Maybe a mix of Skirms, Knights and Monks? Gurjaras tend to open Crossbow in Castle age, and then transition into either Shrivamsha, or Camels depending on what unit they see. In general, I tend to think that they are one of those civs where it’s total brutal Castle age battle on both sides (e.g. Malians vs Franks).
In general, I like to assess how many resources a civ gets by ~min 30 in a game. Civs like Huns, in this sense, are toward the top, because they save ~1000w kind of thing over a 30-min game. Civs like Teutons are also toward top tier, because again if you calculate how much wood you save by planting ~40 farms, it’s in the ballpark of ~1000w. These are what I call “Castle age civs” in terms of eco bonus. Their eco bonus manifests in the Castle age.
Gurjaras, in this sense, are a Castle age civ. They can generate ~1000f by min 30 in the game through their mill. The problem is that “sacrificing sheep” doesn’t rly impact their BO too much in the Dark Age, because you can push Deer and you get 350f under TC for free. Together with the small trickle generating 50-100f in the Dark Age, it essentially means there is no opportunity cost to garrisoning the Sheep inside the mill: garrisoning 8 sheep is always the correct play and there is no “today vs tomorrow” trade-off.
This makes them what I call a “Feudal civ”, too, i.e. a civ that shines in Feudal, and through an eco bonus of some sort, is able to create an advantage in the Feudal age. Such civs are, Franks, Khmer, Mongols, Lithuanians, etc.
For this reason, taking out their mill is a bigger deal than you’d think. Their eco bonus is comparable to Teutons in the Castle age and that extra food rly matters in the long run.
I don’t rly want Gurjaras to get nerfed, because I like how they play and they are both very unique in terms of BO and in terms of the kind of army you have to make in Castle/Imperial.
I do think however that the trickle of food from the mill is a bigger deal than we think. The devs need to commit to it being either a Castle age bonus (in which case they should perhaps tie it to Farm upgrades, so that it’s strong when you have, say, 2 Farm upgrades), or a Feudal bonus (enabling 19 pop Arch etc.). In the latter case, I’d like them to buff their Imperial Age slightly because right now Gurjaras dominate Imperial age mostly because it’s so easy to get ahead with them. On even terms, their units are actually fairly underwhelming in 1v1s and one way to buff them would be to perhaps give them Blast Furnace (with adequate nerf to Chakram Throwers so that their damage doesn’t become too high). Possibly giving them Blast Furnace would allow to consider Camel bonus dmg nerfs too.
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That is certainly something that usually hepls me if I don’t know how to counter a certain strategy or playstyle