How to beat
Jeanne d'Arcas Byzantine
Matchup tips
Two villagers on stone is the right number against something like JD or French. If you just get the gold you need either for wheelbarrow, spearman, or potentially both. And that's kind of all the gold you need early just to feel safe and you can just focus on defending your stone as well as your berries with a nice early barracks whilst you're aging up.
Typically in this matchup, we see Javelin throws more often than Longbows because you gain access to camel riders in the castle age, which give you the camel rider debuff against your opponent's knights.
Seven javelin throws are enough to one-shot an archer.
JD knights can heal back to full health with Chivalry; keeping them alive is crucial.
As long as the knights survive, they can take engagements even against Limitanei and Spearmen; knights are the backbone of JD's army.
JD doesn't mind forcing fights because of the XP reward and Consecration making knights cheaper.
Against JD, forward Grand Winery is way too greedy. It's going to be a lot more difficult to get control over forward berries, not just with the Grand Winery but later on with a normal mill and an outpost; very easily approachable by JD's early units.
If the woodline gets thin, JD's archers can snipe across if Javelin Throwers aren't positioned to defend it.
When JD engages Limitanei, she can use her AoE swing to do extra damage to them.
Against French or JD, you always want to go for javelin throwers because they make picking off archers much easier. Javelin throws against archers are brilliant, and if JD goes ranged form, javelins tear her apart.
Textiles just such a worthy investment against French or or JD here.
JD's Riders deal bonus damage to crossbows.
JD's healing ability provides huge value in large engagements.
At level 4, JD gets a blast cannon that deals a lot of damage to buildings.
JD can use consecration to reduce the cost of horsemen and spearmen, fielding a lot of infantry early. This can deny Byzantines berries, making it hard for them to get units out.
If Byzantines go heavy on javelins, JD is forced to go melee form.
If Jeanne d'Arc opens with docks, their initial knight is delayed, so Byzantines can overinvest in stone to get Cisterns up earlier.
It is very risky for Byzantines to move across the map against a mobility-heavy civilization like Jeanne d'Arc.
What I would love is a couple of Verangians here cuz you're up against a lot of archers and again the big bottleneck is that javelins take a long time to train for Byzantines. So having a couple of Vangians mixed in would help a lot against those archers.
You're up against a civ that has French cavalry, so you were eventually going to need Limitanei one way or the other.
I think if you're playing the game as Jeanne and you don't go Royal Institute, instead champions is a serious consideration against Byzantines. Because when they build javelins and Limitanei, they actually have no answer. And specifically, champions do counter out the Limitanei. They get first damage against spears.
Against a Jeanne d'Arc player, if she goes ranged, you want the Eastern contract for Javelin Throwers and camels later; if she goes melee, go for longbows.
Having a couple of Javelin Throwers means if the opponent starts making archers, you have enough to take care of them. Limitanei act as the defensive frontline to protect the Javelin Throwers while they take down archers.
Even when Jeanne d'Arc gets Royal Institute upgrades like Arbalétrier, stirrups, and Royal Bloodlines, a composition of Javelin Throwers and Limitanei still does well.
Royal Bloodline Knights from the Royal Institute kill Limitanei very quickly.
Jeanne d'Arc Unique Units
Jeanne d'Arc Landmarks
Age of Empires IV © Microsoft Corporation. AOE4.pro was created under Microsoft's Game Content Usage Rules using assets from Age of Empires IV, and it is not endorsed by or affiliated with Microsoft.