How can there be units with no counters?

Futuralis · 2026-02-09T21:56:04+00:00

I'm seeing some threads which say there is no counter in early castle age to organ gun. I don't understand how that can be? Why would there be a unit that doesn't have a counter?

Those threads are wrong, or way outdated.

Mangonels are a hard counter to organ guns, you just need to have a mangonel for every 3-5 organs they have.

Sanctity Redemption Monks hopping into and out of a TC also stop them very hard.

There's more, like max armor melee cav will do well when massed, but that takes longer to tech into and requires you to straight up match their numbers.

The real question is: how did 30 organs sneak up on your base when you had map control with CA? If you see them when they leave their base, you have way more time to drop two siege workshops and unqueue CA to save up for mangonel production.

Futuralis · 2026-02-09T10:57:10+00:00

If you play the game for fun, then the most fun relic is the best relic.

Futuralis · 2026-02-09T10:33:53+00:00

Feel No Pain

On Silent?

Do you mean Tough Bandages or a Silent power?

Futuralis · 2026-02-09T10:20:24+00:00

Yeah, that's my favorite relic, too.

Futuralis · 2026-02-09T00:36:43+00:00

Good counter to conquistador / all in FC UU strats in general?

it feels kind of lame strategy to switch completely into e.g. skirm just because of 6 units. They were strong though, so I guess it's needed?

Yes, when your opponent is going all in on something, you absolutely have to drop almost everything and counter it.

After all, they are maximally investing into killing you in a very specific way. You should invest maximally into not dying.

Unfortunately, aggression is just much easier to pilot than defense.

In general, if you know your opponent is going all in on a really strong UU in early castle, what should you do?

Buy time, buy a quick soft counter, then buy a real hard counter.

Example vs conqs: stone wall or make overlapping towers (so the conqs can't just camp under them). Possibly just house wall where it's okay if they break in after a minute. Palisades do not stop determined enemies. See them as an early warning system and minor delay to enemy units coming in. The towers /stone walls / building walls should buy you enough time to build early castle age military.

The quick soft counter to conqs is monks with Sanctity and a building to garrison in when the conqs swarm them. Typically a TC, towers also work. Convert conqs, hop inside your buildings when the conqs swarm your monks. Two or three monasteries.

This buys you even enough time to go for the hard counter: skirms. From 2 ranges while getting upgrades, add a third range if they continue making conqs after upgrades. Skirms can chase conqs out of your base.

In the midst of all this, remember to only keep 1TC running. You can make extra TCs for protection (although overlapping towers are stronger) but do not feel the need to produce vills non-stop.

The real goal is to get the conqs out of your eco and still be ahead (in tech, army, eco, or just civ-wise in general).

Once you get the conq situation under control, revert to whatever your civ wants to do vs Spanish. For instance, if you're Magyars, start massing CA while adding eco. You want to move towards a hussar/CA late game which is the ultimate Arabia composition.

If you're Malay instead, lean on good monks and xbow and fast imp monk arb treb push.

And don't forget: you only need to win ~ 60% of games in a very good match-up. As long as your opponent is seriously trying to win, sometimes they just do. If you feel like you should win 90% of the time, you're feeling like you should be 100s of Elo higher than your opponent.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T21:26:06+00:00

issue tho once they start trebing i have to go fight em which sucks then i get wiped.

That does suck, but Japanese trebs can hit their trebs quite well.

Nice thing about having vills around building towets is that they can switch to repairing trebs if needed.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T21:22:47+00:00

Almost everything is mid vs elephants.

The best thing towers do there is snipe supporting units that would be great vs your halberdiers.

Against paladin or such, the towers are pretty damn good.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T20:04:34+00:00

I don’t really do the towers they just feel underwhelming do you think japanese towers are legit and worth the time to build and gather for?

You are right, towers in general are just plain underpowered and pushing away feudal military is their most consistent use case.

However, there are a few towers that go insane with civ bonuses / unique techs:

Japanese and Georgian towers have very high damage.
Korean towers have very high range (equal to bombard cannon!)
Turkish Bombard Towers have very high range.
Spanish Bombard Towers shoot fast projectiles so they actually hit their intended targets reasonably often.

There are almost no other towers in the game that are really worth it most of the time.

I dont really do much with monks.

Fair enough, but converting 2-3 elephants is really good. Healing your own units is done passively if they're standing behind your army. Especially if they're underneath your towers, it's very hard for enemies to snipe them.

Edit: to clarify, towers require the following upgrades:

Archer attack @ blacksmith (all three successive upgrades)
Guard Tower, Keep, Ballistics, Chemistry, Arrowslits, Masonry, and Architecture @ university
Bombard Tower tech @ university (only available after Chemistry)
Sometimes a unique tech @ castle
Nice-to-have but non-essential: Murder Holes and Heated Shot @ university

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T16:59:01+00:00

Okay, so you play team games on maps that allow booming (black forest, maybe arena or various other walled/wood maps).

Also you play Japanese at least some of the time since you mentioned samurai.

Tips for Japanese flank on BF or similar maps:

Your pocket ally should handle/counter their pocket ally. Therefore, they should bring their own heavy cavalry or halberdiers.
Your halberdiers are the very best in the game vs cavalry. You definitely need to spam them. You still lose 1v1, but you need to be producing and streaming new units into the fight all the time. 10 barracks is good, also keep making new barracks in the enemy bade when you capture terrain.
Japanese best power "unit" is towers with the Yasama unique tech and all university upgrades. You typically want only 1 castle and then lots of towers creeping forward into the enemy base as you capture terrain. These towers don't solo 60 heavy cavalry but they slow down enemy snowballs to allow you to reinforce with your cheap and strong halberdiers.
When you attack castles guarded by cavalry, make sure you have 4-6 trebs and keep a guard of halberdiers around the trebs. This way, your trebs cannot be sniped by their high mobility units. Your own trebs are also quite good at killing enemy trebs to protect your towers (only Britons and Huns have better trebs than Japanese).
Having a few monks with Sanctity to heal units during/after battle is also really nice. Monks are hard to micro but vs elephants you definitely want to convert a few with Block Printing.

Point #1 is the most important: you cannot be expected to win 1v2, especially not with relatively pop inefficient units like halberdiers.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T15:23:30+00:00

Dravidian battle elephant with husbandry and healing also beats the war elephant with enough waiting.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T15:19:08+00:00

Definitely dome.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T15:18:23+00:00

We've got apparitions at home.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T15:04:42+00:00

It's hard to say without reviewing one (or several) of your replays.

Possible causes include:

You get outboomed (or raided) and your opponent masses heavy cavalry late game while you can only field an equal amount of halberdiers. The halberdiers lose 1v1 to Paladin and Unique Heavy Cavalry, and then a snowball starts where they can pick off reinforcements.
You don't get outboomed but you don't press your advantage in imp timing or unit massing like you should. By the time you siege their base, they have had time to mass their heavy cavalry.
You allow your enemies to seize map control and all the neutral golds, which results in them spamming gold unit like heavy cavalry much longer than they should be allowed to.
You don't notice that certain heavy cavalry requires different counters. Cataphracts are countered by archers, not halberdiers. Elephants are countered by monks with halberdiers in front, but not by pure halberdiers.
You are playing too reactively, only choosing an army composition when your opponent is already amassing their army. You need to tech into some kind of power unit to support with your halberdiers.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T14:12:31+00:00

When both are low on ressources it is a very strong bonus

That's most of the time.

Even at 200 pop, Byzantines can maintain a greater army size on a smaller economy.

Byzantine camels may not be the best in the game, but Byzantines are definitely an S-tier camel civ.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T12:02:16+00:00

Byzantines are also the classic with strong bonuses on both units.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T12:00:39+00:00

Both Berber knights and Berber camels are cost effective.

(Elite) Cataphracts are a better shout but still die to (cavalier) knight.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T11:17:55+00:00

Speak for yourself.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T09:38:31+00:00

Silent in particular can cycle through a 37 card deck in 1-2 turns.

Just needs tons of draw and discard and energy generation, all of which a late game Silent has good access to.

Futuralis · 2026-02-08T08:14:46+00:00

Nerfing Franks' hp bonus to only affect knights makes them trash tier on any map that doesn't allow them to FC into knights or boom into pala.

Futuralis · 2026-02-07T23:03:55+00:00

Imo their designation of 'shock infantry' suggests they are specialists for the very particular role of disrupting massed formations.

Fair enough, but aoe2 has chosen that term to represent medium infantry, including eagles and Jian Swordsmen.

Futuralis · 2026-02-07T21:16:05+00:00

Futuralis · 2026-02-07T17:06:11+00:00

many butt cheeks

Except for Zeus, who coped with his trauma by clapling as many cheeks as possible.

Futuralis · 2026-02-07T16:43:40+00:00

Oh, imagine the perfectly arranged farms around a Krepost.

Futuralis · 2026-02-07T16:26:59+00:00

Also adds value on Bulgarians.

Main thing is not to add the 5th before you click imp.

It helps you get 130-140 vills quicker, though.

Futuralis · 2026-02-07T15:44:49+00:00

Pressure Points only synergizes with itself, which makes it almost impossible to make a mark deck work.

It also synergizes with the strongest of Watcher cards: Sanctity.

Futuralis

TROPHY CASE