Through the Ages: Chinese and Britons (AoE2)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Part nine of a mini-series looking back at the changes made to the original civilizations in Age of Kings. The focus this time is on Chinese and Britons.
0:35 Chinese in Age of Kings
2:15 Conquerors Expansion (2000)
3:43 The Forgotten (2013)
4:38 The curious case of the Chinese win rate
6:10 Definitive Edition (2019)
8:45 Britons in Age of Kings
10:35 Conquerors Expansion (2000)
11:15 The Forgotten (2013)
11:48 Definitive Edition (2019)
King of the Desert 4 win rate data: docs.google.co...
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Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsou...
Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition
I'd like to see the Conquerors civs too
Video was released 33 mins ago, how ur comment is 20 hrs ago ?
@@Ahmed_Malrogi.750 pre-release for supporters maybe?
He did mayans and aztec before iirc
@@Ahmed_Malrogi.750 Patreon supporters get early access
Yes plzzzz
several of the designers were pro-British and played British a LOT. The reason we were forced to remove the minimum range on longbowmen was the result of a couple playtests in which melee-armed units got in close on groups of longbowmen and massacred them while they tried to re-position themselves to shoot. The pro-British designers basically went on strike till me and the Sheriff removed the minimum range. We did sneak in some other nerfs on Britons to try to make up for this boost.
What kind of nerfs did you sneak in?
The man, the myth, the legend himself
Goated comment tbh
I saw the "we" and went "huh?"
The man Sandy Petersen HIMSELF commenting? Congrats Spirit, and thank you for the insight.
@@FloosWorld_AoE It's been over two decades. I can't remember all of them. I know we fiddled with price and hit points. But kept them long range.
When I said it was a "major screw to have 6 villagers" I meant that it was a colossal advantage to the Chinese. Honest.
ah major screw to the opponents as in
*Notes
1) 1:34 The Chu Ko Nu having +0 against buildings isn't actually strange at all. It's been pointed out to me that ALL archers have +0 to make the Saracen team bonus work.
2) 5:40 The graph for 2400+ elo should say 2nd, not 1st. They jump around between #4 and #1 depending on the time frame you look at, but the overall pattern holds in any time period.
the Moment you were talking about the +0 Damage Hidden Bonus I scrolled down, and I found exactly what I assumed I'd find :D
Pin this comment pls.
Same as knights +0 against archers for the persian bonus, I was equally surprised the first time I played around with the genie editor
Where is bengalis Overview
I would love to see Chinese gets revamp like Indians. We know during the AoE2 time fram there are multiple Dynasties that some
co-existed as shown in the Genghis Khan campaign. There is also Ming Dynasty that defeat the Mongols and appear in Korea campaign, and they are famous for gun powder and Navy.
we were always running kind of scared watching the Chinese in Age 2 because the Shang in Age 1 had been so unbalanced at top levels of play. We tried to fix them with the Conquerors and I think partly succeeded.
dude thank you for sharing all these insights!!!
You’re a man of the people SOTL. Too many people focus only on the high level plays/players. Love that you take everyone into account ❤
Which is also why I like AoE II and dislike AoE IV. It offers very little for us casuals and seems like it was made for the few people playing it competitively..
Don’t forget the Chu Ko Nu’s buff thanks to DE changing how bonus damage works for garrisoned archers. One of the most, if not _the_ most, dangerous garrison unit in the game.
When I play michi, I always tell my teammates to make bombard towers 😆
They almost never do btw 😔
but its historically acurate since chukonus usually used for defensive weapon, when on offensive they prefer a traditional bows
China buying the world and its showing in AoE2
The Britons were my first love when I played aoe2 as a kid, and the Chinese are my wife's favorite civilization to play now! Couldn't ask for a better pairing for this episode.
Your wife’s 2400+?
I used to love Britons, till I encountered the ongers, after that, I've swapped to a more diverse playstyle.
When I had only the demo version of AoK, the fun was to convert as many longbowmans as possible in the William Wallace campaign 🤩 Then with the full version I loved the Chinese castle
@@edwardblom2661 IQ? Probably! ELO? She's cardboard tier lmao
@@gherlwinfireson8582 Holy shit dude, I LOVED the East Asian castle as a kid. I used to call it a "hotel" because it didn't look like any castle I'd ever seen before, and I was always so jealous that I couldn't build one as the Britons... could've just changed civs, of course, but kids are kids.
I played Age 2 back in the early 2000s as a teenager and just came back to it a few years ago in HD and then DE. This video showed me how much influence the community really had on the game over the years. I am glad it´s still going strong and getting better even still.
Pretty sure I watch almost every video of yours when it comes out despite not having played AoE 2 for four years and not planning to even remotely get into it.
So in that sense, excellent job being both knowledgable and extremely entertaining
What happened that u lost interest in the game? Or is it some other reason that had to do with life and not related to aoe
Play it!
@@Achilles75 if I can use my own experience, the more I know about the game the better I expect to play, but it also means I get more frustrated by my own mistakes.
It's that weird spot between "I'm not good enough that I can confidently play competitively the way I wanted to but I'm not bad enough to have fun in casual games stomping actual casual players".
Yeah I know that both these cases are caused by my own mentality but between life, other games and the commitment that a complex game like AoE requires, I'd rather just watch it. I do get on and off every few years though so not ruling out playing it again soon
@@Achilles75 I just never was very into it to begin with. Played a couple of rounds with a friend against the AI
@@l.o.b.2433 Huh i see so u have very little knowledge about the game?But u watch Sotl extensively?
Cannot wait for the conquerors &etc civs, love the series as a commentary /data point on game design.
Ironically the chu ko nu is a niche weapon in China used by palace boys and women for self defence and rely on poison. Their one shot crossbows are some of the best but underlooked
Its low draw power makes for a self defense or hunting weapon. Militarily speaking, it's effective to a certain degree against very lightly armored targets
@@yamao4938 hunting isn’t really allowed for peasants so it was a niche military weapon for specific senarios or self defence PDW
Was there ever any doubt we wanted you to continue this series into every expansion in the game? At this point, we are more than fans. We're addicts and we need our SOTL fix NOW!!!
I really expect the Conquerors civs. I think Koreans deserve a video specially for them considering they had the most broken development cycle in the history of the game.
Yes, finally the Britons! Please continue the series, Spirit!
Koreans would be a nice civ to take a look at, their old onagers were insane
I weep about the range nerf every day, siege onagers actually being able to SIEGE castles with like +3 total range is what made it unique... we don't even have any equivalent.
Make a Through The Ages video on the Dravidians. I wanna see how they changed in the decades they’ve been out.
In today's video, I travelled to 2042 to study the game future twenty years and give you an evolution of the Dravidians.
It may be strange, but to me you are like the Bob Ross of AOE. It's just so much pleasure on hearing your voice 😆
You should then check out his original civ overview for the Mongols.
Really enjoy this series. Release the Conquerors!
Britons did not use thumb ring historically
It's really wild looking back at the game when it first came out and realizing just how drastically different the meta was back then, and how much the game needed to be rebalanced again and again to have what we have today
I absolutely love these videos and would love to see them through all the civs up to the current expansions even.
I think I'd say the Chinese also got an interesting indirect change over the years, at least in terms of the styles of civs. For a long time, Chinese were basically the only civ with a very weird opening. Huns were similar, but for low ELO players the house bonus doesn't really impact your skill. But now, there are a bunch of civs with similarly strange starts - Cumans, Gurjaras, Poles are all significantly different, the Meso civs have the huge difference of no stable, etc. So the Chinese went from being the only weird start, to one of a handful.
_SotL_ videos, gotta love them.
Also, I really wished I could have that outro track as my in-game music for playing AoE.
Yes! Please continue this series.
I think a major and very important change for archer civs was adding the helbadier.
What I (Elo 800) also struggle with Chinese are camels. Somehow they do not work out well. Additionally, Chinese seems to be too open and after teching in to many awesome option, missing ress for units kills me.
Ah, that closing clip of the HD longbows being systematically mowed down by the siege onagers while the paladins pile in amongst the maze of fortified walls is like seeing an old friend again that I haven't seen for a very long time! :D
For the conqurors version, can you go through Koreans with their OG 12 range onagers
When you're that single sub 800 Elo person that doesn't suck playing Chinese.😅
I love these videos! It's fun to be reminded of where civs were at when the game came out, and it's really a testament to how well designed the AoK civs were that they haven't really fundamentally changed.
A Sunday with a SOTL video upload? Nice
There is no joy like watching maxxed Imperial Age Chu Ko Nu or Longbows rain mass arrows on the enemy town.
Age of Kings civs revised: Check
The Conquerors civs revised: Aztecs and Mayans
I wonder which civ(s) will be revised in the series if it's continued. Overall, it's still a good work. I liked it very much.
Huns would be a cool one
Great video as always.
I love when you make a lot of videos
Pls continue the series i love it and it takes me back to being a young kid playing against the AI not really knowing what the hell im doing
7:11 Hey mom I made it to a SotL video! :O
The longbowmen are in an interesting position as unique unit because in AoK the game was really designed to where unique units are powerhouse units. But the longbow wasn't really the best ranged weapon available individually; they were more like the AK-47's of the medieval world in that they are relatively cheap and easy to make but very reliable, easy to repair and maintain, and close enough in power to more expensive weapons. The drawback (pun intended) is the strength required to use them. Which is why the English forced their civilians to train with bows and outlawed other sports.
So yeah, realistically they should be cheaper to produce and slightly weaker than arbalesters, but with a longer training time.
Longbows were not like Ak47s. The required a lifetime of training to use effectively. They were also made from wood that became rare in England (yew) which made them difficult to make. The advantage of crossbows is you could use them effectively with little training. Sort of like an Ak47, if that helps you.
@@EMCF_ I was comparing them to other bows not crossbows. Crossbowmen being the upgrade to bowmen instead of another unit type is also a bit weird in AOE 2, that throws a wrench in my comparison I suppose.
What I meant is that compared to composite recurve bows, longbows were more reliable and easy repair / restring / keep dry but not easier to use as it requires more strength for roughly the same results.
I didn't know about the wood type becoming rare, I suppose they would have stopped using them eventually when that's an issue.
Back in the day Britons were my boys and I still love them!
Keep it coming!!
Yes, would love to see the conquerors! Also the history series is one of my favorites, hope there's another one of those in the near future!
The whole thing with the Chinese being heavily being skill dependent seems oddly historically appropriate, as when the country's in the hands of capable leadership it's OP as fuck but far more often it's in the hands of shit tier rulers making it the punching bag of everyone else...
I would suggest that Chinese have their resource nerf lessened and that they start with fewer villagers, maybe more like 1 villager to start. But would gain two extra villagers at each age.
This means they are less technically challenging to start with, wouldn't be terrible or OP on nomad, but still maintain the character of the civ.
They could also buff Great Wall tech by reducing stone cost, making it more viable to turtle in castle age. Perhaps the tech could also increase wall building speed.
When I was young I would pretty much only play Britons because I was British but also because longbows man
Chinese and Britons; the 2 civs that had to sacrifice historical accuracy for game balance. XD
Crossbow and arbalest upgrades being more expensive hurts a lot in 1v1s with archer civ vs cav civ ( in low elo ). The meta is FC into knight or FC into boom into knight, and it's so much harder to actually do damage in castle age, where you have to prioritize techs more, and essentially just taking worse fights overall.
Some time in DLC the chinese and teutons swapped some of their TC bonuses. Chinese gained the Teuton +5 LoS, while Teutons gained +10 garrison space.
Honestly, I think minimum range on Longbowmen is a pretty good idea, and it would match their historical reality of needing defenses to keep cavalry away in order to be effective.
Longbowmen already are a mediocre UU so there is no need to nerf them more.
@@pax6833 Maybe they could also be given the ability to build palisade walls to compensate?
I hope to see you all in another 24-25 years, hope the game's still alive then 🤣
wait, Sandy Petersen? The same that designed all the Call of Cthulhu RPG books also was an AoE game designer?
Wild
He did some interviews to another channel regarding his experience with aoe design. Pretty nice to hear him!
He also was involved in Doom 1 and 2 as well as Quake
yes yes please keep the serious going
Hey guys, Spirit of the Time travel here
You could devote a whole video to the Indians/Hindustanis.
Thank you!
Franks/Britons/Genoa/SiciliansPortuguese
Crusader (Kite shield+Nasal helm + chainmail) sword and spear infantry,Knights,crossbows, monk, Trebuchet civs. (Britons - Longbow archer skins)
Add some more special units to represent the knightly,chivalric Crusader orders , such as a Templar knight or a Hospitaller knight to the Franks/British/Italian/Sicilians , Templar having the option to convert 1 unit for every charge up and the Hospitaller having the option to heal 1 unit for every charge up.
Templar and Hospitaller knights do extremely little damage to enemy villagers (Right clicking on an enemy villager will either convert the villager (Templar) or heal the villager (Hospitalar) but they gain a +2 attack boost + 25% HP(Or conversion resistance) when within LOS of a Relic or friendly church containing one or more relics..Gains attributes from all monastery techs except Redemption:
Templar + Hospitallers are very weak to siege damage.
Genoa - Only Hospitalars
Franks/Britons/Sicilians - Both Hospitalars & Templars
Portuguese - Only Templars
Or perhaps add these as technologies that can be researched in the Church 'Templar Order' & 'Hospitaller order' that will grant the already existing knights of the British/Franks/Italians/Sicilians/Portuguese these abilities.
(Portuguese only gain access to Templars (Ordem dos Cavaleiros de Cristo))
Messo/SA civs do bonus damage to Templars/Hospitilars so you don’t want to make them when fighting in the New World.
Hospitallar skin
sketchfab.com/3d-models/knight-hospitaller-game-ready-character-animated-31333109719e4457b2052f8b2feb435f
drive.google.com/file/d/1w5KGwMdhM6CxTBHLOhELgrr4PCk4F07N/view?usp=share_link
Templar skin
drive.google.com/file/d/1waT5xjY2vvMSN7RrTcOpub-8PvmGb4s2/view?usp=share_link
drive.google.com/file/d/1FRo0mECvqtnh9Kch42whad-vsQpsKKZ-/view?usp=share_link
The Ayyubids allowed Baldwin IV of Jerusalem to enter Ascalon with his Gaza-based Knights Templar without taking any precautions against a sudden attack. Although the Crusader force consisted of only 375 knights, Saladin hesitated to ambush them because of the presence of highly skilled generals.
Saladin and his men were surprised near Ramla in the battle of Montgisard (possibly at Gezer, also known as Tell Jezar). Before they could form up, the Templar force decimated the Ayyubid army. Initially, Saladin attempted to organise his men into battle order, but as his bodyguards were being killed, he saw that defeat was inevitable and so with a small remnant of his troops mounted a swift camel, riding all the way to the territories of Egypt.
Islamic civs
In turn the Islamic civs:Saracens,Kurds, Turks, Tartars,Afghans, can receive a tech in the mosque called: Jizya tax, for every knightly unit they convert, you receive 10gold in castle age and 20gold in imperial age.
Mediterranean Pirates: Saracens,Kurds,Berbers,Turks: Warships Destroying a full trade cog allows the gold to be looted and added to your stockpile.
Saracens ‘’Counterweights’’ tech gets replaced by a new tech; Arabian horses +10% cavalry speed.
(Cavalry not Camelry)
Yaay! Was looking forward to it. Please continue with the Conquerors civs, it's very interesting! (And maybe Forgotten after?)
He already did two of them, the meso-american civs, so I guess he'll continue ^^
I really like the series and would love to see The Conquerors covered in full as well.
love this series so I´m very happy to hear you´ve started on the next ones!
always great content
Chinese were also considered not so great in the past because of how map scripts worked. The starting 4 sheep used to spawn much further away and not even in vision of TC, so chinese used to perform much worse leading to other civs like azt, maya and huns being prefered.
First time hearing about a planned minimum range for Longbows!
Personally, i'd buff the chinese, adding more hp to walls.
Keep it going.
Yes, there is interest!
Can't wait for the Conquerors' civs, especially the Spanish and the Huns
TCs costing only around 125 wood must've been crazy, on maps like black forest they would be unbeatable with this possible boom
When I was a kid, the Chu Ko Nu was generally considered among my peers to be the best unit in the game, and the reason why Chinese was the best civilization. Only the Britons with their Longbowmen were in the same league. Then I discovered the Huns, and proceeded to wipe the floor with the others for one glorious summer with my combined knights and cavalry archers.
I miss those china nomad years. 😢 instant domination and best feeling when randoming into them
I love this Series, so happy to see this in my Feed today
'Which I havee started already'
It sounds to me like you follow the spirit of the law more than the lett-OOOOOOOOHHH!
"If there's interest" could be considered the most redundant sentence ever said on this channel, considering the knowledge is useless to a not insignificant part of the viewers...
Am I the only one who thiks the original graphics look better than the modern ones. I like the snappyness of the movement.
Didnt the long bowmen get a huge range nerf? I remember as a kid the longbow men having more or same range as trebuchets, but that isnt close to the case anymore
If i were part of their design team, i'd suggest them to transform the starting vills bonus into an unique TC "upgrade" that can only be researched on dark age, and costing 200 food, 50 wood and half the time of making a villager, with that making the bonus entirely optional. But why? Lower elo players get entirely lost because of the bonus, so they could choose to not have the vills and have a better start, meanwhile higher elo players would need to spend some extra time clicking the TC, clicking on the "upgrade" and then waiting for some time so they can get the vills, making their start weaker. This should both buff chinese for low elo and nerf them for high elo.
I love that the Chinese is built as an early to high medieval civ with no gunpowder. I prefer Sword,spear,arrow,axe units in DE2 to gunpowder units.
Historically/Culturally/Regional accurate unit skins NB.
I love the trend of the devs giving us more and more cultural/regional/historical units to each civ with every DLC. From the Eagle warrior,steppe lancers,Battle elephants,Siege elephants, Elephant archers to camels, shrivamshra riders, Inca Slingers and Polish Winghed Hussaria.
I would relish cultural/regional/historical unit skins for the A,B,S units of each civ.
I created my own mod that added Historically accurate skins to all of the civs units but I don't have the time to update the mod after every update.
I would happily pay for a DLC that adds high quality culturally accurate skins to each civ , be it as a purely visible DLC or permanently/systematically implemented via new civ DLCs.
I cant play with A,B,S units when all of them are exclusively 14th century European skins.
I love the Sicilians. Alongside the Franks, Britons and Italians I would love to see them get A,B,S unit skins depicting Norman crusader knights ,with kite shields and nasal helms, ending with Templar/Hospitilar skin champions/Paladins/Halbs.... Deus Vault
I love the Byzantines their history and their culture, especially how they evolved from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire, how their architecture, dress, army and weapons evolved to be a mix of Western Greeks and eastern ME/North African cultures.
And I crave to see it show in game.
How their units evolved from Roman legionaries to curved Paramarion wielding imperial troops.
With all connection to Rome in the west lost, the Eastern Empire utilised more and more soldiers from the region in their Empire. Soldiers from Greece, Anatolia, the Levant, some western parts of Mesopotamia and all across North Africa.
Thus their building material, their architecture and even their army was vastly different from the West because they adopted the effective practices and cultures of the people whom were subject to the Empire.
Thus the Eastern Roman army evolved into the Byzantine Army using lamellar armour coats of scale mail , cuirasses, casques and greaves of steel adopted from Persia.
Their shields evolved from oval auxiliary shields to enlarged round shields and then it evolved further into kyte shields that were highly effective on foot as well as horseback.
Similarly their Swords evolved from the Gladius, to the Spatha and when they encountered the effectiveness of the shamshir of the Persians and kilij of other ME armies, they adopted this eloquent design into their swords thus the spatha gave way to the curved Paramerion sword.
Byzantine swordline:
Militia: Roman legionary; Lorica segmentata + scutum + gladius
Man at arms: Current In game legionnaire; Lorica hamata + oval auxiliary shield + gladius
Long swordman: Scalemale + PX chi rho oval shield + Spatha
THS: Scalemale + kite shield + Spatha
Champion: Scale+chain male + kite shield + curved Paramarion
The African civs, the Messo civs, the ME civs, the Asian civs , the Crusading European civs (Norman Inspired), the non Crusading European civs , the Caucasus civs , the Steppe civs,the Norse/Vikings, the South East Asian civs should all have their own unit skins.
Please give the Chinese and Koreans their own Castle Architecture, the Japanese castle really doesn't do them justice.
Do all the civs. Heck even the HD civs have changed since they were introduced
I love going Britons and trying my "you can't touch me" strategy
50 longbows fully upgraded
2 monks
8 Trebuchets
Units can't get to the trebuchets
Buildings can't take down archers
Monks heal any light damage inflicted.
Repeat build order as many times as you can depending on population.
oy, SOTL, have you got any stats on how much Xbox has increased the number of active players/lobbies/RM games going at one time? I think it would make an interesting video if data can be acquired (also I suspect many Xbox players might migrate to PC in the longer term).
Any chance of bringing the historic analysis an civs and campaigns?
Oh. Whoops. I've been enjoying your content for years and it took to today to realize I was not subscribed. Mistake rectified. Love the analytical but still pleasing-to-watch content. I need a SotL for other games too. Clone yourself and assign your clones to other RTS games, please.
Irl Chinese is a language that’s quite difficult to understand for someone with no proper background. Chinese in AOE2 is harder to master than most other civ. Coincidence maybe? XD
I think this series could go as far as the tail end of HD edition tbh so you could go to Rise of the Rajas and stop there. Though I think at that point you'd have to lump all the new civs in one video to make it worth while.
I'll watch these videos even when it's time to to dynasties of india civs
Oi Spirit! Random comment, but I would love to know with how many villagers I should build a house when I am housed, to make sure my TC idle time / Villager idle time balans is the most efficient. I can't find any video's on it, you ever made one?
Actually having 100% accuracy is a nerf if you have like 20+ archers shooting 1 guy in a crowd. Which was a given reason for them doing it to the Britons. You cannot have an arrow rain on an area if they all hit the same guy. You will actually do more damage if some of them miss and hit people near them.
Of course this only matters if you are overkilling, and they are still pretty accurate if enemy is very close. But if you are max ranging a halberd army, its quite useful.
I think the letter of the law applies here, not the spirit of the law🧐
We need a video to compare game time with real time. For example one year in aoe2 is 2 seconds. A vil is create in 30sec. That's mean that someone is able to work at 15y. It's accurate. A castle is build in x year and in real? A ram destroy a wall in x years...
Thank you. These are always super interesting. I know a still image of a black and white print out isn't super dynamic, but the floating tech tree with the gameplay in the background makes me dizzy
I think that if most of noobs that play MP watch the pro scene, or at least use/try to use BOs, they should focus on pro players for balance..there are lots of factors to spoil a good position plus lose a game that won't concern to balance, so we should keep the professional level balanced at least, we can pick civs that are easier to play, while pros won't gen enough bans/snipes for every civ that is noob proof but op
As a Chinese, I seldom pick the Chinese LOL
I used to play a lot Aoe 2 when I was a kid and did it through my teen years but it was 99 version and I had no idea about the expansion! Until HD version came out! XD
I just rewatched this series, and still thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for the research and documenting the game’s history
I’d love to see the vikings done like this.
I find them bland but like to play them. Archers and monks and cav are all naff.
Definitely do the conquerors civs
I am asimple man, i see sotl vid, I click sotl vid.
I always thought the Britons were weak in Age of Kings due to their huge lack of research upgrades, focusing entirely on Archery
I still think Brittons are too strong. It's my friend's favorite civ, and I only manage to deal with them by picking the Goths. I would like to find another way...
It depends on the map, but Britons are more than beatable and have plenty of weaknesses. In general, you want to use a combo of knights and elite skirmishers against their likely army of crossbows and pikemen. Be aggressive, because their economy is really strong in castle age. Spread your army out and raid different spots in their base, because their army is slow and needs to be kept together in one spot to be effective. And when fighting any archer civ, proactively take fights to keep their army numbers low, because archers can snowball if you let them.
Keep the series "Through the Ages" going! really like it! Thanks SotL. Always awesome work!
Give something to Britons in imperial age
Time to give the Britons Thumb Ring.
As expected, their archer units are still a bane on civs fighting against them. Also a blessing on civs fighting with them.
Noooooooo, Spirit.
I love that you help us out with the maths involved/surrounding AoE II. I want to help with some science/linguistics (language) background for you quickly.
Just as a note, my arguments usually stand contrary to the masses, because the masses really aren't right a lot of the time.
I know 'quite obviously' that a lot of people use the term 'evolution' quite openly, but it really is a very specific and defined term. We have so so many potential words in English for these general meanings of temporal growth from 1) advancement, 2) progression, 3) alteration/change, 4) development, 5) maturation, 6) growth even. Evolution on the other hand comes from Latin as 'Ex-Volution' a (sharp/abrupt) turn to the outside, there isn't a real sense of continuity there/in it. Whereas to advance your technology you might have plenty of genius eureka moments, but in order to implement & progress your technology/machinery you need to initiate things in step/series.
When it comes to factions changing over time in AoE II - it's more like alterations or development or even growth occurs, BECAUSE the changes are inherently related to the rest of the civilisation. There is a method by which you get +1 damage for infantry per age starting in Feudal and it involves looking into the rest of the civilisation and how it interacts with others. For evolution on the other hand, you have a series of chromosomes with genes & telomeres & histones (where genetic material winds around this protein to become more compact within the nucleus). The form of change that happens when a child comes into the world is of course based upon the parents, but it is relatively chaotic compared to balance changes in a game or most other ways people use the term 'evolution'. This is where the/my argument against the wide-spread use of the term to just mean CHANGE comes from/comes into play.
I can make it into a video bit if you'd like, but I think it's good to just sit down and read here & there also.