Talk:Samurai (Age of Empires II)/@comment-2003:D5:1BC9:EA64:E805:B788:694A:763-20171025124747/@comment-121.202.71.44-20171103024659

Only against  War Elephants and Jaguar Warriors where Samurai isn't a good counter, however specifically in case of Jaguar Warriors they counter each other with Samurai having advantage before Jaguar Warriors get Garland War in Elite vs Elite.

Agasint War Elephants you use the Pike line, but Samurai is cost efficient by definition.

Slingers kind of belong to this category too, as Samurais will be able to catch up with much more powerful attacks and HP, so you need to either have very quick focus fire or a very drawn out hit and run tug; like War Elephants you don't send Samurais to counter them, although it is viable should your opponent get greedy with their Slingers

Mangudais,  Conquistadors,  Plumed Archers,  Camel Archers,  Arambis and  Gbetos : These can actually out run Samurais to hit and run, however Samurais are still the most devasting ambushers agaisnt them; although there are more cost effective counters.

War Wagons,  Elephant Archers  and Ballista Elephants are somewhere between UU Cavalry archers and War Elephants: you have more cost effective counter against them, but you can just send your combat ready Samurais to them provided you have a plan.

Longbowmen,  Geonese Crossbowman and Rattan Archers again requires good focus fire and they don't even get bonus damage, and each of them have their own problems and some edge over the other so they are more or less equal:Longbowmen have longer range but no Thumb ring, Geonese Crossbowmen have 2 more armour but move slower, Rattan Archer have Thumb ring but 0 base armour like Longbowmen.

Mamelukes,  Chu Ko Nus,  Janissaries and  Organ Guns would stand some chance against Samurais as they can just stand ground while dashing out full damage to Samurais while they trying to engage; but Samurais are cost effective against them.

Teutonic Knights and  Boyars can win against Samurais one on one, so with equal numbers they would win, but Samurais are really cost effective against them, and you don't need to product hard counter units.

Berserks and Magyar Huszar have a leg up compare to everyone else because they have hp and speed to disengage Samurais and can beat Samurais with reasonable surperior number; Huszar in particular is trash so Samurais are favourable against them but not necessarily cost effective.

Woads,  Condottiero and  Karambit Warriors are terrible against Samurais but their Civ have no reason to deploy these units against Japanese base on their army composition; the Japanese would probably be making Samurais and Swordsman stand in and these UUs have no significant advantage to push the Japanese into doing things differently.

Huskarls,  Throwing Axeman, Kamayuks and  Shotel Warriors are units that would still be made knowing they are against Japanese; Shotel Warriors would appear to a lesser degree but producing them to break Siege engines or sabotaging gold mines well within reason.