How to Counter Huskarls in Age of Empires 2
Huskarls are easily countered by Champions or unique infantry units such as Jaguar Warriors, Samurai, and Shotel Warriors. Gunpowder units like Hand Cannoneers are also good but weak in small numbers. This guide will cover all the counters and tricks to deal with the goths Huskarls spam.
So What Counters The gothic Huskarls?
Militia Line: Easy Counter to Huskarls
In the pro scene, Militia line is the go-to unit to put an end to Huskarls. Upgrading to Two-handed swordsmen or Champions should be your end goal.
If you are a casual player, playing against a friend that spams Huskarls all day long, my advice to you is to make militia and fully upgrade them.
This is the correct order of upgrades to research at the Blacksmith:
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+ 
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And the technologies to research on the barracks:
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There is another way… You can pick Aztecs and make Jaguar unique units. This unit will literally one-shot Huskarls without taking damage.
The Jaguar is affected by the same upgrades for militia above.
Read the rest of the guide to learn about other counter unique units and tricks.
Recommended Civilizations to Counter Huskarls
Slavs: Get free supplies + free Gambesons and a broken Unique tech that deals area damage to units (I will cover it below in the last section of this guide)
You want to open up with scouts + archers or skirmishers in feudal age into knights in Castle Age then transition to champions. Goths do not get arbalesters so if they make crossbows that’s good for you because you can do rams and light cavalry.
Japanese: Get attack speed making their infantry units the strongest starting from Feudal Age. The Japanese get a decent economy because of the cheap mills, lumbercamps, and minecamps.
This civilization gets full upgrades on Arbalesters which means, the combo of champions + arbalesters is just game over for goths. The Japs also get one of the best unique infantry unit that two shot the huskarls. So you have a lot of options with Japanese.
Later in the guide, we will talk about the rest of the infantry civilizations you can abuse to give a hard time to Huskarls.
Powder units in a mass are also very good
One of the best ways to counter Huskarls is by using powder units such as:
- Hand Cannoneer. (This unit has hidden bonus damage against all the infantry in game so we highly recommend it if your civilization has access to it)
- Janissary
- Conquistador
- Organ Gun
- Hussite Wagon
Use powder units to attack from a distance and retreat. This lets you kill Huskarls before they can get closer. Or get inside a narrow opening between two buildings or a chose point if you can’t run anywhere.
Infantry Unique Units One-shot Huskarls
By far the most effective way to counter Huskarls and pretty much twoshot or oneshot them with minimal loses.
Huskarl can be defeated by any Infantry civilization. S-tier unique infantry civivilizations such Samurai, Jaguar Warrior, and Shotel Warrior, can one-shot or two-shot Huskarls.
This table lists all infantry civs from S tier and down that counter Huskarls + bonus tips (S = hard counter):
| Civilization | Tier | Unique Unit | Damage & Info |
| Aztecs | S+ | Jaguar Warrior | Full upgraded Jaguar, one-shots Huskarls |
| Ethiopians | S+ | Shotel Warrior | Wtihout upgrades can two-shot Huskarls + Outrun them |
| Celts | S+ | Woad Raider | Faster than a horse with high damage to huskarls. |
| Japanese | S+ | Samurai | High Attack speed and damage. Effective even in small numbers. |
| Poles | S+ | Obuch | High Hit points and Armor penetration, allowing your other units to deal extra damage. |
| Teutons | S | Teutonic Knight | Extremely Tanky with two-shot potential, but very slow moving. |
| Viking | S | Berserk | Tanky with 12 hidden bonus damage against infantry. Very effective in large numbers. |
| Malians | S | Gbeto | Fast moving ranged high damage Anti-infantry, effective in large numbers. |
| Franks | A | Throwing Axeman | Slow moving ranged high damage Anti-infantry effective in large numbers. |
| Malay | A | Karambit Warrior | Very cheap and fast unit, deal decent damage. Easily spamable. |
| Sicilians | B | Serjeant | Tanky but inflict average-low damage. Good with a combination of other units. |
Tips to improve at the game and never lose to Huskarls
You can easily get better Age of empires 2 and never lose to your friends or family members again. Age of Notes has a lot of resources, if you are looking for anything specific just use the search box on top . You can even reach out to me, go to the contact page.
No worries, I got you covered!
- First, fix your game settings and install these mods.
- The second thing you need to work on is hotkeys, go to this complete hotkey guide you will learn how to use them as well as all the hidden tricks.
- Practice flush or rush build orders such as scout rush , archers rush or my personal favorite that works wonders in low elo 5 militia drush. Practice the build order against the easy AI multiple times until you perfect the timing (you are expected to use hotkeys).
- Now you are ready to play against your friends or family members.
Final note
You should be equipped with all the tools to counter that swarm of Huskals now. Just remember to upgrade your units before engaging because upgrades make a huge difference. Champions remain your one go unit or if you happen to be Aztecs, you know what to do right? Get those Jaguars out to oneshot the huskarls
