Top 5 Most Unfair Units In AoE2

[@busTedOaS]

to be fair, the Mangudai being unfairly good is kind of historically accurate

[@Ustaleone]

Haha. Well said.

[@enriquer3612]

Their only defeat came against Mamelukes, it seems that mongol's horses were disgusted by the smell of camels. 😂😂😂

[@ariisee]

@@enriquer3612 It's actually true, in real life, horses ARE disgusted by the smell of camels. So, as horses are "afraid" of camels, Camel units in AoE II counter other Cavalry. I'm writing this partly for people looking at the answers and thinking you joking XD

[@AotO_DJ]

@@ariisee I thought camels won against horses is because they are bigger, stronger and gave their rider the leverage because of the height advantage.

[@setaverse]

To be unfair*

[@AS.47]

Honestly I was expecting to see the Hussite Wagon. Imagine missclicking and wasting resources on that; giving such an unfair advantage to your opponent... Awesome list nonetheless ;)

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Lmaoooo 😂😂

[@michaelsorensen5434]

It’s the cobra car… what else could it be?

[@Cba409]

How do I turn this on?

[@cannnds]

⁠@@Cba409 wimpywimpywimpy

[@tamaskosa4456]

Yes, once your opponent gets them out on the field they're very hard to deal with!

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

To smithereens

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

The cheat units in AOE were even worse.

[@mikelivingood7797]

Mandugai and drill siege units, mandugai have always been S tier and their siege bonus damage puts them over the top.

[@TheKobasen]

Remember when mangudai have 0 frame delay? That was insane, even if you have bad micro. They also have 60HP in castle age, combined with bloodlines you essentially have heavy cavalry archer in castle age.

[@saleem2991]

The 0 frame delayed was somewhat compensated by high ping back then.

[@smugshrug]

my guesses are the flaming camel and the petard. i've just got a feeling.

[@anaccountmusthaveaname9110]

I think Houfnice feels the most unfair. It's not as versatile on open maps as many on this list, but it's such a frustrating thing to deal with. You see the cannons shapeshift and you know you have lost the game. Especially if it's a closed map and you can't even raid.

[@germanpenn]

True. It's like a long-ranged onager, and it can deal pretty much with anything except perhaps condotierri

[@walterwalter-ql1np]

I strongly disagree with this, the upgrade for the Houfnice costs 1,100 food and 800 gold, not including the cost of Chemistry which is needed as well- That's really expensive for a unit that dies to 23 Arbalester shots. If your opponent can afford to get Houfnices and simultaneously be pushing you hard enough/is turtled well enough that you cannot counter raid, you've simply been losing the match the whole time.

[@anaccountmusthaveaname9110]

​@@walterwalter-ql1np yeah good luck counter raiding on Arena.

[@walterwalter-ql1np]

@@anaccountmusthaveaname9110 There's literally so many ways to do that, rams onagers, archers etc. Also the longer you wait to raid on Arena the harder it gets since your opponent will start picking up wall and building upgrades which give them more HP- the Bohemians are NOT a fast civ, you should be raiding them first, unless it's a team game and your focus is elsewhere, in which case your team needs to co-ordinate. Still: a mere 24 Arbalester shots kill this extremely expensive late imp unit. Ask yourself a very important question: Why does my opponent have the resources to fund taking the Houfnice upgrade in the first place?

[@anaccountmusthaveaname9110]

@@walterwalter-ql1np It is fairly easy to stall an Arena game with a civ like Bohemians and just wait for your power options. The ability to build bombard cannons instantly in imp pretty much denies all early imp pushes. Skilled players are good at playing conservatively with a defensively strong civ.

[@doomerquiet1909]

The kamayuk stays my underrated favorite “op” unit. No one expects the kamy bois

[@longbow857]

Not expecting them doesn't make them good tho.

[@michaelsorensen5434]

But they are extremely good. They are dominate everything and fabric shields helps them resist range just a little more. Every time I use them it smooth sailing

[@opiliones4202]

​@@michaelsorensen5434every time, huh?

[@reto6859]

I think, Kamayuk is the closest you can get to a "One Unit Kills all unit" in AoE except maybe Mangudai or Berserks. They all only have soft counters and are really good vs a lot of things

[@fishcake4473]

The original steppe lancer, also an accurate portrayal of why pikemen formations were op irl lol

[@mubashirulmoula1798]

3:28 - Gurjaras. Can't pick the order. Both S.Rider and Chakram are OP as hell.

[@amberbethknowles9429]

That’s what I said too

[@ondrakolarik888]

Exactly! Given the fact, that you can also do Kshathrias (or whatever the spelling is), in late game it's unbeatable comp. But, the problem does not stop there... Just think, how do you counter them in castle age, when they can just destroy any archers, raid your eco - not every civ has camels (plus you can add your own) and they outrun anything else (pikes do absolutely nothing, if you micro at minimum)

[@Dawnrim]

The scenario was ‘when they’re on the field’ implying that the cost is not really a factor. So for the top civ combo, I’ll say coustillier followed by 190 pop Flemish Milita (last 10 pop is trebs)

[@Endrit719]

I started beating easily the extreme AI when I started using mangonels, thanks to your videos

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Congrats!

[@ohtani2024]

Hera would you like to make a video to rank the most OP units in all historical official versions? Some came to my mind: 1. Korean War Wagon in AOC 1.0, the range was insane 2. Burmese Arambai paired with mangonel crushed everything 3. Cumans Steppe Lancer was once broken 4. Malay Karambit Warrior was like roaches, costed just 10 golds, virtually a high attack trash unit 5. Mangudai with 0 frame delay, even more broken then today?

[@Fregler]

Mangudai and Drill SO what else can it be? Edit: Yup, the kind of units whose only counter is: don't let it happen and I feel Mongols are the only Civ that has two of those. I still remember the dark pre-nerf era...shivers.

[@thekween9037]

Mayans are the only other thing like that, I lose to that civ a lot for similar reasons

[@88porpoise]

So for a guess, there has to be Longbows and Mangudai in the top five, and with the "standard, classic" for number three and wirh Drill SO being clearly more unfair than Warwolf Trebs it has to be longbow, Drill SO, and then Mangudai.

[@HiyokoSupiritto]

I still remember how they nerfed the mangudai in HD before, with deleting their bonus against siege, but this turns them into a slightly stronger cavalry archer

[@lightman8527]

I think the most unfair, if you can get to it, would be spanish cannon galleon. Not only the projectile is stupid fast, but it also reloads(shoots) faster, and has balistics. Similar reason on why it isn't nerfed, is it takes very long to get to, and water maps are not very popular. I had few games where I could lock down entire area on black forest(out of all the maps) just because I had a small lake, with 3-5 cannon galleys

[@dominicmartin8886]

I was about to comment "no mention of Spanish Cannon Galleons?"😂

[@daarom3472]

I've won games on FFA/diplo Nomad where I just boomed as Spanish and then tried to get to 100+ Canon Galleons. Then put a few vils in a transport and just surround all shore lines preventing the enemy from building docks. Then just wait for them to resign!

[@ComfyDents]

You monster! (while taking notes)​@@daarom3472

[@shacolin6546]

I thought of Mangudai being up there, but once you mentioned two units of the same civ, I just didn't assumed speed alone was enough to get Siege Onagers that high up. I thought of Ethiopians Arbalest + Siege Onager but then concluded that Ethiopians arbalest's DPS couldn't outweight britons' range.

[@DrRobGilles]

I’m legit shocked Hera didn’t say Aztec monks 😂 Also I think houfnice would have made the list over long boats. Partly because water maps aren’t that popular Also kinda confused that poles didn’t make the list because of how hard they are to get there… but the top 2 picks are strong indeed but arguably the hardest to get to. Especially in combination. Only other unit that is probably harder to get to is probably war elephants

[@maushetzer1925]

I'd say the Obuch scares me more than the Polish knight rush as well. No reliable counters in castle age aside from siege. They have about equal durability to arrows per total resource cost as the knights but don't require the castle tech to get there. Best counters are unique units or bohemian early hcs.

[@daarom3472]

fully boomed persian with elite war elephants can only be countered by a few specific UU's (Mamlukes, Kamayuks, Genoesee), and even then it's tough.

[@albertmolina8186]

expected the conquistador in place of the longboat.... I guess that shows I don't really play water maps :'D

[@Phoenix-il5hc]

I think only civ that can handle Mongol late game is Magyar. Their CA + UU combo are only thing that can match Mangudai + hussar + Siege. I know some people might think of Berbers but in my experience they do fine till early imp or before Drill Siege comes into play so you need to end game before that.

[@fallen2624]

I'm gonna guess mangudai and drill onager for number 2 and 1 respectively. Edit: Messed up the order but got the untis correctly. Surprised castle age centurion wasn't on the list or at least honorable mention

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Because its imperial age version is mediocre, only reason

[@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm]

No you didn't, Hera messed up the order.

[@stardustreverie9737]

3:20 I was thinking about the Chakram Thrower and Shrivamsha Rider.

[@tiancheng8549]

Furor Celtica needs buff. Their siege hit point bonus should go back to 50%. Shinkichon should go back to +2 range too.

[@tolecovers]

thanks for the content Hera

[@wintersdarkestlight3066]

How about a top 5 worst / more useless (at least in most situations) technology video?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

I think i made one of those

[@ariisee]

I think SOTL already covered this with all math included.

[@Nomatterwhat69]

Top 5 most unfair units: -Mongols scouts in dark age laming you -Mongols eco for a scout rush -Mongols steppe lancers with FC and +18 HP -Mangudais -Drill siege

[@lathamtk]

I knew Mangudai had to be SOMEWHERE on that list and since you said the last 2 belong to the same civ, I knew exactly what was coming :)

[@CaptainThemerica]

I’m shocked the monk didn’t make the list.

[@El3andro]

I think the Korean SO with more range is also very strong. I would have expected rather this than the Mongolian one. However, with a bit of micro you can outmicro the longer range with the speed

[@Gunsbeerfreedom87]

I figured it'd be the Mongol Lancer in #2, not the SO, just because getting to SO is time consuming and costly.

[@QuintemTA]

It's a if they get it, you're doomed. SO on it's own is silly, whenever I manage to get them in a ranked match and my opponent does not have access to bombards, it feels disgusting. That much worse when it's 50% faster SO.

[@Gunsbeerfreedom87]

@@QuintemTA Personally I rarely go for SO, but I'm just a 900 scrub with egregious mangonel/onager micro. Mongol scorpions are very underrated though IMO.

[@QuintemTA]

@@Gunsbeerfreedom87 Keep practising. They're great at ruining archer civs without bombards day. I'm just 1150ish ELO and even people are my rank don't dodge the shots all that well. As for Mongol scorpions, I don't know their speed would be slightly faster than an archer, why would you make them over mangudai? You'd need a castle for the tech anyway, might as well make mangudai at that point. Maybe there is a niche for it. Opponent makes lots of skirmishers and you don't want friendly fire of onagers. But then you've got decent hussar to deal with skirmishers.

[@mertkaan802]

This video also could be called, "the best civ for Michi/AmazonTunnel/BF"

[@harold5997]

yeah poles cav especially late game hussars are pretty much made for this list :D

[@Kawabongahlive]

Ok I was wrong 11. For another top 5 ideas how about "top 5 unit duo combos" like Cataphract + Skirm or Huskarl + Halb, Plumed Archer + Eagle, etc. Power couples

[@tiancheng8549]

longboat should require war galley upgrade. Same to other unique water units, but they can probably use a little bit of buff

[@lolaldanee2743]

amn, so close mangudai nr 1 was obvious, but i went with steplancer for nr 2

[@livsnjutarennr2649]

I am glad the Poles received a cavelry bonus since they stand for the greatest cavelry chrge in history

[@hareshneeraj998]

Guesses for 1 and 2 at 3:37 - Shrivamsha riders and chakram throwers.

[@aspirenux8599]

Mangudai is the first one which come into my mind ...

[@randmacfarlane1456]

I think mamalukes should be on this list they also shred everything and feel completely broken vs a lot of civs.

[@SepticIndia]

Longbowman : Unfair unit Siege Ram: I'm about to destroy this guy's entire civilization.

[@wandraak58]

fun trick is to use siege tower there instead - its much faster than Ram and can even take more arrows - you save on ram upgrades

[@ProfeSeb]

I was expecting conquistadores to be on the list

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

after nerf they are still strong but not OP

[@Jack1Wilians]

I think your missing Shrivamsha Rider, even if the eagle warrior as 8 peirce armour 100 hp, because the rider has the shield that regens, he can raid the economy endlessly sometimes without taking damage, they also counter most of the "unfair units" that you put here

[@pianospeedrun]

grujaras feel so op to mee, their ranged castle guy is so strong as soon as you get a few going, great camels, the shrivamsha... maybe they got nerfed since last time i played but at their launch the whole faction felt unfair

[@Progeusz]

i was surprised it wasn't Shrivamshas or Monks but your choices make perfect sense

[@butterflyspinart]

I also think a honorable mention to teuton castles, especially when you're on islands and stuck with a civ without cannon galleon

[@alexmanzer5756]

Bit surprised conqs didn’t get an honourable mention.

[@0captain01]

Man... I was thinking about the frisbee boys!😂

[@tetrislunatic4290]

I go with the double guess 🙈 Either Mangudai and SL or Conqs and Missionary

[@majike0355]

I was half-expecting to see Cataphrekts. Love those guys!

[@ronaldrage2118]

Guess: bohemian houfnice+food monks Edit: but ofc! I'd honestly swap mongol SO with ram tbh, unless it's michi or bf.

[@evanjacob8463]

@Hera make a top 5 of units or civs that need to be buffed.

[@ariisee]

You've missed a unit. Mass Khmer Scorpions are incredible, and the only way to deal with them is by going Onagers/Bombard Cannons. The Scorpions are cheap, and I've played an unranked game on Michi once (I'm a noob, in 1v1s I have around 1k ELO, maybe a bit more), 1v1, Portuguese vs Khmers. When I treecutted and flooded my enemy with 140 Cavaliers+Light Cavalry I destroyed 75% of his base. Then he stopped me, and when I threw another 60 Light Cavalry (with Feitorias I can do stuff like that), he destroyed it in seconds. After rewatching the game (I resigned because it was getting long and I had to go) I discovered that he made like 15 Siege Workshops quickly enough to train 100 Heavy Scorpions. It's uncounterable without Bombard Cannons. The only good thing is the enemy can't push your castles with Scorpions, but they kill all cavalry, infantry and archers. If you've placed Mongols Siege Onager on the list that's only countered by Bombard Cannons, you should do the same with Khmer Heavy Scorpions.

[@09kaustubh]

Korean war wagons and turtle ships. Let's see if I got it right.

[@BelialTnTn]

At first I thought "maybe Gurjaras?" but I was quickly reminded by the video that Siege Onagers haven't been mentioned yet so I got it right.

[@exeonx6561]

Definitely agree with #1, it's basically a counter to most deathballs out there. I do think you are missing houfnice here, yes not that impressive on say arabia, but any closed map it feels so bad going up against houfnice.

[@NivMizzet89]

Petition to just call the Dravidian ship Terry and solve all issues.

[@fornoRaisin]

fully upgraded tartar trebuchets on high ground are cool.

[@pwelsh6501]

The juiced Bombard cannons and the charge horse

[@louisstemler5004]

Hi Hera, what do you think is better? Fully upgraded Mayan Eagle or fully upgraded Aztec's one?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Mayans and its not even close

[@louisstemler5004]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 thanks for answering 🥰

[@giangargo669]

i would have guessed the bengali monk or the shivramsha would have gotten on the list, the gurjara siege ele in castle it's also insane, 4 of them make a castle disappear almost as fast as 4 siege ram with siege engeneer, min 18!!

[@bananan7]

Gotta be Bohemians Houfnice and Wagons are really hard to counter late game

[@resiliencewithin]

I thought about it but monks and hussars can push them good

[@PF650T]

surprised to see that cataphracts didn't get included

[@luciangrand1943]

Drill is an insane tech. It's like Redemption: it takes away a weakness of a powerful unit.

[@niks2584yt]

aah! I had guessed Shrivamsha at #2 and Chakrams at #1.. but your selections make more sense!!

[@Yassir833]

Top 5 best combos in the game My best one is longbow man + Halberdier + trebs with Britons

[@Yearofthebows24]

I was shocked Huskarals didn't even make honorable mention, but totally agree with this list

[@quaweds]

Im lower ranked but im tried mangudai a few times and I just get shredded by romans, I actually really thought Centurion was going to be number 1. I even switched and easily then won with Centurion next game.

[@thegrapist777]

I can already tell #1&2 are the Shelby AC Cobra and Furious the Monkey Boy from the good ol' USA 😁

[@iliyas007]

Husseit wagons and upgraded bombard canon for Bohemians

[@hansoskar1911]

Mangudai and Drill SO. maybe Siege Ram. but Hera hates Rams so its propably SO.

[@cisaacson7131]

Idea for a video. Top 5 team game civ combos.

[@rdeez5974]

My guess for 2 units from same civ would be Gujaras: Shrivamsha Rider and hoops throwers

[@kousthubkaivar4184]

I was expecting Elephant Archers to be on this list, cause if you can mass 40+ elephant archers they're nearly unstoppable unless someone gets mass SOs themselves

[@buffalosoulja3666]

When he said two from the same Civ I thought Conqs and Missionaries. 😂 Bengalis FU Ele Archer are worth a mention. They are trading cost effective vs Skirms atm

[@gElectroniks]

hey, nice review. I kinda agree with all units you described, stil i got to mention something. the mangudai is indeed very hard to counter in general, so is the longbowman. But that only applies in general, not to some unique particular civs. The eagle and the huskarl easily counters the longbowman, for example, and the berber camel archer makes short work of any number of mangudai if they are at least half or more stacked than the mangudai number. :D

[@livsnjutarennr2649]

I have been playing Italians a lot recently so my guess is their unigue units. Super fun civ to play

[@andrewstanford4071]

i was thinking either mangudai, extra hp hussar. or mangudai, drill siege

[@onikoneko]

Note that the Portugese Caravel is the perfect counter to groups of longboats, it just melts them. Plus camel archers and genitours will steamroll mangudai, but this is all really civ specific

[@Progeusz]

nah, genitours can lose to Mangudai and easily get outran too. They also die to every other unit Mongols make

[@nilayvyas668]

How about the Top 5 Civs in Post Imperial? Maybe break it out by maps category or specific maps, like open, closed, semi-open, and water or Arabia, Arena, Enclosed (not sure about what you would consider to be semi-open) and Islands.

[@xavierpironier59]

Mass houfnice and wagons would be my guess for 1 and 2... Tbf tho, spanish ch and spanish paladin could be up there as well... Or lithuanian leitis + skirm or so...

[@agustinfranco0]

i thought Missionary and Conquistador, just the 2 that came to mind for the same civ lol

[@niki8280]

The most unfair units are 5. Viper meme units. The dude made xolotls look unstoppable on RF 4. Hera vills under pressure. They spawn so quickly, find unlimited farming space and it's impossible to kill them all 3. MBL so 2. Hoang TC eaters 1. Mangudai (No further explanation required)

[@chaos_dwarf]

I think Leitis with a few relics can be a complete terror, they can even melt pikes and camels, busted dps. Unless you've massed archers, with some meat shield in front already, the leiciai rip through everything. 4-relic ones can even 2 shot villagers!

[@nicolasguinot4007]

Leitis are so strong right now, they should nerf their base melee attack especially in castle age

[@hjluke4807]

Mangudai is the greatest unit of all time- I will literally not play aoe2 anymore if they nerf them.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

They wont get nerfed for a while i think

[@Glaciatio]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 i will quit if they're nerfed tbh, mongols win rate isn't absurd

[@doguhanaktas1262]

I also expected Hindustanis HC, Bohemian houfnice, Celts scorps+ halb, Bohemian flemish revolution

[@mrclock4861]

In mid ELO, the Huskarl should be way up the list. It is so cheap and destroys any archer built that is not executed perfectly. And since Huskarls are available in Castle Age (unlike Eldorado elite Eagles), the typical mid ELO player cannot do anything to prevent it's economy getting raided to oblivion, because longswords men will not be out on the field fast enough (also the Goths player will simple mix in its own ridiculously cheap longswords men as well).

[@konradkuaj79]

I’d guess it would be 2. Siege onager with mongol tech and 1. Magundai

[@aplaceofevil]

You mention the only counter to Mangudai is the skirmisher which is fair since that's a unit everyone can get. But how do you think the camel archer stacks up against them though?

[@CrnaStrela]

They won decisively, it's just composition wise, Berbers would still lose thanks to drill SO.

[@BlueShellshock]

Yeah, saw #1 coming. It's not just the unit itself, it's everything that surrounds it too. An excellent trash to frontline for them, plus the potential to mix in #2, it's just... you can counter part of the comp, but not the entire thing. You can never catch #1 even when all the Hussar die, whereas they will happily cause the enemy to lose gold even in a fight they 'won'. It takes specific units like Genoese Crossbows or Camel Archers, and even then, if #2 shows up, I have seen them turn the situation around anyways.

[@nikolaikolev7833]

When I heard about n1 and 2 I immediately thought Mongol. I mean what can beat Mangudai.

[@ThatGuanfranco]

Great list as usual

[@ebaadansari6728]

The Shawarma riders with the extra armour kind of seems broken to me. The only unit that literally takes zero damage under the right conditions. their speed is another added bonus

[@enriquer3612]

Hahahahahaha, "Shawarma" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@EliasHasle]

@@enriquer3612 It's Sriracha! 😁

[@jerer6885]

First mangodai second drill so Edit: Called it but I have to say korean so are so underrated. The extra Distance just feels unnatural

[@stuartmacaulay5761]

The Korean bonus of no minimum range is even better. If you have wagons you can also move them together constantly in a far and near waypoint, basically making them invisible or impossible to target 😅 like Mongols, the issue is reaching that stage

[@AnkaraAnkaraMessiMessiMessi]

Monks... hate monks

[@alfredeinstein115]

3:45: my eco management (symbolic image)

[@Unkuttarace]

Love your videos, hope i'll be good as you one day, xoxo from switzerland

[@garymckeon5410]

monks when yo is in charge of them :)

[@couchpotatoe91]

My guess is torsion engine siege onagers and mangudai aka the mongol deathball.

[@tomtenthij5676]

Great Video Heraaa!!!!!!!!

[@rubywest5166]

It was either gonna be Gurjara Imp camel + Shrivamsha riders or Mongol SO+Mangudai Either of those would be the fuckiest fuckers to fight... Thought it would be Gurjaras when Two units from the same civ were mentioned, but going in my #1 thought was Mangudai

[@1776huckleberry]

my guess is roman units, the cav unit and the onager boat.