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The Slavs are an offense-oriented civilization that features strong infantry and cheap siege units.
Strengths[]
The Slavs excel at fielding powerful infantry, as their infantry benefits from full blacksmith upgrades, free Supplies and Gambesons, and the unique technology Druzhina. Druzhina gives infantry the ability to damage nearby units in an area with trample damage, similar to the Byzantine Cataphract with Logistica. This makes massed Slavic infantry formidable and deadly, especially when defending their cheap siege units.
The Slavs' farmers work 15% faster, allowing them to produce food much faster than other civilizations, especially during the mid-game. This gives them a great Knight rush, while also further boosting their great infantry. They possess all economic upgrades except Stone Shaft Mining and Guilds.
On top of their strong Knights, they also have fully upgraded Hussars and a unique cavalry unit, the Boyar. The Boyar is a strong mounted melee unit that can be used to annihilate lesser infantry and cavalry units. They are mobile, and have high amounts of armor and damage, but are vulnerable to ranged units and expensive to produce.
The Slavic team bonus allows the Barracks, Archery Range, Stable, and Siege Workshop to provide five population. This bonus is useful for rushing because it allows population space to be built up quickly.
Units from a Slav Siege Workshop receive a 15% discount, making them much easier to create and mass up. They also have strong Monks, thanks to a civilization bonus giving them a 20% boost to their movement speed, and they have access to every technology except Fervor, which their bonus more than compensates for.
The second Slav unique technology is Detinets, which lets them build and repair Castles and Towers for a lower stone cost, in exchange for wood.
Weaknesses[]
Even with Detinets, the Slavs have weak defensive structures. They lack many technologies that benefit buildings, such as Architecture and Heated Shot. Their towers are mediocre because of a lack of the Keep upgrade, and they cannot build Bombard Towers.
Slavic archers are very weak, as Slavs cannot research the Arbalester, Bracer, and Thumb Ring upgrades. They also lack an economic bonus that helps their archers.
Their economic bonus, while strong, only activates during the mid-game, so the Slavs are vulnerable to early-game aggression.
Strategy[]
The Slavs perform various strategies effectively, thanks to their 15% faster farmers and wood saved from building fewer houses.
The Slavic Feudal Rush (flush) is above average, due to free Supplies and Barracks that raise population capacity by five. Clicking up to Feudal Age on twenty-two population (typically with twenty-one villagers) and building two Barracks is recommended. Depending on how starting resources are positioned, a Slav player may be able to skip building a Mill and 4 houses and build a Barracks and a house with the initial wood instead in the Dark Age.
Strategies in the Castle Age become significantly more diverse due to a discount on Siege Workshop units, their Monk bonus, and their very strong farming bonus. A Knight rush immediately after advancing to the Castle Age is a very strong strategy thanks to the faster working farmers. A Slav player can also continue to invest in infantry to continue Feudal Age aggression. Monks and Mangonels are strong additions to any Slavic army, as Monks can convert threatening enemies and Mangonels are fantastic anti-archer tools. If the enemy player is fielding infantry or cavalry, the Boyar is an excellent choice because of its stellar melee defenses and serves as a great anti-Knight counter.
In the early-to-mid Imperial Age, the strategy is determined by what tactic was chosen in the Castle Age. The Slav's best late-game power unit is the Siege Onager, with the Heavy Scorpion as a viable alternative if the player wants to use melee gold units. While Druzhina Champions and Elite Boyars are both powerful, the Slavs have poor ranged options outside of siege, so a melee-based army will be gold-heavy, especially with Boyars. Unfortunately, switching from Knight to infantry and siege can be punished by an opponent who can properly exploit this transition. Halberdiers and Hussars are both great units and should be used extensively. The former pair great with siege and have great damage potential thanks to Druzhina, while the latter are great raiding units that are even more amassable with the Slav's farming bonus. The Slavs also have an attractive offensive Monk tech tree that can be utilized, and their discounted Castles are great at pressuring areas of the map.
The Slavic navy is poor, missing Bracer, Shipwright, Heavy Demolition Ship, or Elite Cannon Galleon. Their economic bonus is also much better on land maps, as it does not affect Fishing Ships, thus allowing the opponent to close the economic gap.
Strategy changes in The African Kingdoms[]
The brand new Siege Tower unit is cheaper for the Slavs due to their siege cost reduction. This siege unit allows garrisoned foot soldiers inside the tower to overstep walls and has great synergy with the fantastic Slavic infantry.
The Slavic Farming bonus gathering rate, which was bugged until Patch 5.7, is now fixed.
Strategy changes in the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition[]
The Tracking technology was replaced by Supplies (the effect of Tracking is still active), but in the particular case of Slavs, Supplies is free, which greatly improves their Feudal Age Infantry Rush (as Supplies makes the Militia line a bit cheaper). Boyars are now trained faster, and they also have Faith, so their army is better defended against opponent Monks. However, their Farming bonus was nerfed to 10%, greatly hurting their viability.
With update 36906, the Boyar got an extra +1 pierce armor for both standard and elite, negating their previous big weakness against massed archers and defensive structures. Combined with the already high melee armor, this makes them one of the strongest units in the game and able to outclass Knights in several ways. However, their speed was reduced to 1.3, much slower than Knights and thus, an easier target to Monks.
Strategy changes in Lords of the West[]
The Slavs lost Treadmill Crane in update 44725, mostly to balance them in Deathmatches.
The melee armor of Elite Boyar was improved from 6 to 8 in update 50292. At this point, Elite Boyars now consistently beat all Paladins in the game, only being tied with the Lithuanian Paladin with 4 Relics collected, and even defeating Malay and Vietnamese Elite Battle Elephants in one vs one combat (though Malay Battle Elephants can still beat them cost-effectively). It also becomes the unit with the best armor overall in the game, as they have 11/7 armor, making them extremely valuable, especially in team games.
Strategy changes in Dynasties of India[]
Slavs lose Orthodoxy, but gain Detinets instead - a technology that allows them to replace 40% of the stone cost with wood whenever they build towers or Castles, and is available in the Castle Age. As stone is more precious (and harder to accumulate) than wood, this technology allows one to build more Castles faster than the opponents, securing precious resources or using them offensively. The (potentially) higher number of Castles indirectly makes Boyars easier to mass.
In update 81058, the Slavs gain several improvements, starting with the new Gambesons technology given for free, making the use of their Militia-line useful in the Castle Age. Also, the Druzhina food cost was lowered from 1,200 to 900. In addition, the Boyar cost was adjusted from 50 food, 80 gold to 60 food, 70 gold, so is better to use in the late game when gold becomes scarce.
Strategy changes in Return of Rome[]
With update 87863, the Slavs lose access to Fervor, but gain a new bonus; Monks move 20% faster, which is a better bonus than the Fervor technology and makes the Slavic Monks the fastest in the game.
Strategy changes in The Mountain Royals[]
With update 95810, the Slavs had their farming nerf reverted, restoring their boom to pre-Definitive Edition standards.
Alliances[]
The Slavs perform quite well in any map position in team games, but are favored in the pocket position thanks to their Knight rush. They can go either for Knights and Boyars or infantry as melee options, or siege as late-game ranged options. The Slavic team bonus is great for any civilization (except the Huns), but is most useful for aggressive civilizations.
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Chinese: They give Slav farms 10% food from the team bonus, and the faster Slav farming rate takes full advantage of this extra food. The Chinese also specialize in archers, which have good synergy with Slavic Knights.
Goths: Their bonus boosts the work speed of Slavic Barracks by 20%, while the Slavs' team bonus gives the Goths extra population space.
Koreans: The Korean team bonus buffs Slavic Siege Onagers, and the Slavic team bonus aids the Koreans solid aggressive options. The Koreans also specialize in archers and naval units, which the Slavs lack, and the Slavs in return cover the Koreans' weak cavalry and Monastery.- Khmer: A Khmer ally gives the Slav Scorpion line +1 range, giving the Slavs access to cheap, long-range Heavy Scorpions. Both of these civilizations have similar playstyles, focusing on economy and Knights from a safe position (Slavs can use infantry but they have subpar synergy with Knights), so this combination is not recommended when they do not have protection, either from the map of allies.
- Teutons: The Teutons may be considered as a great defensive partner for a Slav player, thanks to their anti-conversion team bonus. As with the Khmer, both civilizations focus on economic playstyles.
Compared advantages and disadvantages[]
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Advantages vs other civilizations[]
- The Boyar crushes most melee units with its high attack and melee armor, and therefore civilizations reliant on infantry or cavalry may struggle against them. Boyars are also a good response against the Bulgarian Konnik in its two versions because of the Boyar's high melee armor.
- The Slavs possess a strong economy with a bonus to population via military buildings, so civilizations that are susceptible to early-game raids may find it difficult to respond. This is especially true on open maps like Arabia, and if starting from the Dark Age.
- Slavic Monks have nearly all upgrades, so they perform well against civilizations whom have slow-moving, non-ranged units (like the Battle Elephant).
- Any cavalry-centered civilization will find it much harder to fight Slavic Halberdiers when fielded en-masse after Druzhina is researched, as their Halberdiers will deal trample damage to surrounding units. This also gives the Slavs a slight advantage in "trash unit" wars.
- The Slavic Champions also benefit from the Druzhina tech, giving them a considerable advantage in large, hectic, mass-unit battles. Any civilizations that rely on quantity over quality of troops or high-quality trash units will find difficulty against them.
- Civilizations with poor defensive capabilities will fold more easily due to the cheaply-produced Slavic siege lines; the mass-produced siege may even overcome civilizations with strong defenses. Slavic Onagers and Rams pose substantial threats to civilizations that rely on archers, and Slavic Scorpions can decimate civilizations that field huge numbers of units.
Disadvantages vs other civilizations[]
- The Boyar has slow movement speed (for cavalry) and is expensive. Civilizations can field monks to capitalize on this. They are also susceptible to any civilization with strong anti-cavalry capabilities, and fall easily to the Italians' Genoese Crossbowman, Incan Kamayuks, and even the Japanese Samurai and Persian War Elephants with their high melee attacks. Camel units in general are also a threat.
- The Slavs' gunpowder units only include the Petard, Cannon Galleon, and Demolition Ship, and therefore fare poorly late-game against civilizations with strong late-games (like the Turks, Portuguese, and Spanish), or civilizations with Bombard Cannons or Hand Cannoneers. This disadvantage can also be exploited in closed maps like Black Forest, as civilizations can rush to the Imperial Age after stopping rushes with early-game walls.
- Slavic archers are mediocre at best, as they lack important upgrades like Bracer, Thumb Ring, and Arbalest.
- The Slavs do not receive the Architecture, Bracer, Keep, and Arrowslits techs. Any civilization with robust anti-building units or siege can destroy Slavic buildings with ease.
- In seige-vs-siege battles, the Slavs may encounter difficulty against civilizations with buffed siege. Civilizations with decent light cavalry or specialized anti-siege units can tear apart Slavic siege.
- The Druzhina tech is costly and only available in the Imperial Age; Slavic infantry may dissolve against other early-game infantry civilizations. Archer-focused civilizations still counter Slavic infantry. Byzantine Cataphracts still threaten Slavic infantry in large-scale battles even after researching Druzhina, as the Cataphracts also deal trample damage after researching Logistica.
- The Slavs' reliance on both Monks and siege makes them inherently weak to civilizations with decent light cavalry or Eagle Warriors.
Situational advantages[]
- The Slavs are advantageous on the Fortress map because players start with a Barracks (providing an extra 5 population space for them and their allies) and Farms (instead of sheep or boars).
- The Slavs can perform well on the Black Forest map, as their cheaper Onagers enable them to cut paths through the forest to unsuspecting enemies.
