Gilded Knight actually even though you do have the deflective armor on Mounted Samurai, Gilded Knight still trades a lot better up against them. they have so much damage, so much more attack speed as well that these individual engagements mean that one-on-one or even two-on-one the Gilded Knights trade excellently.

These crossbows with eight should pretty much be about able to oneshot these mounted samurai.

I guess he's got some passive food from the Kura Storehouse, but the Aachen Chapel for the dragon just feels like it's going to pay way better dividends.

Gilded Spearman are still a really good answer to Mounted Samurai.

Gilded Spearman have a really good matchup against mounted Samurai — it's one of the few civilizations that might be able to deal with the mounted Samurai. Alternatively, Gilded Knights provide mobility and tankiness, and you can pull them back and heal them up.