How To Beat Romans | AoE2

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00:00 Intro
01:18 Strengths
02:29 Weaknesses
05:51 Dealing With Militia-Line
09:02 Dealing With Scorpions
10:07 Dealing With Centurions
11:18 Dealing With Comitatenses
11:34 Your Game Plan
13:18 Figure Out Their Composition
13:50 Final Talk & Outro
Edits by / @k1aoe

[@GonzaloNDElia]

Do only legionaries improve their stats around centurions, or does all the militia line improve their stats? For example, does a 2HS improve its stats around the unique unit?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

good question, not sure about it. Will pin so a more knowledgeable viewer can help us

[@sgtpepper8581]

all militia line is affected

[@Anna-vx2pe]

They do but only your units no teammates

[@scespinosab]

All the militia line, not matter the civ. If you give Centurions to Japanese via scenario editor, you'll have super fast attacking champions :V. However it only affects your own units and not allied units.

[@bassegoder]

A converted centurion can also affect my militia line even if I'm not roman, or converting it makes it lose his aura?

[@MrShadowThief]

Germanic generals in the 1st century be like.

[@FatalExit]

Thank you for recording all these guides. Admittedly I don't play AOE2 nearly as much as I used to, but I love putting your guides on the second screen to learn cool stuff about the game, your voice has always been pleasant to listen to and clear while working on other stuff.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Hey fatal, thanks alot for the comment, very motivating to hear!

[@lonewolforigin]

Best way to deal with infantry, go mass archers. Best way to deal with knights, go mass archers. Best way to deal with Pikes, go mass archers. Best way to deal with camels, go mass archers. Best way to deal with Romans, go mass archers. Best way to deal with skirms, go (mass archers)².

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@MadArcherJr]

Range is the strongest mechanic. 1111111

[@ltcgamesdivision1815]

Last weak I won a 2v1, two romans against britons, so I can confirm hahaha (of course LEL)

[@vinconssier4224]

On arena he had mass scorpions and some rams and knights. He completely mopped up my mass of upgraded crossbows ;(

[@Davtwan]

The third weakness is especially important. Just like the Romans in history, raiding can seriously hurt them. They don’t have supplies and their UU is very expensive. A strong mid-game raid can make them go “GG.” (Current stats show they lose at mid-game the most.) Nevertheless, thanks for showing how to deal with their compositions. This will help with map control! ❤

[@lightworker2956]

Indeed. It seems the Romans are strong very early (man at arms) and very late (full centurion + legionary upgrades), but they're beatable in the midgame.

[@SpearMKW]

cant believe the builder still hasnt finished the town center in the time since the infantry civs video

[@EokaBeamer69]

I absolutely love how Hera builds these little towns for these videos. I bet with you that he plays exclusicely single player AoE2 simcity when he is off stream and secretely hates playing against others but still does it because he has to pay the bills somehow.

[@injest1928]

Don't mind me, I'm just writing a comment in hopes of being blessed with a Hera like. I hear it boosts Hussar production by 5%

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

upgrade to winged hussar my bro, thanks for the comment

[@injest1928]

@HeraAgeofEmpires2 I have been blessed 🙌 🐴🪽

[@DealDiscoverer]

Great video, by the way. I wonder if you can make a video about the top 5 or 3 civ with the smoothest transitions from the castle to Post Imperial or very late game. In some civ, it is more complicated than in others. Thank you, Hera, you always encourage us to keep playing :D

[@CBATOTHINKOFANAME1]

Love the cute little town setups you been doing lately on these vids bro

[@banlieuxy457]

The perfect farms 🤤

[@gebhard128]

This civ is so much fun, they probably need a small nerf but i want them to stay powerful so we see a strong infantry civ in tournaments

[@matthiasdarrington3271]

Nerf Centurion HARD. The rest is fun. Centurion spam is not.

[@stefanandrejcik571]

Too Costly slow training castle unique unit spam, no

[@maximan142]

​@@stefanandrejcik571honestly centurions are not that bad, I don't get all the hate

[@darthvitiate393]

No, it'll take away what I payed 14 dollars for

[@stefanandrejcik571]

@@maximan142 ye...

[@herotalib9556]

I been enjoying Roman's and playing vs them too. I do agree that monks really destroy them. Overall, they are stressful to play vs but that's because they are new. Reminds of how Japanese man at arms made me rage quit when I started and now it easily counterable.

[@Grafter83]

Hi Hera, thanks again for the amazing content! As always: just when I start thinking about a topic you already have a video out for it! One additional question on this. My fav civ is Mayans. I really struggled hard hard with archers against the double amor long swords. Eagles are also no option. What do you recommend for the Meso civs?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

great question, i guess plumes that have an attack bonus vs infantry, but it does sound rather rough

[@lukiano4704]

I forgot how easily longswords die to mangonels untill recently. Another thing I noticed is how much more important hill control is against slow and tanky units, since you get a longer time window to deal higher DPS. It’s very hard for longswords/legionaries and siege to push uphill vs xbows and your own siege. Mixing in knights is always a decent move at our low level to snipe scorps/mangonels, because sooner rather than later they will be out of position. It also makes the infantry movement more predicatble (if they blindly patrol, they will aggro onto your knights and you can kite a little), and it makes it easier to target fire your own mangonels. Just my observations and two cents :D

[@pancashirearmoire3681]

Wats funny about the romans strengths and weaknesses and how theyre played is it kinda of parallels how the romans were like irl. Romans had insane infantry, of course, with their legionnaires and they had centurions commanding legionnaires. and to maintain their hardy and powerful army, romans gotta pony up and pay a real pretty penny to maintain their army. This parallels with how the romans are like in game as well, as their main deathball composition is legionnaires & centurions, which is also expensive as hell. Then to top it off, they're the slow push kind of civ, much like how the romans, aside from their roads which allows them to march quickly from one place to another, are also generally a slow push practitioner, so many raids coming from multiple angles also ruined them irl, much like how it'll be one of the best ways to counter them late game.

[@janruudschutrups9382]

6:40 Good point, that's why I always supplement a couple of skirms with my MAA push to take care of any enemy archers they may come across. Works most of the times.

[@TheGame_123]

thx for this kind of vids, hera. the currently best player!

[@jt-music-media]

great stuff hera, thank you

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

np!

[@aries5576]

*Teutonic knights have entered the chat*

[@youcanthandlethetruth5433]

Thanks bro. What a great vid

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

my pleasure bro, glad you liked it

[@injest1928]

The best way to beat the Romans is with Alpine Elephants.

[@TheChimples]

It's a really well designed civ. I know it's a little bit OP right now but as Hera pointed out there are some options that people can go for to deal with the Roman style of aggression.

[@danielschmidt2683]

Please read that, then delete it

[@CBBGVHL]

I feel like this is going to pump up the game of many :)

[@booradley6832]

"or however you say that." Glad you asked. It's comitatenses or "co-meat-a-ten-seas"

[@giacomosimongini5452]

but seas is not seas, more like the french "ses" (meaning his/her), unfortunately I can't think of an english word with that sound, please help youtube

[@booradley6832]

@@giacomosimongini5452 you mean it would sound like "sez" or a one syllable quick "ses"? I am not gonna try to plant a flag as some sort of latin expert, I barely know anything about it, just how people who are more educated say these things. Would be interested in finding out. For further conjecture, I do not think its anything like "Velites" were it ends in "ays" like the ending of "Bluejays," but as someone who doesnt speak Spanish or Italian, Latin does not fit a pattern I already know well.

[@fwosti3548]

thanks!

[@BurpeeBeginner]

I think some bonus are amazing for pros/very good players only and others we can all share the experience. 5% on eco is insane for a pro but for me 1. I wouldn't notice and 2. 5% on 40 idle vills has no benefit at all🤣

[@Kawabongahlive]

Hello, Hera! What do you think of going castle age Cav Archers vs romans? Like, foot archers into Cav Archers. Apart from the centurion roman armies lack mobility.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

its not bad but scorps usually do well vs CA, maybe CA + mango (vs scorp) or monk (vs centurion) sounds good

[@bassegoder]

Also, cave archers can ride effectively... Let's say a mix between cav archers and húsar/steps? May it work? Maybe they cannot hold pressure that good...

[@dragovern]

raid someone to death is a good counter to every civ

[@Whokare]

It’s especially good against slow moving clunky compositions like infantry/scorpion. Use your mobility to weaken them

[@gonzaloruiz6642]

You are the GOAT

[@injest1928]

The Romans greatest enemy was themselves

[@muatring]

nice

[@diegom6376]

You should do this for every civ not just the new one that costed us to get

[@JAKEATO]

I remember the other Day Daut win against romans using the Vietnamese ideal comp elephantos , halbs and rattan archer.

[@spectre9065]

Onagers and Cavalry Archers should do the trick. Barring these, pick a civ that's even stronger in melee. Teutons have a lot of answers to Romans' strengths. Teutonic Knights, Paladins, Bombards, Onagers, monks. Slavs have less options but they have greater flexibility on land compared to Romans. They will struggle in Castle Age however, and that includes Boyars vs Centurions in equal pop (equalizing resources Castle Age Boyars win). I wonder how Roman scorpions fare against Celtish ones.

[@forsakenquery]

Celt HP and manoeuvre tends to win.

[@patrickbonnette1701]

Thats kind of funny considering they are the holy roman empire lol.

[@sixstrongguys]

Rome s scorpian is sooo strong.. It even kill knights like melting. It s cheap, easily mass, with pikeman in front, there is no way to counter but with canon. Charging with knights or scouts isnt really a good idea. I lose so many time, even against lower ELO players...

[@kremepye3613]

3:27 I'm also weak to BBC, i might go mix a batch and think about BBCs

[@yeeterboi]

Is playing Burmese to get the +1 infantry attack a viable counter? It balances out against armor in feudal and castle, so I would think it makes sense.

[@lightworker2956]

No, their infantry will beat yours. They get double the benefits from armor upgrades. In general the Teutonic Knight is probably the only infantry that you want to send against the Romans. The Romans are incredibly good at winning infantry vs infantry.

[@Dimiterer]

Hera: The only couter to roman man-at-arms is archers; Spanish and Bulgarians:😒

[@buttnuttz6119]

Spanish get conqs tho

[@theyrenihilists]

And Spanish get HC. Bulgarians are left with CA and bagains/2h. Yet another kick in the pants for us Bulgarian players.

[@jaarkhan]

​@@theyrenihilistssame for slavs tbh

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

bro those 2 civs get archers whats the problem 11

[@Dimiterer]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 they don't get crossbows

[@andrzejwilk7316]

do legionaries suffer from samurai's bonus vs unique?

[@minikawildflower]

My opponent: Romans Me: GG WP

[@Ayush-_-Sinha]

Thanks !!!I AM DONE GETTING SMOKED B Y THEM !!!

[@Crushnaut]

I think it would be interesting to have a civ run down in a video like this. Maybe like, these 2 civs crush, these 2 are awful, these 2 have interesting options.

[@mae12367]

Awesome video cause ive been getting wrecked

[@stevendonaldson1216]

This is supa high ELO video creating

[@thomasdwalker9696]

One issue I’ve found playing against the Romans is dealing with MASS scorpions.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

did my tips of monks or heavy siege work for u? In castle the micro trick to dodge the projectiles is great too. Let me know if u need anything else to deal with those suckers

[@kremepye3613]

Love you tip mate, give us more tip

[@lightworker2956]

I don't know what number you're thinking about when you're talking about "mass" scorpions, but often when someone asks "how do I deal with X", the answer is "kill them / raid them before they get there."

[@vongola8902]

Most of these sratergies needs micros(and timing), so I can imagine they're dominating low elos

[@raphaelguerin2691]

Do you think you could make a ffa game ? I think it could be fun to see you crush lower elo ppl that way .

[@GoldenSkeeter]

5v1 hera 1000elo max hera starts with arena style walls

[@raphaelguerin2691]

@@GoldenSkeeter nah I want ffa not 5v1

[@injest1928]

I misread that as fifa and was confused why you wanted him to play a football game 🤦‍♂️

[@raphaelguerin2691]

@@injest1928 lol i hate football haha

[@rahuldsouza1985]

You can use halb, scorpion and onager

[@I_like_flying]

1, 2 or 3 tcs?

[@michaeljustice4239]

Great to know they have weak range “UNTIS” lol 3:06 😂

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Good eye bro 😂

[@K1AoE]

thanks to you I now got a 50% paycutt for that

[@michaeljustice4239]

@@K1AoE hahaha sorry for 10% i review before it’s posted next time, that saves you 40% 😂😂

[@K1AoE]

@@michaeljustice4239 I'll hit you up 🤣

[@zeekbt_dores]

Good advice, but I'm definitely still losing to Romans 11

[@Advanta09]

What if they go all in knights + scorpions in Castle Age and you want to click up to imp?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Monks shut that down, go knights monks and u beat them for sure

[@raphaelguerin2691]

You wrote untis instead of units at 2:41 . Not sure if anyone told you already .

[@bassegoder]

What about a tower rush with Spanish, coreans, incas??? They artack your base with MaA but as you're forward they find nothing 😂 I mean, it's delaying the own development, but also roman's, which apparently needs a good one for it's strong units... You said at the beginning that better to focus on defense, but could messy games actually help?

[@pavan7900]

Romans are still not broken as Hindustanis/Gurjaras when they were first released...

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

keep in mind this is romans after they got nerfed!

[@pavan7900]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 You mean from previous iterations or same dlc got nerfed?

[@riseALK]

And those were nothing compared to Cumans at release

[@Spicy_wiener]

That TC placement at the end was horrible. Can't unsee.

[@tonyspare2468]

Hera, Rome wasn't beat in a day

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

it was beat in a video 11

[@MrEvanesced]

Best way to beat Romans: Be Hera 🙃

[@CesarBarca]

Buy the pretorian guard and sent them against the roman player

[@pbsoccer2]

Mongols (especially mangudai) hard counter the Romans

[@giorgiob.9149]

Hire Asterix and Obelix among your ranks 😏

[@hansoskar1911]

the problem is that the transition from feudal age to catle age composition is really hard to manage and if you are the defender you have to get it right or you lose.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

agreed

[@zudaha]

So against centurion you’ve gotonly monk as an option. Damn, with my micro, it’s normal I always die against them

[@user-uh7cb3vy4v]

what do you do as a civ without any ranged options? You just die i guess xd

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Thats the tricky part, monks knights is ur best bet i guess. Most non arch civs get hand canons at least though so thats good. Also id prolly open arch vs fhem even as bulg and spanish tbh

[@kaniox141]

Bbc sounds sus

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

I have a short all about that

[@Jayden-ed3ey8qc9t]

Well i will use boyars to kill them all bc They have 10 Melee Armor

[@migarizav]

Or just go japanese and use samurai and kill them works for me perfectly, i just did a video of japanese in spanish =)

[@AvelierPlays]

They need some nerfs, yeah you can learn to counter them but they still need to be toned down. I imagine this will come in time since they are relatively new, but they need big changes.

[@riseALK]

I wish Romans had a unique building and lost some bonus for that

[@lightworker2956]

The aquaduct?

[@riseALK]

@@lightworker2956 Yeah that was one of them (increase some stat of connected buildings). Other possibilities too like Hippodrome (generate resources based on number of houses within range), Castrum (Marching Camp) or Auxiliary Outpost or some other unique military building, or even something religious like Diocese (which were present in nearly all major Roman cities in the Late Roman Empire both east and west).

[@Matias_el_Mago]

Im still mad that Legionaries dont have a dual mode with ranged support with javelins, they made those chariots some patches ago, why not do the same with the Romans?

[@injest1928]

Would be interesting if they had a bar that recharges like a coustillier that gives a short but powerful ranged attack with a javelin. Another possible option could be that they only have one ranged attack after being created and then have to stay with meele

[@bassegoder]

Could be great if they weren't already broken. Also in closed formation reduce Pierce attack by 50% due to testudo tactic

[@injest1928]

That's a good idea too, would be a really cool unit if they could throw a javelin and gain piece armour in close formation. They could even go closer together in close formation. And lose a bit of movement speed.

[@bassegoder]

@@injest1928 well, I was being sarcastic

[@injest1928]

@@bassegoder well, i like your sarcastic idea.

[@lambaseded4845]

Maybe don’t abbreviate bombard cannon as bbc 💀😭

[@brandistocker]

Its ridiculous. Out of all civs here the Romans would deserve having “supplies” only. 😂😂😂 they were logistics geniuses😂😂😅

[@G31GER_AOE]

romans get full countered by teutons.

[@LeafMaltieze]

I don't like that you say Spears/pikes/halbs aren't good against Centurions. They are still very cost effective against them. You say that the centurions are fast so they can just pull the low health ones away and heal, but that is something that only high elo players are good at doing, it still takes that centurion out of the fight, and it doesn't stop the spear line from still being and effective counter. Are they less effective that they would be against Paladins? Yeah, a little, but they still have all their bonus damage, so they definitely aren't a bad option.

[@nicksterzz]

One simply does not beat the Romans…

[@林靜]

Don’t you guys feel the infantry UU looks like Berserk. Doesn’t look like Roman at all. Also why cape. Really awe design. Look really different from total war or any other Roman depiction.

[@chewbaccasaw5232]

Elo 900-1100 I’ve destroyed Roman’s 3 out of 3 now Turks and Persians are the only Civs I use

[@PTfan54]

#1 Weak Ranged Untis

[@MemoContrerasf]

Hera: How to beat Romans -> play with perfect unit counters. Thanks mate, hehe jk but no jk

[@lightworker2956]

Another way of thinking about it is: use archers to survive their man at arms rush, then kill / raid them before they get to their unbeatable late game army. And if you run into the problem that you can't beat a specific Roman comp, see this video.

[@sognarisenheart7806]

Sooo, Romans are Top Tier except everything can easily be countered?

[@jrodthebold9617]

Teutonic Knights beat them in melee

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

barely tbh

[@jerejarvinen625]

So you want to play????

[@lix88440000]

You posted this 2000 years too late

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

🤣

[@stefanandrejcik571]

I dont think Romans are op people just dpnt know how to fight them yet but when they do their WR will drop high elo is prove they are not op cuz if they were they would have big WR there aawel

[@quecobpt]

First

[@parabolablack]

Tldr- The Romans shouldnt be here

[@liamreilly951]

Gaul clickbait

[@nimamoradi2779]

Talk is cheap show me the game play

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

come watch live stream on twitch ;)

[@SpikedKirby]

>How To Beat Romans >you cant

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

- the entire world 2000 years ago

[@andrewwarren8474]

Adding Romans to the game was the most ill conceived notion in the history of AOE2. It makes no sense thematically and it’s such a dumb, broken civ.

[@user-uf2yu9mz7o]

They are ruining the game with the Romans... The last 4 months they are doing everything badly....

[@JohnnyEMatos]

I really dislike the Romans as an addition to the game. Thematically the feel a bit off

[@Mattroid99]

They are on the same time period as Goths and Huns, it is a bit of a stretch but if these two are in then is fine to have Romans in too in my opinion

[@Matias_el_Mago]

but azteks, mayans and incas are ok for you? those should have bronce age techs and nobody bats and eye.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

I honestly feel like historical accuracy is secondary to gameplay/variety. I still want things to be kept more or less on theme though

[@JohnnyEMatos]

@@Matias_el_Mago Mayans and Aztecs are fine because there's no other civizations that resemble them in the future. Italians are the Romans already. Plus, AOE2 was based on the fall of the Roman Empire AFAIK, they were supposed to be gone. This is why I said it's a bit off, not completely off

[@injest1928]

It feels very odd to me, I've always thought of Age of empires 2 being post Roman. Add to that, there's already Italians and Byzantines.

[@bobbyjoe1111]

I thought the Romans wouldn't be available on the ladder cause they were OP (and only in SP/campaigns). What happened?

[@cageymanager8824]

Watching this as a Roman player so I can find out my own weaknesses 🫣