I’m a JD player in diamond, and I realized that a lot of HRE players are using wrong strategy. Most HRE players I met chose castle rush without training even one spearman, I defeated them easily by tower rush or limiting HRE’s food source with pure knights. I think my skill in feudal is not bad, but I feel it is even more difficult for me to defeat a diamond HRE player who fight in feudal than a conquer 2 Mali player. With free marching drills, the charging speed of spearman (about 1.7) is faster than the speed of knights (about 1.6). It’s so ridiculous to see spearmen charging toward retreating knights then give them stabs. Also, free marching drills allows HRE push earlier and lose less army during retreating. It’s really painful to realize that I can’t chase HRE’s retreating army with my knights because they are countered by spearman or archers because their moving speed is slower. They just run away with 0 cost after disturbing my villagers on deer. Driving HRE’s harassing troops away and taking map control is only the beginning of the game, because HRE don’t need put villagers on deer or boar, they just transfer to farming slowly. It’s impossible for me to harass food source outside HRE’s base, because they just don’t need it. It’s so disgusting to fight against a civ that is so imbalanced.
Congratulations, you discovered a new way to use the HRE. If you’re wondering why they didn’t do it until now, I would say that the real problem with that is that many people only follow guides that they find on the internet or from other players that they consider Pros and do not dare to experiment with new mechanics considering the changes between seasons and how abuse it.
On the other hand, I would say that it is already a habit to think that the HRE is not complete until you build the extra Gold Landmark for relics in Castle Age, which is why people try to ignore if there are combos in feudal and move on to Castles as much as possible. as quickly as possible.
About the Charge attack Speed Bonus-
Curiously, one thing that is not mentioned even in the tutorial is that “melee units” almost all have a “Charge Attack” which, although it is not more powerful than their normal attack , usually has more range and temporarily improves their movement speed.
I just noticed the movement speed bonus playing the Sultans Ascend campaign and seeing that at times the enemy spearmen surpassed the Mangudais in speed, when I analyzed why I realized that detail.
If you discovered that you can abuse the spearman’s extra speed with the HRE in feudal, then take advantage of it a lot. Take Care