How To Counter Every Unit In Age Of Empires 2

[@CptSquirrel]

Make one for all unique units!

[@henriquematias1986]

Yes! Then we are done :D

[@Dawnrim]

Yes, please. I think the standard units are interesting, but pretty well known to most people. With all the new DLC UUs in particular I think UUs are legitimately an area people might struggle to know what to do (not just struggle to execute)

[@highhorseo7875]

Maybe in there can be a list of unique units Samurai do not counter

[@tommartin4591]

Please the organ gun. My friend destroys me with organ guns and spearman every time

[@Achilles75]

SOTL has already made one for u 3 years back,but since its 3 yrs old it doesn't feature the new UUs

[@carlospallete3030]

Hera didn't have to make this video, there are older ones by Spirit of the law, but he did, to help push the community and scene forward as well as give updated information, what a legend, Hera, you transcend the game, I'm stunned. Well done you Legend, that is what you are.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

❤

[@DissarayJay]

so you trash talk that man because he made a video that wasnt needed, then you called him a legend after xD, mate what the fuck

[@5vasily5]

Is there anyway to help push the community and scene further forward by allowing new players to find other new players to play with and practice, the in game options for adding friends seems pretty abysmal

[@dimitrisdimitriadis4913]

10:17 i totally expected the counter to the siege tower to just be a layer of stone wall after that short you posted 😂

[@SadullahCeran]

Hand cannonneers have +2 ram bonus, so they deal 2 attack against battering rams. Capped ram and siege ram has resistance for ram armor class so HC deals 1 dmg against them.

[@IndexInvestingWithCole]

I also watched the video

[@5vasily5]

Would also like to just chime in here and say, I as well watched this magnificent video which is a clear display of heras knowledge, game sense and superior military strategy

[@fisher00769]

Great video, but I'd just quickly mention an option that's not always so obvious for beginners, which is just to use the unit itself. So like you're going archers, and the enemy's making skirms, a lot of the times it's gonna be much better and easier to just make skirms yourself, since you already have the upgrades for it, than switching to scouts to counter them.

[@CaptainThemerica]

Doesn’t work for siege towers.

[@fisher00769]

@@CaptainThemerica True 11

[@alexzwanenburg4009]

Siege tower is so bad, it's the only unit that can't beat siege tower

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Thats actually a very good and high level tip!

[@EliasHasle]

One objection, though: Often, the opponent will be playing on their personal or civ strengths, in addition to outnumbering you on the given unit type in the short term. Your tip may still work if you are economically stronger or have better army management, though. And specifically for skirmishers, it is clearly better, because of more similar resource requirements and shared upgrades and production building.

[@Creeping_Shadow]

I subscribed and never struggled against siege towers again. In every game they were beating me. But now that I am a Hera subscriber, I counter them easily!

[@agustinvaira6100]

As always, top tier content of age of empires 2, thank for this guide Hera, it's really useful, I'm a "new" player and this will help me when I don't have the hard counter in a matchup bc of the civ. Now I'll know how to take those uncomfortables matchups with a better approach.

[@minikawildflower]

Even as a longtime player this is really helpful! I find sometimes I get really focused on one counter to a unit, and forget that I have options. Or I might get really focused on my plan and forget that I can mix in some counter trash units for what my opponent is doing.

[@DealDiscoverer]

Unique unit would be awezome. Thank you Hera. You're the best.

[@langezeit6926]

This is exactly what new players need, especially after certain types of encounters on the latter 😂 great content

[@vid2422]

that timing couldn't have been any better! thanks for the video

[@conqueror181]

Thanks for the video here are strategies that I struggle to defeat. Can you make follow up videos on how to beat these strategies? 1.Turks fast imp rush 2.Portuguese castle drop organ guns 3. Tower rush These are often used against me on arena, I don't know how to counter them.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Maybe

[@valger3652]

1. 3tc boom and mass kts 2. 1 mangonel 3. palisade rewalls on circle and fc + mango/ or own towers/ or stone rewall behing tile, what enemy trying to break (for experience players, needs loom ofc)

[@EliasHasle]

3. When trying to fast-castle, the extreme AI usually tries to counter tower rushes with villagers. Villagers have strong attack bonus against towers (including donjons) and stone walls, and feudal age towers have less armor and HP. (They receive a "secret" upgrade in castle age.) Spending valuable villager time and possibly lives on taking down an offensive tower can be acceptable when taking into account the investment the opponent has made to plant the tower there. Especially if one is far from ready to counter with a proper army. Any army of archers, scouts or men at arms can stop a tower rush, though. (I often beat the AI with tower rushes anyway, typically when I wall the first one or two towers with palisades. If my tower rush is a bit late and not supported by military units, the villagers die to a defending army. Also, when getting towers up, if I do not exploit the advantage, the towers fall to siege weapons in castle age.)

[@herotalib9556]

1. Play aggresive. Turks honestly kinda struggles vs aggresive play in general especially if you have a civ with early eco bonusers. Tower rush etc. 2. Who loses to this? This isnt a valid strat anymore after the organ guns nerf. Just make a mangonel and you can literally just stop them since they do like 1 damage now to them. 3. Tower rush I think there are video already but honestly its more of a experience thing. Depends on maps. If arena or BF you just wall and then make a tower behind so he cannot use villager to kill that wall but your tower is out of range of the enemy tower. If you cant wall usually just make defensive tower and send 3-4 to stone so you can react if you must.

[@EliasHasle]

@@herotalib9556 A nice variant of tower rush on Arena and similar maps (Hill forts and Hideout) is when the attacker shuts the gates with walls or houses in addition to planting towers. That's an easy way to beat extreme AI, but unobservant or easily distracted players may also fall to it. The problem is that the defender must delete a wall segment to get melee units out to the towers, exposing his base to raids. Or be severely constricted until Castle age.

[@Davtwan]

Good touch using the orange color for units that you should be wary of using.

[@DKTrue]

I was expecting a knights counter pikes joke

[@VeryObeseTurtle]

I searched for “aoe2 counter units” a week ago and this video did not show up. Not sure why, but it just got recommended to me now and it’s so much better than the other vids I found. Thank you!

[@Cacun]

Omg I had mixed feeling as I saw intro with Mamelukes burg then heard not UU, that’s better tho coz ppl get so confused to counter xD so keep it on the low

[@d.f.7397]

Great content as always!

[@tuxness]

Great video, as always. Let’s go!

[@lordrubbish_aoe]

I’ve always considered light cav a soft counter to crossbows early to mid castle age given their mobility, low upgrade cost, no gold cost, ability to mass in feudal age and same pierce armor as the knight line. Interesting that Hera had it the other way, I’m sure he’s right even though I’ve seen light cav clean up crossbows in a good number of games across levels.

[@MaksymCzech]

10:20 but what about the Red Phosphoru hop on - hop off strategy with the siege tower? 😅

[@derboi3995]

Hera.. keep in on. Every Video is so greats and a must watch for a beginner- intermediate 😊

[@AS.47]

Before watching the video: I guess a good counter to pikes is knights + monks.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

😂😂😂 ur a real fan

[@s3sebastian]

Yeah, unique units would be interesting. Especially the disc throwers and longbows. With the disc throwers my problem is that I have usually the wrong counters because I have to have something against the other units they have like camels (pikes, helbs). With the longbows skirms don't work for me. Even Onagers are just outranged / outmicroed.

[@alltmisc]

Vs Disc Just pure arb and make sure u don’t clump up your units. CA and hussar should beat disc camel too with some micro. Vs Longbow If you let em get to longbow deathball and attack head on u most likely screwed up before. Try to raid instead, longbows are pretty slow to create so make sure to spread his army thin.

[@herotalib9556]

@@alltmisc Usually you can beat the longbow deathball by raiding and expanding eco. Yo did that vs Tatoh so many times as a great example. Longbow are amazing but really slow so if they are attack 1 spot just try to stall a little but mainly push hard somewhere else and force them to just Walk around. Disc throwers never let them get a huge mass or they just kill even arbs. Once you get enough of them even if you have spread formation you will usually die especially since they got the shawarma riders that can tank.

[@tomtenthij5676]

Amazing video Hera! ❤

[@highhorseo7875]

Watching this also makes me wonder what unique units you’d want to use to counter those more universal units when you have them available.

[@mohammedabuzaid7288]

unique units video needed of course

[@abidkhattak5780]

Make one for all unique units as well. Also another good series of videos could be a 5-10 minute videos of strength and weaknesses of every civilization and what kind of maps they should be played on

[@beauthepotato3353]

Oh heck yes, would love to see the one with UUs too. Great video!

[@mmaqui]

genial muy buenos videos como siempre

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Gracias hermano

[@IcedFingers]

The fact that you included the siege tower lol

[@Taydris0]

I think the camel line might be more a more useful counter than you tend to give it credit for. Yeah it's a bit expensive for such a mediocre-attack unit, and yes it's weak to arrow-fire, but it's also a solid counter to Rams and Mangonels. It spanks many OP unique units hard too. Not to mention, in a game where a player has map control with Scouts and Knights, often camels are the only way to take it back. Pikes and Halbs never quite cut it unless you're playing ultra defensive in these situations ( which I know you're good at, 11 ) I think in many cases it can be incredibly hard to counter Mass FU Camel unless you've got good Arbs at your disposal. Camels are a solid counter to weak or low HP units in general assuming they don't outrange them a lot. Particularly when played from civs that have special Camel bonuses like the Saracens or Hindustanis the Heavy Camel line (particularly when FU) is much more capable than I think *many* players give it credit for. For instance, a HeavyCamel cuts down a fleeing villager about as quickly as a night.. sometimes a bit faster even. They can take down houses and other minor buildings when not being subject to arrow fire. Forgetting how much HP FU camels tend to have is indeed a mistake I think. They can raid quite effectively, and they are not countered as much by the spear-line as other Cavalry. Finally, in many instances where you have put both Camels and Scorps as a good counter (like with the battle elephants) I would have in fact put Scorpions ahead of them, but noted their speed and versatility that the camel has but the Scorp does not. AFAIK, a Camel is very nearly as fast as a scout.

[@Taydris0]

Please excuse my essay, yall... I just obviously really like to use camels kekw

[@ajnicasio7987]

super useful video, thanks a lot hera!

[@minoruendo9123]

great video! thanks hera! love from brasil!

[@Taydris0]

When you DO do unique units, please do not forget to include Legionaries w/ and w/o Centurion Aura, Imperial Skirmisher, Genitour, Elite Camel and others that are easy to miss.

[@YodasMessenger]

this is suuuuuch a good resource for improving at aoe

[@onex0064]

I like that he said he wished the information would be useful for everyone who plays the game, I don’t play the game (yet) but I found it interesting and useful:)

[@Jairogut360]

Short answer : playing byzanthines

[@se6369]

Interesting to see all the similarities and differences compared to the Total War series

[@karnazacss]

A sugestion for the next video of the sort: The unit to counter is color red, the main counter is color green and they secondary counter is color yellow.

[@cool-aquarian]

Green and Yellow are hard colors to distinguish in the game. I would suggest blue for unit to be countered, red for primary counter, then orange, then yellow.

[@reto6859]

Handcannons actually do more than 1 damage vs rams, because they hav an attack bonus vs heavy siege. Nice video. Excited for the next one with Unique units, but dont tell them how to counter Kamayuk! ;)

[@Endrit719]

Very good video and good quality information but honestly I think Spirit of the Law takes countering to a whole new level

[@CoRe01337]

I'd love seeing the UU video as well!

[@GabrielFernandezx]

makes one showing what upgrades we should make for each of the most basic army compositions I usually take a lot of time to decide my army composition but when it is done, I'm not sure what upgrades will benefit those units you can show basic army compositions for most of the civs and the most important upgrades would be awesome

[@willcrow2846]

Thanks for this. Definitely make the next video

[@odallyo5861]

So when in doubt train Skirms and Halbs because they counter almost everything. Only train Swordsmen for sieges/eagles

[@FirstLast-is9xe]

You forgot the "Elite Teutonic Knight" line, that can only be countered by War Elephants (or Elite)! But the ETKs can be spit out every 12 seconds from each castle, so they are much faster!

[@lukaskysilka2384]

Awesome video. Thank you very much

[@lucabelciug173]

Why shouldn't you upgrade the galleons with chemistry?

[@LeicaFleury]

Waiting on the UU video as well !! gogogogo

[@eduuklee9453]

thanks god there is a solution against elephants. the pikanier and helebard seems to be a pretty usefull units

[@Pleiso89]

Will you do how to move, attack move, patrol? I’m coming from SC2 where we just attack move or mineral walk and that doesn’t seem to work in aoe. Also much love on the tournaments ❤🎉❤

[@jacobhoekstra340]

Verry nice vid

[@tominoakachudak]

and mainly for samurai as the SOTL has intentionally skipped it in his UU guide.

[@renrewplayz3156]

DUDE!!!! Seige towers are amazing. They only get countered by walls. Kappa

[@YouEra]

Dude no ! The exact opposite! Siege towers are a natural counter to walls

[@injest1928]

I'd love to see a colab between Hera and SOTL

[@ramiroj.2381]

Dang i wanted one for uniques too, my ballista elephants just got owned by a massive monk army and i couldnt get near with light cav cause of halbs.... probaby should have gone archers, but i didnt have that line's upgrades done

[@Jompa10]

I am playing 2v2s with a friend. I go full archers and he wants to go infantry but it feels a bit awkward. It seems like everything counters infantry and they don't do much except against some counter units. Any tips or civ he could go for? I am thinking meso civ and go eagles. He's trying vikings tho

[@santiagoreina2332]

Berserks only really die to arb, and champs are insane in trash wars they kill everything

[@desousatheo3534]

Malians infantry have insane pierce armor and powerfull bonuses too :)

[@Jompa10]

Thank you guys! When do berserks start being a viable option? I assume massed kind of mid castle? I didn't know about malians, I'll check them out. Also I wish he had the romans tbh hahaa those are counter to archers 11 😂 jk

[@aaronhiggins986]

I was hoping this would include unique Units need to know how to counter mass Balista Elephants

[@tyranitararmaldo]

Elephant Archer counters: "They got to Elephant Archers? Write a will and testament."

[@grimrapper5202]

Monk with block printing: "Allow us to introduce ourself"

[@tyranitararmaldo]

@@grimrapper5202 at that point it's more of a "who can mass more?" question. I've had people use monks verses my elephant archers, and without enough, they fold.

[@NivMizzet89]

We definitely need a guide on how to counter Flaming Camel, so here's my meagre contribution.

[@samsam-un3cq]

Thank you 🎉

[@jinming9791]

When there are quite a lot of Mangonel or Scorpion, like over 30 or even more in the late game, how to counter it? Thanks

[@gletscherminze9372]

As someone who learned literally nothing new from this video, I did enjoy it.

[@timothymurray677]

More videos!

[@mitsospreveza]

How to counter every unit: 1. Make Mangudai. Thanks for watching!

[@2nightwehunt]

How to counter the mangonel? Use womangonel to distract them and keep them not focused on the push. Mangudai is lot tougher- skirms just dont cut it, but skirts might be enough.

[@daarom3472]

you use Womangudai to distract them?

[@andrewneal2249]

Hera 2023: “Subscribe to the channel…. That’s all I have to say about the siege tower” 🤣🤣

[@SerMayonnaise]

Nice video :) it could be interesting to go indeep with archer vs knight as they are main unit and are very different

[@justxavier9999]

Help! How to counter villagers? They keep attacking me when I try to build my town center (next to theirs)

[@mandosn]

Hi Hera! I think what bothers me mostly is not knowing what to do against massed units, like 20 brits crossbows or steppe lancers or eagle warrior. Sometimes, even with the right counters you lose easily... is there any pro tips for those cases?

[@2nightwehunt]

Hera, didnt you swap the CA XBow relation? I thought "short term" CA are pretty good vs archers as its the stronger unit and wins an equal fight but not cost effectively..or did you mean long term as in late game? PS: You forgot to include knight as a spear counter..

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

No long term ca is good, i didnt make any mistakes there

[@2nightwehunt]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 I dont understand it then...CA isnt cost effective vs Arbs no?

[@Lodinn]

Do monks work well against siege elephants?

[@krexolsen3692]

How do you counter a FFA 8 player game when huns just go 150 paladins???

[@jcpkill1175]

3:30, small slipup, camels close the distance faster than knights but not light cav. I always considered camels to be a soft counter to cav archers, they are faster than knights deal more damage and are cheaper but lack survivability missing 2 PA. Its better than knights but its not a hardcounter. imo 4:20 Editor or script was slipping here, units spoken are the post-imp versions while castle age ones were used in clip. This seems to be a chronic problem throughout the video and I would say an easy fix is to pick either the unupgraded version (spearmen vs halb) or fully upgraded version and just use "spearmen line" when describing it rather than shifting constantly as you do with mangonel vs siege onager or knight line vs paladin civs.

[@K1AoE]

Hera was naming different versions of the units throughout the video, so I just decided to use castle age version of every unit to keep it consistent, except for the counters of hc which is an imperial age unit

[@terrab1ter4]

You forgot to add that all these units are hard-countered by Black Death ;)

[@tommohawk19]

I went mass ele archers and got absolutely wrecked by eagles so can recommend that😅

[@TobingerAoE]

Comment so you‘ll make the next video!

[@lloouuiissttaaii]

Shall we consider eagle to be the counter of foot archers? Also, why don’t hand cannoneers counter pikes?

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Hc are fine vs pikes, arbs/skirms usually better though

[@richardbos4696]

Elite Ballista Elephant is So freakin hard to counter when they are massed and you have no siege onager at your disposal, paladins wont work either.

[@truepietro]

Hey, where are the trebs? XD

[@abigailevans2760]

Britton archers vs swordsmand. Why are the swordsman better?

[@Alone-sf7wj]

From a noob pov, doesn't that make Bohemians if they went skirmisher+hand cannoneer and siege, uncounterable?

[@miguelbahamonde6321]

Hera bro! You forgot to mention that kt counters pikes! But only true conoisseurs get it!

[@drago939393]

Currently I want to know how to defeat a Kmer deatball of Battle and Ballista Elephants.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Halbs and monks for sure

[@drago939393]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 Not sure, tried that, Halbs get melted and Monks convert like 2-3 Elephants and then die. Maybe I need more micro on the Monks but 40 Ballista Elephants melt everything.

[@MrAqwos]

make SO or BBC with some cav as meatshield snd u got it@@drago939393

[@valger3652]

Halb+onagers. Khmer dont have units to kill SO. Monks are good, if you micro them properly. And if Khmer massed both elephants - it means you already messed up in early game.

[@drago939393]

@@valger3652 i am mostly referring to games with friends, 4v4 on Black Forest even... So him reaching deathball is not really weird. We can't really figure out a way to attack early either. Anyway, I've tried using Bombards, it was OK. Onagers, eh, they always seem to suck when I'm piloting them lol. Not sure how to improve with them, they are so slow and fragile when I use them yet OP when used against me...

[@ashrayviswanath7857]

Do BattleElephants counter Knights?

[@oneutch4048]

Now I can camel the counter-line

[@xArchimonde96x]

Do the UU one please

[@hansoskar1911]

only Gurjara Camels are good vs Elephants, all other camels do not have the damage to overcome the much better stats. this is why most camel civs, who usually lack halbs, have a weakness to Elephants.

[@daarom3472]

imperial camels and saracen camels do pretty well. Also Berber/Byz camels due to their discount handily dispatch of elephants (assuming u meant Battle Elephants, War Elephants kill all).

[@joefloppytriangle]

thank you for this 30

[@WhisperChill]

Spearman: no CA? They have bonus against them. +2; +4 and +2 with Parthian Tactics.

[@chanlaoshi8634]

And no hand cannoneer either?

[@WhisperChill]

​@@chanlaoshi8634 i failed too! xD

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Those would be good aswell, rhe spearmen gets countered by quite alot of things 11

[@roldsch]

I think there's a caveat here, in the super late game it gets so hard and tiresome to micro your CA and halb is getting spammed like crazy, the halbs cost no gold and they slowly chip numbers from the CA mass that is hard to replace. So I'd argue that halb is a check to the CA in post imperial.

[@chanlaoshi8634]

Could one say that melee cav is the only thing that does not counter the spearman line? 11 @@HeraAgeofEmpires2

[@guillermoolivo3450]

And cav archers are not a counter unit against steppe lancer?

[@mikeofbosnia]

How to effectively use monks in this scenario? If yo uuhave to counter 30 knights and you have 10 pikeman and maybe 10 scouts. But you also have 10 monks. Do you have to individually tell each monk to convert a unit or is there something else to it? (BTW thx for this video, its fckn AWSOME, if I wasnt married I would say I love you haha)

[@GoldenSkeeter]

Towers counters monks hawd

[@thenosa87]

I use my siege onagers (mongols) to kill enemy bombards and monks all the time. Not sure why

[@maximilianfedder3065]

Awesome awesome

[@DissarayJay]

"every unit".... 61 uniqe units just chilling on the sidelines wondering when they get to go in, even the Supremacy Villager just escaping the spot light. xD

[@kennygpokerstrategy4917]

please do unique units!!!!

[@zhongyiqian5176]

Hera, how do you counter the flaming camel!!!!!!!!????

[@danielmunsaka2051]

Pro tip, don’t use archers against mass Malian champions in late game

[@drago939393]

Walmart Huskarls.

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

Its actually not that bad

[@RoberioRoberioRoberio]

poor siege tower