ELITE CATAPHRACT vs EVERY UNIQUE UNIT | AoE II: Definitive Edition
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2024
- The Cataphract is the unique unit of the Byzantines in Age of Empires II. It is a heavy cavalry unit that excels at combat against infantry.
Cataphracts can be upgraded to Elite Cataphracts in the Imperial Age.
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For those kinds of tests it is also useful to use equal ammounts of resources instead of just equal ammounts of units. 20 karambits won't do anything against 20 Cataphracts but you could afford almost 70 karambits for the price of 20 cataphracts (talking purely about the ammounts of resources used).
Yes, Cataphracts are just not viable in most scenarios because of the insane cost of the elite upgrade and splash damage tech. Also the unit itself is expensive. But the Karambit example is not so good because I think those 70 units would still get slaughtered by the splash damage lol
I’ll make a separate series for this version. Great idea.
70 karambits still wont do anyhting to cataphracts.... But to die
Yes! If he did one with war elephant its a little pointless doing 20 war elephants vs 20 of anything
This counts for every one of the tests that he's done. I suppose they are for mostly entertainment reasons and shouldn't be taken seriously as counters by anyone because these tests have nothing to do with real game situations. Missile units are not supposed to stand idle against melee and some results would be different if they were micromanaged, as they are supposed to be played.
Needless to say, any comparison with elephants in equal numbers makes the elephants look ridiculously op of course, while most of them are actually some of the worst units in the game. If they were compared in terms of equal costs, of course the results would have been completely different. Even if the elephants come out alive from most engagements, it is still a matter of cost effectiveness.
infantry: challenges Cataphract
Cataphract : so you have chosen......death...
Cataphracts have bonus attack against infantry. Goths get slaughtered.
@@adamdd09 goth lack last melee armour.
So their halb dies in 2 hits from Cataphract compared to 3 of generic halb, making them very bad
I've never seen Teutonic Knights get deleted that fast xD
How were the cataphracts even doing damage at all? 14 attack vs 13 armor!
@@tankofnova9022 They have a bonus v infantry
@@tankofnova9022 There are 3 melee unique units which deal extra damage to them. Cataphracts, Jaguar Warriors and Samurai (Bonus damage againdt unique units).
@@redryder3721 plus trample damage
against cavalry 4/10
against archer 7/10
against infantry 20/10
not good vs Archers, lacking Bloodlines AND 2 pierce armour compared to Paladin, also have less HP
@@Neon-Lines Trample damage and good overall stats would put Cataphracts over archers under most circumstances
@@dogg-paws not in high skilled games I dont think
@@dogg-paws do you realize these cavalry archers are standing still and not moving around? also that no one in reality would challenge 20 cataphracts with 20 foot archers?, this is why these comparison videos are highly inaccurate, considering that many of these units use micro and even use other units as cover or support
awesome, byzantines used to be my favorite civ when i was young
Mine, too. Beautiful walls, right? Defensive civilization.
@@MikeEmpires yes indeed, strongest houses as well lolol
"The Byzantines can train every unit in Age of Kings! They've GOT to be good!"
@SOUDATH No house! Yeah!
Me too ! A lots of units and tech, paladin, catacrapht, champion and camel cavalry, everything i loved as a child ! Also very good castler and GunTower (i don't know exactly the word in english)
In summary, the Cataphract is good against infantry and some anti cavalry units, but they struggle against ranged and bulky units
They negate the bonus dmg cavalry would get from counters
anti anti cavalry cavalry
@@yowut8075 *_Ah, I see you're a man of Spirit as well._* ;)
@@MrDibara SOTL plagiarized me tbqh :'(
@@yowut8075 *_No one can plagiarize a meme, mister. That's why it's a "meme"._*
Teutonic Knights: surprised Pikachu face.
Moral of the story: never send your infantry against cataphracts...
My favourite unit ever! The second one is maybe the Konnik, which I think the cataphracts could have beaten with some micromanagement against AI.
Go Romans!
More like never send your castle units agaisnt cataphracts.
@@TMoDDD no.. cataphracts only have bonus attack vs infantry. When the Civilization unique unit is a cavalry they are equal.
But Samurai have bonus to other unique unit..
@@dan-lee and do well against foot archers too I have discovered
Other moral of the story: never send your cataphracts against elephants...
Very interesting video. Props to you man !
Victories
- Against Infantry : Melted them (Bonus damage + surrounding with Logistica...no contest there)
- Against Ranged units (on foot and cavalry) : Won due to Logistica (trample damage) because the AI just stood there firing without any micro (not realistic though)... Conquistadors, Kipchaks, Mangudai pleasantly called my attention.
- Also surprising : Winning against camels (Mameluks, Imperial Camels, though Mameluks was close).
Defeats (only 7 if I counted correctly)
- Bulky units : War Elephants, Archer Elephants, Ballista Elephants, War Wagons
- Stronger Cavalry (on stats) : Boyars, Leitis, Konniks.
Cataphracts have a secret resistance to bonus cavarly damage such as from pikes and camels and what not
@@Devoratrix They are one of the few units that don't have any hard counters. Only soft counters. This makes them solid unit for new players.
TBF, they only lost to Konniks because you have to kill them twice, lmao xD!
@@Fawlker And 1st they are mounted so no help from their design.
@@Devoratrix Did you know that Logistica not only gives them +5 trample damage, but also an extra +6 base damage vs infantry? It's often quite overlooked, but in groups it can make them oneshot Militia, which is quite something to think about :D
They re the terror of castle units.
Love their Cavalry
Powerfull defences
Its very expensive to upgrade everything tho...
Constantinopla`s mission was complicated... reminds me of the Trojans somehow
*Elite Cataphract with blast furnace and bloodlines is the best unit in the game.*
- Fastest attack rate
- Virtually no weakness
War elephant joins chat
Cataphract exists:
Infantry: My time has come
That trample damage really adds up in some battles.
War wagons and elephant archers were surprisingly good.
And letis
War Wagons are awfully broken in this game. Way too tanky !
@@manupainkiller pretty easy to flatten with heavy siege tho, got a nice big hitbox and their pathing is clunky. Still agree that in most matchups, when you get critical mass it can be difficult to deal with.
@@Real_MisterSir I have nightmares with them...reminds me of aoe1 chariot archers.
Coz the range armour is not high and trample damage is less effective against bigger units
at 1:53 : "Reform the line! Reform the line! Take them head on, CHARGE!"
The trample damage is soo insane
I like these videos! Suggestion, put the unit name on the video while fighting; new players (and myself) don't necessarily know what it is they are fighting.
Also, turn bloom off, everyone hates bloom.
Also, for funsies a counter of wins vs losses (Elite Cataphract 1:0, 2:0, 3:1, etc vs Other Units)
Same here
Elephant archers commander: ready to shoot!
Unknown soldier: sir can we just hit them?
More than the unique units . Age of empires gives us enjoyment along with knowledge.
10:35 lmao 111
What does 111 mean? I've always wondered.
@@lone5463 11 is the laughing taunt IG so, when yo spam "1" is for the laugh
Teutonic knight: I fear no man .
But that thing .....
It scared me .
A lot of horses died that day...
Thanks for this great video, grettings and please Gbetos vs Janissaries :)
One of the strongest unit in history of AoK.
just realized mixing few cataphracts into a few paladins would be a much better counter to Bulgarian unit rather than halbs, since they dismount.
If you have the resources go ahead.
But two fucking expensive elite upgrades isnt a good idea in most cases.
Cataphract are formidable unit, with assist from ranged unit (cavalry archer)
Ah these videos. Tricking us into thinking elephant archers are a good unit since 2020.
The irony is that halberdiers have bonus attack against Cavalry, but the cataphracts also have a bonus against infantry, such as halberdiers. So it is a who kills who contest.
Cataphracts also have massive innate resistance to anti-cavalry attacks; regular Cataphracts have a hidden +12 armor vs. anti-cavalry bonus damage, and Elite Cataphracts have +16, negating half of a Halberdier's bonus.
Wiped out by Boyars & Elephant units 😯
I was totally not expecting cataphract to win against mameluke, then I remembered the 'reduced bonus damage' thingy
Cataphracts are one of my fav unit, excellent against any infantry. But expansive, missing attack, not heavily armored as they look. Paladins even heavy cavalries are better option in general conditions.
Thanks for sharing man, we appreciate all the videos you do
No Persian elephants were hurt during the making of this video.
Strong unit indeed, the only bonus damage they take is from Halberdiers (+16) and Samurai (+10).
Didn't expect them to lose to War Wagons, on the other hand the beat the Kamayuks in no time. Didn't expect that to be as one-sided as it turned out to be.
The Kamayuks' entire bonus dmg is being negated, but on the other hand when fighting in a group, the Cataphracts each deal 40 total damage per hit (with Logistica), whereas the Kamayuks only deal 8 (or 16 if two are hitting same target at once). It's no competition.
8:02 so you dare to rebel against me, son?! You better know your place! 😊
The Byzantines theme song you hear is actually the lament of your entire army upon seeing their Cataphracts marching against you.
Seriously though, these guys are no joke.
interesting that teutonic knights lost . . . . thought they were beasts in an engagement like that . . . . plus is this test equal numbers or equal resources?
Equal numbers. 15 vs 15 in all.
Splash damage ignores armor
Bonus damage is a separate damage class from the regular melee and pierce damage. So the huge bonus elite cataphracts get against infantry (+12!) completely ignores the TK's melee armor.
@@perrytran9504 with its tech bonus damage increase 6. Total bonus damage of Cataphract is 18 against infantries.
Bonus attack vs infantry
Are those both units fully upgraded? Very rich and beautiful content btw
Elephants too strong i just love elephant units and i feel so bad when they die
Elephants arent too strong
Elephants weakness is cheap infantry, a Halberdier..
Can’t afford massive amount of elephants entire game. That’s the weakness 🤷🏻♂️
War elephant: I fear no man...or horse.
I don't agree with people who says that this battles have no sense. In the end, we have a (standard) limit of population where 110-120 (or more or less) is army so, in maps where resources wouldn't be a problem like Arena, BW (I use the Spanish version so I don't know other map names) you have to face the enemy's army against yours at max population. At least in 2 or 3 great battles, you will use your elite or the units you think better they're going to fight in these concrete circumstances against the enemies' ones. However, I agree with the fact of facing 20 cataphracts vs 20 karambits have no sense. In population numeric terms, it would be fair using 40 karambits obviously. So I still think that these videos are useful to obtain a comprehensive view of what units are stronger or better suitable to combat others outside the economic context. It would be more realistic to make a statistic about more number of fights, but, when one side beats with a difference of 4, 5 or more men alive, normally it always win. I've tested it in simulations bofore discovering this channel.
PS, excuse my English. Good wars everyone!
ERE wins most battles!
Very nice video. That's the reason I love the cataphracts, in combination with pikeman no unit has a chance.
Can you do a video of same nature but with Age of Stainless Steel mod?
I've been playing with cataphracts against halabardiers and I saw that they take more damage than they used to. I think that they were slightly nerfed.I remember that those things could destroy any army. What is happening?
Halebardiers get extra damage angainst cavalery. It always been like that
You properly fought against Pikemen, not Halberdiers before.
The Pikeman's bonus damage against cavalierly (+22) is hardly enough to get through the Cataphract's bonus armor against it (+12 / +16 elite). The Halberdier does enough bonus damage (+32) to bypass that extra armor so they kill them fairly quickly.
@@TheRealSomeone92 Yep. It's still a fine trade tho, as the Cataphracts (fully upgraded) will deal a total of 40 dmg per hit (without blacksmith upgrades), whereas the Pikemen each deal 22 dmg per hit. So as long as you have gold and enough castles to replenish forces, the trades are almost always worth it vs Halbs - as long as you aren't massively outnumbered.
Hardest units to beat in the game IMO. You need to counter with bulky, hard hitting, cavalry or bulk hard hitting cavalry archers. Not every civ has these options available.
Long ago i had a friend who used to play as Franks, and he would yell everytime: I have the best cavalry in the game!
Me, a Bizantine player: Bitch, please!
Go mass Cataphracts vs mass French Paladins and see how it goes ;)
You don’t know a lot about this game do you?
Nice video, if you would put the numbers , the name of enemy units and how many of which survives, you would become a yt hit!
The Karambits became dust within a second xD
is this with or without logistica?
Wow I didn't expect Imperial Camel to get beat that badly, like I know catas fare better but that was heavy
Those cataphracts pack quite the punch
I really like how Cataphracts use gambesons and chainmail. They're not very good against arrows and it's reflected in the unit's stats
Cataphract is my favorite unit but it's armor is weaker than one might expect.
only war elephant can stop this powerful unit
Cataphracts are great pop-wise, fully upgraded they are expensive though.
If you account for cost, im not so sure they even beat samurais.
Not gonna lie, the Samurais' damage kinda surprised me. I thought the Cataphracts were gonna negate their bonus, but apperantly it wasn't enough. Imagine more Samurais being on the battlefield, the tables would turn real fast!
@@MrDibara Then again, there is no need for the japanese to use samurais against cataphracts, they have the best halberdier vs cavalry, they will grind the cataphracts down.
@@et34t34fdf True. Granted, they'd dig A LOT of graves for all those poor Halbs, but they would eventually beat them. (and with no loss of gold, what a practical solution!) 😊😈
@@MrDibara Its true that Cataphracts will cut them down, but its still a good counter, just make sure to have enough barracks.
Pikes and camels does not counter cataphracts though, you need halbs.
@@et34t34fdf Well, it's like I said. No gold cost, means you can constantly spam them. Thus, you _will_ send a lot of them to their graves, BUUUUT you will also have overcome the Cataphracts by them.
Yeah, Pikes and Camels don't have enough bonus anti-cav damage to overcome the Cataphract's ridiculous negation.
*(Cataphracts: negating your attack bonuses since 1999)*
These dudes also defeat camels somehow must be ignoring bonus damage.
They do actually. Only Hellbardiers and Samurai do bonus damage against them.
Teutonic Knight need some speed buff
Don't rush into a fight with 20 Elite War Elephants...got it
I once hooked up with a Byzantine girl on tinder. How was she? Raw man
i do not get it
@@daydodog Raw man --> Roman
@@compagnobrigante7970 oh right of course
She ended up getting ... by the turks?
I dont get it even after the explanation lol. Cos what do you mean by "raw"? If someone asks what someone was like has anyone in the world ever replied: "raw"? Or is this some new slang i don't know about.
Biz FTW
If you want to win those calvaries, dont walk on foot.
WAR ELEPHANTS: Never ever mess with me
East Roman Badasses.. Together, we are unstoppable.. Take heed, or pay the price of being trampled upon..
I'll say they beat everything but elephants and camels (they're anti cav, aren't they?).
It is with Logistica?(trample damage)
Is it just me or i heard the ancient Cataphract saying : Nerf us ! We are broken !
I think it would be better if you also put Paladin to the unit list
Wow they actually won against imp camel
Cataphracs ignore the bonus damage of Camels, that's why
Tell me who is stronger full cathapract or full paladin?
Paladin
cat more versatile defense so better in general but it all depends
The Persians are coming. Send the monks!
The Spanish missionary would do great job
Surprised they did well against cavalry units. Usually fare badly. Also with the mameluks having bonus attack against cavalry units. That said I can do a swell of damage with a group over upgraded cataphracts
Never use anti cavalry units vs Cataphracts. They negate 16 of the anti cavalry damage, so Mamelukes and Camels end up just doing the same damage as a Castle age Knight with basic upgrades.
Byzantines are the best civilization
For Noobs yes
Adwans I meant in history too lmao
hell yes Byzantine is awesome
it is a sad story; Being aztecks against byzintines in imperial age.
coolest cavalry unit hands down
Nice anti cavalry bonus you have there... would be a shame if someone were to... negate it
If you use logistics , cataphracts are even more powerful
only unexpected one was vs mamelukes
they cataphracts literally cleared their bane
anti infantry cavalry vs anti cavalry infantry should be a close match, why do they still mow them over..
They destroy anti cavalry cavalry...which makes no sense
they even destroy ranged cavalry which they have no bonuses against...these things are op
Maybe it's just me. But wouldn't it make a ton more sense to match them up against enemy comps that have the same unitcost and not the same head-count. Obviously they shit on all the cheap units.
Maybe. It would also make sense to take micro into consideration, give those ranged units some survivability. It would also make more sense to use a more balanced, far more likely unit composition that just 100% of whatever unit, like pairing the units in question with units the players playing the civs are likely to pair with them.
So, let's pair elite cataphracts with cheap halberdiers and skirms that the Byzantine use a lot. Let's see some massacres.
Elephants lose. All infantry loses. All cavalry loses. Ranged units lose....
Now, that would certainly be entertaining to watch.
Also, while resources are important, there is such a thing as a unit cap, so population efficiency is also important.
Bottom line? Don't let your opponent mass elite Cataphracts. It's not a fight you wanna have.
Cataphracts are very expensive and difficult to mass because their only real counters are also expensive and hard to mass. Also most of their counters are a lot easier and cheaper to counter in turn.
You should have compared them in cost efficiency, not population efficiency
The problem is 60 enemy catas will still wipe your whole army cos of 200 pop limit
@@earthlymatters888 Doesn't mean that they can't be beaten tho, brute forces such as cavaliers are already fine enough against them
Not to mention they are kinda squishy against ranged units compared to the knight line
eeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE
Teutonic knights: Why am I hearing a boss music?
Alright what about the Tiger II?
Wow they defeat keshiks!!!
ROMA INVICTA!
Mangudai would actually beat them easy with proper microgaming.
How did they win agains Tarkans (hun). Tarkas have more HP and attack????
Also, Tarkans have lower melee armor, as well as having a slower attack rate.
Logistica
Two words: *trample damage.*
+10 dmg per hit and they hit faster. Hidden attack bonuses are not to be messed with :)
Negating damages since 1999
some fights are pointless considering ressources used; like with War Elephants and Karambits. One is pop effective, the other is swarm effective. But it does show that Cataphracts are like anti-infantry and anti-anti-cavalery Cavalier.
Btw, i think Byzantines shouldn't got Paladins or even perhaps Champions since they are a "counter-civ", but have Blast Furnace at least and Bloodline for the dream, thoses 2 techs missing hurts really its cavalery and infantry :(
These leitis are so op that it angers me
I expected more from the Incas
All of their bonus cav damage is negated, and the Cataphracts have their own bonus dmg vs infantry (+18 with Logistica which also adds +5 dmg to all adjecent units). At this point, the Kamayuks are merely Longswords with added range.
mongols with decent micro should always win...
They lost only against elephants (three times), chariots, boyar, komnik and leitis.
Ez.
Satisfying
Leitis are OP, and that's without relics
Leitis is the most overpowered unit with Teutonic knight.
No. They are very similar to cataphracts: Good against infantry and cavalry, weak vs massed archers and elephants.
I the video Samurai against every unique Unit the Samurai won against cataphrac. Now the cataphtrac wins. Wtf
Is There something wrong with the game？How Could imperial camels lose? Cataphracts can not even win paladin. And paladin lose to heavy camels.
Cataphracts negate most anti-cavalry bonus damage.
cataphract will take 12 less bonus damage from the others, so you can see the anti-cavalry archers of Italy do nothing to it
@@alexanfung in castle 12, with elite upgrade it become 16. İmperial camel has +18 bonus damage against cavalries. Cataphract decrease it to 18 - 16 = 2. Therefore Cataphract also too good against spearman and pikeman because pikeman has +22 bonus damage (it decrease to 6) and spearman 15 (it decrease to 0). Halbeldier still give a bit damage because it has +32 bonus damage against cavalry.
@@Asterix958 thanks for the detail, yet I think Halbeldier is already no match to cataphract, the stomp damage is too horrible
@@alexanfung I agree. A lot of men think even if Cataphract beat Halberdier so easily, Halberdier is still good counter for Cataphract due to its too low cost. I oppose this because if 40 Cataphract raid 50 Halberdier. He kill all Halberdier in seconds and enemy team can't have time to create more Halberdier for repelling the Cataphract. I saw similar strategy in professional game. One team stack 50 cavalier. Other team just have 40 halberdier. Cavalier team raids and kill all Halberdiers. He lost 20 cavalier but 30 cavalier is enough to destroy all economy of Halberdier team.
i think byzantines need some buffs in reality
Free Constantinople!!!! Illegally occupied since 1453.