I Need Some Tips On How To Destroy Massive Archer Army

[Huffman3829]

Sometimes I get stuck in this heck of a pickle. Every time I try to break their line, (usually by Cavalry Swordsmen, or Cavalry Skirmishers. Cavalry Spearmen or other Infantry doesn't seem to leave much of a dent.) the majority of my soldiers get killed. It becomes very difficult to fight back once they get a good position and start fighting. As you can tell, when I fight against other players, I hate when they Archer-spam. Please tell me how to deal with this.

[alre]

raise a bigger army. archers are actually pretty weak, so any army will do. in general though, avoid 100% melee armies, use a good share of ranged units, especially when using infantry.

0AD doesn't have hard counters, so army size is always the most relevant factor for winning battles.

[Player of 0AD]

Archers have been overpowered in A24, but in A25 they aren't overpowered anymore, they are rather weak.

They are totally helpless against siege towers, all they can do against them is run away. Though I wouldn't recommend siege towers too much as they are weak against melee troops other than pikemen.

Archers can't hurt pikemen very well, so if you have them in front and your own ranged troops behind them, it should be devastating for the archers if they are not in much greater number. Actually you don't even need pikemen, any melee unit can play this role.

Melee cavalry can devastate archers very well too. Especially sword cavalry of higher levels.

Further questions?

[Gurken Khan]

@Huffman3829 Also get your armor (and attack) upgrades in the forge!

[Huffman3829]

Thank you for the answers everyone. I attempted to describe massive all Archer-Infantry armies, but your replies, I believe, should suffice.

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

@Huffman3829Another idea would be to watch the replay and see if the archer spammer has a much bigger pop and or eco than you. If they do, then it will be hard to muster any kind of army that can match.

[LetswaveaBook]

If you watch the replay, it is also very helpfull to look at the upgrades that both players have.

[Huffman3829]

Right I agree. Thank you again. I discovered that using Champion Cavalry is very effective as well, and I have been using all these ideas you have given me. 

[UltraMan]

I played few matches against kush and persians as maurays. My opponent was using good combination of archers and spearman.

I sent my ~30 sword cavs in middle of them and then press H to stop them so attack whoever is near. I micro my cavs to kill archers only by ignoring spearmen. These were not normal archers. They were champion nobel archers. if game is lagging then its more easier to micro like this. then I sent all my sword cavs in temple to heal them (they are upgraded cause of killing archers) and now they can even take out remaining spearmans.

Also u can use RAM to fill swordsmand (normal mauryan swordsman are useless. I let them stay in barracks until they become level 3. level 3 maurayn swordman can takeout skiritai commandos) and go near the mass archers and surprise ur opponent.

[Lion.Kanzen]

15 hours ago, UltraMan said:

I played few matches against kush and persians as maurays. My opponent was using good combination of archers and spearman.

I sent my ~30 sword cavs in middle of them and then press H to stop them so attack whoever is near. I micro my cavs to kill archers only by ignoring spearmen. These were not normal archers. They were champion nobel archers. if game is lagging then its more easier to micro like this. then I sent all my sword cavs in temple to heal them (they are upgraded cause of killing archers) and now they can even take out remaining spearmans.

Also u can use RAM to fill swordsmand (normal mauryan swordsman are useless. I let them stay in barracks until they become level 3. level 3 maurayn swordman can takeout skiritai commandos) and go near the mass archers and surprise ur opponent.

good one.

[Joseph87]

Cavalry beats archers.

Massive best taken care of with another massive.

So massive cavalry against massive archers. Maybe can do with less more effectively with champion cavalry.

Or if you can, let them come to you in your garrisoned buildings and offshore ships. Fight within the cover of your own towers.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Joseph87

[breahm123]

Come at them with infantry and flank them with cavalry - with the right numbers this should be a piece of cake 

[BeTe]

I have counter question, how to attack enemy base with archer infantry? They are weaker and slower than other ranged units and especially against Pikemans. So once I get in ranged units range, I am dead. If I retreat they are faster and they can chase and hit me. 

[alre]

archers suck, the only good thing about them is that archer civs usually have +10% pop, so you can overwhelm your enemy. the only use case where I managed to leverage smaller numbers of archers was while rushing with nubia, and using archers to negate starting mines, but only after taking the upper hand with jav cav and using that as a fast reinforcement for archers as they were chased.

always keep archers next to safety, use them as an extension of fortresses.

[BeTe]

17 hours ago, alre said:

archers suck, the only good thing about them is that archer civs usually have +10% pop, so you can overwhelm your enemy. the only use case where I managed to leverage smaller numbers of archers was while rushing with nubia, and using archers to negate starting mines, but only after taking the upper hand with jav cav and using that as a fast reinforcement for archers as they were chased.

always keep archers next to safety, use them as an extension of fortresses.

So I can only sit in base but I need to spam towers and build Fortress ASAP. Sounds strange. Idk what CS units to build with civ like Kushites? 

Look at my Replay I just had. I had more infantry and caught him a little bit out of position. He had few upgrades true, but it was just massacre with equal armies. Should I've built more Pikemans? (I know I should went P3 but I wanted to catch him and make some chaos and kill few units...)

BeTeKushites.txt

[real_tabasco_sauce]

3 hours ago, BeTe said:

Idk what CS units to build with civ like Kushites? 

A really epic move (especially if your enemy has gauls or britons, weak buildings) is to quickly go to phase two, build a noba camp or two, and add clubmen and pikemen.

About 20 clubmen is more than enough to destroy the enemy cc. Adding pikemen increases the durability of this group, while archers can sit back and kill the units stopping the clubmen. If you want more mercenaries than the 20 clubs, you can also get the noba skirmishers which are quite good.

This can be done really early, but its best at around 9 to 10 minutes. It likely won't work in the late game when both players are full pop.

Edited March 22, 2023 by real_tabasco_sauce

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

archers are amazingly strong if you can "snipe" with them. Also if you have a decent mass of archers in your base for economic purposes, then it can be very easy to defend against skirm cav or archer cav rushes as long as you outnumber them significantly.

[BeTe]

18 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

A really epic move (especially if your enemy has gauls or britons, weak buildings) is to quickly go to phase two, build a noba camp or two, and add clubmen and pikemen.

About 20 clubmen is more than enough to destroy the enemy cc. Adding pikemen increases the durability of this group, while archers can sit back and kill the units stopping the clubmen. If you want more mercenaries than the 20 clubs, you can also get the noba skirmishers which are quite good.

This can be done really early, but its best at around 9 to 10 minutes. It likely won't work in the late game when both players are full pop.

Thx for strat idea. 20 clubmen (7.0 crush x 20 = 140) will need 25 sec to kill Britons CC (27% resistance, 2400 health). Until then I will be overwhelmed and die.

But anyways, these are all P2 military units which can't collect resources. They would be wipped out with Javeliners who can collect....

P.S.

and with this suggested BO, I must pray God to not be attacked into main base without Towers and Fortress?  

Edited March 23, 2023 by BeTe

[real_tabasco_sauce]

5 hours ago, BeTe said:

and with this suggested BO, I must pray God to not be attacked into main base without Towers and Fortress?

Its not really a build, but a strategy. A very funny strategy. But you are right, it has to be successful or else gg. A success would be destroying the cc and at least fairing well enough against your enemy's forces. If they have enough army and beat you, they can win by immediately attacking u lol.

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

6 hours ago, BeTe said:

Towers and Fortress

In many games you need to consider whether you actually need these or not. It costs a lot of stone and the other resources are more useful for attacking your opponents. Gauls can use the least stone of any civ since their barracks don't cost stone and they don't need a fort for p3. Gauls can be very powerful with cav and other fast units, so when I play gauls I don't mine any stone the whole game and instead barter the 525 or 750 stone I need to go to p3.