@@Doctorgeo7 Still do minimum damage with each arrow, and the Huskarl has fast unit speed and anti-archer bonus damage so they can shred Chus easily too. Sure if mass vs low numbers of Huskarls the Chus are viable, but it's never gonna be cost effective and they can never put up a fight against a Huskarl flood.
chu ko nu are absolutely useless against huskarls. They only do like 5 damage to huskarls while the huskarls do more than 20 .You will get slaughtered if you try to use any ranged units against mass huskarls
@@Real_MisterSir If not you can use their special tactic..... 1v1.... 2v2.... 3v4..... 5v6..... 6v9..... 7vs12..... 8vs18..... 9vs25..... the hell? how do they reproduce so fast!? are they rabbits or something? XD
For those wondering, Samurai still die to archers, and while it's a very expensive matchup, Teutonic Knights pull the fight close enough that they can stop a samurai advance. Anything tanky, such as any unique Elephant unit, will also get the job done through sheer HP, it's just not exactly a fun trade since they'll deal decent damage to you on the way out.
Teutonic Knights would not be a unit I'd use against Samurai. Teuton Champions would do a better job against them due to not taking bonus damage and having +2 melee armor. Even if it takes time to get to Champions, Teutonic Knights (even after their gold cost reduction in the last patch) are a poor choice because their vaunted armor doesn't help them. In any case, the Teutons should be using Hand Cannoneers against Samurai.
i would say everything but the cannonier that works against infantry works agains him, which is not motch to be honest but i guess brute force like champions and paladins will do the job. Also teutonic knights
Contrary to popular belief, the spanish conquistadores hardly ever used cannons and muskets. They were often low in numbers, and gunpowder was a bitch to carry around and keep dry in the jungle. More often than not, they'd use crossbowmen and cavalry lancers. During the siege of Tenochtitlan, the spaniards attempted to build a trebuchet (the last known instance of one being built for an assault), but the projectile fell on it and it was destroyed. The spaniards used native allies to conquer the aztecs and the Tawantinsuyu empire. In most battles against the Inca, the spaniards and the native allies usually outnumbered the imperial forces.
@@boatadd3397 Samurai have +8 attack against unique units, Elite Samurai +12. I mostly play Japanese... the best counter are probably Hand Cannoneers. To counter Japanese AI, also create skirmishers, cuz Japanese AIs often create Arbalests.
10:57 The Magyar unique tech has been renamed "Corvinian army" Which makes more sense because why would call at tech that makes you stop paying your troops "Mercenaries" 11
@@adamnesico In midlle-ages non. They would consider our definition of profesional armies as mercenaries. Because they serve for coin. But the elite soldiers of midlle ages serve for kings honor and for rights to land. That's how knights work.
Hi I also considered this as a funny approach. Actualyl it should have been quite the opposite. Maybe Corvinian Army reserch should remove the food cost or just maybe halve the food and gold cost, that would make more sense. I think this unit still lacks some extra HP and attack points.
Cataphracts should easy clean samurai up since their anti-infantry bonus combined with logistica is much, much stronger than the samurais bonus vs unique units.
@@tilbardaga9827 Still a bit risky, though. Don't the Samurais have faster attack rate then Cataphracts? If both sides have relativelly small numbers, the Cataphracts' trample damage might not be enough to tilt the balance.
"Samurai are good against all unique units" Mangudai with hit and run: We are the exception Also you forgot the condoteirro, genitour and imperial skirmishers
I'm kind of sad that SOTL forgot to talk about Condotierri as counters to janissaries - they can even be built by the whole team as the Italian team bonus!
@@RiesenQuaffel Quoted directly from the age of empires wiki: "The Condottiero has a large attack bonus against gunpowder units, and bonus armor which negates 10 anti-infantry attack from Hand Cannoneers and Organ Guns. Thus, Condottieri are an effective counter for armies of Janissaries, Conquistadors, or Hand Cannoneers when matched up close"
@@slkdfjklasasdfasdf That is true, i am however quite certain that this is only because of the bonus damage he gets against gunpowder units, not due to the damage negation he gets. We might be both right. :D The best outcome!
Don't know whether I could micro all of that, but watching your videos is always a pleasure. Also, I find the fact that Lithuanian Leitis counters BOTH Boyars and Teutons very historically accurate, very nice piece of game design!
Hey @spiritofthelaw - just to say, since we have all been on lockdown for the past month or so here in the Uk. It’s given me a opportunity to get right back into AOE2 (haven’t played in years and years). Your channel has helped so much by getting online and holding my own against more experienced players. Good on you sir!!
Samurai vs Huskarl: Samurai; "ahhh easy victory, yosh" *another Huskarl shows up: Samurai; "Still no match for my Katana!" *5 more Huskarls appear: Samurai; "Ehm guys can we take a break?" *40 more Huskarls emerge on the horizon: Samurai; "Wait this isn't how it's supposed to go.."
Saracens happen to be one of 2 civs in the game that have a complete archery range with full upgrades, I think they're still fine vs teutonic knights. :D
50 FU cataphracts can take down 150 halbs easily, 40 catas kill 100 halbs with 4-5 casualties. So halbs are not really a counter to mass cataphracts with logistica
I'm playing AOE2 with my wife and friends and I'm kinda teaching them how to do so. So I'm here to do some learning and pass the knowledge to them. Sooo good content. Thanks Spirit, you are awesome.
What d'ya mean destroying castles to deal with unique units don't apply to Huskarls? No unique unit is as good at destroying castles as the Huskarl. *Tarkan making sad Hun noises in the corner*
Samurai still shred Teutonic Knights since they cost significantly less resources and are still doing 12 damage to the Teutonic Knights, which is actually almost as much as the TKs do to them (17 damage) and have a significantly faster attack speed. TKs are probably one of the worst Teuton counters to Samurai.
Looking closely at the portrair... man, some of them have quite a few hints to historical accuracy. For example, the Huscarl having a pseudo-Roman helmet, being the inheritors of the corpse of Western Rome. I know the specific model had fallen out of use centuries before, but the fact that they thought about it as a nod to Rome speaks well of the developers.
Basically, Mongol Mangudai is the counter to all unique units, in large enough numbers. Keep their faster Siege Onager handy for cutting larger armies down to size, and do intense micro
heh even gunpowder troops have issues v these guys but seige weapons can shut them down etc. or any normal infantry can the teutonic knight can do it easy.
I counted moments you mentioned unique unit as a counter to unique unit and it goes like this: X unit can counter Y other units, from best to least best: Huscarl: 8 Cataphract: 6 Genoese Crossbowman: 5 Camel Archer: 5 Teutonic Knight: 4 Samurai: 3 Mangudai: 2 Jaguar Warrior: 2 Slinger: 2 Kamayuk: 2 Magyar Huszar: 2 Leitis: 2 Mameluc: 1 Rattan Archer: 1 War Elephant: 1 Conquistador: 1 Indian Imperial Camel: 1 (i feel like you making charts, it was fun counting these) :'')
@@unimportantcommenter4356 1.2 movement nearly fast like calvary they are fastest foot archer in the game Huskael only move at 1.05 speed, if Huskael that fast, they already be top tier because that is an Eagel with cheaper cost.
Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but I ran some tests and found that cataphracts actually beat generic paladins in massed battles with help from Logistica. Frankish paladins seem to narrowly win, and boyars win convincingly, though.
You could probably mention Rattan Archers to counter almost all of the archer unique units. There are some situations where they would do better than the Huskarl, such as a choke point. Also I was really hoping you would bust out the Condo as a unique counter to Janissaries. Maybe not the best value, but some sick bonuses.
also vs byzantine cataphracs, in CBA you could go with slav boyar, which will shred those expensive units. otherwise, anything range will do.
4 года назад+1
Nah. Only Mamelukes are decent counter. Mamelukes are in fact very underrated unit. Well actualy Elephants can defeat Cataphracts, but they're too slow, so cataphracts can easily outmaneuver them.
@ mameluks deal no bonus dmg vs cataphracs. which means that they are okay, but not amazing like against other cavalry. the boyar high melee armor and high attack means that they will tear through them, and since they are not infantry like the teutonic knights they take no bonus dmg at all. in post-imp the cataphracs logistica makes it about even (but in my experience most cba games you vil before you hit imp unless you are persians)
Against Kamayuks i think that the Cataphracts can do very well, they basically negates their bonus damage ( plus the cataphract got a bonus against the Kamayuk ) and you also have the tremple damage to counter the "mass" of Kamayuk.
In my experience Condottiero still do bad against Janissaries despite their bonus. Too much damage output from the jannisary, usually all the condottieri die before they get to them
He gets his background music from Epidemic Sound, which you can find in the description of each video. As for SotL's own music, he said in the floating text for his channel intro that Antonio González Fernández posted that he does not want to use his AoE II content to promote his own music, and he'd rather keep them separate.
@@trystanclemenceau2071 It's practically impossible to dodge the shots of an army with more than 6 onagers. Especially if they are arranged in a concave formation.
@@masayukitachibana2756 At least 6 onagers, but the more, the merrier. Unless you're fighting Mangudai or a lot of Magyar Huszar, they should at the very least be even or kill most of the enemy army.
You are doing a great job giving back to the community SoTL. Keeping the game alive by teaching newbies to play, so that they stick around for longer. 🙏🏼
Its amazing to me how few people play the Persians given how frankly OP the war elephants are, I usually rush to A3 and just start cranking them out as fast as i can and its a highly effective and winning strategy.
they are slow, require castles, require a shit-ton of farms and gold, and get hard countered by monks and halbs (one of the cheapest units in the game). Unless you mass them so close to the enemy's base that they don't have time to react, or that the enemy doesn't have enough unit production buildings to replenish their losses quickly enough (cuz 1v1 elephants beat halbs, so they need to produce them quicker than you make elephants), they are pretty much useless, even in closed maps.
The throwing axeman is underrated: - you can counter huskarls/condotiere with hit and run tactics, those two are immune to handcanon and archer but not to the the axe You can deal with woad raiders like wise, and the axeman is effective against siege unit as well. Teutonnic are very slow, easy target! You can hit Samurai before they came at katana distance They also are better tanked than other "throwing something" units. In general, lots of players rely on paladin while playing franks but infantry is very good. You can mass axemans for raiding structures with no need of that much of siege, you can cover them with pikes or skirmirsh if you face arrows
For me, hands down, the best unique unit is Ballista Elephant's Khmer. It is literally an elephant with steroids, shooting two laser beams at the same time
I am from Spain I used to play a lot this game in 2006 with 16 year old I loved and I never played anymore for so many years as I though it has disappeared and now I have discovered again and this tutorials are amazing
I think he did not comment on Genitours, Imperial Skirmishers and Condotierri because they are team bonus units, not really unique to a single civ, but shared by that civ and their team. BTW he talked about Imperial Camels.
To counter samurai I’d use, hand cannons, archers, cav archers, siege onagers or scorpions and if you want a melee counter I’d probably go for the Teutonic knight or cataphract.
Ahahah at the start of the vid I was like "so ofc since spirit of the law...samurai everywhere ?" and when the samurai turn came ... didn't knew I could love your vids even more than before ^^
Mamelukes move faster and have more HP than Gbetos and Throwing Axemen, so they made them vulnerable to skirms. It makes total sense, since chasing down Mams with pikes is a tedious job, and the average civ doesnt have acces to ranged anti-cavarly options.
My favourites are Mangudai and Samurai. The former tend to suffer less against siege units and actually make using general Parthian tactics (not the upgrade) a viable combat option against infantry (Sans Huskarls) and even cavalry in small enough groups. The latter because they can clean up most of the more annoying unique units, maybe sans Mangudai and Longbowmen
Samurai also can't counter Longbowman, plumed archer, Janissary, War Elephant, Chu Ko Nu, Catapract, Arambai, Camel Archer, Mameluke, War Wagon. All he counter are melee unit except War Elephant.
@@blaubeer8039 The question is, what the numbers/ressources of the armies are. And if Hit and Run is allowed. If you have 40 Samurai against 30 not moving Longows, the Samurai would win.
@@blaubeer8039 First of all: yes, thats my point. second: ETK has shitty pierce Armor, so would not be op... i would say in those scenarios, Cataphracts and War Elephants would be op, i wonder why pros dont use them (**coughs** costs)
@@heidtb6746 I still think Samurai is too strong unit. He counter all melee units except melee elephants. Some think Paladin counter Samurai but I don't think so because Japanese %33 attack speed is too op. One-on-one battle, Paladin wins but with equal resource Samurai wins.
I seem to remember it being in some files on the aoe website and accessing them at the same time as the beta copy I was a given just before release. I'm sure they're circulating and can be google searched, but I don't know a good place to find the whole set anymore, sorry. The wiki posts the higher res pictures, if there's a small number you want to copy? ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Camel_Archer
When you mention the Spanish conquistadors as a counter to the Aztec Jaguar Warriors... I see a historical meme potential here :). (Maybe a red-eyed Jaguar warrior). Also "counter the unique units - smash the castle" is a wisdom worthy the Alexander of Macedonia :D (you know, the Gordian knot solution). Should be carved to stone to be preserved for the future generations.
In their natural habitat, Mamelukes bunch up in large numbers where they thrive, not blending in with other camels. Mamelukes are isolationist in nature but welcome friendly visitors for gold which is their favourite resource. Cavalry archers are always a welcomed addition to the herd on occasion. If you walk in the presence of mamelukes, be wary, there are often a wild siege ram or onagers accompanying the packs travels. Mighty devastating if left unattended, a wild Saracen in very late game is when agitated a furious beast.
Acttually, I think, Turks are strong with gun power against infantry civilizations. But there are two disadvantages. Since the Turks do not have the Elite Skirm, they do not have enough responses against the Archer Rush and the Mass Archer type unit. Skirm is okay in Feudal Age. But in Castle Age, Ram, Scorp, Mangonel, Light Cav (auto-upgrade), Cav Archer might be the answer. With their support, standard skirm can also be used in Castle Age. It's better than nothing. Maybe it can be used for Janis's range advantage. In Castle Age, Janis's range is more than the Longbow. But they can be ineffective if the enemy has good micro skills. Bbc can also be used with them in post-imp. But they require a minimum range and are expensive. New buff will provide an advantage for using all these weapons more effectively with the Scout line against archers civs. The second major disadvantage of the Turks is not having Halb against the heavy cavalry. Light Cav (later Hussar) + Camel may also compensate. In fact, the Light Cav + Camel combination work quite well in the early game against Heavy Cav civs. In the early game, the Light Cav also enable gold accumulation. It is safer to train more Camels as an anti-cav unit in the early game, rather than a range unit against cavalry civilizations. I think a lot more Camels should have been preferred to Cav Archer or Janis. The Large Hussar + Camel army could support a small number of Cav Archer, Janis or Hand Cannoneer against Halb. Additionally, as a Turk, it would be better to play partially closed against the heavy cavalry civilization. In addition, the Turks are the underating Cav Archer civilization. If Hussar + Cav Archer + Bbc is used, it might be an alternative answer against both type civs in the mid-late game. But it's not response erly rush. I think many strategies can be applied with Turks other than Fast Imp. Many tactics such as Fast Castle, Castle Drop, Knight Rush can be applied. Cavalier becomes Fully Upgrade and is quite similar to the Paladin. (Stronger than Byzantine's and Celt's Paladin.) Cavalier can be used as if it were a Paladin. In Castle Age, one should not be afraid to train the Knights if necessary. Knight can be trained if the opponent is Archer civilization and has Knight. Camel can be trained if the opponent is Cav and has a Knight. Knights and Camels work well with Janis, Cav Archer, and Crossbow. Even the Crossbow can be trained in Castle Age. Supports Janis or Cav Archer with higher accuracy until mid-late game. Scout Rush can also be done. In the Feudal Age, other units can be used depending on the situation.
So the Turks are really a little weak. But the real challenge is that it is a difficult civilization to play with the usual build orders and strategies.
Huskarls are so satisfying to get a flood with. You don’t even really need seige units with them because they just don’t care about the castles and towers hitting them.
If you start the timestamps with 0:00 RUclips itself enables some segments on the video progression bar, i don't know if your channel is eligible for that feature or you don't know it yet. Probably the first.
so for the people wondering: mass archers and scorpions trade well against Samurai, unique units that can beat them are anything that can hit and run (mangudai, gbeto, conquistador) and slingers, also teutonic knights and jaguar warriors trade 50/50
![10 Tricks I use to play faster [AoE2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DGUGkEfQjKE/mqdefault.jpg)
![10 Tricks I use to play faster [AoE2]](/img/tr.png)
Spirit of the Law: "Destroying a castle is a great way of dealing with unique units as well."
Goths: *laughs in Anarchy
Yup.. Leaving even a single Goth barracks unattended is the same as neglecting an entire enemy base. Their production speed is nuts
Tarkans from Stables: Same, bruh
Huns: *smirks in Marauders
@@RMOB What is this, a crossover raiding party?
@JoeRingo118 Sounds about right. haha
*archer unique unit mentioned*
Huskarl: stay back fam, I got this
Chu Ko Nu says hello.
Edit: Ah wait. Nevermind
@@Doctorgeo7 Still do minimum damage with each arrow, and the Huskarl has fast unit speed and anti-archer bonus damage so they can shred Chus easily too. Sure if mass vs low numbers of Huskarls the Chus are viable, but it's never gonna be cost effective and they can never put up a fight against a Huskarl flood.
chu ko nu are absolutely useless against huskarls. They only do like 5 damage to huskarls while the huskarls do more than 20 .You will get slaughtered if you try to use any ranged units against mass huskarls
@@Real_MisterSir If not you can use their special tactic..... 1v1.... 2v2.... 3v4..... 5v6..... 6v9..... 7vs12..... 8vs18..... 9vs25..... the hell? how do they reproduce so fast!? are they rabbits or something? XD
*melee unit gets mentioned*
Teutonic knight: *laughs in deus vult*
For those wondering, Samurai still die to archers, and while it's a very expensive matchup, Teutonic Knights pull the fight close enough that they can stop a samurai advance. Anything tanky, such as any unique Elephant unit, will also get the job done through sheer HP, it's just not exactly a fun trade since they'll deal decent damage to you on the way out.
Teutonic Knights would not be a unit I'd use against Samurai. Teuton Champions would do a better job against them due to not taking bonus damage and having +2 melee armor. Even if it takes time to get to Champions, Teutonic Knights (even after their gold cost reduction in the last patch) are a poor choice because their vaunted armor doesn't help them.
In any case, the Teutons should be using Hand Cannoneers against Samurai.
What about hand canoneers?
@@astron800dishonor, Christianity, western food and hand cannoners are the best counters for samurai.
My massed Chu ko nu will make short work of them.
"You think I'm gonna tell you how to counter samurai? Nice try"
SOTL says as he shows samurai after samurai get mowed down by cav archers
Ty SOTL 😉
"Samurai beats all unique units"
Turtle ship and Longboat : "Come and get me"
Do you not have African Kingdoms? What about poor Caravel?
you just have to put them on a transport ship then they can attack them
Trying to remember if this was tested out. Especially with the addition of Mangrove maps.
cataphract beat samurai
@@paladin3784 One on one, I think the Samurai wins. But in mass? *That trample damage makes a WORLD of difference.*
Spirit of the law: So yes, just create an army of onagers and destroy everything that can move.
Well, do you know the player Fatslob?
@@zaratrustamaster--- Fortified Wall Research Complete ---
@@zaratrustamaster though fatslob creates an army of that spear thing (oh its called scorpions) and destroys everything that can move
Magyar huzar mangudai bombard cannon, viper micro, and bombard ships all disagree
@@joaobras3836 Muito bem dito!
Me: *nervously watching this video while being swarmed by 200 condotierri*
Come on, SOTL. Don't fail me now :(
yeah, i thought they were gonna be mentioned as the counter of conquistadors
The counter to mass condos is raiding
lol
Condos should've been mentioned if slingers were mentioned. ;)
i would say everything but the cannonier that works against infantry works agains him, which is not motch to be honest but i guess brute force like champions and paladins will do the job. Also teutonic knights
Aztecs countered by Conquistadors, savage.
Makes historical sense too me! Lol.
Nah that's not really true, they were beaten by their local enemies, conquistadors do nothing really, just sit and watch
Historically accurate
@@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014 not really
Contrary to popular belief, the spanish conquistadores hardly ever used cannons and muskets. They were often low in numbers, and gunpowder was a bitch to carry around and keep dry in the jungle. More often than not, they'd use crossbowmen and cavalry lancers. During the siege of Tenochtitlan, the spaniards attempted to build a trebuchet (the last known instance of one being built for an assault), but the projectile fell on it and it was destroyed.
The spaniards used native allies to conquer the aztecs and the Tawantinsuyu empire. In most battles against the Inca, the spaniards and the native allies usually outnumbered the imperial forces.
How to counter Japanese samurai, Knight and archer lines are good.
Just use samurai counter samurai simple :)
Wait your comment from 2 hours ago!?
@@boatadd3397 Samurai have +8 attack against unique units, Elite Samurai +12. I mostly play Japanese... the best counter are probably Hand Cannoneers. To counter Japanese AI, also create skirmishers, cuz Japanese AIs often create Arbalests.
@@boatadd3397 You're a wizard Harry!
How the hell is your comment older than the video
+ gunpowder units smash them hard just Like in history :/
Sotl: *makes a video on counters*
Mangonel: it's free real estate
*laughs in magyars*
10:57 The Magyar unique tech has been renamed "Corvinian army" Which makes more sense because why would call at tech that makes you stop paying your troops "Mercenaries" 11
The "Corvinian army" was the "Black army of Hungary", which if I am not mistaken were mercenaries. So it's pretty much still the same thing.
@@heviarey Full time nercenaries.
Wich is the diference between that and a profesional army?
@@adamnesico In midlle-ages non. They would consider our definition of profesional armies as mercenaries. Because they serve for coin. But the elite soldiers of midlle ages serve for kings honor and for rights to land. That's how knights work.
Hi
I also considered this as a funny approach. Actualyl it should have been quite the opposite. Maybe Corvinian Army reserch should remove the food cost or just maybe halve the food and gold cost, that would make more sense.
I think this unit still lacks some extra HP and attack points.
Counter for samurai: Pretty much the same as counters for the champion line, just don't use any unique units.
Or use ones which aren't gonna get hit like mangudai or arambai
@@nickq8093 Yeah, I suppose. Gotta micro them though.
Cataphracts should easy clean samurai up since their anti-infantry bonus combined with logistica is much, much stronger than the samurais bonus vs unique units.
@@tilbardaga9827 Still a bit risky, though. Don't the Samurais have faster attack rate then Cataphracts? If both sides have relativelly small numbers, the Cataphracts' trample damage might not be enough to tilt the balance.
@@MrDibara cataphracts get armor that negates bonus damage, that plus almost twice the hp and trample damage equals cataphracts winning.
Countering every unique units in AoE2?
*_Nobody expect the _**_-Cobra cars-_**_ Spanish villagers_*
maybe cav archers or mass of arbalests/longbowmen.
@@MarSHornetsandWasps-v26 no, CASTLES....thats the only way.
Monks: now that is a pretty sweet _convertible_ .
@@hhs_leviathan their mass will flood your city in no time
"Samurai are good against all unique units"
Mangudai with hit and run: We are the exception
Also you forgot the condoteirro, genitour and imperial skirmishers
Wait for it ..... The mongols
And Cataphract. You dont care about about 12 UU bonus damage, when you deal 18 vs inf and 5 trample.
also forgot missionaries (probably the go to vs war elephantos) and the FLAMING CAMEL
And the Longboat and turtle ship
@@shigerufan1 and Caravel. Always fogotten unit.
Dude the Jaguar warrior counters the huskarl perfectly. The cataphract is expensive and slow to mass
For teutons I would recommend Briton longbowmen for counter. Their large range and the slow speed of teutons can be crucia;
I'm kind of sad that SOTL forgot to talk about Condotierri as counters to janissaries - they can even be built by the whole team as the Italian team bonus!
I dont think it works, since they online Block the Bonus damage of gunpowder Units?
@@RiesenQuaffel Quoted directly from the age of empires wiki:
"The Condottiero has a large attack bonus against gunpowder units, and bonus armor which negates 10 anti-infantry attack from Hand Cannoneers and Organ Guns. Thus, Condottieri are an effective counter for armies of Janissaries, Conquistadors, or Hand Cannoneers when matched up close"
@@slkdfjklasasdfasdf That is true, i am however quite certain that this is only because of the bonus damage he gets against gunpowder units, not due to the damage negation he gets. We might be both right. :D The best outcome!
what i learned from this.
does it have more than 2 legs, throw spears at it
does it shoot you, Huscarl
does it stab you, samurai or heavy cav.
"does it have more than 2 legs, throw spears at it"
Got it! Thanks! (**attacks magyar huszars with skirmishers**)
also does it breathe: use onager
Don't know whether I could micro all of that, but watching your videos is always a pleasure. Also, I find the fact that Lithuanian Leitis counters BOTH Boyars and Teutons very historically accurate, very nice piece of game design!
Hey @spiritofthelaw - just to say, since we have all been on lockdown for the past month or so here in the Uk. It’s given me a opportunity to get right back into AOE2 (haven’t played in years and years). Your channel has helped so much by getting online and holding my own against more experienced players. Good on you sir!!
´Samurai are great against all unique units´
*Mangudai: Are you challenging me?*
Samurai vs Huskarl: Samurai; "ahhh easy victory, yosh"
*another Huskarl shows up: Samurai; "Still no match for my Katana!"
*5 more Huskarls appear: Samurai; "Ehm guys can we take a break?"
*40 more Huskarls emerge on the horizon: Samurai; "Wait this isn't how it's supposed to go.."
Mangudai: oh, you're approaching me? Instead of running away, you are running right at me?
Well... once Mongols tried to invade Japan and they was repeled by a samurai army in the very same shore-line.
@@MisantropoFilantropo Surely you mean the remaining "army" gathered on the shore after the fleet was destroyed by the typhoon?
Longboat: Are you challenging me?
"Hey guys, Spirit of the La Hire. Build Samurai. Go Japanese! Thank you for watching."
Blood on my sword is almost dry
Them Brits can't make a castle stronger than LaHire!
Forcing Saracens into infinite micro with Teutons sounds hilarious XD
the teutons will need some range to back that up aka some cav archers or so to do it.
Saracens happen to be one of 2 civs in the game that have a complete archery range with full upgrades, I think they're still fine vs teutonic knights. :D
Pace is key in this kind of tutorials. I’ll be glad you reconsider how inconvenient is to spit out this amount of data without letting process.
I actually didn't know that Cataphracs did this well against Camels! It'd be nice to have their creation time buffed :)
And also remember the extra 5dmg from trample if you have grouped units fighting, they are literally an anti anti-anti any unit-unit.
50 FU cataphracts can take down 150 halbs easily, 40 catas kill 100 halbs with 4-5 casualties. So halbs are not really a counter to mass cataphracts with logistica
@@StraightEdgeNexus It's way too expensive though to tech into... Elite + Logistica is ridiculously pricey!
@@AgeofNoob that is true, unfortunately
@@StraightEdgeNexus just got made cheaper by today's patch. * byzantine music starts playing*
1:31 "the conquistador is more historically accurate" lol well hes not wrong...But i didnt expect that 😂
Thank you, Spirit!
why you named "two handed swordsman", but your profile pic is a rattan archer?
@@SethBennion The world would never know ;)
Holy shit. It's him!
I'm playing AOE2 with my wife and friends and I'm kinda teaching them how to do so. So I'm here to do some learning and pass the knowledge to them. Sooo good content. Thanks Spirit, you are awesome.
Is it ranged? Huskarl
Also: Destroying castles to deal with unique units, may not apply to them as well^^
Ranged? Huskarls
All castles destroyed? Huskarls
Melee? Just outproduce them with your Huskarls
This is why Goths is love
@@Real_MisterSirkinda like Soviet WW2 tactics 101
What d'ya mean destroying castles to deal with unique units don't apply to Huskarls? No unique unit is as good at destroying castles as the Huskarl.
*Tarkan making sad Hun noises in the corner*
@@nathanbrown8680 i meant destroying the castles of a goth player may not stop the huskarl flood
@@st.salton4024 Yes, that's what makes the inversion humorous.
But SoTL how am I supposed to counter the Flaming Camels?
Simple torch em
Supremacy Villagers
Let them come close to your units so they build more.
Villager rush
Spam petard
"I'll recommend another unique unit that counters them the best"
*unsheathes Katana*
6:43 as a Goth main I would recommend not fighting them at all and just killing the player before they can become a threat.
Onagers: common folks' remedy vs elite unique units
Spirit of the law: samurais doesn't have counter
Teutonic knight: **laughs in old german**
Cataphracts...I got this
Even Micro with Frank Axe-Thrower is a good counter
Samurai still shred Teutonic Knights since they cost significantly less resources and are still doing 12 damage to the Teutonic Knights, which is actually almost as much as the TKs do to them (17 damage) and have a significantly faster attack speed. TKs are probably one of the worst Teuton counters to Samurai.
Knights and champions and archers and cavalry archer all work well against them
Nope, teutonic knight is not a good counter against samurai
Looking closely at the portrair... man, some of them have quite a few hints to historical accuracy. For example, the Huscarl having a pseudo-Roman helmet, being the inheritors of the corpse of Western Rome. I know the specific model had fallen out of use centuries before, but the fact that they thought about it as a nod to Rome speaks well of the developers.
This is gonna be really helpful! Thank you for this, mate! Holy cow... every single time I try to counter someone, it flops, haha
* sad condottiere noise *
Yeah like seriously. It counter all the gunpowder UUs.
*VERY SAD Genitour noise*
* sad pasta noises *
*Infantry unique unit mentioned*
Catphract: *I'm gonna end this man's whole career*
PD: The Elite Samurai has +12 damage against unique units.
I remember them also doing badly against Teutonic Knights, though that may have been in a test without Logistica
@@nathanbrown8680 Yeah, Logistica is the key for the Cataphract to succeed
Is a Catphract a highly armored cat? Would love to see those in action.
@@MadnessTW Sounds more like a sick or injured cat. "Sorry, you're cat's fracked, bro"
but cataphract has +16 armour, right? Or does the armour only work against anti-cav bonus?
Basically, Mongol Mangudai is the counter to all unique units, in large enough numbers.
Keep their faster Siege Onager handy for cutting larger armies down to size, and do intense micro
Emperor in a barrel still OP no counter, nerf plz.
🤣
11
I love that you put the times for each unit. Super helpful to pull up mid game
*any archer unique unit*
goth: IS IT MY TIME TO SHINE!?
It funny how huskal can catch up with those plum...
slingers and hand cannoneers : are we joke to you?
huskarls : well, no, but actually yes.
heh even gunpowder troops have issues v these guys but seige weapons can shut them down etc. or any normal infantry can the teutonic knight can do it easy.
SOTL: I play Japanese most of the time, do you think I will tell you how to counter them? Nice try.
* Shows Samurai getting slaughtered by Kipchaks *
So you're gonna do a separate category for team units like Condottiero, Genitour and Imp.Skirmisher?
Please
I counted moments you mentioned unique unit as a counter to unique unit and it goes like this:
X unit can counter Y other units, from best to least best:
Huscarl: 8
Cataphract: 6
Genoese Crossbowman: 5
Camel Archer: 5
Teutonic Knight: 4
Samurai: 3
Mangudai: 2
Jaguar Warrior: 2
Slinger: 2
Kamayuk: 2
Magyar Huszar: 2
Leitis: 2
Mameluc: 1
Rattan Archer: 1
War Elephant: 1
Conquistador: 1
Indian Imperial Camel: 1
(i feel like you making charts, it was fun counting these)
:'')
Funny enough that Huskal can counter Anti Inf Archer unit like Plum...
@@anghainguyen9951 Plums deal like +3 infantry damage, so its ot that high, and it has similar movement speed to the Huskael.
@@unimportantcommenter4356 1.2 movement nearly fast like calvary they are fastest foot archer in the game Huskael only move at 1.05 speed, if Huskael that fast, they already be top tier because that is an Eagel with cheaper cost.
my favorite counter to the Janissary...
AND THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!
Honestly wondering when I'm gonna get my polish faction in AoE. They're right there, just.. just put em' in coach
The Lithuanians can somewhat compensate for the lack of Polish though. I still think Polish needs a separate representation.
Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but I ran some tests and found that cataphracts actually beat generic paladins in massed battles with help from Logistica. Frankish paladins seem to narrowly win, and boyars win convincingly, though.
You could probably mention Rattan Archers to counter almost all of the archer unique units. There are some situations where they would do better than the Huskarl, such as a choke point.
Also I was really hoping you would bust out the Condo as a unique counter to Janissaries. Maybe not the best value, but some sick bonuses.
also vs byzantine cataphracs, in CBA you could go with slav boyar, which will shred those expensive units.
otherwise, anything range will do.
Nah. Only Mamelukes are decent counter. Mamelukes are in fact very underrated unit. Well actualy Elephants can defeat Cataphracts, but they're too slow, so cataphracts can easily outmaneuver them.
@ mameluks deal no bonus dmg vs cataphracs. which means that they are okay, but not amazing like against other cavalry.
the boyar high melee armor and high attack means that they will tear through them, and since they are not infantry like the teutonic knights they take no bonus dmg at all.
in post-imp the cataphracs logistica makes it about even (but in my experience most cba games you vil before you hit imp unless you are persians)
17:45 "especially for units like Mnagudai that need to be massed up in order to be effective"
Karambit Warrior: uh.....hi?
Hey Spirit of the Law, your guys here. Thank you for another video :)
conclusion: Huskarls and Genoise crossbows counter everything.
except teutonic knights hah
But not 200 Paladins.
Samurai: but i'm just too invincible for everyone.
@@candrarw5245 except normal units hah
@@longethdayv770 no there are literally no counters to samurai
according to SotL
Counter samurai with cataphracts, trample damage bonus could help when dealing with a mass attack
4:33 for 20 yrs of me playing this game...i thought they were called Wood Raiders....
For the longest time growing up with the game I thought they just misspelled road
@@TheBanzaiCharge roda rolla da? Jojo reference?
Against Kamayuks i think that the Cataphracts can do very well, they basically negates their bonus damage ( plus the cataphract got a bonus against the Kamayuk ) and you also have the tremple damage to counter the "mass" of Kamayuk.
16:32
Condottiero: Am I a joke to you?
In my experience Condottiero still do bad against Janissaries despite their bonus. Too much damage output from the jannisary, usually all the condottieri die before they get to them
@@tsardean9192 That's true, i forgot that the condottiero negates the bonus damage of the paintball shooters :(
What we need to remind from this : Play as Byzantines, Goths and Genoeses. Good job ! You countered the game !
When will you tell me how to find your music SOTL I really wanna hear your stuff!
Navy Paladin his own music, I think.
@@navypaladin9753 no are you stupid? Spirit of the law creates hes own music aswell, like hes intro for an example
@@navypaladin9753 Please delete your comment and then stay away from the comment section
(Edit) lol he actually deleted it
He gets his background music from Epidemic Sound, which you can find in the description of each video.
As for SotL's own music, he said in the floating text for his channel intro that Antonio González Fernández posted that he does not want to use his AoE II content to promote his own music, and he'd rather keep them separate.
This is one of the best AOE2 videos. I go back to it again and again. Great piece SotL!
Spirits counters to everything: onagers
Magyar Huszar: allow me to introduce myself
World Of Tanks Gamer 7 onagers are insanely strong tbh , especially with good micro
@@trystanclemenceau2071 It's practically impossible to dodge the shots of an army with more than 6 onagers. Especially if they are arranged in a concave formation.
Paulo Miranda hmm, so we need a *grand total* of 6 onagers?
@@masayukitachibana2756 At least 6 onagers, but the more, the merrier. Unless you're fighting Mangudai or a lot of Magyar Huszar, they should at the very least be even or kill most of the enemy army.
He didn't really give a counter to Magyar Huszars
With new DLCs out, a new video is needed
Samurai literally get countered by everything that isnt trash or a unique unit (even some of them with decent micro)
Not hard to counter at all
Yes, they aren't hard to counter, but if you go archers you need micro. Otherwise even hand cannons struggle in equal numbers.
You are doing a great job giving back to the community SoTL. Keeping the game alive by teaching newbies to play, so that they stick around for longer. 🙏🏼
Not telling the Samurai counter was hilarious.HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAH
Never change SOTL!
Its amazing to me how few people play the Persians given how frankly OP the war elephants are, I usually rush to A3 and just start cranking them out as fast as i can and its a highly effective and winning strategy.
they are slow, require castles, require a shit-ton of farms and gold, and get hard countered by monks and halbs (one of the cheapest units in the game). Unless you mass them so close to the enemy's base that they don't have time to react, or that the enemy doesn't have enough unit production buildings to replenish their losses quickly enough (cuz 1v1 elephants beat halbs, so they need to produce them quicker than you make elephants), they are pretty much useless, even in closed maps.
@@germanpenn you haven’t played enough Persia then.
NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION
1:28
You're not wrong.
@@thespanishinquisition4078 I gotta admit, as much I expected you in the video I did not expect you in the comments
The throwing axeman is underrated:
- you can counter huskarls/condotiere with hit and run tactics, those two are immune to handcanon and archer but not to the the axe
You can deal with woad raiders like wise, and the axeman is effective against siege unit as well.
Teutonnic are very slow, easy target!
You can hit Samurai before they came at katana distance
They also are better tanked than other "throwing something" units.
In general, lots of players rely on paladin while playing franks but infantry is very good. You can mass axemans for raiding structures with no need of that much of siege, you can cover them with pikes or skirmirsh if you face arrows
For me, hands down, the best unique unit is Ballista Elephant's Khmer. It is literally an elephant with steroids, shooting two laser beams at the same time
I really dig these kinds of videos, really informative and fun to watch. Keep them up!
What about the berber Genitour? :c
And Italians Condottieros
Camels
@@Real_MisterSir camels vs a berber is not going to work since berbs get cheaper camels
I am from Spain I used to play a lot this game in 2006 with 16 year old I loved and I never played anymore for so many years as I though it has disappeared and now I have discovered again and this tutorials are amazing
Technically we missed out on Genitours, Imperial Camels, Imperial Skirmishers and Condotierro.
and Samurai.
Lies! We got the Camel.
I think he did not comment on Genitours, Imperial Skirmishers and Condotierri because they are team bonus units, not really unique to a single civ, but shared by that civ and their team. BTW he talked about Imperial Camels.
To counter samurai I’d use, hand cannons, archers, cav archers, siege onagers or scorpions and if you want a melee counter I’d probably go for the Teutonic knight or cataphract.
Goths : "I'm the best infantry civilization in the game"
Aztecs,Japanese,Byzantines,Slavs : *SO YOU HAVE CHOOSEN DEATH*
Ahahah at the start of the vid I was like "so ofc since spirit of the law...samurai everywhere ?" and when the samurai turn came ... didn't knew I could love your vids even more than before ^^
I find it weird that Mamelukes take extra damage from Skirmishers when Gbeto and Throwing Axeman don't. They're all melee damage units.
Mamelukes move faster and have more HP than Gbetos and Throwing Axemen, so they made them vulnerable to skirms. It makes total sense, since chasing down Mams with pikes is a tedious job, and the average civ doesnt have acces to ranged anti-cavarly options.
My favourites are Mangudai and Samurai.
The former tend to suffer less against siege units and actually make using general Parthian tactics (not the upgrade) a viable combat option against infantry (Sans Huskarls) and even cavalry in small enough groups.
The latter because they can clean up most of the more annoying unique units, maybe sans Mangudai and Longbowmen
Samudai and Mangurai
You forgot the condottiero, my favorite unique unit. Feels bad men ☹️
If samurai counters every unique unit (or most unique units at very least), figure out which units counter the samurai
"Samurai counter all of them"
Not quite sure about Mangudai thou
Samurai also can't counter Longbowman, plumed archer, Janissary, War Elephant, Chu Ko Nu, Catapract, Arambai, Camel Archer, Mameluke, War Wagon. All he counter are melee unit except War Elephant.
@@blaubeer8039 The question is, what the numbers/ressources of the armies are. And if Hit and Run is allowed.
If you have 40 Samurai against 30 not moving Longows, the Samurai would win.
@@blaubeer8039 First of all: yes, thats my point.
second: ETK has shitty pierce Armor, so would not be op... i would say in those scenarios, Cataphracts and War Elephants would be op, i wonder why pros dont use them (**coughs** costs)
@@heidtb6746 if longbow doesn't move, even champion beat longbow. archers is zero without hit and run.
@@heidtb6746 I still think Samurai is too strong unit. He counter all melee units except melee elephants. Some think Paladin counter Samurai but I don't think so because Japanese %33 attack speed is too op. One-on-one battle, Paladin wins but with equal resource Samurai wins.
uh where were the mayans, huns, water uniques?
I’m surprised he didn’t put samurai as the counter for each and every unit
The zoom-in on that Conquistador made me think that there was a tactical scope on that musket and I got really confused for a moment.
He just forgets Spanish missionaries what a heretic
Nobody expects the Spanish missionaries, after all.
Brits: Oi mate, what in the Queen's name are you doin? Get off that bloody donkey!
Great video. Been getting back into AOE2 after a 20 year hiatus so it’s timely lol
"Best counter is the Huskarl" Rattan Archer is like "am I a joke to you?"
As always as I say, Goths are a doomsday machine. If he started to move them barracks then you already f'ed up.
Spirit ! Please answer me ! Where did u find the "arts" of every unique unit in big size
for exemple at (3:22)
I seem to remember it being in some files on the aoe website and accessing them at the same time as the beta copy I was a given just before release. I'm sure they're circulating and can be google searched, but I don't know a good place to find the whole set anymore, sorry. The wiki posts the higher res pictures, if there's a small number you want to copy? ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Camel_Archer
@@SpiritOfTheLaw Thx sir
The downsite with countering anyone with the Cataphracts are that you have to play as the Byzantine.
When you mention the Spanish conquistadors as a counter to the Aztec Jaguar Warriors... I see a historical meme potential here :). (Maybe a red-eyed Jaguar warrior). Also "counter the unique units - smash the castle" is a wisdom worthy the Alexander of Macedonia :D (you know, the Gordian knot solution). Should be carved to stone to be preserved for the future generations.
Sotl: to counter the Japanese samurai just, *_GIVE UP AND LET DEATH AND DARKNESS EMBRACE YOU_*
In their natural habitat, Mamelukes bunch up in large numbers where they thrive, not blending in with other camels. Mamelukes are isolationist in nature but welcome friendly visitors for gold which is their favourite resource. Cavalry archers are always a welcomed addition to the herd on occasion. If you walk in the presence of mamelukes, be wary, there are often a wild siege ram or onagers accompanying the packs travels. Mighty devastating if left unattended, a wild Saracen in very late game is when agitated a furious beast.
"Every *land* unique unit" doesn't mention unique ships kappa
Been waiting for this one, so glad to see this video
Great work as always Spirit, thank you for your content
New Player-Lol Turks have such a weak unique unit
Me a Turk player- Laughs in free hussar and best bombard cannons
Acttually, I think, Turks are strong with gun power against infantry civilizations. But there are two disadvantages.
Since the Turks do not have the Elite Skirm, they do not have enough responses against the Archer Rush and the Mass Archer type unit.
Skirm is okay in Feudal Age.
But in Castle Age, Ram, Scorp, Mangonel, Light Cav (auto-upgrade), Cav Archer might be the answer. With their support, standard skirm can also be used in Castle Age. It's better than nothing.
Maybe it can be used for Janis's range advantage. In Castle Age, Janis's range is more than the Longbow. But they can be ineffective if the enemy has good micro skills.
Bbc can also be used with them in post-imp. But they require a minimum range and are expensive.
New buff will provide an advantage for using all these weapons more effectively with the Scout line against archers civs.
The second major disadvantage of the Turks is not having Halb against the heavy cavalry. Light Cav (later Hussar) + Camel may also compensate.
In fact, the Light Cav + Camel combination work quite well in the early game against Heavy Cav civs. In the early game, the Light Cav also enable gold accumulation. It is safer to train more Camels as an anti-cav unit in the early game, rather than a range unit against cavalry civilizations. I think a lot more Camels should have been preferred to Cav Archer or Janis. The Large Hussar + Camel army could support a small number of Cav Archer, Janis or Hand Cannoneer against Halb.
Additionally, as a Turk, it would be better to play partially closed against the heavy cavalry civilization.
In addition, the Turks are the underating Cav Archer civilization. If Hussar + Cav Archer + Bbc is used, it might be an alternative answer against both type civs in the mid-late game. But it's not response erly rush.
I think many strategies can be applied with Turks other than Fast Imp. Many tactics such as Fast Castle, Castle Drop, Knight Rush can be applied.
Cavalier becomes Fully Upgrade and is quite similar to the Paladin. (Stronger than Byzantine's and Celt's Paladin.) Cavalier can be used as if it were a Paladin. In Castle Age, one should not be afraid to train the Knights if necessary. Knight can be trained if the opponent is Archer civilization and has Knight. Camel can be trained if the opponent is Cav and has a Knight. Knights and Camels work well with Janis, Cav Archer, and Crossbow.
Even the Crossbow can be trained in Castle Age. Supports Janis or Cav Archer with higher accuracy until mid-late game.
Scout Rush can also be done. In the Feudal Age, other units can be used depending on the situation.
So the Turks are really a little weak. But the real challenge is that it is a difficult civilization to play with the usual build orders and strategies.
Im pretty sure without your video I would of not won I single goddamn ranked game. Keep up the quality material my friend!
Huskarls are so satisfying to get a flood with. You don’t even really need seige units with them because they just don’t care about the castles and towers hitting them.
@Sprit of The Law - Are you going to upload an updated version of this video including (maybe only to make it simple?!) the new DLC civs??
If you start the timestamps with 0:00 RUclips itself enables some segments on the video progression bar, i don't know if your channel is eligible for that feature or you don't know it yet. Probably the first.
so for the people
wondering: mass archers and scorpions trade well against Samurai, unique units that can beat them are anything that can hit and run (mangudai, gbeto, conquistador) and slingers, also teutonic knights and jaguar warriors trade 50/50
"Next up is the one I know you all came here for...the samurai!" Classic!
Would love a follow up on this video with the new Indian DLC.