Severe Imbalance Among the Three Main Unit Types

[GoldenArmorX]

@WoTaiNanLeYa

Furthermore, you might suggest having at least one player select a cavalry civilization to counter enemy knights with their own cavalry. This approach is flawed. When facing two or more enemy cavalry civilizations, they will immediately focus and overwhelm that single player in the Feudal Age through numerical superiority. This occurs because cavalry civilizations themselves are inherently vulnerable to stronger cavalry counterparts.

If you’re fighting 2v1 with cavalry without help, it’s your ally’s fault for not assisting you. That’s what team fighting is for, to help teammantes.

Also, Cavalry is part of the game.

The only thing I see in your responses is that you despise cavalry so much that you wish there were civilizations that wouldn’t use cavalry under any circumstances and still win.

And that’s not even a discussion, it’s a wish, which I neither support nor agree with.

@WoTaiNanLeYa

This is precisely why I maintain that camel riders represent a superior form of knight. Both camel cavalry and horse archers are high-mobility units - they simply represent alternative forms of cavalry.

I said that before too.

In fact, I also think Spearmen should have an extra bonus against Light Camels, given that they generally have more HP than base cavalry (Camel Rider: 270 HP, Knight: 230), which makes them like mini-elephants. If a unit isn’t supposed to be anti-everything, its base counters need to be improved so it can actually counter them.

Spearmen already received a bonus against Elephants, and now they should get one against Light Camels, and only “light” so it doesn’t affect their performance against the Camel Lancer, which is heavy but has less HP than a regular knight.

In Age of Empires 2, Spearmen actually do less damage against camels because “They have less HP than base cavalry.” But in AoE4, the opposite is true. Anyway, just my observation.

In fact, I think I’ll make a specific topic about this point, because this is separate from the main thread, and it’s very specific.

@WoTaiNanLeYa

“Do not attempt to use other unit types to counter knights. Nor should you try to use a small number of knights against a massive swarm of them. Therefore, the endgame of this title boils down to mass-producing knights (including horse archers).”

I repeat, Ribauldoquin, Jannissaries, and Mass Elite Spearman exist.

If you want to promote an idea, go ahead, but I completely disagree with most of your points.

[hamster4477]

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[Shneider177]

All heavy and range cav should cost 2 pop or more!!

[WoTaiNanLeYa]

The purpose of my article is not to discuss the inherent role of cavalry. Do not mistake my stance as a personal vendetta against knights. To that end, I will conclude by writing a section for you that clarifies what role knights should truly play.

I will now prove, in simpler and clearer terms, why Men-at-Arms are imbalanced.

First, let’s establish a principle: every single fully-upgraded unit has its natural counter. For example, take the Handcannoneer, which is as expensive as a Knight but requires more gold. It is hard-countered by the extremely cheap Archer, because the Archer moves at the same speed but has superior range. The key point is that Archers deal bonus damage to Handcannoneers.

This leaves me baffled. A unit that is so costly, consumes precious gold, is already hard-countered by all cavalry, is also hard-countered by Archers?! I do not oppose the Archer’s counter to Handcannoneers, as that represents an internal balance within the Archery Range’s unit roster.

Similarly, my greatest wish is for Light Cavalry to counter Knights, not just special civilization units like Camels. I have no issue with Camels countering Knights. The problem is this: How do civilizations without Camels counter Knights?

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The Role of Knights in My Vision:

Heavy Knights should possess a powerful charge and be dominant in a direct, head-on battlefield engagement. However! In the current game, their movement speed is so high that they can always disengage without consequences!

A Knight’s movement speed should be around 1.42 (with a charge speed of 1.7), not the current 1.62. If I were the official designer, I would implement it as follows:

• Knight Speed: 1.42 (Charge: 1.7)

• Simultaneously, increase the attack power of Light Cavalry to be slightly worse than a Knight’s, but also increase their cost.

With this change, when a Knight attempts to retreat, it would face pursuit from Light Cavalry and risk being wiped out. Currently, Light Cavalry have far too little attack power to be used for chasing down and killing retreating Knights. The main issue is that Knights are too fast; they zip around the map like ancient Light Cavalry, enabling them to freely raid the enemy’s economy with impunity.

[WoTaiNanLeYa]

To summarize: The current overpowered nature of heavy cavalry lies in their possession of light cavalry’s movement speed, which allows them to perform light cavalry’s role of conducting devastating raids on the enemy’s economy, while their overwhelming combat strength makes them nearly impossible to counter even with a sizable army. The unit truly intended for harassing the enemy’s rear should be light cavalry.

[WoTaiNanLeYa]

@GoldenArmorX

Ribauldoquin

Indeed, the Ribauldequin cannot counter knights. It requires access to the Imperial Age, costs 350 Wood and 400 Gold—similar to the Cannon—meaning you can only produce one or two. Furthermore, you must also upgrade your Siege Engineering technology, or it will be ineffective against fully upgraded knights.

However, you will find that the enemy can use cheap Archers in a suicidal manner to instantly destroy your Ribauldequins. Whenever the enemy has any ranged units, the Ribauldequin cannot survive. Its survival conditions are extremely demanding, and its economic cost is prohibitively high (if produced in large quantities). It moves slowly, has an extremely short range, and cannot damage buildings, making its utility very limited. Once deployed on the battlefield, unless it achieves immediate victory, its slow movement speed prevents it from retreating.

Using it is less cost-effective than utilizing Relics to convert enemy units—a method that requires no resources and effectively deters the enemy. Moreover, it fails to counter horse archers, a unit type that is even more challenging to deal with than knights.