[Anonymous Player]

What is your opinion on the optimal civilization combination for a 4v4 Arena and Blindfold game?

I believe that two Half-Soul civilizations and two Paladin civilizations would be the best choice for this scenario.

[Futuralis]

# TL;DR: the pros’ choice on BF is: Britons / Celts / Spanish / [ either Mongols or Bohemians]

Let’s look at the pros’ opinions.

Not the S-tier RM pros, but those who did best in the latest 4v4 BF tournament, [Rage Forest 3](https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Rage_Forest/3).

We should analyze the civ picks for game 5, because only on game 5 the pros got to pick the best possible combos of 4 different civs (explanation at end ^(12).) We can assume the civ picks for game 5 were steered by the pro captain of every team.

## RF3 G5 picks

The 3 sets that went to a game 5 featured these picks:

* Bohemians / Spanish / Celts / Lithuanians (won game 5, team Villese, finished 2nd)
* Chinese / Spanish / Celts / Britons (lost game 5, team Tatoh, finished 4th)
* Bohemians / Celts / Spanish / Britons (won game 5, team Barles, finished 1st)
* Mongols / Spanish / Celts / Britons (lost game 5, team Valas, finished 3rd after losing SF vs Barles)
* Mongols / Spanish / Celts / Britons (won game 5, team Valas again)
* Bohemians / Mongols / Celts / Britons (lost game 5, team Modri)

Team Valas has two sets going to game 5, defeating team Modri and later losing to eventual winners team Barles.

## RF3 G5 analysis

Let’s tabulate the results here for clarity:

|Civ|Pick rate|Flank/pocket|Notable bonuses|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Celts|6/6|Pocket|SO|
|Spanish|5/6|Pocket|Trade, paladin, conq|
|Britons|5/6|Flank|Eco, ranged units|
|Bohemians|3/6|Flank|Houfnice, trade|
|Mongols|3/6|Either|SO, mangudai|
|Lithuanians|1/6|Flank|Vill fighting|

Edit: Removed civ win rate stat, it is nonsensical when most sets feature a huge overlap of civs between both teams.

###Celts are #1 pocket

We see every team picks a Celts pocket.

Between the strongest SO, a decent eco bonus, and good supporting options like halberdiers, the Celts’ bonuses simply make them the best pocket.

###Spanish are #2 pocket

Spanish was picked as the second pocket 5 out of 6 times for their huge trade bonus, straightforward boom into paladin, and optionally conquistador pressure if the map generation is so open that castle age aggression is called for (unlikely).

### Britons are the #1 flank

Britons have a good boom (sheep bonus, cheap TCs), strong ranged units in both Castle Age and Imperial Age, and a nice team bonus in case the other flank is a bit open and decides to play ranges.

### Bohemians and Mongols contend for #2 flank

Both Bohemians and Mongols got picked 3/6 times, with Bohemians winning 2/3 games and Mongols only 1/3.

While Mongols have greater mobility, in BF terms the civs are quite similar.

Both civs lack a major eco bonus to have a great boom, and both civs want to get into fully upgraded Imperial Age units to shine.

Traditionally, Mongols are seen as a strong BF pocket.

If Celts did not exist, both Mongols and Bohemians could be next in line for the heavy siege pocket role.

One last note, the Bohemians’ trade bonus can be as good as the Spanish one but only if you can afford to keep your markets working at 5x speed.

Therefore, the Spanish bonus is not necessarily better but certainly more consistent.

### Lithuanians are an option

At a pick rate of 1/6, Lithuanians are not very popular.

Their starting bonus of extra food gives them an advantage in vill fighting, though.

If the Lithuanian flank decisively wins the vill fight, they can steer the game into aggression before the other players are fully boomed.

## Conclusions

The pros’ choice is: Britons / Celts / Spanish / [ either Mongols or Bohemians]

These are the most popular civs, and this lineup was chosen by both team Barles (eventual winners) and, twice, by team Valas (3rd place, only team to take team Barles to a game 5).

Team Modri, who were eliminated through a 2-3 loss vs team Valas, also picked 4 out of the best 5 civs but varied by leaving out Spanish.

This opened up the possibility of a Mongols pocket, and the Bohemians flank meant there was still a trade bonus.

All of these teams seem to agree you need the following roles:

* Siege pocket (Celts are the very best, optionally Mongols)

* Mobile pocket (Spanish, optionally Mongols)

* Trade bonus (Spanish, optionally Bohemians)

* Flanks with strong ranged units (Britons are the very best, optionally Mongols or Bohemians)

If you are going to vary your picks with civs outside the top 5, it is a good idea to pick replacement civs that either fit the same role or counter this established meta.

Attempting the latter might not be the pros’ choice but it can certainly lead to interesting games.

## What did the pros not pick instead?

* Good [fish] boom civs

Japanese, Malay, Burgundians, and Cumans all have great booms that are more or less dependent on having a pond to fish in.

However, you cannot expect to have a pond.

None of these civs are late game powerhouses, either, unlike all the most popular civs.

* Good mid-game civs

Even on the Rage Forest 3 map script^(2), early aggression was not the norm.

You can deviate from the meta by applying pressure if you can, but late game is king.

Really, mid-game pressure on BF is more suited to playing with random civs.

Then, one team might simply have far better late game options, forcing the other team to try and win the game before it gets to that point.

* Bohemians.

Going into the tournament, Bohemians were seen as a major force among the BF community.

However, their overall win rate was only 9/16, without any games that saw Bohemians played on both sides.

Afterwards, some pros, e.g., Modri, admitted that Bohemians’ performance was underwhelming.

At the same time, they speculated that Bohemians are still one of the best civs and their underperformance might be due to variance instead.

## Disclaimer

Small sample size.

Ask a pro like Barles, Villese, Valas, Modri, Tatoh, or Slam for more and better insight into the pros’ choices.

### Footnotes

^(1) The Rage Forest sets featured a draft for games 1-4 then on game 5 both teams got free hidden pick.

^(2) The Rage Forest 3 map script was slightly different from ladder.

The difference in total ponds per team was max. 2 and the passages on the flanks were occasionally wider and expensive to full-wall.

[Tsu_NilPferD]

[https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Rage_Forest/3](https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Rage_Forest/3)

Look at game 5 here, it’s free pick.

(Before Dynasties of India Expansion)

[crazyyoco]

Arena is a bit diffreant than BF.

Great flank civs on arena are Poles ( tower rush into castle drop and imp), Portugese ( fast castle drop, that cant really be stopped becuse flanks are very close to each other), Turks and maybe some good monk rush civ Bengalis comt to mind.

You need to be aggresive as flank becuse otherwise their flank can castle drop you to make you react and after that just vo topocket toslow him down as well and give his own pocket free boom and then you die.

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