Template:Infobox CivilizationThe Khmer are the Southeast Asian civilization based on the Khmer Empire. They are featured in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas as a siege and elephant civilization.
The capital of the Khmer Empire was Angkor, which is among one of the largest pre-industrial cities. At its peak, the city supported one million people. This is reflected by two of their bonuses: Villagers can garrison inside Houses, and they don't need to build certain buildings to unlock other buildings or to advance to the next ages. Like their Persian and Indian neighbors to the West, Khmer Empire were known to employ war elephants widely for both tactical and logistical purpose. To reflect this, their Battle Elephant moves faster and can be upgraded to deal more damage with the Tusk Swords unique technology.
The Khmer Wonder, Angkor Wat
Like their Chinese neighbor to the North, the Khmer Empire were also known to employ ballista technology. Consequently, their Team Bonus increases the range of Scorpions. In addition, Khmer also possess a ballista-carrying unique unit named the Ballista Elephant. Furthermore, the number of missiles fired by both Ballista Elephant and Scorpion can be increased with the Double Crossbow unique technology.
Overview
Khmer are classified as a Siege and Elephant civilization in the game, thanks to their team bonus, their faster Elephants and their two Unique Technologies, that encourage them to exploit 2 different types of Elephants, as well as Scorpions, hinting that they are based on expensive units (somewhat similarly to the Slavs and Teutons, both possessing mighty, brute force units and siege). Their balanced tech tree, however, pushes them towards a jack-of-all-trades/generalist civilization, similarly to the Malians, Byzantines and the Chinese. In fact, they aren't as dependent on mighty, vulnerable-to-conversion (they lack both Heresy and Faith) units as possibly thought.
Khmer is one of most creative and challenging civilizations to play, as their ability to ignore building prerequisites means they do not have to follow standard build orders that every other civilization uses (similar to the Chinese in that regard, whose 6 villager 0 food start force them to play differently). This allows them to play very unpredictably (i.e. a Khmer reaching Feudal Age without a Barracks could still perform an immediate Archer/Scout rush). Their unique ability to garrison houses also offer many new options, such as house-hopping (moving villagers from one house to another to protect them), moving villagers through palisade-house walls, aggressively using villagers in forward bases (tower rush, proxy barracks, castle drop), etc.
This combination of no-building-prerequisites and house-garrison is unlike anything else ever implemented in Age of Empires II. This makes Khmer one of the two most "unconventional" civilizations in the game (the other being Chinese).
Rushing, booming and even turtling (they only lack Bombard Towers and Arrowslits) can be considered, depending on civilization matchup, map settings, default age and alliances. They lack direct economic and early game bonuses, but their Villagers will be safe, as long as Houses are around, and no-requirement means that resources can be diverted away from certain structures towards anything else. One, if bold enough, can even totally ignore Mills or other essential structures. Elephants and Scorpions, among others, offer solid late level power and their balanced tech tree provides a wildly unpredictable army. They operate well with siege civilizations (especially Slavs and Teutons, see strategy section) and ones that provide team bonuses to generic unit lines (e.g. Goths or Huns) and the Chinese. They may struggle against ones with great Monks (Spanish, Aztecs) or great early game.
- Unique unit: Ballista Elephant (siege cavalry)
- Unique technologies: Tusk Swords (Battle Elephants +3 attack), Double Crossbow (Ballista Elephants and Scorpions shoot two projectiles)
Civilization bonuses
- No buildings required to advance to the next Age or to unlock other buildings
- Battle Elephants +15% faster
- Villagers can garrison in Houses
- Team Bonus: Scorpions +1 range
In-game dialogue language
The units speak Khmer, the official language of modern Cambodia. An Austroasiatic language (related to the Vietnamese one), it is one of the few major languages of Mainland Southeast Asia that is non-tonal (along with Malay). It shares similarities with Malay due to Indian and Sanskrit influence, e.g. suosdey (Khmer) and swasti (Malay).
Villagers
- Chah แ แถแแแ - yes (female)
- Bat แแถแ - yes (male)
- Tae neak mean lomdab? แแพแขแแแแแถแแแแแแ? - do you have order?
- Mean kar banhcheatinh? แแถแแแถแแแถแแแถแแ? - have orders?
- Peak ban chea แแแแแถแแแถ? - command?
- Aroun suosdey แขแแปแแแฝแแแแแธ - good morning
- Kniom neung teuw ti nouh แแแแปแแแนแแแ แแธแแแถแ - I will go there
- Ban yol แแถแแแแ - understood
- Troemotrauv แแแแผแแแแแแแแผแ- all right
- Neung chuosachoul - will repair
- Neung bramoul แแนแแแแแแผแ - will gather
- Neung pongrong - will cultivate
- Neung kab chheu แแนแแแถแแแแแธ - will chop down wood
- Neung chik dom th- will dig stones
- Neung sangsang แแนแแแแแ- will construct
Military
- Bat แแถแ - yes
- Peak banh chea แแแแแถแแแถ? - command?
- Bamnng robsa neak? - your wish?
- Kniom neung teuw แแแแปแแแนแแแ - I will go
- Kniom yol แแแแปแแแแ - I understand
- Teuw moukh! แแ แแปแ! - forward!
AI player names
- Barom Reachea I
- Indravarman III
- Jayavarman II
- Jayavarman VII Mahaparamasaugata
- Jayaviravarman
- Ponhea Yat
- Rajendravarman II
- Sangrama
- Suryavarman I
- Suryavarman II Paramavishnuloka
- Udayadityavarman I
- Yasovarman I
Trivia
- Despite the Khmer civilization depicted in Rise of Rajas are based on the Khmer Empire, their depiction in early version of campaign's cutscene erroneously depicting various Khmers (including Suryavarman I) to wearing Siamese (Thai) warrior costumes. this were later fixed in later version.
- However, Suryavarman I depicted in expansion's cover and his in-game unit is still depicted as wearing Siamese clothes.
- If a player picks the Khmer civilization, the bottom left and middle of the navigation bar will show the image of a human face and human-bird creature respectively. The face is based from the statues found in Bayon Temple depicting the face of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion. The human-bird creature is known as Garuda, a mythical creature in Hindu mythology who served as a transport for Hindi god, Krishna. commonly depicted in Angkor reliefs as symbol of power.
- The Garuda also shows similarities to the modern national emblem and monarchy symbol of Thailand.
- Khmer Houses can be compared to Atlantean Manors from Age of Mythology: The Titans; both can garrison Villagers. However, Manors support more population, soldiers can garrison inside and also cost some gold alongside wood.
- They are the only civilization outside most Age of Empires III civilizations (Asian ones, however, need to construct Wonders) that can advance to the next Age without requirements.
- Although Khmer are one of the newest civilizations in Age of Empires II series, they have long been considered as the new potential addition by Ensemble Studio. During the development of The Conquerors expansion, Khmer - along with Tibetans and Koreans - were considered as one of the new factions to represent Far East region. Eventually, the developers picked Koreans because they were impressed with Turtle Ships and attracted by potential sales in South Korea.[1]
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