I have to say, I’m a little bit baffled at why they made a spear unit (with extra long spear) weak vs. cavalry. That seems counter intuitive to the visual language of the game, where spears= horse counter. Yes, I know, Huskarls are as well, but that was literally one exception to an otherwise pretty set-in-stone rule to the game.
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Pretty sure the Magyar uu is not a cavalry killer even tho he has a spear.
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Rephrase; infantry spearman. The Magyar Hussar is still more visibly identifiable as being in the light cavalry range, not spearman in the spearman x Cavalry x Archer dynamic.
Eagles have a quite long spear but they do really low bonus damage to cavalry. (+2,+3,+4 for scout, warrior and elite).
Obviously in this case is game balance, but in real life yes, a spear should be good against horses.
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Omg yes you read my mind. When I see area of effect damage I get these Vietnam helicopter flashbacks, only with Firelancers from AoE IV 
I completely stopped playing AoE IV cause I was fed up with massed firelancers blasting away any type of army, I hope the Ghulams won’t be as overpowered. But I have faith in AoE 2 that it won’t be that bad.
Agree, it is one of the complaints about the AoE3, that the units are not counter intuitive (I don’t believe that) when in AoE2 the units are
Even SotL believe that the description was mistyped “strong vs archers, weak vs cavalry” because the long spear
The Huskarl is an exception but even so he wears a big shield
Even Eagles with the spear have some bonus against Cavalry
I think it’s a good addition to the game and to the Hindustanis tech tree
The Ghulam wears a big shield which indicates for his profession against archers.
Eagles besides doing a bit of bonus damage vs cavalry are also no cav counters really, besides wearing a spear. Skirms wear throwing spears and are also no cav counters.
Yes they could indicate it a bit better by making spears that are designed to counter cav longer.
Besides that I like the design of the Ghulam. It’s not as the huskarl who seemingly takes no damage by archers. They take 2 dmg / his from xbows and arbs and 3 from cav archers. Also it doesn’t have that synergy with super cheap infantry as goths have. Lastly they cost a lot of Gold.
I think it will be a quite good raiding unit given it’s high speed, low food cost and pierce armor.
I don’t think it will be OP unit. The Problem will more come with the Hindustanis themselves as they are basically the old indinas with even better camels… That’s what I fear: Empowered Indians…
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Because it’s unique, and definitely the better choice instead of what would likely be the cousin of an Indian eagle. How else would they portray a unit that can do damage in a line? Giant fantasy axe?
As others pointed out, the precedent has been set before, with units diverging from their seemingly intuitive uses.
Eagles are excellent Vs archers, siege and monks.
Elite step lancers look tanky, but are weaker than other medium cav (biggest travesty) even weaker than winged hussars
Woads look fragile but are tanky
Obuchs look more fragile than a ton of other units but are one of the tankiest infantry
Plumes especially look fragile but are literally the most tanky archer by a huge margin, whereas an xbow with a giant shield is much easier to kill
Long swords have a shield but the same PA as a champ.
Spearmen have shields but are the worst thing on earth v archers, dying easier than naked Vils due to bonus damage from arrows
Magyar Huszars have the longest weapon in the game but have no anti cav bonus, no attack range and shouldn’t really be against cav
Wonder what’s the view now after official release?
IMO 45gold is too costly for a unit only 1.2 speed (eagles 1.3). And they are worse than huskarl vs archers
Ghulams are fine. They may be slower than Eagles and less spammable than Huskarls, but their pseudo-scorpion gimmick means archers are skewered if they try to form a deathball, and the anti-archer bonus is great for a civilization that otherwise doesn’t have great archer counters.
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TK and Serjeants costs a lot of gold too but are much slower, also ghulam foos cost is very low. they are much closer to a Eagle, with the difference that eagles has to suffice for cavalry loss, while hindustanis have cavalry on their own
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Tk seldom used
Sergeant armor too high, trade ok vs every unit (most importantly first crusade. Without first crusade, sergeant isn’t very good as well.
Ghulam ya really not sure yet, will test more. Definitely more used then the OG ele arch
Seems they can only attack thro 2 units (1 full damage and 2 half damage) if opponents are stacked
They easily beaten by condo which disappoint me
Well ghulam is probably the reason hindustanis feel like a super strong civ atm. You don’t need to make them every game but if you’re opponent pushes you in castle age with xbow or siege infantry you clear that push up super fast after you get a castle up.
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they’re absolutely amazing, unsurprisingly
elite eagle only, speed isnt everything, ghulams dont have the counters that eagles do, eagles only damage one unit at a time
because thats the best way to make comparisons? compare each individual stat vs individually the best units in those fields, and then surmise the unit isnt good enough?
not even close. makes it far more usable in castle age and early imperial, as opposed to most other infantry.
if anything there’s a good argument to increase the gold cost of militia line and reduce its food cost, so they’re equally more valid units.
eagles are more gold intensive and are literally the best (consistently used) infantry in the game