dealing with knight rush

[sam.pidgeon]

anyone able to teach a nooby player like me how to deal with these bloody night rushes and how do get fast eco to castle age i play astuetons mostly or japan i try to age fast to build a castle to deal with these rushes

[Lord Puddington]

A properly executed knight rush can be a problem, since knights are fast, tanky and powerful. They aren't ranged units, so walls are an option, but problem #1 is that even with a good knight civ you need to commit to the knight rush strategy in a way that leaves you vulnerable. So you can either:
- Try to figure out the enemy will go for a knight rush, and get counters (pikemen are slow but cheap and deadly to knights, especially japanese ones, while camels cost gold, are only available in castle age but can chase them down and aren't as vulnerable to archers and especially skirmishers; finally, a small knight rush can be severely damaged by a couple of expensive and slow-training monks).
- Chose a good feudal age civ and attack the enemy before he goes castle. Ethiopians are very good at this, they have good archers and pikeman upgrade is free.

[sam.pidgeon]

ok i pick tuetons as cheap farms my eco bit slower and i do pick japan alot hmmm i have to try tofuedal age rush
i try to use supplies to age up fast

[Lord Puddington]

Teutons would be good to try and Fast Castle before your enemy, they have no particular bonus for Feudal Age besides cheap farms (remember food from foraging comes as fast as food from farming, except for slavs, aztecs and, since AoAK, franks are best foragers). Japan has cheaper mills/camps and faster attacking infantry except in dark age, not bad to protect your archers from cavalry if you decide to attack in feudal. Use ♥♥♥ fishing ships if sea or a big lake is available.

[Wafflesaurus Supreme]

Sam, are you playing vs other players or vs AI?

[sam.pidgeon]

other players i use japan on water mps as fishing is better

[Wafflesaurus Supreme]

Good thinking. As Sw1ft mentioned, your infantry attack 25% faster so that's a really nice bonus to your pikemen. Try to upgrade spearmen to pikemen as soon as you can because they are far more effective vs knights. You can use the extra food from fishing to research blacksmith upgrades. (Armor before Attack.)

If possible, try to use terrain to your advantage, both when fighting and when placing castles. Units attacking uphill have a disadvantage and units (and castle fire) attacking downhill have a separate advantage. It's a powerful combination if you can fight on a hill and hold the high ground. Don't forget to garrison some archers in your castle(s) and town center(s). They can be your basic archers, nothing fancy.

[El_Tres]

just make lots of pikes and wall up, then boom to castle. He will just run around for a bit wasting his micro management.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

SPEARMEN SPEARMEN SPEARMEN

Knight deals 10 + maybe some attack upgrades to spearmen. Knights cost 60 food 75 gold IIRC.

Spearmen deals... it's about 30 dmg, I think, to Knights. Spearmen cost 35 wood 25 wood.

SPEARMEN SPEARMEN SPEARMEN SPEARMEN SPEARMEN


Also, just practice generally helps with anything.

[Lord Puddington]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

SPEARMEN SPEARMEN SPEARMEN

Spearmen are good vs scouts, but you need pikes against knights, since they deal more bonus damage, and knights have some armor (bonus ignores armor). Or a lot of spearmen, preferently japanese.

[sam.pidgeon]

hmm thanks guys be good for somone to teach me how to rush myself but as japan i do make alot of spears and try to age up quick but i make archers to as soon as i make spears he makes loads of arrchers to kill my spears.

[TriRem]

If you are confident in your micro you should go monks, they are really effective against Knights. Every knight you convert is like killing an enemy and getting one for free.

[sam.pidgeon]

tried playing ai but i couldnt age up fast enough once my eco got going bloody rushed noticed it ages up lightning quick

[Wafflesaurus Supreme]

If you want to pause and focus 100% on improving your economy, I suggest the Wonder Race game mode. There's no combat so you can eliminate a big source of stress and just focus on beating the AI (or a friend) to the Imperial age and being the first to build a wonder.

If you can manage to upload and share a couple of recorded games (multi or singleplayer, doesn't matter), a bunch of people here will be happy to give them a look and help you with customized advice.

[Lord Puddington]

Originally posted by sam.pidgeon:

he makes loads of arrchers to kill my spears.

Spears are (in)famous for being quite useless against anything but mounted units, spears alone will get you nowhere, and both archers and skirmishers have a bonus against them. Best armies are mixed, it's just they're harder to manage. Want to go full defense against that knight rush? The enemy will hardly be able to quickly send both archers and knights at the same time. First pikemen, then have skirmishers at hand to defend against archers. Good for defense, not so good to attack with.
In my opinion, best would be to attack first, in feudal age, and prevent the enemy from getting gold. Small skirmishes, and a couple of well placed towers, and only then a bigger army + siege.

[sam.pidgeon]

yes i do try to rush in fuedal cant get good enough eco i go tuetons as i aim to get to castle quickly get a castle for decent defence and i do get rushed alot before i get a chance i end up building a fe towers in my base as i dont have enough eco to attack and defend