Age of Empires IV Civilization Tier List

There are eight civilizations for you to pick from in Age of Empires IV. Each civilization has unique technologies, units, and passives that make them different. You’ll have to change your strategy based on the civilization you choose the play and depending on the one you play against during a skirmish. But which are considered the best civilizations in the game? Here’s what we think in our Age of Empires IV Civilization tier list.

Age of Empires IV Civilization tier list

You can choose to play as the Abbasid Dynasty, Chinese, Delhi Sultanate, English, French, Holy Roman Empire, Mongols, and the Rus. Here is where we think they rank compared to each other.

For the S-tier, the Mongols and Rus hit the top of the list. These two civilizations are mighty, and they’re unique to the Age of Empires formula. The Mongols start with the maximum population available; they don’t have to worry about houses. Then, depending on their current strategy, they can pick up and move their base of operations where they need to be, moving closer to the enemy or further away. They’re very flexible, turning them into a deadly blade that cuts through the map.

The Rus lean heavily into their hunting nature, and they can very effectively hold down a siege with their Springald Emplacements.

Moving on to the A-tier, we have the English and the French. The English are a standard civilization that feels very well-rounded for most players. We bumped them up in our tier list because they felt like the classic Age of Empires gameplay experience. They have solid bonuses that make food manufacturing simple, and their Longbowman unit is exceptionally good at cutting down units from afar.

The French are also highly effective with the best overall bonuses in the game, and they’re pretty easy to pick up and play. The civilization’s cavalry units are also excellent at flanking against multiple melee units, causing chaos on the battlefield.

In the B-tier, we have the Abbasid Dynasty and the Chinese. The Abbasid Dynasty is okay with the ability to receive a Golden Age by building strategic buildings around your civilization’s House of Wisdom. Still, it can easily cluster your side of the map and leave you exposed. The civilization’s bonuses are also mediocre, with the unique units, the Camel Archer and Camel Rider, being effective at hit-and-run attacks, but other units can do that better.

The Chinese make it much easier to gather up gold, but there are a few problems with using their exclusive unit, the Imperial Officer, such as coordinating them around the map. The civilization has several exclusive units, but you’ll need to take quite a bit of time constructing those landmarks, and it can stutter you against your opponent.

The C-tier is the final tier we’re going to discuss, and it’s made up of the Delhi Sultanate and the Holy Roman Empire. The Delhi Sultanate is an okay faction, but their unique units, the War Elephants, are incredibly costly. They can be countered by multiple units focusing on it or by a strategic wall placement by the enemy. The civilization’s bonuses also partially lean into berry bushes, which are never an excellent late-game bonus because they eventually disappear.

For the Holy Roman Empire, you’ll be able to hide your relics in several locations. Still, if your map or gameplay doesn’t have these, or your opponent takes them first, you’ll lose any potential bonus from capturing this item. It’s a civilization that heavily leans into having a handful of relics, which is not a guaranteed thing to happen.

We’ll be updating this tier list with additional civilizations and balance changes as updates occur in Age of Empires IV.