Suggestion for natual unit counter mechanic

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
1

I’m very exciting to see a lot a cool new mechanics introduced in age iv, and after seeing all the presented features for the units, I realized that those new mechanies are already very nice to make each unit type a good characterstic, and also their function of counter certain units are already represented very nice, without the needs of bonus damage.

Conclusion first:
Each unit in Age IV already have enough characteristic to be functional as the counter to another type of unit, so it’s not necessary to have an additional layer of bonus damage.

How it works:
From the videos, we already know there are many new features can represent the characteristic of each unit.

Cavalry - They can Charge to deal a lot of additional damage, but they are weaker than infantry in melee combat
Pike Infantry - They can brace, which supposed to negate the effect of Charging
Range Cavalry - They can shoot while moving
Camel - Reduce the damage from nearby cavalry.

Range cavalry beat Cavalry:

  • They run slightly faster, with moving shoot, they can perfect kill the chasing Cavalries without the needs of bonus damage.

Cavalry beat range infantry

  • They have higher speed so they won’t be kited by range infantry. They can catch them with ease.

Cavalry Vs general infantry

  • They have advantage with Charge, but cannot win in close combat if they don’t rely on their charge bonus.

Pike infantry beat cavalry

  • Their brace ability can negate (or reflect) the Charge bonus of Cavalry, so they have big advantage.

Range infantry beat range cavalry

  • They have higher DPS and longer range, the moving shoot of range cavalry have no advantage against range infantry.

Range infantry beat melee infantry

  • They are run faster, so they can kite the melee infantry.
  • Even stronger against pike infantry since they don’t have shield for range defense.

Camel beat cavalry

  • They reduce damage of calvary, so they don’t need bonus damage to cavalry anymore.
  • This is the realistic way, since horse hate the smell of camel, they are losing control when they get close to camel. Reducing the cavalry damage make a lot more sense, than dealing bonus damage to them.

Artillery against infantry and cavalry

  • The Artillery could deal AEO damage, which has bigger effect on infantry who are slower, smaller and stay closer.
  • But have less effect on cavalry who are faster to avoid part of the AOE and also take shorter time to approach to the close range of artillery.

Pros:

  • Those mechanics are already presented in the videos. It is already enough to define the role and counter relationship for each type of unit. So the bonus damage is not necessary any more.
  • Those mechanics are very easy to understand, they are the natural and realistic, which is described in the book The Art of War in the Western World by Archer Jones.
  • This can make the strategy of using each type of units based more on its function, and encourage more of using them for the things they are good at, rather than using them more on attacking right target for more damage output through damage bonus.
6 Likes
2

shooting from horse back is very difficult, but it is already there for Mongols. They are well known for using archery from horseback. English will never be able to do it with longbow or crossbows.

3

You can actually do it with Crossbows, and it was done all over Europe. Google Cranequiers.

1 Like
4

but they are in Maltese Civ and AOE 3 happens many many centuries after AOE 2 or AOE 4 period.

5

AOE4 already borrowed mechanics from AOE3

1 Like
6

Of course. Not only only borrowed but some of those supposedly super unique civ bonuses sound exactly like copy-paste from aoe3’s expansions Asian Dynasties and War Chiefs.
Then those who have never played it think they’re new/breakthrough levels of asymmetric design and rush to jump on the hype train or start their five stages of sorrow. It’s nothing special guys.

1 Like
7

Cranequiers are from Medieval France and all the other peoples that surrounded them, not from Malta, and certainly not from the AoE3 timeframe.

8

Faster units should have the advantage of the same weapon and damage. But they should also do what would happen on a real battlefield. I see both sides but I agree with the quote.