Since the Persians cannot research Heresy, the enemy could amass an army of War Elephants of their own. In addition, War Elephants are slow and very vulnerable to conversion by enemy Monks. The Persians are the only civilization in the game unable to produce Two-Handed Swordsmen, meaning they must rely on their cavalry for heavy melee attack in the Imperial Age, although they do have access to fully-upgradable Halberdiers. Since the Definitive Edition, they have much cheaper Archers, as the Kamandaran unique technology changes their cost to only 60 wood, giving them a nice asset in trash wars.
The Persians also excel in naval combat due to their nearly full dock technology and increased Dock work rate, although they need to spend more wood due to lacking Shipwright. This obviously allows for an all-round economy in matches where the Imperial Age is played extensively. They are one of the only three civilizations in the game to possess all the final gathering-rate technologies, the other two being the Byzantines and the Burgundians. Their unique unit, War Elephant, is a unit that is slow and expensive but with a large area of attack and massive amount of hit points. 5.2 Disadvantages vs other civilizations.5 Compared advantages and disadvantages.3.2 Strategy changes in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
