported by Teuton siege and base defences and of course, backed by both sides' Monks.
Template:Strategies (Age of Empires II)