The traditional counter system in Age of Mythology, going clockwise
A counter is a unit or building that holds an exceptional advantage against a particular unit, unit class, specific building, or building class. All games in the Age of Empires series feature counter systems.
Effectively utilizing counters in a player's army against the enemy's key units while protecting units vulnerable against enemy counters is often the key to winning battles.
Age of Empires[]
In the original Age of Empires, a basic counter system was implemented. The concept of the rock-paper-scissor of this game has still been applied on the counter system of its successors. Unlike in its successors, however, attack bonus is not that emphasized in this game, rather a unit type gains the upper hands via the unit's attributes (attack, armor, range, speed).
Basically, there are two rock-paper-scissor cycles.
- Infantry is superior to cavalry (infantry is cheaper, especially Barracks units, and has superior stats to cavalry, especially Academy units).
Cavalry is superior to archers (cavalry can easily close the gap between them and attacking archers).
Archers are superior to infantry (archers can easily hit-and-run infantry). - Defensive structures defeat regular units (regular units do have a small amount of hit points and are normally within a tower's range).
Regular units (infantry/cavalry) defeat siege weapons.
Siege weapons defeat defensive structures (siege weapons have an attack bonus against buildings, and can often outrange them).
Age of Empires II[]
The cycle of Feudal Age counters. Note that each of the five common Feudal Age military units are at least a hard counter to one other Feudal Age unit, as demonstrated by the outer dark blue arrows. The light blue arrows display less one-sided but still notable advantages.
The second title in the series has a counter system largely similar to that of its predecessor, with certain categories of units being better suited to beat certain units (for example, cavalry being a great choice to hunt down most archer units).
However, the rock-paper-scissor mechanic is more often than not subverted because of the existence of armor classes, which set the bonus damage that is dealt by a unit against units that share a certain armor class.
According to armor classes, bonus damage is a flat additive value to the base damage and if a unit has more than one armor class, the bonus damages of the attacking unit stack. For example, the War Elephant is in the war elephant and in the cavalry armor class, and the Halberdier has an attack bonus against both classes. So both bonus damages are added when a Halberdier attacks a War Elephant.
An example of a unit that subverts the traditional rock-paper-scissor mechanic is the Genoese Crossbowman. Although an archer unit, this unit boasts a bonus of +5 (+7 for the Elite version) against units with the cavalry armor class. The Huskarl and the Eagle Scout line also subvert this mechanic, as they are infantry units that are strong against archers due to their high pierce armor.
There are 20 total armor classes for units and 5 for buildings, thus complicating which unit is better suited to deal with enemies in different situations. Some units even serve very specific niches: an example is the Condottiero. This unit boasts an attack bonus of +10 against units with gunpowder unit armor class combined with a unique armor class that makes it quite resistant to gunpowder units, which makes them an excellent choice to counter specific units, such as Hand Cannoneers.
Age of Mythology[]
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Age of Mythology utilizes the concept of a rock-paper-scissor-mechanic to make various units viable while also remove dominant strategies from the game. Besides handling economy, producing military units, and micro-managing them to fight, the counter system allows to trade produced military cost-efficiently. Losing significantly more resources than the player's opponent in a fight by losing more valuable military units leads to one player being ahead and often decides a game.
Rock-paper-scissors mechanics[]
The basic counter-mechanics presented are the rock-paper-scissor mechanics among the various unit types, viz. infantry, ranged soldiers, and cavalry. Unique to the game is the interplay between human soldiers, myth units, and heroes. Other counter triangles are arrow ships, siege ships, and close-combat ships; and siege weapons, normal units, and buildings.
With infantry being food-based, ranged soldiers being wood-based, and cavalry being gold-based,, the counter mechanic of infantry-ranged soldiers-cavalry is translatable into a gold-wood-food cycle.
Exceptional units among this counter system are ones which revert the mechanic, like the Destroyer and Huskarl infantry units being resistant or even strong against ranged soldiers.
Chinese cavalry in Tale of the Dragon are based around on a reversed mechanic, such as the anti-infantry Cataphract, the anti-cavalry mounted archer-cavalry hybrid Mounted Archer, and Scout Cavalry being part of a basic cheap cavalry.
Each rock-paper-scissor cycle needs to be closed to fully function and not disturb others while doing that. The tools to do this are damage type, armor type, attack range, speed, and attack multipliers.
Damage and armor types[]
The standard damage types are hack, pierce and crush. Units can deal multiple damage types at once, commonly hack and crush or pierce and crush as done by various myth units. The damage type dealt is being reduced by the percentage on armor type before it decreases the victims' hit points.
E.g. if one deals 10 crush damage against 90% crush armor, only 1 damage is dealt to the target.
Damage and armor types are used to establish the counter system. Age of Mythology: Retold adds the Divine damage type, which ignores armor entirely. However, only a few units in the game deal divine damage with their regular attack, while Egyptian Pharaohs and Priests only deal divine damage when attacking myth units.
Attack multipliers[]
Some units deal bonus damage against other units. While soft counter units only sometimes get a bonus of 10%, 25%, or none against the units they are supposed to counter, hard counter units can deal several times the damage they'd deal against other units. Pharaohs and Priests change their projectile type to show whether they are hitting normal units or myth units, against which they deal a great amount of bonus damage. Knowing that they are hitting the right units is important since the great amount of bonus damage can decide the outcome of battles.
One of the most important attack multipliers is between heroes and myth units. Heroes deal huge damage to myth units, and myth units usually deal reduced damage to heroes. Another instance of attack multipliers belong to myth units. Since they are strong units with a lot of hit points, most myth units have an attack multiplier of 2 or 3 times against other myth units to make the fights between them shorter. Other common multipliers are among some hard counter units, which otherwise do little damage overall and are not a threat to anyone else. Some other multipliers are workers doing bonus damage against towers and siege weapons, the Myrmidon (before Retold) and Fanatic damage multipliers against great amounts of units, and some multipliers against buildings by various units.
Attack multipliers are not presented in the game UI, which makes it difficult to evaluate exactly how strong of a counter units are. It is also difficult to compare heroes to each other, since their amount of bonus damage can differ a lot, partly due to their various availability among the civilizations.
Rock-paper-scissor cycles[]
Siege weapons[]
The easiest cycle concerns siege weapons, units, and buildings through mobility and crush damage/armor:
- Siege weapons deal crush damage, have a high pierce armor, low hack armor, and low speed.
- Other units are fast, deal either hack or pierce damage, but are themselves 99% armored against crush damage.
- Buildings are immobile, deal mostly pierce damage if at all and have only 5% crush armor.
Siege weapons are practically immune to the pierce attack of buildings, while dealing a damage type on which buildings often have little armor. Other units are immune to siege weapons, are worse at destroying buildings, and are weak to building's damage.
This also leads to siege units being able to tank arrows from ranged soldiers. Commonly used in Egyptian tactics is the use of the combined forces of siege units and Priests.
Human soldiers[]
Another cycle concerns infantry, archers, and cavalry through range, speed, and pierce/hack damage and armor.
- Infantry are slow, deal hack damage, and have very little pierce armor.
- Ranged soldiers are slow, deals ranged pierce damage, and have little hack and pierce armor.
- Cavalry are fast, deal hack damage, and have little hack, but good pierce armor.
Due to the use of two damage and armor types every fight could already be decided correctly if it was close combat, assuming that the ranged soldiers' hack armor exceeds the infantry's pierce armor. But additionally, range and speed come into play. Ranged units can engage in combat from afar, which allows for fighting while the enemy is still approaching, fighting from back rows and micro-managing without causing the units to move before being able to fight again, allowing to focus fire dangerous or easy killable opponents. This is a huge bonus and makes them a must in most military compositions already. Fast cavalry can evade the ranged soldiers' projectiles and catch them even if they are running away, while infantry are able to escape ranged soldiers due to them not being able to attack while moving and sometimes slightly higher speed. In both cases of attempted evasions the ranged soldiers lose, which limits their job to holding ground, but makes fast archers like Centaurs, Chariot Archers, and Yumi Horse Archers more deadly.
Unit class cycle[]
The cycle of human soldiers, myth units and heroes is easily resolved. Compared to human soldiers myth units are more cost-effective and their upgrades more substantial, being effective for a little amount of units already. Heroes on the other hand, while strong units themselves, are not cost effective compared to human soldiers. To close the cycle heroes are given high damage multipliers against myth units, while myth units get a high damage reduction against heroes, allowing to defeat the most cost effective unit with the otherwise least cost effective one.
The recruitment of myth units is heavily restricted by them being expensive, requiring the troublesome obtainable resource of favor, the other uses for favor and the maximal amount of favor allowed. On the other hand, if on advancement the temple did not get destroyed since the Titans with every reached Age one free myth unit is granted to the player.
Ships utilize pierce, hack, and crush damage as well as pierce, hack, and crush armor. This is combined with ramming ships, such as hammer and fire ships, being fast melee units attacking slow ranged siege units, copying the cycle of infantry, ranged soldiers, and cavalry.
Soft counters and hard counters[]
Soft counters[]
A standard unit among the counter mechanics is only slightly better than the unit it counters, allowing for beneficial fights or trade-offs in some situations even if the own unit is countered. Such soft counter units are more versatile in other statistics and can be used for various tasks.
The most basic soft counters are considered standard infantry, ranged soldiers, and cavalry:
- Soft counter-cavalry: Hoplite, Myrmidon, Militia, Spearman, Berserk, Murmillo, Fanatic, Dao Swordsman, Samurai, and Halberdier
- Soft counter-infantry: Toxotes, Myrmidon, Gastraphetoros, Chariot Archer, Arcus, Fanatic, Chu Ko Nu (Immortal Pillars), Tiger Cavalry, Yumi Archer, Samurai, Yumi Horse Archer, Chu Ko Nu (Tale of the Dragon), and Mounted Archer
- Soft counter-ranged soldiers: Hippeus, Hetairos, Camel Rider, War Elephant, Raiding Cavalry, Jarl, Contarius, Destroyer, White Horse Cavalry, Tiger Cavalry, Naginata Rider, Scout Cavalry, and War Chariot
Prior to Retold, due to Odin's hit point-bonus on Hill Fort units, the Huskarl could be used as basic infantry.
Hard counters[]
Hard counter units on the other hand are highly specialized to fight a specific type of enemy. They are very cost-effective against the unit they counter, but do very poorly against anything else due to very low attack or armor.
- Hard counter-cavalry: Prodromos, Camel Rider, Spearman with Greatest of Fifty (before Retold), Hirdman, Berserk with Swine Array (before Retold), Katapeltes, Ge Halberdier, Yari Spearman, and Mounted Archer
- Hard counter-infantry: Hypaspist, Axeman, Throwing Axeman, Cheiroballista, Fire Archer, and Cataphract
- Hard counter-ranged soldiers: Peltast, Slinger, Huskarl, Raiding Cavalry with Sons of Sleipnir, Turma, Wuzu Javelineer, Shinobi, and Fire Lance
- Hard counter-buildings: Siege weapons, myth-siege units such as the Behemoth, Scarab and Taowu, Gastraphetoros, Polyphemus, Hetairos (before Retold), War Elephant, Axeman with Axe of Vengeance, Huskarl with Bravery, Destroyer, Contarius Hero with Lance of Stone (before Retold), Fire Archer, Wen Zhong, Shinobi, and Onmyōji
- Hard counter-myth: Heroes, Greek unique units with Beast Slayer (before Retold), Jarl (before Retold), Bogsveigir, and Nereid
Heavy units[]
Heavy units are such which require to be hard countered to be cost effectively defeated. Using soft counters against them resolves in losing more resources than the opponent.
Examples of heavy cavalry are War Elephants, Jarls, Tiger Cavalry and War Chariots which require hard cavalry counter units to be defeated cost effectively.
Myrmidons, Destroyers, Fanatics, and Samurai are heavy infantry which require hard infantry counters to be defeated cost effectively.
Technologies[]
Line upgrades like Medium/Heavy/Champion increase attack and hit points for a specific group of human military, while Armory upgrades benefit all human soldiers. Especially in the realm of soft counters being technologically more advanced than your opponent might allow to trade units efficiently when they shouldn't by counter-rules.
Some technologies grant attack multipliers and may change the role a unit plays in the counter-system. Here are examples:
- Some units like the soft counter Spearmen and Berserks can be upgraded into hard counters against cavalry through the Mythic Age upgrade Greatest of Fifty and the Heroic Age upgrade Swine Array, respectively, when the value of their decent stats as soft counters may be reduced by them being Classical Age units. These technologies were reworked in Retold.
- Before Retold, Raiding Cavalry likewise can be turned into a hard counter against archers with the Mythic Age technology Sons of Sleipnir.
- The Axeman and Huskarl, already being hard counters against infantry and ranged soldiers, respectively, can be upgraded to be strong against buildings as well through the myth technologies Axe of Vengeance and Bravery, respectively. While Huskarls are good at destroying buildings, the Axeman's poor pierce armor makes it hard for it to demolish those which defend themselves shooting arrows.
- Before Retold, Contarius Heroes can similarly become strong against buildings through the Lance of Stone.
- Prior to Retold, another upgrade is increasing the damage multipliers of Priests and Pharaohs against myth units through the Heroic Age myth technology Funeral Rites.
- The Immortal in Tale of the Dragon can have its damage multiplier against myth units increased with the heroic technology Demon Slayer.
Age of Empires III[]
The explanation image of the counter system of Age of Empires III
The counter system of Age of Empires III is largely similar to the one utilized by Age of Mythology; as both games are based on the Bang! Engine, bonus damage is determined by multiplication rather than by additive bonuses and armor classes by the tag system. A basic difference with the system of Age of Mythology is the fact there are many more categories of units, and a greater variety of multipliers against them.
Summary[]
In a nutshell, the following units counter the next units:
- Infantry
- Heavy Infantry → Cavalry, Shock Infantry
- Light Infantry → Heavy Infantry, Light Cavalry, Ranged Shock Infantry
- Grenade Troopers → Infantry in groups, Buildings
- Counter Skirmishers → Light Infantry
- Cavalry/Shock Infantry
- Heavy Cavalry → Light Infantry, Artillery
- Light Cavalry → Heavy Cavalry, Hand Shock Infantry, Artillery
- Hand Shock Infantry → Light Infantry, Artillery (same as Heavy Cavalry)
- Ranged Shock Infantry → Heavy Cavalry, Hand Shock Infantry, Artillery (same as Light Cavalry)
- Artillery
- Generic Artillery → Infantry, Buildings, Ships
- Specialized Artillery → Artillery or/and Buildings, Ships
Elaboration[]
For example, infantry are distinguished as either heavy infantry or light infantry units.
The first category includes infantry that either fight exclusive in melee (such as the Samurai) or with muskets and bayonets or swords (such as the Janissaries). They tend to be a hard counter against cavalry and light/ranged infantry in melee but in turn, artillery or light/ranged infantry in range tend to beat them easily.
Light infantry (such as the Skirmisher) in turn boast great range, coupled with multipliers against heavy infantry and light/ranged cavalry, but fall easily to heavy cavalry, heavy infantry in melee, and artillery.
In most cases, the counter system of Age of Empires III inherits the system of the previous games in the series. Light infantry take the role of archers, light cavalry take the role of camels and cavalry archers, and artillery take the role of siege weapons.
Niche units[]
Of course, multipliers are not limited against the above-mentioned units. There are also multipliers against less common unit types, including worker units, mercenaries, and ships. This can sometimes lead to training certain units for very specific tasks, occasionally to levels of crippling overspecialization.
An example is the Spy, an infantry unit that causes just 5 damage but with very large multipliers against mercenaries and heroes. Another such unit is the Culverin, an artillery unit with spectacular range and great multipliers against ships and other artillery, that is somewhat ineffective against anything else.
Taking the above into consideration, if a light/ranged infantry unit in Age of Empires III has a 5x multiplier against heavy infantry, then it takes the unit's base damage and multiplies it by 5 to heavy infantry. Units may also have multipliers that lower their damage output. If a unit has a 0.5 multiplier against Villagers then it does only half of its base damage to Villagers.
Something that has to be noted is that a unit lacking a multiplier or even having a multiplier lower than 1 (divider) does not make a unit ineffective against others. Heavy cavalry are an example, as most lack multipliers against other units, yet tend to consistently beat light/ranged infantry and artillery units because of their combination of speed, hit points, and high attack.
Age of Empires IV[]
The official counter chart from Age of Empires IV
Age of Empires IV features both 'hard' counters - units that have large bonuses against other types of units -, and soft counters - units that have strengths over another type of unit but that can be mitigated through various means. With both of these counter systems, there exist a number of 'counter triangles' between different sets of units that function based on the 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' design.
Counter triangles[]
The primary counter triangle is between the basic Feudal Age 'trash' units. Horsemen counter Archers, which counter Spearmen, which counter Horsemen. Each of these units is a hard counter to another, and can reliably beat it in a 1 on 1 battle.
Heavy units are introduced primarily in the Castle Age and are intended to have advantages against multiple units in the previous counter triangle. The 'fast castle' strategy is specifically designed to reach the Castle Age as soon as possible, so as to obtain these units and gain an advantage over an opponent still in the Feudal Age. For example, Lancers or other unique heavy melee cavalry have advantages over Archers and Horsemen, while Men-at-Arms or other heavy melee infantry have an advantage over all three. Heavy units get countered by specific 'anti-heavy' units, of which the Crossbowman is the primary example. Anti-heavy units in turn get countered by one or more of the trash units, typically Archers or Horsemen, forming a separate counter triangle. Sometimes, heavy units are available in the Feudal Age, in which case they typically have reduced stats to make them more vulnerable to Feudal Age units. Early Men-at-Arms, for example, have less pierce armor to make them more susceptible to Archers, and deal less damage, allowing Horsemen to engage them directly and soak up damage. This is an example of a soft counter, since neither Archers nor Horsemen can defeat Early Men-at-Arms in a direct engagement with equal numbers, but through cost effectiveness and tactics, they can win out.
Ships also have a hard counter triangle in Age of Empires IV. Archer ships counter incendiary ships, which counter springald ships, which counter archer ships. Warships soft counter springald ships and can replace them in this triangle in the Imperial Age.
Soft counters and exceptions[]
Unit types that do not directly interact with each other in a counter triangle can soft counter each other to various degrees depending on specific civilization bonuses or unique units. For example, heavy cavalry typically defeats heavy infantry, but the matchup can be flipped depending on the specific unit (such as fully upgraded Holy Roman Empire Men-at-Arms or Heavy Spearmen), and adding only a few Crossbowmen as a damage-dealing backline can turn the tide. As another example, Crossbowmen typically have an advantage over Spearmen due to their range, but their slow rate of fire and lack of bonus damage against light infantry means that they are more susceptible to being defeated if engaged in melee mode. Various unique units can also form their own unique hard or soft counter triangles, of which there are too many to list here, but one example is Camel Riders, which defeat all cavalry, but are more susceptible to (although not hard countered by) Archers and heavy infantry, which in turn are at a hard or soft disadvantage against heavy cavalry.
The counter system, while a useful starting point, does not exist in a vacuum and can fail to fully describe the complexity of unit interactions. Various situations can cause one unit to break out of its counter triangle and require new tactics to deal with, and some units don't have any hard counters or counter triangles at all. For example, once a unit type reaches a large enough mass, it can often deal with its supposed counter reasonably well. This is especially true for Archers and other ranged units, which, due to their ability to attack from range and avoid pathing difficulties, can deal with most of their melee counters once in large enough numbers as they pick them off one by one. For this reason, specific units exist to deal with masses of a single type of unit, namely the Mangonel for ranged units, and the Springald and Ribauldequin for melee units. Ranged cavalry can be particularly problematic to deal with in this regard, as they have both the range that enables them to efficiently attack opponents, and the mobility that enables them to hit and run and avoid melee engagements with units that would otherwise counter them, such as Horsemen or Spearmen. Their disadvantage lies primarily in their higher cost, which enables them to be countered by an equal-resources number of Archers or ranged infantry, but their higher stats mean that they can also win these engagements when unit numbers are equal. Heavy cavalry is another example of a unit with very few hard counters. Due to their high damage, armor, and hit points, they can defeat almost any unit, including Spearmen and Crossbowmen, 1 on 1. Like ranged cavalry, their high cost allows them to be defeated by these counters cost-effectively, but in the late game where developed economies can more easily mass them, they become difficult to defeat with any unit in equal numbers. In this and other such situations, combined arms tactics may be the only working approach, for example by using a combination of frontline units to absorb damage while dealing ranged anti-heavy damage from a backline.
![A counter chart put together for all units prior to The Sultans Ascend by professional player Beastyqt[1]](/wiki/File:Beastyqt_counter_chart.jpg "Beastyqt counter chart.jpg (55 KB)")