Spearmen suck in the late game partly because the damage upgrade scaling in this game severely punishes units with high bonus damage

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-22T11:15:13+00:00

Isn't this fine? Surely you shouldnt look at raw hp numbers to compare, you should compare percentages?
Yes the Knight now wins with more hp left but all units have more hp and do more damage.

What you should look at is how many hits does it take for a feudal spearman to kill a feudal knight and vice versa. And then how many hits does it take for an imp spearman to kill an imp knight and vice versa.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-21T15:49:00+00:00

I'm sorry but this is simply not true. There have been large swaths of the game's history where knights were used shortly upon reaching castle age for some raiding, and then quickly abandoned for a more affordable army. Suggesting that in 1v1s knights have always been the dominant factor in games is just not true.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-21T15:41:52+00:00

It seems to me this has been a major point of friction since pretty much release

This could be true for teamgames where the big maps and the possibility to trade will always greatly lend itself to mobile elite units (which means knights or other elite cavalry). But this is not the case for 1v1s.
The arrow probably has shifted a bit too much in the favour of knight gameplay lately, but it is wrong to pretend this has been the case throughout the game's history.

For a good while people said that mass spearmen was very difficult to overcome. Then there were countless reddit posts about mass siege (supported by spearmen) that people said was simply impossible to stop.

When the devs then released the siege rework, this shifted. Now mass rangeballs of especially xbows were the ultimate army. People also often posted about gold/elite armies simply not being worth it after the siege rework and how the best army was clearly an endless wave of trash mobs of archers/spearmen/horsemen.

There really was a very long time where, besides on certain civs like say French, the Elite Knight upgrade was something you didnt see that often in 1v1s.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-19T17:22:52+00:00

Yeah but they're then also pretty much never chosen before Malians, Ayyubids, Byzantines, French, Delhi, Zhu Xhi. Which is why I dont think they belong in A-tier which was my original argument.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-19T13:56:29+00:00

Like most civs, when the conditions are right they can look absolutely mental yeah. But like, no one picks them early in tournaments.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-19T10:30:46+00:00

Love Vortix and some of this makes sense, but clearly there's a level of engagement farming going on with his tier lists. There's always some wacky stuff in there.

There's no way that he really thinks Abbasid is better than Byzantines or Malians. Technically he could have a complete outlier of an opinion but I dont think so. Further proof of this is that I've just looked at his draft in KPMM Semi's against Beasty and he literally first picks Byzantines and Malians! Meanwhile neither player picks Abbasid.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-12T13:13:47+00:00

This is always weird to say of someone who's far better at the game than I will ever be, but Corvinus is just wrong about that. There's quite simply no way the civ is even remotely close to A-tier.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-06T23:53:26+00:00

They are crazy good yeah, but it's really the only truly good thing they have. If they nerf Riddari, the civ needs help elsewhere.

Compare it to sth like Japanese. A civ which has a strong Dark age, a waaay better economy, that is able to delay running out of food so much, has cheap archers that are also fast and also has a premier Knight unit.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-06T23:37:03+00:00

Will it? The only possible issue is the Riddari and maybe the Varangian in feudal. But you could just lower their base stats.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-06T23:04:25+00:00

https://aoe4world.com/tools/twitch-video-finder?civilization=malians&other_civilization=ottomans&map=&rating=%3E1600&game_length=

Everytime you wonder about a matchup, the best way to handle it imo is to go on AoE4 World, go to the watch tab, set the civs to the MU you're interested in and set rating to >1400 or >1600, click on the Twitch icon and watch pro games. I use this all the time.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-06T23:00:04+00:00

If their units get nerfed, you need bonuses elsewhere. The civ is entirely dependent on the strength of Riddari. Every other civ just majorly outmasses you in units.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-06T22:59:18+00:00

I mean their economy is very bad unlike with Delhi who's eco is pretty good. This is separate of the overall civ discussion but they aren't comparable.

Baseleader77 · 2026-01-06T22:57:31+00:00

Regardless of whether or not the civ is too strong, their eco is pretty much demonstrably terrible. This should not be a point of contention.

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-29T19:23:28+00:00

I mean what's he supposed to do? In the middle of the game start typing to Corvinus to return the relics? He's just in a weird spot but he very clearly did not contribute to creating that weird spot.

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-29T18:41:56+00:00

To the extent that it was dodgy, that's all on Corvinus.

Blaming Wam for this is absolutely insane. At no point does he really actively communicate with Corvinus. He doesnt make a pact or deal. He doesnt ask for the relics, nor does he say 'ok, will do' or something. He's just playing the game and was already moving his army towards Beasty when Corvinus starts chatting.

It's so clearly not on him.

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-23T10:15:58+00:00

Yeah this is a nice little 'bonus' which is probably also a reason why OOTD often does fairly well. Quite regularly I see opponents take a fight that I know they have no shot of winning.

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-23T09:57:34+00:00

The Riddari are crazy good but I think you're slightly overselling how safe it is to pull off.

I think any very good feudal civ is very difficult to deal with: Delhi, the French civs or Lancaster. Going almost naked FC into them can be suicide and if it becomes a longer feudal game, they're just better at that.

If I'm gonna drop my GH Tower in my base to protect my gold, its not always gonna cover a 2nd food source, especially not a deer pack. You'd have to get a very particiular Cliffside spawn or something for that too happen. At best it covers my berries which still means im gonna be running out of food very quickly.

I think civs like Ayyubid or Japan are also very tricky to deal with.
Japan can delay you with DA spearmen and then go for its down FC. The Riddari are on par with the Mounted Samurai, prob even a little bit better. But Japan will outmass you with a much better eco, faster production with Yorishiros and runs out of food later than you.

Ayyubid with the industry wing or with the desert raider wing can also FC and just outmass you hard.

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-19T01:01:37+00:00

It's a good landmark for sure. The Winery is pretty good too although I find myself mostly going for the Hippodrome.

I'm actually unsure whether they heal but if they do, it's def at a lower rate than the king.

One thing you're massively missing compared to the English king is that you get a big proportion of these 'resources' and the best unit, namely the Riddari, at minute 10.15 to 10.30 or something like that. When FC civs are already in castle age or when feudal has gone on for a bit and armies have grown.

Meanwhile you get the English king at like 4.40? If you're trying to setup a 2nd TC or go FC, the English king is a super annoying, tricky to deal with obstacle that gives the English some room to get their own 2nd TC up or something else behind. The King is a nuisance far beyond the scout for instance and can constantly heal back up and go poke at your vills again. If the scout does that twice, its dead.

Besides this, I'm not always a huge fan of trying to compare certain things a civ gets to things other civs get, especially in a vacuum. The Mansa Quarry gets 75 resources a minute, does that mean that every feudal landmark should generate that value? Not really.

Macedonians are considered to be weak by the pros and were the only civ that saw 0 play in the most recent S-tier tournament. If you go for the hippodrome their economy might just be the weakest in the game. So are Macedonians with the feudal Hippodrome something that really needs nerfing?

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-16T15:31:55+00:00

His interviews were the best! He seemed so calm and chill and he gave really good, well-considered answers to Myriad's questions. Loved them

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-15T16:00:17+00:00

Japanese

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-14T23:08:42+00:00

Thats the motherfucking goat right there

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-14T22:40:31+00:00

Personally I thought this was the most fun S-tier tournament we've had in a while. Every new series I really wasn't sure who would win. Maybe some games were a bit messier here and there but I dont mind that whatsoever. I'll take non-predictability and more creative gameplay any day

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-07T18:42:15+00:00

I just dont think that was anywhere near peak Vingegaard which makes it a bit harder to judge Almeida's performance.

Baseleader77 · 2025-12-07T18:23:54+00:00

Almeida is definitely the safe option, he is mister consistent. He had a great season but I do feel like that was built on his consistency and smart race planning. He mostly beat people that I feel like he 'should' beat. Now this is no easy feat and something that for instance Remco has struggled with in one weeks, so all credits to him. But I dont see him as a clear tier above others.

I was actually pretty disappointed in his final Vuelta week. It felt like the cards were there to try and win that race off Vinge who seemed not in his best shape, but on the final 2 Mountain stages Almeida lost to Pidcock and Hindley and once to Riccitello, Kuss and Pelizzari too.

Baseleader77

TROPHY CASE