AoE4 Unit Counters

hey guys spirit of the lie here in this video we're going to be talking about the age of empires 4 unit counters and dig into the specific bonuses that are going on behind the scenes to create them now this is a little tricky without a scenario editor which the game is lacking at launch if anything ends up being wrong or more information comes out i'll leave a comment with any corrections pinned below but it's fair to say at least some conclusions can be made based on information available now there is an official counters chart that's circulating on the forums which for the most part i agree with though i think it's missing some important context and lots of units aren't included which we'll look at in this video but first i think it's worth knowing how bonus damage actually works in age of empires 4. one way that many games create a counter system is by using attack multipliers age of empires 3 did bonus damage with multipliers for example and this is common in many games where one type of unit might take double its normal damage from one of its counters that's not the only way to do it though and age of empires 2 for example took a different route and instead of multiplying it adds a special type of damage that can't be blocked by armor for example a pikeman's regular melee attack can be reduced by a knight's armor and upgrades but the pikeman has 22 hidden bonus damage that can't be stopped in age of empires 4 bonus damage is almost a hybrid of these two systems technically the bonuses are additive like in aoe 2 but the numbers they picked are in most cases very suggestive of multipliers for example looking at the fundamental counters triangle in feudal age we have spearmen archers and horsemen you can see their base attack here and then the extra bonus damage that's applied against the next unit in the triangle you can see archers and horsemen essentially get double their attack once you add in their bonus and the spearman actually triples its base attack to keep the number of numbers on the screen to a minimum i'll summarize bonuses then as multiples archers do 5 base damage in feudal age but gain 5 more against spears so as a shorthand we'll say they have double their usual attack even if on a certain level multiplying isn't technically what's going on i think it's a more intuitive way to think of it and makes things a lot less cluttered also to make things more clear i'll be talking both about hard counters which means there's some major bonus damage involved and soft counters where one unit has an advantage but the game isn't forcing it quite as much so with that we'll start off with the barracks units where you'll notice the big thread is going to be that they hard counter cavalry assuming the cavalry doesn't just run away while infantry are countered themselves by ranged units beginning with spearman they have plus 12 versus cavalry and dark age though that scales with every upgrade to keep pace with the rise in attack and maintain the same ratio the way it works out as mentioned already is you're functionally getting triple their usual attack against cavalry their stats are quite weak though with less attack hp and armor than the men at arms archers on the other hand are the hard counter with double their usual attack note that crossbows don't have bonus damage against spears but the fact they attack from range means they can be a decent counter as long as they're protected theoretically cavalry archers could also hit and run against spears and area of effects each like manganese and nested bees can be effective as well which is true against really any infantry essentially spearmen are just one trick ponies or should we say one trick anti-ponies contrast that with the men at arms which i'll group with the chinese palace guards as a unique variation neither have any bonus damage listed and are heavily armored general purpose melee units since they're considered heavy melee infantry they're countered quite well by crossbows which have high enough attack to get through their armor as well as a roughly 50 attack bonus you might think that archers are a good counter here as well as they are in age of empires 2 but in aoe 4 mended arms have quite a bit of armor and hold up fairly well to archers the official guide actually says men at arms slightly counter archers which i do agree with based on my experience for a bit of context a castle age crosswoman does 14 damage to a minute arms per shot whereas a castle age archer does three assuming everyone has the same level of upgrades to me this really highlights the importance of picking the right unit now for the holy roman empire's lance connect it may be a bit counter-intuitive as it looks pretty tough but it's actually a light melee infantry with relatively low hp that means archers have a bonus against them and are a better choice than crossbows the lance connect's main selling feature is of course their high attack and area of effect so they're good against bunched up melee units including spearman and men at arms so that's infantry but we're just getting started now let's move on and talk about the archery range starting with the archer essentially in the early game their counter is the horseman which does roughly double damage against any ranged unit this also applies to the chinese fire lancer as it's a very similar unit and essentially just a unique variant of the horsemen the camel rider is also in the same light melee cavalry class but doesn't have a bonus against archers so it's much less effective it also doesn't have any armor and is quite expensive so in some cases archers may even be a soft counter to camels because of their low attack archers also do quite poorly against armored units making things like knights and men at arms a pretty serious threat their other major counter is the manganell or nest of bees as they can damage a large area something i've seen mentioned and agree with is the archer in age vampires 4 is a lot like the skirmisher in age 2. and it's primarily a cheap filler unit or answer to spearmint for longbowmen their palings make them a bit tougher against horsemen and some people have argued this means longbows don't have an early game counter without a working scenario editor i have to go off what i've seen firsthand and my sense is that the palings are directional and also take some time to deploy so i think cavalry do still have a chance against longbows you just have to maneuver a bit more and make use of the fact that the longbow's abilities have a cooldown every time they move a really interesting comparison happens though when we switch now to crossbows their bonus damage as mentioned already is against heavy units so knights lancers men at arms etc that said they don't fight very well up close so we need the caveat that even against those units they'll need some kind of melee shield in front to be effective their counters are again horsemen which do double damage along with the area of effect units like manganese and nest of bees now i initially expected archers would be a hard counter to crossbows and the official aoe4 chart claims it's a great matchup for archers in this case i'm not sure i agree with the very enthusiastic triple plus signs the two units have the same range in hp and the crossbow has higher damage output though it is significantly more expensive i double checked and archers definitely don't do any bonus damage against crossbows so it's more of a soft counter value play in favor of the archer rather than a hard counter in my opinion the arbor latrie for french though really shakes things up they have the same bonus against heavy units as regular crossbows but start with a bit of melee armor and can also have that improved by plus five with a unique tech as well as deploy apathys to increase their ranged armor in this case their counter is still light cavalry and area of effect siege but in addition to the usual crossbow specialties they should do much better against archers by almost negating their attack entirely another unique variation is the chinese chukanu they kind of look like they're holding crossbows but in fact they don't have bonus damage against armored units like the crossbow desk they are much better thought of as a rapid-firing archer so best used against unarmored units and weak to heavy units with high armor again area of effect siege like manganelles are also going to be good against them looking now at the hand cannoneer age of empires 2 players may expect them to have a bonus damage against infantry but according to its stats it has no bonus damage to speak of at all it's just a very high attack unit with around triple the base attack of the crossbowman albeit with a bit shorter range they're a little slow and take bonus damage from horsemen so that's theoretically a good counter depending on numbers they're described by the game as powerful all-purpose ranged infantry so i would think of them like that and just make sure you have spearman or something to hold off melee units in front the roof streltzy are very similar but cheaper have some ranged armor and even gain more damage output when they're standing still for more than 5 seconds as for the grenadier they're expensive and have relatively low attack but can damage all the units in a small area as far as i know at this point there's no friendly fire in age of empires 4 at all for any unit so feel free to use them indiscriminately even if you have a lot of soldiers nearby keep in mind like all ranged units they do take bonus damage from horsemen and even knights can be a pretty serious threat moving on to the horse archer again there's no explicit bonus damage but using hit and run potentially lets them counter infantry of course they take bonus damage and also move more slowly than horsemen so we can throw them in as the best counter though knights are also decent thanks to high armor the game description says horse archers are weak to ranged units and while it's true that ranged units are able to fight back horse archers have a similar cost hp damage per second and range to crossbows while also not costing gold so it seems like a stretch to say all ranged units are a good counter but i can see where they're going with that and archers probably trade effectively now mangudai are an interesting variation as they can fire while moving horsemen are a little faster and of course have their bonus damage and knights can also scare them off mangadai are similar to horse archers and that they're good against infantry and arguably are fine against any melee unit besides horsemen forget another variation of a mounted archer this time with a bit of a twist we have the camel archer they caused nearby cavalry to lose 20 percent of their attack while also doing effectively triple damage against spearman they still take bonus damage from spears and horsemen and also keep in mind that camo archers are a very expensive unit with poor damage against armor their high cost means that even archers for example can be a good cost-effective counter and finally we have the tower elephant this is a ranged cavalry unit so it takes extra damage from both horsemen and spears their archers or crossbows on top can protect against a small number though so make sure you aren't trickling units into them this is the first case where i think bombards could be a good choice given they do very high damage to an individual target their high hp and ability to fire back means i think tower elephants are also a fairly good counter to ranged units in general and they even have a bit of pierce armor but now let's move on to the stable where the big counters we'll see over and over are the spearmen and camels looking first at scouts they have pretty weak stats across the board unlike horsemen they're not particularly good against archers and their only bonus damage is against other scouts spearmen are one defensive option to protect from rue scout raids but horsemen are also slightly faster with much better stats so end up doing a good job to help hold on to map control but speaking of horsemen they're weak against spearman and camel riders as they're hard counters but as light melee units they'll also perform poorly against heavy units in general like the knight or men at arms as we've seen many times already their specialty is against anything ranged and because of their speed they're also quite good at picking off villagers as well basically all of this applies to the chinese fire lancer as well as the units are quite similar with they're having a bit of extra area of effect damage and a better bonus against buildings as for knights and lancers which are the exact same unit as mentioned already they can be a soft counter to archers and horsemen because of their high armor but take bonus damage from spearmen camels and crossbows against heavy infantry like man at arms i think knights generally come out a bit better if you're using charges and mobility but there's potentially a cost efficiency argument in favor of heavy infantry if you focus on gold so it is a bit debatable for what it's worth the official chart shows knights are a slight counter to men at arms which i think is fair to say for the abbasid camel riders they're similarly countered by spearmen and even mass ranged units can be effective given the camel's lack of armor or bonuses against them camel riders almost completely specialize against cavalry by reducing cavalry's attack and simultaneously doing triple their usual damage against them and finally for the deadly war elephant since it's mounted by a spearmint you probably won't be surprised to learn they have a large bonus against cavalry they're not as good as the tower or elephant against archers in my opinion given they can't fire back and it also opens them up a bit more to the risk of a conversion also note that they do take bonus damage from crossbows unlike tower war elephants so in this case that might also be a reasonable counter fundamentally i'd call the boar elephant more of an anti-building unit than anything else though and it can even attack stone walls which is a handy ability wrapping up with the siege units the most general counter is cavalry though in many cases infantry can be good as well if they get close all siege have armor against ranged attacks but take torch damage from melee units which is often higher than a unit's regular attack in a way it's as if melee units have a bit of bonus damage against siege while every ranged unit does reduce damage the spring old bombard and especially the abbasid and holy roman empire's culverin could also be considered a counter against other siege units as they're good at sniping high value targets from range as i've mentioned already area of effect siege like the manganelle rebaldakin and nested bees are also particularly good against bunched up units whether that be infantry archers or crossbows though they need to be defended with a meat shield in front and to watch out for spring olds so those are the basic land unit counters in age vampires 4 and what's going on behind the scenes to make them happen of course keep in mind counters don't exist in a vacuum and you always want to be conscious of using multiple types of units to protect against each other's weaknesses knights and archers for example are a classic pairing that almost entirely cover each other's counters in many cases you're best off trying to combine a melee ranged and siege unit of some type to make up your late game army composition and hopefully some ideas in this video will come in handy for making the specific unit selections that's all for this one though thanks for watching guys i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Spirit Of The Law

Views: 343,957

Keywords: aoe4, age of empires 4, age of empires iv, counters, sotl, spirit of the law, beginner, guide

Id: pTUdoixUy_U

Length: 13min 49sec (829 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 01 2021