Why Poles 'Suddenly' Became Overpowered | AoE2

Edits by K1

00:00 - 01:02 Intro
01:02 - 02:26 Tournament History
02:26 - 04:26 Who Discovered the Strength of the Poles
04:26 - 07:57 What Makes the Poles Overpowered
07:57 - 10:17 Why Didn't the Pros Notice it First
10:17 - Final Talk & Outro

[EaglebeakGaming]

This is why hoang is a genius. He saw celt bonuses and just synergized them perfectly. That's why poles are strong as well. Every civ is strong if you can find a way to synergize their bonuses correctly

[ianlane]

I think Poles are completely underrated as an archer civ. Everyone focuses on the cheap knights, but the food bonus can really turbo you to a fast Imp Arb play. They are better on 1 or TC than any other civ, if instead of making more TCs you keep making folewarks. Their Obuch stripping armor is a phenomenal way to increase the archers DPS. Many archer civs lack options to raid and deal with skirms late game, not an issue with poles winged hussars. They really don't have any of the weak points normal archer civs do. I think Poles should really be played as an archer civ more against civs that are weak to that, it makes them a lot less predictable.

[hoooplah]

I assumed this was made before the nerf but it does look like the pro ban rate was very high in titans league.

---

Seperately I wanted to say that I saw your tweets after the final Hera and just wanted to say that I hope you're not feeling too down with the community and hopefully everyone can come together if you're receiving unacceptable comments.

Although I have in the past found you the sort of player that is fun to root against (more because your dedicatication and huge skill makes nearly every opponent feel like an underdog) I wanted to say that you seem a really nice guy and are very important to the age community. Especially since the Facebook deals I think you've done a lot to step up and keep interest in the whole scene high.

I wish you the best of luck in NAC4 and I look forward to seeing what fun strats you and Dave come up with in Nations Cup.

[pedrocarvalho]

I am an arena player and since the release i make comments in some videos saying that poles were ridiculous op in closed settings. They lack only one important stuff, halbs.
-They have the best boom economy,
- One of the best infantry units (obuch are amazing since archers do not heavy counter them)
- One of best cavalry options (Cav with UT)
- Archer and CA line with full upgraded attack ups.

Farms work as a sort of investment that pay off in time. Forwarks break this mechanism, giving Poles a window in which they are broken.

[EokaBeamer]

Anyone else just enjoying the neat little towns Hera builds for this videos?

[Grin_Nik]

I tried Poles few times, but your truth it's very hard do master. I see how old players playing them, but don't have always success.
My favorite bonus is villagers regenerate HP. A lot profit on Arabia!

[Alobster]

The first time I ever played against poles I got absolutely steamrolled by knights and obuch. I then realized they were part of the expansion that I didn't have. Sad day

[BlueShellshock]

9:37 - I find the concept of 'pros rarely innovating' somewhat novel, but it also makes sense with Hera's point -- it's not unreasonable to think that a pro got caught offguard by something on ladder, but saw the potential of it and adapted it at a higher level.

[paweborkowski]

As a Pole I can confirm we thrive exponentially when not disturbed.
Unfortunately, that's what our neighbours understood as well.

[harold]

What makes them so strong is they got plenty of options in non-water maps, knight rush in castle age then in Imperial we got Obuch + arbalest - such a deadly combo that can easily dominate most of the matchups while you can still spam hussars, cavs and even cannons with all your economy behind.

[jasonsmith]

Another synergy the Poles have is regenerating vils with the Folwark. Farming around the Folwark is more dangerous for the vils, and regenerating vils mitigates that weakness a little. I wouldn't call regenerating vils a strong bonus (it isn't making them OP), but it does synergize and it does help.

[chrisdaley]

Hey Hera, just wanted to say I appreciate the content you make and the level of dedication you show to high level play and the AoE2 community. It can suck when you see too much negativity but I hope you can see the positivity too. Even if you think there are too many haters, there are definitely still a lot of us that love what you do. =]

[mengyang]

Love this breakdown Hera =). Would personally love to see a follow-up video on how you recommend fighting them as archer civ or knight civ / windows of opportunity etc, in absence of nerf. I got wrecked the first time facing them as archer civ as they laid towers everywhere and I flailed around with siege only to get wrecked by the knight spam.

[ggg]

As someone who likes to always go against the meta and try to break it, I'll tell you I've learned very quickly that this isn't really the path to success. Even if you discover something really cool, it won't stay unique very long. Someone else who's actually invested their time into getting good at the game will just take the strat and perfect in a few days or you'll find out what you discovered isn't really all that new, etc. But that's always been cool with me. This is just how I like to play and I'm comfortable with my elo (1100-ish). Just trying out new things is more fun to me than trying to climb the ladder.

[CG-ehoe]

Didnt learn too much new stuff here but HELL YOUR EDITING IS AWESOME! Pretty much every frame is not only fitting as a visualization, but also pretty beautiful.

[ORy]

I discovered their potential very soon after relese and have fallen in love with the civ instantly. I play mostly team games and closed maps like Arena or BF and everything you said is true in my experience :) also had some 3v3 arabia as pocket and the cheap knight spam worked wonders

[injest]

It's an interesting point you make that the people who optimise a system and the people who come up with totally new systems are different. You also point out that those who optimise the system usually get the credit.
I think the same can be said for other things in life.

[footsy]

I've learned more about aoe from Hera than everyone else put together. thanks

[GMoDiLLa]

I think the only thing said wrong was when you said they mine 650 stone they get 325 gold but if it’s 33% instead of 50% after the nerf it would then be about 215 gold. Love the videos thanks Hera!

[dixiepop]

Could you start organising your new videos on your gameplay channel into playlists by the civ you are playing? I think that's what survivalist is doing on his channel and I find that to be very helpful. When I want to see how a civ I am currently practicing plays out at higher levels I can just check out a playlist and have multiple samples of high level gameplay, and don't have to look for each video manually