am I crazy to think that the Mongolian uu which I cant spell, is to power for in some match ups vs the Portueses.
My issue is that on top of having some of the best catapults in the game, which because of there speed, even with Portueses unique upgrade are still hard to hit, the Mongolians have a uu, horse archer that wracks organs guns and cannons, and hand cannoneers, as well as basically ever thing I can build. I find that it is almost impossible to keep cannons alive, as there uus can kill them in three seconds, and then retreat.
I am not saying the match up is impossible my point is have a magic morse archer which kills unites like organ guns that are meant to counter horse archers, and that basically is good vs everything I have besides skirmishers which are vary easily delt with seems to much.
Where’d you get the idea that Organ guns were anti cav archer? They are high damage, but most effective against slow units. Mangudai are anti siege, that’s their role. You really want to stop them before they reach that point, but considering Portuguese are a slower civ, that could be a problem. You have fully upgraded Cavalier with a 20% gold discount though, that seems like a solid play. Mongols do lack some key blacksmith upgrades on a few units, so it could work quite well.
Even if that’s the case, there’s a thing called hard counter civs in this game. For example, Japanese absolutely decimate goths. Late game Goths (and even more with trade) decimate Mayans.
If such hard counters exist then what’s the point of game balancing discussions?
Having the game 100% balanced is boring. There needs to some wild cards. That’s why hard counters should exist.
For example, Franks are a very powerful civ, but there needs to be a civ to make them cry. Like this old thread talked about. Indians vs Cavalry civs
Balance is still important but some hard counters are important to make civ picking in tournaments more interesting for example
Why should mongols counter Portuguese specifically? Nobody forces you to use the gunpowder option in that particular matchup.
Portuguese have a very good archer line with their 20% gold discount to trade vs the much more expensive mangudai, fully upgraded halbs (edit: except for squires) against mongol hussar and fully upgraded light cav (missing only hussar) for sniping mongol siege.
Sure you can get out-microed or out-raided, but this problem you have with many civs. So I wonder: which tools are actually missing for Portuguese specifically?
Plumed Archer+THS combo can put up good fight against Goths Huskarl+HC combo. Goth has advantage like 55% chance to win but Mayans isn’t hopeless in my opinion. In the game, only Cav Archer class (Mangudai, Camel Archer, Magyar, Turks Cav Archer etc.) is outside of countering cycle, that’s why they can break balance in late game. Other unit compositions are balanced with little or large advantage to each other.
For instance, Burmese and Turks’ Skirmisher doesn’t counter archer but their Hussar is designed to fulfill missing Skirmisher role to counter archer. Saracens, Hindustanis and Gurjaras miss Halberdier in return they have huge bonuses to their Camels for compensation. Franks Paladin is also supposed to counter archers in place of Skirmsiher but Cav Archer with micro counter Paladin, too. Cav Archer disrupt countering cycyle in late game unfortunately.
Organ guns are one of the best UUs in the game, they are top tier imo especially in the castle age. If you got your guns in early/mid castle age with good amount of numbers I think nothing can stop you.
Isn’t Portuguse Crossbow and Knight enough strong? Organ Gun is kind of trump card mostly used Arena, it is slow and countered by Knight afterall. It isn’t same level as Conquistador and Janissary. In open maps, Knight and Crossbow better option as a power unit as far as I can see. Affording castle with worst eco civ (Portuguese has only 20% gold discount as a bonus. it has no eco bonus except 30% faster TC techs) and try to finish enemy with very slow unit doesn’t feel good strategy in open maps.