I know a lot of people have said they’re “broken” or need a nerf. I’m not here to litigate that point. I just want to know, practically, in today’s balance, what’s the best way, in a 2v2, to counter the Tughluq HE + archer deathball?
I’m playing Byzantines, my friend has been mostly playing Japanese.
Critical mass of archers to be able to one-shot enemy archers, harrass eco with horsemen when their army is out of their base.
Knights do decently well against them.
Your JAP friend has to go Fast Castle, and make a lot of Onna-Mushas (The Crossbow replacement). Crossbows are the counter of Healing elephant.
You can defend aggainst archers with Bizantines with Horsemans (Imperial Hippodrome) and if the enemy make Spearmans, make also “Longbowman Mercenary”, to counter even the archers and spearmans. Maybe you can go feudal with Grand Winnery, but only if your berries are behind your town center.
Also, it depends the map you are fighting. If is a close map, Tughlaq has an advantage because he can send his elephants out sooner (less walking). But you also have the strategy of placing a tower in the Dark Age (I) and denying him gold, or sending horsemen (II) to harass his miners. Without gold, Tughlaq can’t train elephants, and the enemy needs 155 gold per elephant.
On the other hand, if it’s an open map, nothing prevents you from surrounding the elephants if he sends them out one by one and killing them with spearmen, and going to FastCastle to train crossbowmen is easier.
Usually, making Healer elephants consume ALL your resources, so one can´t make defences or protect villagers, so try to raid the enemy villagers. Also, a loss of a single elephant or two is a great Shock of Tughtlaq economy.