Phoenician

    Attributes:

    -25% Elephant Unit Cost

    +65% Catapult Trineme and Juggernaught FireRate

    +25% WoodCutting

    Phoenician is a good civilization that is grossly underused by players.  Hittite, Choson, and Greek, the most popular civilizations, each have some obvious advantages and good superunits.   Phoenician, gets it's trength not from more powerful, or faster units, however, but from a solid technology tree.  In fact, this civilization has everything but siege, and in the siege loving DM world, Phoenician usually gets brushed aside.  However, cheap Armored Elephants are deadly so watch for an improved populous playing this tribe.

    Phoenician has cheaper elephants than anyother civilization, and any body who plays Persian will tell you how that helps.  War Elephants, although extremely vulnerable to towers, Helepolises, and centurions, can kill catapults and legions, meaning they can handle the tough units of both Hittite and Choson.  Armored Elephants does help this weakness a bit.    And, from a tribe that is very dependent on food, means that rushing or large elephant armies won't screw you in the end as other tribes would. 

    Despite the cheap elephants, Phoenician is the only tribe in the game that has the solid, one-two punch of both legions and centurions.   Together, they are extremely beneficial in that legions kill towers and catapults, while centurions kill elephants and opposing legions.  Plus, both units are cheap and effective, so they can go a while without farming.

    In addition to this, Phoenician also gets Ballista towers and fully upgraded priests.  A heads-up player can use Phoenician's strengths in diversity of infantry to tumble over the opposition.

    Frozen_DashDog's Run Down

    SuperUnits:  Legions, Centurions, Ballista Towers, Armored Elephants, Priests

    How To Play:

    It's almost scary how similar this tribe is to Persian.  They get full infantry, which is why they're one of my favorite tribes.  The cheap Armored Elephants are a god-send for your economy.  Pair this one up with a good siege partner and they are near impossible to beat.  Use their weapons to their extent.   Use legions en masse, use a few Centurions and use a relatively large amount of elephants.  You absolutely must farm a lot, almost 75% of your villagers.  +2 WoodCutting makes them great for supplying your siege loving partner resources.  Gold is not a big problem for them either.  Use the right combinations and you'll roll over opponents, needing just a few catapults from your partner to bang up Helepolises.

    Rating: 8.9