[Anonymous Player]

My opponents have been using Poles to their advantage, so I’m attempting to counter them by using Britons.

I have been attempting to use archers to take out the villagers constructing the castle, but I have only managed to generate a few.

I’m going to keep adjusting my strategy until I find something that works.

I think this is more adaptable than simply countering with a castle, since they usually finish Imp before me if I do that.

I’m wondering what other strategies I can use to combat top-tier castle drops and unique unit plays.

[readytochat44]

Monks do a decent job against the guns as long as they aren’t massed.

[Business_March_7936]

Make more archers even if that means staying in feudal for a while longer…

In feudal I always mass like 10 to 15 archers just for this case, build outposts to see around your base…

And don’t forget to house/palisade wall your base.

I was getting oftenly castle dropped on Arena flank.

Things that helped:

Getting mass of archers with few of spears to give them ability to fight cav….

Being first in Castle age don’t mean that much on closed TG maps.

Building barracks and shit in front of my walls.

Never behind them.

Mining gold/stone first in front of my base, so in case of castle drop, they don’t deny mine outside resources and I can start mining my safe resources in base.

Castle drop them first.

If you can’t, use towers, they are less durable, but they have to resolve pesky annoying towers before going to spam castles at your base.

Adding archers here help sooo..

If you have your archers, many of meta tryhards are not walling, use your archers for rushing

[da_vince]

Britons actually don’t need to be afraid of this.

In TG if you see you are up against portugese(or turks or spanish), go up 22 pop with one archery range.

Build archers , with 4 deer you can still go up 22+2 or 22+3.

But if it is 22+4 or +5 it doesnt matter.

You have a good eco bonus so you should be fine.

If he goes for a castle drop you will have better eco in any case.

This way you can have 4-5 archers easily once he arrives at your base.

Tell your pocket(s) to bring his scout!!

If possible get fletching!!

then you can deny the castle with no problem.

If your build is not as tight and you can only kill a few vills but the castle goes up it is not the end of the world.

Wall behind (stone wall) and drop an extra range.

You dont build more vills until you have X-bow and bodkin.

You put 6 on food the rest goes to gold and wood. (if you have back stone also send a few vills once your production is running).

Build archers from 2 if possible from 3 ranges.

once you have 20+ xbow you can one-shot an organ gun + you have the range advantage.

If you are good with archer micro 10-15 xbow are enough to kill even a big amount of organ guns.

The thing you need to be aware of is a possible 2nd castle, if you have forward res going on stone is allways a good idea(for own castle).

You can also try to add a mangonel once you have enough archers.

The details depend a lot on your base layout, and also if the enemy pocket is booming or also playing castle age.

You should also communicate with your own pocket.

My goal is allways to give my pocket the option to boom.

​

If your opponent does not Castle drop you, you have some archer for map control, and can still have nice boom thanks to britons 11.

But be aware I personally play double castle organ guns, with castle at home 😉 for the bigger suprise.

Anyways as flank on Arena you should always build army, because otherwise your pocket will be under pressure, if you only defend with a castle.

So playing like this and adding a siege workshop to attacke is also a good strat against many other civs.

[russianpolarbear32]

tower rush them first and then have enough map control to dont let them drop you.

Then defend with walls, mangos , monks and/or towers. **Specially if u have a bad map.**

[Catalpa_]

22+2 FC into triple monasteries should have three monks out before the castle is placed, the next wave of monks should be out before the castle is up.

If you can convert their fwd vills or at least force the castle to be built at home you’re doing well.

Grab the relics, get Redemption and start mining stone for fwd castle then IMP.

[abatisedredivides]

1 range and 3-4 archers is fine for this as long as you get Fletching and maybe Xbow by the time you hit Castle.

Increasing their attack and having them in the right position is more important and affordable than having lots of archers for preventing castle drops.

[jaggerCrue]

Guard tower defence is underrated vs organ guns, especially if your civ lacks redemption that would be the best play

[Guanfranco]

I just lost to a Portuguese player who skipped the Castle rush.

I made sure to go up at a normal time to not tip them off to what I was doing.

Made archers and I ended up behind and lost partly to that.

It was a [smurf account](https://aoe2.net/#aoe2de-profile-11560893) on my opposing flank.

[Amash2024]

I’ve been wondering too.

Would it be possible to get a krepost up in time to kill all their castle building vils?

I don’t know that you would want to be stuck with bulgarians afterwards even if it did work though.

[smilingstalin]

You could building/house wall along the inside of your walls if you have walls on your south side.

This would prevent the Organ Guns from spawning through the wall; but I think you’d also need to block the gate.

[Ohana_1220]

Just lost my first game playing Portugues FC into organ guns, how did the op do it?

He built a defensive counter-castle to my offensive castle and rewalled in front of 2 mangonels he produced so I could not enter his base easy with the guns.

By the time I opened another hole there were already Light Cav waiting (in the end I saw he went for a strong boom behind his castle).

I destroyed his Light Cav but he delayed my push.

Next I went Fast Imp and destroyed his castle with Trebs but by that time, he had researched Chemistry and used his bombard cannons to destroy my castle and take my position.

By that time, my military production buildings were almost all forward and his Cavalier Push, which destroyed the buildings, was backed by a proper boom allowing him to go Paladin (I, as Portuguese, had no access to Paladin) –> gg.

[fenixxishot]

Alright hear me out.

Walls.

Castles drop requires an unimpeded 4×4 area to construct.

Drop a stone/palisade wall every 3-4 tiles around your base and do it 3 deep so the castle fire can’t reach your walls.

In all honesty I have no idea how practical this would be but if it works it would be the most hilarious way to stop the Portuguese meme strat of 2023.

Edit: curiosity got the better of me.

To pull this strategy off on a small arena map you need about 50 palisades or 150 wood so affordable but it’s kind of micro intensive.

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