The Dutch are all about gunpowder and navy. Whether it be on the land or the water, the Chola have options to make things exciting. The Chola also have two unique units the first is the Katarkollai which is a cheap spammable warship the second is the Bombard elephant, which is exactly what it says on the tin, able to deal and take an extraordinary amount of damage, but watch out for monks, camels and pikemen. The Chola have no interest in subtlety, they love to use tough infantry, demolition ships and elephants to flatten their opposition. Lacking the diverse array of power units available to other civilisations, the Caribs will need to rely on their speed and flexibility early in the game to put them in a good position later on. They have two unique units the first is the Canoe which is a cheap scouting ship that can provide the Caribs with valuable map information and allow their initial attacks to be as damaging as possible the second is the Blowgunner, which behaves much like an unmounted Arambai but is also has the unique ability in that it is invisible on the minimap, like the Arambai it is vulnerable to other ranged units with superior accuracy.

The Caribs excel at sneak attacks, and are one of the better rushing civilisations on water maps. The Bantu will try to use a balanced army composition of infantry, archers, siege and possibly elephants to dominate in a frontal assault. Their unique unit, the Assegai spearman, is a well rounded infantry unit, which is fast with decent pierce armour and an attack bonus vs cavalry, but might be a little vulnerable to other stronger infantry. Their civilisation bonuses and tech tree reflect their strengths with foot units and siege. The Bantu are almost like a mesoamerican civilisation, without access to gunpowder or much cavalry. The Afghans have a lot of flexibility in their tech tree, but may struggle to win through brute force as they lack several key power units.

Their unique unit, the Khorasani archer, is a bit out of the box, with an attack bonus to help against infantry with high pierce armour, and some armour to help against skirmishers, they might struggle a little against heavy cavalry and siege. The Afghan's civilisation bonuses and tech tree synergise to provide a lot of counter options, and to aid in transitioning between various army compositions.

If you want to read about the civilisations in detail, see the drop down menu to the top right of this page, but here is a brief overview.

Best aoe 2 civs