hey guys Spirit of the law here in this video we're going to take a look at the composite
Bowman no not that one in fact that's the wrong game entirely this is about the Armenian composite
Bowman from Age of Empires 2 the new unique unit from the castle it has a very interesting ability
to ignore enemy pierce summer which is an idea that's floated around Fan design civilizations
on the forums for years always with the criticism it would be incredibly broken and could never be
balanced it's officially in the game now though so we're going to take a look at it see how its
ability affects various match ups for the unit and whether this completely turns the tables on some
of the traditional Archer counters throughout all of this keep in mind Armenians have fully
upgraded arbalesters except for thumbing and one of their civ bonuses also lets their Lumberjacks
and gold miners benefit extra from eco techs so Armenians are pretty well set up for the archer's
resource needs already and one of their two archery options feels like a very natural choice
for the civilization starting off the cost of the regular old crossbow and the composite Bowman are
nearly identical with the same 45 gold though notice the composite Bowman at the castle is
a tiny bit more expensive costing 10 more wood each stats-wise it's may be not surprising then
they line up pretty well with slightly more HP and one more melee armor in favor of the
composite bow with plus one attack and range for the crossbow that one range disadvantage is pretty
significant as even after bodkin Arrow they're still outranges mangonels or regular crossbows
that said it's the same range as Cavalry archers for example so it's not necessarily unprecedented
also somewhat hidden is the regular crossbow on top of Greater attack has a slightly larger
bonus against Spear units so the composite Bowman isn't a strict upgrade in all regards of course
it also needs a castle to create and to offset that cost and inconvenience they have a pretty
quick 12-second creation time dropping to 10 with the elite upgrade compared to the crossbows 27
seconds the feudal age archer at the range is even slower at 35 seconds so composite Bowman
have a bit of an opportunity to catch up even if you start massing them later now something odd
you might notice about them almost right away is unlike crossbows their arrows move in basically
a straight line rather than the usual pronounced arcing through the air which is especially obvious
when we artificially increase the range as shown here it might seem like a superficial difference
but it has the implication that enemy units moving in a straight line toward or away from them will
almost always still be hit even without ballistics whereas a regular crossbow has a chance of firing
either too far or too close why composite bowmen fire in a straight line like this similar to a
town center instead of a regular Archer I have no idea and it could just be an AoE1 reference
as that's how the unit with the same name fired in that game another small hidden Advantage for
the composite bow in AoE2 is it has 100% accuracy on their shots instead of the crossbows 85% giving
another easy to miss advantage well actually not easy to miss technically impossible to miss but
you know you know what I mean really though the main selling feature is clearly the armor ignoring
special effect though note that armor piercing doesn't work on Siege buildings or Naval units
so against those they're a low-range very low attack Archer probably doing one damage per Arrow
even when fully upgraded in many cases even the unique units classified as Siege aren't affected
nor is the shrivamsha rider's dodge mechanic as just a few special cases you might run into where
the composite Bowman has a bit of extra trouble against other units than those mentioned though
it seems natural to wonder if ignoring armor makes up for a very low base attack of four
and to investigate let's start off in the castle age to begin simply against something with zero
Pierce armor that has picked up no armor upgrades composite Bowman deal one less damage than regular
crossbows lots of players can be delayed in getting defensive upgrades for one reason
or another and in those cases the composite bat will just seem like a low attack shorter
range version of the Archer line which is not a great combination these are the sorts of units
that archers are typically strongest against as well so it might be fair to say the composite
Bowman is not as good at dealing with some of the things crossbows counter the fast such as Pikeman
of course having five more HP means head-to-head they're pretty well balanced against each other
but it probably shouldn't be a surprise that with zero Pierce armor involved the higher attack and
extra range of the crossbow at a lower cost make it the better choice things start to flip though
if we add even just two Pierce armor examples of this would be crossbows with the AR upgrades
or knights with no extra armor and in that case the composite Bowman is already doing six damage
compared to the crossbows 5 the fact composite bows are already harder hitting gives you a
sense of what's in store as we go up in armor from here there is one small exception which is
Pikeman with Castle armor upgrades and when you factor in the crossbows plus three bonus damage
they actually end up doing the same likewise if you have a Pikeman without any armor upgrades
the crossbow is technically a fair bit better though the this is the only unit line where bonus
damage mixes things up like this another thing I should mention though is even with armor upgrades
thrown in crossbows are probably still better head-to-head as even though the composite bow
deal one more damage the crossbows plus one range means it takes attack move fights significantly
cleaner and the more micro you add the more that Advantage would grow also very subtle but
worth mentioning here is the composite bow has a slightly delayed attack animation compared to
the crossbow making it a bit more sluggish to hit and run on top of it already shorter range holding
it back in fights with other ranged units so far it's not looking too impressive but now let's go
up to four Pierce armor for example a knight with Castle age armor upgrades at this point composite
Bowman are suddenly doing twice as much damage at six damage per shot compared to the crossbows 3
this would be noticeable and a modest group of say 10 composite Bowman could theoretically take out a
fully upgraded Knight in two shots if all attacks landed if that wasn't enough going up now to five
Pierce armor remember this has no effect on the composite Bowman's damage so against something
like a castle AG Eagle Warrior or ghulam with armor upgrades a composite Bowman is doing three
times as much damage as a crossbow going up then one more to six Pierce armor we hit the maximum
where the crossbow is doing just one damage and the composite Bowman is doing six past this point
nothing really changes so you're getting the same six times the effectiveness against Elite
skirmishers and rattan archers all the way up to fully upgraded huscarl an obvious question then is
whether skirmishers can still counter them looking into that matchup not only does the composite
Bowman extra HP let them take one more skirmisher Javelin than a regular crossbowman but they need
just six compared to the regular 35 arrows to bring a skirmisher down since Elite skirmishers
have a bit slower firing rate that means the composite Bowman actually wins one on one of
course skirmishers are a cheaper unit and if we balance for cost I'd say it's a fight that could
really go either way which is not a bad result for an Archer unit this is where the composite bow
shorter range though can start to be a big deal and if we instead Patrol equal cost armies against
each other from outside each other's range it turns into a total Landslide for the skirmisher as
it starts to fight much cleaner this is with just patrolling them in as well never mind proper hit
and run as remember the skirmisher still has an anti- Archer attack bonus putting it all together
though basically aside from one less range making them questionably worse against Archer
skirmishers and mangonels once your opponent has two or more Pierce armor the composite Bowman is
doing anywhere from 2 to six times as much damage as the crossbow with a little more HP and even one
melee armor this is all just in Castle age though and now I want to talk about Imperial age as at
least on the surface the composite Bowman seems like it might lose a bit of its edge first of
all its Elite upgrade is more expensive than the AR Blaster while giving a similar HP Improvement
but critically doesn't increase its attack where's the AR Blaster has that improved it gives a bit of
Hope for opponents that the composite Bowman may actually be stalling out personally I don't think
that's the case though for a couple of reasons first remember Imperial age gives you bracer
and chemistry for plus two guaranteed damage the other thing to remember is enemy units whether
through direct upgrades like Elite versions or blacksmith armor will usually raise their Pierce
armor by plus two or three when everything's put together where the AR Blaser is being impacted
by those armor increases and needs more attack to keep Pace the composite Bowman's ability is
already being indirectly powered up the critical inflection point in Imperial H with all upgrades
where the composite Bowman deals more damage than a regular arbalester is in fact against an
enemy with just three Pierce armor anything over two and the composite Bowman are doing anywhere
from 14% to 8 times as much damage per shot as Arters to give some concrete examples against
Arbalesters head-to-head as a unit with four Pierce armor they're dealing 33% more damage
taking them out in five hits while surviving eight the arbalester range can make it close in practice
but if anything head to-head the composite bow has a greater Advantage than in Castle AG despite
no increase in its base attack likewise moving up to six armor for example against a Cavalier
you're looking at Double the damage from composite Bowman against a unit that can already struggle
against Mass archers jumping up to eight or more Pierce armor the difference is almost comical at
least from an Armenian players perspective this is where we find the elite skirmisher though and
to revisit that very specific case in Imperial age the composite Bowman has an advantage 101
and can actually win with decent HP left in a large group fight I'd say there's a distinct
Advantage for composite Bowman more so than in Castle age where it was pretty much balanced
range of course is still an important factor but the point of skirmishers have to really make
good use of their plus one range to win or even come close to tying to give another example with
equal reason resources standing the ground Elite huscarls will win pretty easily as they do have
an attack bonus against archers on the flip side with equal numbers and a bit of micro I was able
to win with composite bows though with a critical mass and a bit of micro it does seem possible in
Imperial AG to beat some of the Archer's usual hard counters especially if you're able to use
the terrain or choke points to your advantage of course this is all coming down to the fact that
you're doing eight times the arbalester damage now before jumping to the conclusion that this must
be broken remember this is what they're getting to offset losing range and requiring a castle against
onagers for example they just act like a weaker shorter range Archer and maybe one of the big
takeaways here is while they hold up to anything anti- Archer that relies on Pierce armor to fill
that role units that beat archers with high damage from range or an attack bonus are still felt at
full force you also have to keep in mind here the context of Armenians overall they're largely
pushed toward their extra durable Infantry and Warrior priest making Archer civs a pretty natural
counter I don't see the composite Bowman doing a lot to help there given its lower range and as
we've seen it can have some trouble against even a generic crossbow line on the flip side I could see
in team games with a lot of units like paladins or Eagles who usually rely on high Pierce armor
to be effective this is a very dangerous support unit doing up to the work of eight times its
number of our blasters that'll do it for this one though and of course these are just my thoughts
on the unit and what I found by testing it out thanks for watching and I'll see you next time