hey guys spirit of the law here
sometimes new players get the idea that
speed and maximizing little efficiencies
are the most important things to focus
on to improve but as basic as it might
sound I think learning to make the
correct decisions can be way more
important than flawless execution when
you're just starting out one of the
easiest ways to start improving if
you're new is to learn which military
units counter others and that's what
we'll look at in this video including
why some of the counters and it being so
much better than you might initially
think for those of you who can
consistently beat the moderate AI you
probably already know at least most of
these and you're more than welcome to
share other ideas in the comments I'll
be sticking to the main two or three
counters for each unit to keep things
more simple so keep in mind it's not an
exhaustive list as a side note I'd also
recommend to any of you that are newer
players that you should try the art of
war tutorials as a good double-check you
picked up the basics there's a mission
dedicated just to picking counter units
which is a good test of whether or not
you were paying attention one last note
before we start is I'm gonna do the
unique unit counters as their own video
since I think that's more advanced and
less important to learn at first I also
realize this is probably coming 20 years
too late for some of you but it's still
better late than never right let's jump
into it starting with the archers now
their most straightforward counter is
the skirmisher it might not be intuitive
why someone throwing a spear is good
against someone with a bow and arrow but
I like to think they're tiny shields do
a lot of work they have unusually high
armor against ranged units and also have
a secret attack bonus against archers in
return leading to really one-sided
results while also being the cheaper and
faster unit to make another effective
Lake encounter is the manga Nell or onna
jur they're great because they damage a
large area and archers tend to bunch up
and stand still while also having very
low HP I wouldn't say this is quite as
effective of a counter in the mid game
since the projectiles are slow enough
that small groups of archers can dodge
them if your opponent is paying
attention another class of really
important counters are the Rams not
necessarily to attack the archers
directly but simply because archers
prefer to attack the closest target
possible and Rams have incredibly high
armor against ranged units when placed
in front of your other units they end up
soaking up the enemy archers attacks and
keep
your unit safe behind the next type
we'll look at is the hand cannoneer
they're a version of archers more
specialized to fight infantry
so the normal archer counters of
skirmishers and auditors still tend to
do quite well
cavalry can be okay if hand cannon ears
or even arches for that matter are in
small numbers but the main thing you
don't want to use is infantry that's
generally true when you're up against
archers as well so if skirmishers are so
good against archers then how do you
counter them
well like archers they have low HP and
tend to stand in one spot so auditors
are again a great counter cavalry is
also quite good because skirmishers have
minimum range meaning they have to
retreat from anything attacking them up
close you could argue that the malicious
swordsmen lined counter skirmishers and
they can certainly survive for a long
time against them but in both the early
and late game I think cavalry is the
better choice if available speaking of
which the two most common types of
cavalry to see are the Scout line and
the knight so now let's take a look at
those both of them share a weakness two
spearmen and camels thanks to some
hidden bonus damage which is increased
as those units are upgraded the spearmen
line in particular is one of the hardest
counters in the game particularly
because of how cheap spearmen are
compared to cavalry that said when
raiding cavalry can sometimes use their
speed to get away from spearmen
so defensively at least having a few
spearmen around your base is more useful
than having a large group altogether one
way to address the cavalry speed
advantage is of course to make camels
instead they're not quite is
cost-effective but at least they can
chase down cavalry and force a proper
engagement all that being said there's
one way that countering the scout line
and the knight line differ massively and
that's in how they are against monks
monks are a great counter tonight's when
they're in small numbers getting a
conversion not only takes away one of
your opponent's units but also gives you
a new one so a single conversion can end
up costing your opponent two units if
you end up using it effectively the
knight will sometimes be able to take
out the monk in time but quite often
it's better to run away or even you'll
see experienced players delete their
Knights rather than give them up the
scout and light cavalry line on the
other hand has a hidden resistance to
conversion so it takes longer plus they
also have an attack
against monks in fact they might be the
best counter to monks and are commonly
used on the map arena for example stop
enemy monks from collecting relics
that's probably the most confusing
counter when it comes to cavalry and in
other ways Knights in light cavalry tend
to have very similar counters before we
move on I do want to point out a
slightly more advanced case where
archers can be a situational counter to
cavalry as well unlike some other
strategy games where cavalry is an
amazing counter even against a much
larger group of archers that's not
necessarily true in Age of Empires if
you can reach what's commonly referred
to as a critical mass where archers are
able to take out cavalry in a few focus
shots they end up doing quite well with
some micromanagement
whereas in small numbers cavalry will
consistently win out basically I
wouldn't say either universally counters
the other it really depends what the
numbers are on both sides but speaking
of cavalry and archers let's talk about
their love child
the cavalry Archer now they can be a
very annoying rating unit no doubt but
they're also among the easiest units to
counter on paper since they take bonus
damage from any anti cavalry or anti
Archer unit like any Archer skirmishers
are a great counter because of their
bonus damage and armor plus again Mangan
ELLs and auditors are a solid choice as
they are against most ranged units the
Mongols are an exception there but we'll
save that for the unique unit lists
because cavalry archers are still
classified as cavalry as well pikemen
also have bonus damage against them
though in practice that one's a bit
dodgy and good luck actually landing
many hits personally I'm always excited
to see pikemen when I'm reading with
cavalry archers so I wouldn't rely on
them solely that said camels are also a
great counter because of their bonus
damage plus again their speed so they
can actually chase them down so camels
are so universally good against cavalry
while also being cavalry themselves how
do you counter those well one small
wrinkle is they actually resist anti
cavalry bonus damage spear units though
still have some bonus damage and it's
enough that they're still quite good in
the long run basically anything except
cavalry and siege should actually do
okay the trade-off camels have for their
anti cavalry bonus is they have
relatively low HP attack and armor
compared to Knights so it turns out that
archers can be
encounter as well given you have enough
of them you don't see them very often
but I'd also put steppe lancers in a
similar group they don't hold up two
arrows quite as well as the night line
so a combination of pikes and archers
tends to do the trick
camels are also a good counter as well
like they are against basically any type
of cavalry the last type of cavalry is
the elephant and they are slightly
different because of their high HP which
means archers have a hard time bringing
them down in that case against spear
units are a great choice and they even
get more bonus damage than normal but
you could also consider using scorpions
auditors or even monks to exploit their
slow movement it sometimes feels like
there's a lot of weird exceptions when
it comes to cavalry but if you're in
doubt Spears and camels are usually the
main go-to units and useful at any level
of play but that's enough about cavalry
next let's switch and check out infantry
the most common infantry to run into I'd
say is one we've heard a lot about and
that's the spear line the popularity is
twofold partly because they counter
cavalry so well but also because they're
cheap cost makes them ubiquitous in the
late game as a protection for siege the
thing about spearmen though is they only
really do one thing well and that's
fighting cavalry basically everything
else whether it be skirmishers archers
or swordsmen will handle them pretty
easily skirmishers and archers are
helped out by bonus damage as well as
being able to hit and run while
swordsmen just have much higher attack
and win with raw stats this is in fact
the first time the swordsmen line has
come up as a counter unit and in fact
besides how Buderus I think there's only
one of the unit they counter well and
that's the Eagle warrior in fact I'd
argue they're the clear counter to Eagle
warriors thanks to some very generous
hidden bonus damage against them Eagles
have excellent armor against archers and
their own small bonus damage against
cavalry so swordsmen are my preferred
counter I can't think of a great
real-world rationale for why a swordsman
would be strong against an Eagle warrior
and I remember this one being one of the
least intuitive counters as I was
learning the game a side note here
that's good to keep in mind is that
actually many of the infantry unique
units also have hidden attack bonuses
against Eagle warriors as well so now
let's talk about countering swordsman in
that case I think the best counter is
the hand cannon
as I said already hand cannons are a lot
like archers but more specialized toward
infantry doing ten extra damage against
them those are only available in the
Imperial age though after researching
chemistry but before that archers do a
pretty good job in feudal age for
example archers are the main go-to
counter against most things infantry and
swordsmen are no exception in fact one
of the only ranged units that isn't
great against swordsmen is the
skirmisher simply because it doesn't
have the damage needed to deal with the
Infantry's armor and HP so those are the
counters - archers cavalry and infantry
but there's one more big category of
unit and that siege will start by
looking at the RAM they have very high
armor - ranged units also called pierce
armor so infantry and cavalry are great
choices against them Rams in fact take 3
extra damage from any melee unit
so even villagers can work fairly well
you do want to be careful with villagers
if there's other units around though and
only fight in an absolute emergency the
next one came up a lot when countering
archers and that's the manga Nell and on
'add your line in that case cavalry or
fast-moving infantry like Eagle warriors
can be effective if they're unprotected
again you don't want to use anything
ranged unless you're really good at
controlling your units and dodging the
incoming shots another really good
counter is the bombard cannon thanks to
its longer range so in practice it can
end up sniping auditors from safety it's
a similar set of counters to the
trebuchet basically anything fast or the
bombard cannon are all great choices
again archers do very little damage
because of the trebuchet armor against
ranged attacks while the bombard cannon
is a bit unusual in that it does melee
damage in case you were wondering ass
each unit you don't see a ton but
sometimes well is the scorpion they're
reasonably good against archers in
infantry but I haven't listed them as a
counter since they really need large
numbers to be effective and they're very
hard countered by Auditors cavalry can
do all right as long as the scorpions
are in low numbers but once they reach a
critical mass that can be very difficult
to rush down if you find yourself in
that situation auditors are really going
to have a field day to wrap up the siege
units when it comes to the bombard
cannon like most siege it's relatively
weak to cavalry which can close the
distance quickly in fact against bombard
cannons it's often more effective to
deal with the units around it since
Bombur cannons on their own are
relatively easy to take down the last
type of unit we'll look at is the monk
as I already said light cavalry has both
a resistance to conversion as well as an
attack bonus against them archers can be
a good choice and Eagle warriors also
have some bonus resistance to
conversions and some bonus damage of
their own against monks similar to light
cavalry
despite monks being slow and having low
HP in this case auditors aren't
necessarily a good choice since they can
be converted if the monk player has
Redemption in fact I'd say converting
auditors is the main use of that
technology and even more important than
the ability to convert buildings that
said fans of the shilada warrior will
probably disagree with me on that so
those are all the basic types of land
units and how to counter all of them I
realized that was a lot of information
to throw at a new player but if you can
even remember one counter to each unit
it'll definitely help maybe
unfortunately another complicating
factor to all of this is the armies tend
to have more than just one unit often
they're used as a combination especially
in team games Age of Empires is a tough
game to master because there are so many
possibilities that can be going on but
that's also a lot of the fun that's all
for this one though thanks for watching
guys I'll see you next time
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