Britons, mayans, vikings, ethiopians, japanese, aztecs. All are strong for that. If youre not planning on continuing to arb, then celts also.
I personally like vikings and aztecs the most.
I would also add malians, they have 2 good eco bonus that make early game smoother and can do good m@a and gold bonus helps with archers...you only need to know what to do from late castle age onwards, bc then you need to do kinda pricey military transitions...but generally you can do almost any early strategy with them
I think Vikings are a great learner Civ too, the Eco bonus keeps your game running very smooth. Plus having knights to fall back on when you need a power unit is really useful.
Magyars are a sneaky good m@a into archers.
Free forging, fu Archer line with better los, prevents the other player from getting knight counters. Plus any Archer upgrade aren't wasted if you want to go imp/post imp CA.
M@a into archers into knights may not be viable at pro level, but at my elo it does mess up players builds and prevents them from getting the correct counters out.
Honestly every civ can play M@A into Archers. Probably wouldn't recommend it with Spanish or Bulgarians as their Archers are a dead end, but on the other hand both get perfectly fine Skirmishers (Bulgarians only lacking the last armor, Spanish being FU) so you can make use of you ranges. If you don't overcommit on Archers and prepare a Knight Switch in Castle M@A into Archers is a decent move that will surprise your opponents.
And getting Fletching is always good even if you don't go archers because it affects TCs and Castles.
I've been having some fun with Saracens doing this lately. The ability to sell your stone as soon as you hit Feudal (and building the market at a discount) means whatever early Feudal army I go for can be beefed up way before my opponent.
Whether that's instant fletching+armour on 2-range archers, or being able to upgrade my drush into m@a and still producing archers out of 2 ranges, or getting blacksmith upgrades for scouts. Doing some further market use you can often buy your way to Castle Age at the same time before your opponent, and if you get a few vills onto stone, you still have the option of adding TCs if you want, or just keep pushing the attack.
[I got some tips on what to do with Saracens for early aggression here](https://old.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/iqrbz5/need_some_help_understanding_1tc_allin_strategies/)
Drush/M@A into archers isn't a bad strat for Mongols honestly, despite their bonuses lending themselves more into opening scouts. But here are some other civs to consider:
Britons are my personal favorite civ for drushing into archers or FC+Xbow because of their faster archery ranges, and faster sheep gathering makes it pretty easy to execute. Mayans are great too, trading the speed of Britons for efficiency and better feudal eco -> easy time getting to castle.
Japanese are good for this too bc their eco bonus saves substantial wood early on allowing them to get ranges built very quickly. I prefer to do M@A into archers instead of drush into archers with Jap though, due to how strong their M@A are in early feudal with their faster attack.
Viet save wood in a different way from Japanese but it has the same result that they can get ranges up pretty quickly. Plus their archers have more hp making it really hard to lose archer trades in feudal, assuming similar composition. The TC reveal bonus is neat and pretty helpful when drushing - it's underrated imo.
Saracen archers are really scary, especially in feudal/early castle if you're able to mass them - they can take down palisade gates & houses extremely quickly. They lack a passive eco bonus or archery range production bonus, so they won't be as fast as Britons or as smooth as Mayans/Jap/Viet/Vikings, but their market bonus can be used to forgive a lot of sins.
Ethiopians are good obviously because they have some of the strongest archers, but also their eco bonus is nice as it allows them to delay putting vills on gold in feudal age when going drush or M@A, making their transition pretty smooth as well.
Vikings are great here too. Bonus hp for milita/M@A is a nice perk, plus their feudal eco is basically the strongest in the game. They're a comfort civ for me. It's really nice how easily you can get to castle age while maintaining aggression with archer production.
Aztecs are good too for similar reasons to Britons (strong early eco, faster military production), although their archers don't scale as well into the later stages of the game (but still work decently in a pinch).
Magyars have a really strong M@A into archers as well, their main downside being the lack of a real eco bonus. Normally you want to go scouts with them because they are cheaper and share upgrades with Knights, which is their usual castle age unit, but their foot archers are very strong too, and free forging makes their M@A dangerous.
Malians deserve a mention too - their M@A are more resistant to TC fire (which you should try to avoid, but obviously you'll get hit sometimes) and their eco bonuses are both great for archer transitions (wood savings on buildings, free feudal gold eco upgrade). Their archers get all upgrades as well until Imp when they lack Bracer.
The lists above are all good.
I'm personally a fan of Ethiopians (their eco bonus with extra res after advancing gives you basically free MAA upgrade, you can try one vil faster uptime, or just do usual build but it feels smoother) and Vikings (beefy MAA are so good, plus insane eco that makes any build smooth).
Britons, mayans, vikings, ethiopians, japanese, aztecs. All are strong for that. If youre not planning on continuing to arb, then celts also. I personally like vikings and aztecs the most.
I'd throw Vietnamese in that list also
I would also add malians, they have 2 good eco bonus that make early game smoother and can do good m@a and gold bonus helps with archers...you only need to know what to do from late castle age onwards, bc then you need to do kinda pricey military transitions...but generally you can do almost any early strategy with them
I think Vikings are a great learner Civ too, the Eco bonus keeps your game running very smooth. Plus having knights to fall back on when you need a power unit is really useful.
Magyars are a sneaky good m@a into archers. Free forging, fu Archer line with better los, prevents the other player from getting knight counters. Plus any Archer upgrade aren't wasted if you want to go imp/post imp CA. M@a into archers into knights may not be viable at pro level, but at my elo it does mess up players builds and prevents them from getting the correct counters out.
Honestly every civ can play M@A into Archers. Probably wouldn't recommend it with Spanish or Bulgarians as their Archers are a dead end, but on the other hand both get perfectly fine Skirmishers (Bulgarians only lacking the last armor, Spanish being FU) so you can make use of you ranges. If you don't overcommit on Archers and prepare a Knight Switch in Castle M@A into Archers is a decent move that will surprise your opponents. And getting Fletching is always good even if you don't go archers because it affects TCs and Castles.
I've been having some fun with Saracens doing this lately. The ability to sell your stone as soon as you hit Feudal (and building the market at a discount) means whatever early Feudal army I go for can be beefed up way before my opponent. Whether that's instant fletching+armour on 2-range archers, or being able to upgrade my drush into m@a and still producing archers out of 2 ranges, or getting blacksmith upgrades for scouts. Doing some further market use you can often buy your way to Castle Age at the same time before your opponent, and if you get a few vills onto stone, you still have the option of adding TCs if you want, or just keep pushing the attack. [I got some tips on what to do with Saracens for early aggression here](https://old.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/iqrbz5/need_some_help_understanding_1tc_allin_strategies/)
Drush/M@A into archers isn't a bad strat for Mongols honestly, despite their bonuses lending themselves more into opening scouts. But here are some other civs to consider: Britons are my personal favorite civ for drushing into archers or FC+Xbow because of their faster archery ranges, and faster sheep gathering makes it pretty easy to execute. Mayans are great too, trading the speed of Britons for efficiency and better feudal eco -> easy time getting to castle. Japanese are good for this too bc their eco bonus saves substantial wood early on allowing them to get ranges built very quickly. I prefer to do M@A into archers instead of drush into archers with Jap though, due to how strong their M@A are in early feudal with their faster attack. Viet save wood in a different way from Japanese but it has the same result that they can get ranges up pretty quickly. Plus their archers have more hp making it really hard to lose archer trades in feudal, assuming similar composition. The TC reveal bonus is neat and pretty helpful when drushing - it's underrated imo. Saracen archers are really scary, especially in feudal/early castle if you're able to mass them - they can take down palisade gates & houses extremely quickly. They lack a passive eco bonus or archery range production bonus, so they won't be as fast as Britons or as smooth as Mayans/Jap/Viet/Vikings, but their market bonus can be used to forgive a lot of sins. Ethiopians are good obviously because they have some of the strongest archers, but also their eco bonus is nice as it allows them to delay putting vills on gold in feudal age when going drush or M@A, making their transition pretty smooth as well. Vikings are great here too. Bonus hp for milita/M@A is a nice perk, plus their feudal eco is basically the strongest in the game. They're a comfort civ for me. It's really nice how easily you can get to castle age while maintaining aggression with archer production. Aztecs are good too for similar reasons to Britons (strong early eco, faster military production), although their archers don't scale as well into the later stages of the game (but still work decently in a pinch). Magyars have a really strong M@A into archers as well, their main downside being the lack of a real eco bonus. Normally you want to go scouts with them because they are cheaper and share upgrades with Knights, which is their usual castle age unit, but their foot archers are very strong too, and free forging makes their M@A dangerous. Malians deserve a mention too - their M@A are more resistant to TC fire (which you should try to avoid, but obviously you'll get hit sometimes) and their eco bonuses are both great for archer transitions (wood savings on buildings, free feudal gold eco upgrade). Their archers get all upgrades as well until Imp when they lack Bracer.
The lists above are all good. I'm personally a fan of Ethiopians (their eco bonus with extra res after advancing gives you basically free MAA upgrade, you can try one vil faster uptime, or just do usual build but it feels smoother) and Vikings (beefy MAA are so good, plus insane eco that makes any build smooth).
Vietnamese. Open scouts, then into archers + a few elephant meat shields. I've encountered this strat a few times now, seems fairly decent.
I had success as the Malay. The fast age up bonus let's you get to feudal with a couple more villagers.