None sense you speak. In aoe3 heroes had a .1 attack malice vs villagers. The only way you could force a forward villager back in aoe3 is if you pets and or guardians to tag team said villager. EVEN THEN such play was considered lame!!! So much so that the community devs and layer forgotten empire also nerf guardians and pet damage vs villagers and vs heroes. So your aoe3 reference of equivalent is a farce.
Also the khan can SAFELY harass villagers from beyond tower range and scout canNOT catch the khan. So there is no age 1 counter to the khan unless your mongols as well…