Ageforge Counters Explained: What Beats What

The counter triangle

Every unit in Ageforge belongs to one of four types. Three of them form a loop where each type beats the next:

• Frontline beats Ranged. Tanky melee units walk through arrows and crush fragile shooters. Frontline units: Clubman, Knight, Cuirassier, Mech Walker.
• Ranged beats Fast. Shooters kill low-HP skirmishers before they close the distance. Ranged units: Slinger, Crossbowman, Musketeer, Laser Trooper.
• Fast beats Frontline. Quick, frequent hits wear down slow, expensive tanks. Fast units: Wolf Rider, Raider, Dragoon, Hover Bike.

When a unit attacks the type it counters, its damage is multiplied by ×1.75. When it attacks the type that counters it, its damage is multiplied by ×0.6. Every other matchup, including mirrors, deals normal damage.

Where Splash fits

Splash units (Mage, Cannon, Plasma Artillery) get no counter bonus and take no counter penalty. What they have instead is area damage: every attack also hits enemies standing near the target. That makes Splash the answer to a big blob of cheap units, and weak against a small number of spread-out, high-HP units.

How armor works

Armor reduces incoming damage by a percentage, with diminishing returns. Each extra point of armor is worth a little less than the one before, and armor never reduces a hit to zero. This is why Fast units counter Frontline: many small hits still do real damage to a heavily armored tank.

Some abilities cut through armor: every Crossbowman bolt ignores 50% of the target's armor, and every Laser Trooper shot ignores 35%. See every Ageforge unit for the full list.

The four army builds

In practice, armies tend to fall into four builds. Like the unit types, each build beats the next one in the list, and the last beats the first:

1. Pierce & Splash (Musketeer, Cannon, Plasma Artillery): Piercing shots and area damage punish units packed close together. Beats Aura Turtle.
2. Aura Turtle (Knight, Crossbowman, Slinger): Knights give armor to the ranged units behind them, which outlasts a single tank. Beats Anchor & Taunt.
3. Anchor & Taunt (Cuirassier, Mech Walker, Clubman): The Cuirassier forces nearby enemies to attack it, so flankers never reach your back line. Beats Flankers.
4. Flankers (Wolf Rider, Dragoon, Hover Bike): Fast units slip past the front line and pick off the fragile ranged units behind it. Beats Pierce & Splash.

Counters and ultimates

Ultimates ignore the counter triangle and armor. Each one hits every enemy on the lane at once, which makes them the best tool against a big army you can't out-counter in time. Details are in keep towers and ultimates.