Overview
Gold starts to run low and trash units rule the battlefield now. But with a little trickle of gold left, you can maybe field trash resistant units.
Champion
Let’s start of with the most common anti-trash unit, the champion. Available to every civilisation but Huns, Mayans and Persians. They cost only 20 gold and 60 food and are produced quite fast. Let’s see how a FU champion performs against all FU trash units.
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| Damage taken | 2 (35) | 7 (10) | 6 (12) |
| Damage dealt | 14 (3) | 14 (7) | 14 (5) |
The number between the brackets is the number of strikes it takes to kill the unit. E.g. an elite skirmisher deals 2 damage to a champion and thus needs to throw 35 javelins at him before he’s killed.
However, we only considered FU skirmishers, Celts, Franks, Persians and Teutons don’t have FU skirmishers and this makes them suffer a lot against champions, only managing to deal 1 damage per javelin. They need double the time to kill the champions compared to all other civs!
The same remark goes for the halberdiers and hussars too. Most civs have halberdiers or at least a pike with a bonus but only few civs have access to hussars. Only 10 civs have the hussar upgrade and only 7 of those have bloodlines too. Experience will tell you which combination of trash beats champions (and the other units that follow) best, but it’s already painfully obvious how the lack of bracer hits some civs in imperial trashwars!
Mayan Elite Eagle Warrior
The other trash resistant unit that is available to more civs is the eagle warrior. Because of the huge difference in the imperial eagle of a Mayan and an Aztec, we’ll highlight them separately.
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| Damage taken | 1 (100) | 8 (13) | 8 (13) |
| Damage dealt | 10 (4) | 14 (7) | 10 (6) |
The power of El Dorado proven once more. Skirmishers can’t do anything decent against eagles so if you must face elite eagles, keep your skirmishers a bit out of range.
Since eagles are made by Meso civs most of the time, it’s also obvious that this unit is the best “trash killer” out there. You probably invested in them so with every 50 gold you can spare late game, you can mess up the trashwars a bit. This is also the reason why Meso civs aren’t so bad in trashwars. A few eagles can make up for the lack of hussars since you will most likely upgrade your eagles anyways.
Aztec Elite Eagle Warrior
The above minus El Dorado plus Garland Wars, let’s look at the results of that equation.
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| Damage taken | 1 (60) | 8 (8) | 8 (8) |
| Damage dealt | 14 (3) | 18 (6) | 14 (5) |
Easy to conclude that Mayan eagles are much more valuable in trashwars. The survive a lot longer and although they deal less damage, this doesn’t make a lot of difference against trashunits (they need 1 strike per unit extra and survive 50% longer!)
Berserk
So far the regular units (yes, that’s all!) time for the unique units.
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| Damage taken | 2 (36) | 6 (12) | 5 (15) |
| Damage dealt | 15 (3) | 15 (7) | 15 (5) |
Since berserks regenerate they will most likely withstand a lot more strikes. Especially when being surrounded by skirmishers. However, you can see the difference between a regular champion and a Viking berserk is minimal. How about Viking champions then?
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| Damage taken | 2 (42) | 7 (12) | 6 (14) |
| Damage dealt | 10 (4) | 14 (7) | 10 (6) |
Safe to say the comparison is a toss up. So which unit performs better in trashwars is situational. (if you already paid for the elite berserk upgrade, don’t hesitate to keep on berserks (and vice versa).
Cataphract
Not all trash resistant units are infantry! Behold the mighty exception known as the hardest to counter unit in the game. The Byzantine cataphract.
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| Damage taken | 2 (75) | 6 (25) | 21 (8) |
| Damage dealt | 11 (4) | 11 (9) | 29 (3) |
If you really must counter cataphracts with trash units, halberdiers are still the best option. However, you better be prepared for massive losses. If you take their trample damage into account too, it only takes 2 strikes to take down a group of halbs surrounding a cataphract.
Jaguar Warrior
Back to the champion-like units again. Now with the Aztec unique unit.
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| Damage taken | 3 (25) | 6 (13) | 5 (15) |
| Damage dealt | 17 (3) | 17 (6) | 27 (3) |
Jaguar warriors are a brute force unit, they get close and they kill you without warning. However, we see the first exception in the trash resistant units. Jaguars don’t perform extremely well against skirmishers. Only 25 javelins will sieve a jaguar warrior. You can see how skirmishers perform quite okay in this Aztec war between Chris and DauT.
Huskarl
What skirmishers meant to jaguar warriors does not go for this Gothic backbone!
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| Damage taken | 1 (70) | 8 (9) | 7 (10) |
| Damage dealt | 23 (2) | 13 (8) | 13 (5) |
Huskarls don’t perform good at all against hussars, so keep that in mind in trashwars. Goths will most likely blend in halberdiers though.
Mameluke
The unit with a twist! Mamelukes are usually considered the hardest unit to counter in masses. With good reasons, but not entirely.
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| Damage taken | 7 (19) | 7 (19) | 22 (6) |
| Damage dealt | 11 (4) | 23 (5) | 11 (6) |
Mamelukes are incredibly strong units that are incredibly vulnerable. Halberdiers need 6 strikes to kill and get killed but with some running around it can become an easy 6-0. A mix of skirms and halberdiers will thus do the job. And I’ve got exactly the good game for you to prove this! Watch Ruso fight off a 1v2 with Persians against a Spanish and Saracen alliance after his ally dropped at 20 minutes.
Recorded Game
Samurai
Back to the real trash killers now with the mythic Japanese samurai.
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| Damage taken | 2 (40) | 7 (12) | 6 (14) |
| Damage dealt | 13 (3) | 13 (8) | 13 (5) |
If you include their lightning fast attack you can see how samurai are a top tier trash killer. Their only foe is the hussar but it’s very likely that a Japanese player will field halberdiers too.
Teutonic Knight
Only one unit is more resistant than any other unit and it is obviously the Teutonic knight.
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| Damage taken | 1 (100) | 1 (100) | 1 (100) |
| Damage dealt | 18 (2) | 18 (6) | 18 (4) |
In other words, if you only have trash units left, you might as well resign if these storm to your city! Not even the most advanced trash unit (not even the Aztec bonus) can pierce through the Teutonic plate armor.
Throwing Axeman
A rather difficult unit to judge now, but an interesting one nevertheless.
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| Damage taken | 3 (20) | 7 (9) | 6 (10) |
| Damage dealt | 9 (4) | 9 (11) | 9 (7) |
Hussars kill throwing axemen without too much of a hassle, which highlights the strength of these axe hauling renegades once more: they must be grouped. On their own they’re barely a valuable addition, but in group they do quite some damage. Not really a trashkiller, but on the edge!
Woad Raider
Last but not least the William Wallace Wannabe’s!
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| Damage taken | 2 (40) | 8 (10) | 7 (12) |
| Damage dealt | 14 (3) | 14 (7) | 14 (5) |
Ultimate trash killers too, feared for their speed too they can tear through skirmishers like no other. Definitely a top tier again.
Siege
Even though siege isn’t completely resistant to trash units (they die to hussars) they can still play a meaningful role in trashwars. If you paid for the siege onager upgrade in the past, one of these behemoths from time to time will totally pulverize hostile skirmisher packs. The same story for scorpions. Rams are more used as a diversion and to obviously ram buildings down!
Civs without trash resistant units
Only 2 civilisations are left out on the comparison: Huns and Persians. They lack champions and Persians don’t even get further than longsword men. Huns can’t rely on a good siegeline either but they have one of the most complete trash unit lines, which makes them feared opponents in trashwars nevertheless. Despite missing Bracer, Persians have perfect hussars and halberdiers, which still makes them a top trash civ.
