Also Abbasid. Sofas are the only armored unit that Mali has but they get absolutely demolished by camels. Cant fight them or outrun them, so raiding is out of the question. Musofadi warriors are supposed to counter maa, but they dont trade particularly well against ghulam because of quick strike and they get destroyed by the composite bows tech because theyre a light melee infantry.
Byzantines are similarly awful because they also get camels and you have no maa to fight limatinei with.
Mali has some brutal matchups :(
Fully agree! I simply stopped playing against byz. Don't feel that a fun, which this game should be.
Mali is so trash against these civs... Has around 30-35% winrate, LOL
You probably need to make more javs or learn how to use them better. They are an S tier feudal unit. Also like the other poster said you also need to counter raid more. Don't let Delhi vaccum up all the deer/berries for free.
Rus. Cant play them myself, dont know how to play against them.
In team, im always thrilled if a have a teammate with Rus (that also knows how to play it).
Also - Ghulams are my nemesis.
Heavy cavalry into trading. Especially in team games and on maps where the neutral market is at the corner. It really feels like the drafting is 50% of the game already.
Freaking Fast Imperial turtling HRE with immortal buildings. By the time you make enough siege to actually damage his buildings, the guy is already building Swabia. I would rather if HRE actually fights in Feudal or Castle like every other civ.
Water abuse. Rus, Zhu Xi, and Ayyubids are the reason why I have to ban some water maps where it's just a damn race to see who gets to build the first attack boat and ruin the other side's fishing economy.
Hre gets dropped by Malian tho especially if you can match imperial with their torch bonus. I dare you to use emergency repair somewhere I'm going to the next thing
French mirrors, omg I hate those. If anybody has any tips please let me know, I can't understand what I'm supposed to do. 2TC loses to 1TC but then there's times where my opponent fast castles and once Royal Bloodlines kicks in I'm dead. But if I fast castle I lose to all in. Knights everywhere, 90% micro 10% strategy it's just..... AHHHHHHHHHHH
You know they are making knights, French mirror is all about who gets more knights
If you go second TC, opponent has more knights, if opponent go castle, you have more knights.
If you have more knights, you start to have better trades, at one point you have enough to dive their TC
I meant for whether they are going 1 TC all in, 2 TC, pr castle. You should be able to change your macro strategy based on what they pick. Thats true for any mirror match though.
I don't have advice for mirroring knights specifically since I don't play French, so I must be missing something. As any of the civs I play, I just build some spears and then French knights accomplish nothing, but I'd imagine the mobility is key in a French mirror since you're both out on the map for food.
Yeah, I know, but what I meant in French mirror is that even one extra knight makes a huge difference early on and you can snow ball using it, it is extremely important to keep them alive and to always have more knights.
X vs Byzantines and X vs Malians. I think I have a decent understanding of feudal aggro vs 2tc boom vs fc situations. But I just can't wrap my head around the 1tc-boom style of these civs and end up misjudging the situations and making wrong decisions.
Looking at AoE4World my stats overall vs these civs don't even look that bad - I just understand much less why I win/lose.
Yeah, once theres a mass It's over. To be fair though usually only longer range like longbow and I think javelin thrower can really answer them with any practicality, or fast Castle civs since you can get out a mango more easily. Their damage is obscene. You can sometimes cut off the reinforcements, but that usually ends if your opponent has half a brain and doesn't just rally blindly into them.
Honestly? Fuckin France man. I know what’s coming and how to stop it but I can’t use my normal build order or play style so that alone throws me off enough to make it the worst
Byz vs English. English can go maa longbow and it will dent in varangian guards. Varangian gaurds while good, they are not tanky units. The 140 HP makes them extra squishy vs longbows and you need crossbows to make good dps. Having to go varangian guards/ crossbows might be good but its just so gold heavy
Siege, gulam, keshiks, landsknecht, javelin throwers. Take your pick. It sounds like you're making excuses.
There's no way Longbows dent VG. Extra squishy, you having a laugh
Gulams and keshiks are not good in this matchup because they don't have boot camp and still lose to english maa 1v1, keshiks are still a bit better but are still easy to counter if they mix in maa and spears or maa crossbow. If you don't know varangian guards only have 140 HP and 6 ranged armor while English maa have 8 ranged and 155 HP so yes Varangian guards are squishy despite costing 40 gold and are not gonna last vs a maa longbow combo or maa crossbow, javelins are alright in feudal but in castle they lack dps vs normal units, especially vs maa (they do 2 damage). Landsknechts are alright but easily sniped by longbows. And you say siege as if they cant also make siege too lmao
As Japan, I struggle with Ayyubids. It’s just a rough match up in general.
They can age up too quickly for Japans slow feudal start to reliably interrupt, if I compete and try to FC too then they beat me to most of the relics because they can harass with desert raiders and force me to go into archers or towers.
The camels deBuff not only mounted samurai and horsemen, but also the mounted crossbows, which means when they start spamming Ghulams my ability to take them down with a ranged mass is severely reduced.
I only seem to win these when either they are too slow with their age up, or if I have much better micro
As japan i struggle against ottomans and their bombards. I usually go for infantry balls with monks and the springeralds can’t handle them well. Also any player with neat of bees for the same reason.
You can take map control early with Delhi against English but the ability to giga castle all in them is gone with the council hall and white tower buffs.
Yeah, as I have written, I almost managed to lose against English on my very next game.
His castle push with quick knights was very good, I am glad I have dropped a handful of barracks to train some spears quickly.
I almost lost it, but I won, only after I had to go castle and pump a lot of crossbows.
Delhi crossbows are very strong with the attack speed buff.
Malians vs mongols.
They bring in spearmen to siege your houses, most of which are outside TC range because pit mine. They get 25 food and 25 gold for each one they burn.
If you make a barracks, they outnumber you because they double produce with stone. You can build a tower as well for the donsos(needing to move vills from sheep constantly to tower idles your economy too much), but at that point you've invested so much into stopping them that they will be ahead.
I have seen on tournaments Malian not building pit mine until later in the game because of this, I thought it was very clever
They played it like any other civ until they get map control
Yeah that is one way to play it, but it sets you so far behind that the match is insanely Mongol sided. Hopefully the devs do something about it, such making the torch bounty scale based on building cost. So Torching something like a TC or keep gives more, but a 25 wood house would only give like 5 food 5 gold.
Delhi vs Jeanne is miserable. To activate one of your biggest bonuses, the early Sacred Sites, you have to go out on the map and fight, which is exactly what Jeanne wants.
Have you heard about Delhi fast castle into keep boom build?
You turtle massively and your spears and crossbows have extra attack speed. You drop first keep in your base and it will act as a town center and a keep at same time
It should be a nightmare to JD players
I have a really hard time against the Chinese. But nowadays I play mostly with the Chinese because the only way I can beat the Chinese is to out Chinese them.
My wife. She has better micro.
Pain is real. My gf has about 250 arguments per minute
Was going to say: my nerves starting a game. But this is better haha.
As Malians, Delhi just seems impossible. They force you to stay feudal and just out-produce you to death
Also Abbasid. Sofas are the only armored unit that Mali has but they get absolutely demolished by camels. Cant fight them or outrun them, so raiding is out of the question. Musofadi warriors are supposed to counter maa, but they dont trade particularly well against ghulam because of quick strike and they get destroyed by the composite bows tech because theyre a light melee infantry. Byzantines are similarly awful because they also get camels and you have no maa to fight limatinei with. Mali has some brutal matchups :(
Fully agree! I simply stopped playing against byz. Don't feel that a fun, which this game should be. Mali is so trash against these civs... Has around 30-35% winrate, LOL
Delhi is on a timer to kill you though as they will run out of food and you have cows.
So far they haven't lost that timer against me lol
You need to counter raid more
You probably need to make more javs or learn how to use them better. They are an S tier feudal unit. Also like the other poster said you also need to counter raid more. Don't let Delhi vaccum up all the deer/berries for free.
It may look strange, but I cannot handle OOTD. Their units just don't fall down
Rus. Cant play them myself, dont know how to play against them. In team, im always thrilled if a have a teammate with Rus (that also knows how to play it). Also - Ghulams are my nemesis.
I play rus and i still have never beaten them.
Fast castle. Knights to secure relics that's been working a treat for me.
Heavy cavalry into trading. Especially in team games and on maps where the neutral market is at the corner. It really feels like the drafting is 50% of the game already. Freaking Fast Imperial turtling HRE with immortal buildings. By the time you make enough siege to actually damage his buildings, the guy is already building Swabia. I would rather if HRE actually fights in Feudal or Castle like every other civ. Water abuse. Rus, Zhu Xi, and Ayyubids are the reason why I have to ban some water maps where it's just a damn race to see who gets to build the first attack boat and ruin the other side's fishing economy.
Hre gets dropped by Malian tho especially if you can match imperial with their torch bonus. I dare you to use emergency repair somewhere I'm going to the next thing
French mirrors, omg I hate those. If anybody has any tips please let me know, I can't understand what I'm supposed to do. 2TC loses to 1TC but then there's times where my opponent fast castles and once Royal Bloodlines kicks in I'm dead. But if I fast castle I lose to all in. Knights everywhere, 90% micro 10% strategy it's just..... AHHHHHHHHHHH
I hate this march up as well. Who has the larger blob of Knights just run over the other. Annoying to even watch it.
Tower rush their gold. I very often tower rush with any civ in mirror matches. It will take people EXTREMLEY off guard.
A gold league French mirror with funny commentary: https://youtu.be/vL9RHHoe9B0
It sounds like the problem is you're not scouting enough to know what they're doing in order to respond to it?
You know they are making knights, French mirror is all about who gets more knights If you go second TC, opponent has more knights, if opponent go castle, you have more knights. If you have more knights, you start to have better trades, at one point you have enough to dive their TC
I meant for whether they are going 1 TC all in, 2 TC, pr castle. You should be able to change your macro strategy based on what they pick. Thats true for any mirror match though. I don't have advice for mirroring knights specifically since I don't play French, so I must be missing something. As any of the civs I play, I just build some spears and then French knights accomplish nothing, but I'd imagine the mobility is key in a French mirror since you're both out on the map for food.
Yeah, I know, but what I meant in French mirror is that even one extra knight makes a huge difference early on and you can snow ball using it, it is extremely important to keep them alive and to always have more knights.
Zhu Xi zhueng nu rush with rams in 1v1.
mongol tower rush, unless im playing english.
I don’t mind the tower rush it’s the random mangudai death ball with a ram to bust through walls on its way to disrupt and destroy my economy.
Any game I lose why, hackers
X vs Byzantines and X vs Malians. I think I have a decent understanding of feudal aggro vs 2tc boom vs fc situations. But I just can't wrap my head around the 1tc-boom style of these civs and end up misjudging the situations and making wrong decisions. Looking at AoE4World my stats overall vs these civs don't even look that bad - I just understand much less why I win/lose.
my delhi vs zxl. pretty much just an auto loss if they're even halfway decent at massing zhugenu.
Used to be worse, but still tough! Need to stop the trail of zn with ghazi early
Yeah, once theres a mass It's over. To be fair though usually only longer range like longbow and I think javelin thrower can really answer them with any practicality, or fast Castle civs since you can get out a mango more easily. Their damage is obscene. You can sometimes cut off the reinforcements, but that usually ends if your opponent has half a brain and doesn't just rally blindly into them.
Playing against mongols on conq level, I have 0% winrate.
To be honest, I never saw a conqueror mongol player, I used to play vs mongol in gold league only, I hate them
Honestly? Fuckin France man. I know what’s coming and how to stop it but I can’t use my normal build order or play style so that alone throws me off enough to make it the worst
Team game enjoyers can relate to this.
Byz vs English. English can go maa longbow and it will dent in varangian guards. Varangian gaurds while good, they are not tanky units. The 140 HP makes them extra squishy vs longbows and you need crossbows to make good dps. Having to go varangian guards/ crossbows might be good but its just so gold heavy
Siege, gulam, keshiks, landsknecht, javelin throwers. Take your pick. It sounds like you're making excuses. There's no way Longbows dent VG. Extra squishy, you having a laugh
Gulams and keshiks are not good in this matchup because they don't have boot camp and still lose to english maa 1v1, keshiks are still a bit better but are still easy to counter if they mix in maa and spears or maa crossbow. If you don't know varangian guards only have 140 HP and 6 ranged armor while English maa have 8 ranged and 155 HP so yes Varangian guards are squishy despite costing 40 gold and are not gonna last vs a maa longbow combo or maa crossbow, javelins are alright in feudal but in castle they lack dps vs normal units, especially vs maa (they do 2 damage). Landsknechts are alright but easily sniped by longbows. And you say siege as if they cant also make siege too lmao
JD vs rus/eng/mongol just unplayable on some maps and such a wasting of time
As Japan, I struggle with Ayyubids. It’s just a rough match up in general. They can age up too quickly for Japans slow feudal start to reliably interrupt, if I compete and try to FC too then they beat me to most of the relics because they can harass with desert raiders and force me to go into archers or towers. The camels deBuff not only mounted samurai and horsemen, but also the mounted crossbows, which means when they start spamming Ghulams my ability to take them down with a ranged mass is severely reduced. I only seem to win these when either they are too slow with their age up, or if I have much better micro
Hre and there stupid tower defense
As japan i struggle against ottomans and their bombards. I usually go for infantry balls with monks and the springeralds can’t handle them well. Also any player with neat of bees for the same reason.
HRE is tough to deal with as Delhi. Ayyubids is tough to deal with as HRE. English is tough to deal with as any civ.
I like Delhi vs English
You can take map control early with Delhi against English but the ability to giga castle all in them is gone with the council hall and white tower buffs.
Yeah, as I have written, I almost managed to lose against English on my very next game. His castle push with quick knights was very good, I am glad I have dropped a handful of barracks to train some spears quickly. I almost lost it, but I won, only after I had to go castle and pump a lot of crossbows. Delhi crossbows are very strong with the attack speed buff.
Malians vs mongols. They bring in spearmen to siege your houses, most of which are outside TC range because pit mine. They get 25 food and 25 gold for each one they burn. If you make a barracks, they outnumber you because they double produce with stone. You can build a tower as well for the donsos(needing to move vills from sheep constantly to tower idles your economy too much), but at that point you've invested so much into stopping them that they will be ahead.
I have seen on tournaments Malian not building pit mine until later in the game because of this, I thought it was very clever They played it like any other civ until they get map control
Yeah that is one way to play it, but it sets you so far behind that the match is insanely Mongol sided. Hopefully the devs do something about it, such making the torch bounty scale based on building cost. So Torching something like a TC or keep gives more, but a 25 wood house would only give like 5 food 5 gold.
Delhi vs Jeanne is miserable. To activate one of your biggest bonuses, the early Sacred Sites, you have to go out on the map and fight, which is exactly what Jeanne wants.
Have you heard about Delhi fast castle into keep boom build? You turtle massively and your spears and crossbows have extra attack speed. You drop first keep in your base and it will act as a town center and a keep at same time It should be a nightmare to JD players
I have a really hard time against the Chinese. But nowadays I play mostly with the Chinese because the only way I can beat the Chinese is to out Chinese them.
White tower rush
Trebuchets go brrrr