Their attack value is raised massively for a few seconds after the charge.
You can tell they’re charging because they’ll have their lances out and there’ll be dust trails behind them. There are also some things the spears can do to counter knights further… The Cavalry ChargeĬavalry units get an attack buff shortly after charging. In terms of cost-efficiency the trade is still in your favour. It might seem like those knights are destroying your pack of spears – and they probably are – but those knights are expensive. One thing that hasn’t changed is the cost of the unit is still a big factor. That’s where crossbows come in, which are made for armoured units like men-at-arms and knights.
That’s because they’re actually using their shields now, and if you upgrade their armour further, normal archers might need in excess of 30 shots to kill one. You’ll see men-at-arms charging a large pack of archers and winning. Broadly, cavalry still gets a bonus against archers, spears get a bonus against cavalry, and archers will destroy spears.īut armour plays a much bigger role now. The old rock/paper/scissors isn’t exactly the same in AoE4. That’s because… The Counter Structure is Different Now If those archers are crossbowmen, even better. If you’ve got archers behind them, even better. 3-4 spearmen in a gap between houses can frustrate a group of knights. A travesty! But you can still build your base in a defensive way.ĪoE4 requires you to at least have some spearmen to plug up these holes. Not all of it is clear at first, so hopefully the below helps. To help you get acquainted with the new stuff, here are a few tips to make the transition easier. It keeps so many great elements of the series, and introduces a bunch of cool new stuff. Age of Empires 4 is upon us, and it is truly fantastic.