Countering Goths as Khmer

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

As a long time Khmer fan, it seems as though Goths are not their best match-up. I’ve been trying my best to counter the inevitable Goth infantry flood through as many ways as I can think of.

From what I’ve tried, it seems like the best counter to Goths is a combination of mass Scorpions + Ballista Elephants in the back, with Battle Elephants up the front and Hand Cannoneers behind them. It’s not perfect, and very vulnerable to cavalry. But it seems like the best option to me. Other downside is its very expensive, so throwing in some Hussars and Skirmishers would probably be ideal too.

Still though, this isn’t perfect. Is this the best option for countering Goths as Khmer? Or is there a secret master-unit that I’m missing out on?

2

That’s a great lategame combo if you can get to it (although very expensive, and I think you’re overdoing it with so many unit types - I’d just use scorpions or hand cannons, not ballista eles, and probably not even battle elephants unless you have no resource constraints and/or he’s making more swordsmen/huskies than halbs). Scorps + any melee meatshield (longswords, pikes, eles) is probably your best bet, especially before mid imp when he gets BBC (but then so do you). Massed scorps, if you can defend them, are already one of the best counters to massed infantry, and even more so with the Khmer bonuses.

1 Like
3

seems goths are being a pain for a few people

khmer isnt really that bad off though, play other factions and you’ll see they have an even harder time…

at least khmer has the twin shot scorpions, and a pretty decent combination eco bonus

4

Some things to note.

Heavy Scorpions do 17 damage when fully upgraded, but that’s only to the first unit. The units behind get half that (not sure how rounding works in AOE, so either 8 or 9 damage).

Ballista Elephants get 9 when fully upgraded, but that is to ALL units hit. So, effectively, when attacking large groups, Ballistas are just as effective as Heavy Scorpion.

Vs Huskarl, Heavy Scorpion is a better choice if it has a meatshield.

Without a meatshield, Ballista Elephants have no minimum range, and function MUCH better due to their HP and mobility.

Aside from that: Ballista Elephants + Battle Elephants are an extremely strong combo, and would shred Huskarl/Halberdier. Mix monks into this to heal elephants as they take damage, and your army would be extremely difficult to kill.