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.