Trying to figure out the best contract to go for based on Matchup.
Western Contract
This is the way to go against melee infantry civ such as Japan or HRE. The longbow are just so good against onna bugeisha, and the landsnektch will wreck mass of MAA.
Silk Road Contract
I like to use this one against english, or china for their javelin thrower, and against knights civs for their camel riders. Also in feudal the knights civ usually go for archer as well so the javelin will also be useful.
Eastern Contract
This one os pretty good against Bizantine mirror i find. Because keshik will counter both longbow and javelin. Gulam are useful to get siege faster than your opponent, especially of you get castle before your opponent. Allow you to save on gold by making gulam /keshik instead of varangiuan guard/cataphract. Finally late game when both are full of oil and pop cap, the tower elephant are really pop efficient and you usually have too much oil so its soo useful. Tower elephant are also good against mangonel keep.
There’s a few civ that im not too sure which contract to go for: Delhi, Mali, Ottoman, OotD, abbasyd, ayyubid.
When in doubt im inclined to go eastern Contract because you can save so much gold and byzantine always lack it.
Thoughts?
Which contract do you like go for.
I almost always use western mercs, longbow work well with Limitanei but I think the most important is Streltsy outmatches every other merc in late game
silk road is the best. At most one could produce 6keshik, while the limitanei is the best spearman in aoe4. Only in the case to counter japan and hre u would not choose this.
Longbow contract is somehow a not interesting case if you don’t want to rush. 6range is not quite effective for a guard civ, you could just produce archer if you want to against japan onnas.
Zhugenu trade port is quite juicy, for a bunch of 5 zhugenu and elephant later. Also if you do like keshik so much, taking france lancer port if possible would be a better choice.
For me historically correct is to use the Silk Road contract (the Byzantines had territories in Africa and Asia and were neighbors of the Mongols and the Tatars)…
Consider the Foreign Engineering Company landmark.
It actually gives you “camel support” for camel riders, which is seriously strong if you’re going for infantry.
Even “Gulams” get the “boot camp” upgrade with that landmark.
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I often go eastern mercenary contract. I sometimes forgo choosing a contract to just train market mercenaries.
Reason being heavy cavalry are really expensive and Keshiks synergize well with the Imperial Hippodrome. Or if I go grand winery fc into relics I can get some Keshiks out to help me secure relics. western mercenary contract is my least favorite you can’t pump out a critical mass of Longbows. and the Longbows will slow down your other archers if grouped with them. going silk road mercenary contract can be very helpful against enemy cavalry civs.
On fishing maps you can get critical mass quite easily because of fishing oil.
The only civ i think its a must to go with Western against is Japanese, because the landsneckt are just the perfect counter to their mass of samourai and onna bugeisha.
I’ve actually started playing western contract against English, instead of silk road.
The fact that javelin thrower have less range than longbow is problematic especially if they all-in you in feudal.
And what you need is to kill the spearmen so your cavalry can charge the archer with triumph. Having your own longbow makes it very hard for their spearmen to defend the rams. Longbow will also do better against MAA.
Also in late game the landneckt can be useful against those players who like to spam MAA only.
The silk road is still preferable against zhugunu rush because their ranged armor is a lot more significant and they still outrange them.
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Vs early maa civs go for the option with keshiks, vs archers you can go javelin throwers, vs zhuge nu go longbow. Worth taking into consideration if you will go to imperial with engineering company as that grants all of the mercs their special techs like camel support as someone mentioned earlier.
I usually take the Western Contract. I really like the longbowmen.
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