Celts

In Age of Empires II, Celts are best understood as a infantry and siege civilization, a profile that shapes everything from their economy to the units they lean on in a fight. Celts bring a distinctive set of civilization bonuses to the table — Lumberjacks work +15% faster, Livestock animals within Celt unit line of sight cannot be stolen, Infantry moves +5/10/15/20% faster in Dark/Feudal/, Castle/Imperial Age and Siege Weapons attack +25% faster — each nudging their game plan in a particular direction. Allies feel their presence too, since Celts contribute the team bonus Siege Workshops work +20% faster.

Two more tricks are theirs alone — the unique technologies Furor Celtica (Siege Weapons +40% HP) and Stronghold (Castles and Watch Tower-line attack +33% faster; Castles heal allied Infantry in a 7 tile radius). Typical age-up timings land at about 10:36 into Feudal and 20:25 into Castle. Against Mapuche the odds tilt firmly in their favour at roughly 58.7%, while Tupi flip the script, holding Celts to about 44.8%.

Popular and effective in equal measure, they show up in around 1.7% of games and convert a 50.8% win rate over 108731 RM 1v1 matches — enough for rank #15 of 54. Built around the unique Woad Raider, Celts armies lean heavily on infantry (~45% of everything produced), and the Spearman is the unit players pump out most, at roughly 26%.