Hussite Wagons (AoE2) 

It was made for one reason: to counter cavalry attacks AoE2: Hussite wagon is countered by the cavalry

I like the fact Hussite Wagons seem to be considered as infantry for the purposes of formation forming. It means they naturally position themselves at the front of formations like you'd want them to.

It'd be awesome if we could garrison units inside Hussite Wagons.

I really love how historical they went with Bohemians in this DLC. Hussite Wagons being as close to real without some gimmick pack/unpack mechanics, Houfnice, Karlštejn as Bohemian castle, trash monks and monastery techs reflecting that hussite priests were ordinary people (and not some snobby clergy)...

The age of Polish SotL content is over. The time of the Bomemian hypewagon has come!

2:13 - Onager: *sweating profusely*

Today I learned: Hussite Wagons have a really slow attack animation that explains why pros think they deal no damage (while actually being much more accurate than I thought). The Hussite Wagon special effect doesn't apply to siege. Eagles have a bonus vs siege. oO

I mean, the siege weakness makes sense just from a logic standpoint too. The wagon's just meant to be mobile cover, so it's completely reasonable that projectiles meant to take down buildings would be able to breeze through it and do their normal damage to the things behind it.

I like how Spanish anything seem to be the epitome of "fully upgraded generic anything"

When playing the Jan Zizka campaign, I found myself relying on defensive Box Formation a lot. My armies tend to disappear when I look away from them for more than a minute.

Hussite Wagons are really just spiritually the closest you'll get without modding to Tanks in AoE2.

There are still many unanswered questions. How do cliffs and elevation influence the damge taken behind them? What about castles both because of the height of the arrows and because they shoot multiple. What about ships fire ships and galleys. What about Cho ko nu. So many questions that need answers.

It's absolutely amazing this 20 year old game has become a live service game. I still have the old version, I don't play much so I haven't got the new one, but I still enjoy your videos.

I love how you changed the music when you chose bohemians as no1 wagon civ, it's such a nice touch

hussite wagon and monk is quite strong. and in post imp, where gold gets scarce, monks can cost food so its still a powerfull strategy that only gets countered by a large mass of well upgraded light cav

One thing that hasn't been very clear to me from this video is how the damage reduction works with bonus damage. Is bonus damage applied before or after the reduction?

That little touch with the 1st place jingle was gold!

I noticed playing them that once you get Siege Engineers, they have the same range as hand cannoneers, meaning the automatic micro they do because of their range doesn't apply to that combo. It was a bit disappointing, honestly.

I'm totally using box formation in the Bohemian campaign now.

I have to say - the Bohemian castle is really well portrayed in the game, clearly inspired by one of our more famous castles - Karlštejn.

I love how the villagers are melting gold in the outro.

Incredible unit and an even better recap! 👏

I haven't played a game of AoE2 in ten years, yet I eagerly await every video you drop. Awesome work love the channel!

I like how these things were in part meant to defeat cavalry charges yet they get owned by shock cavalry.

The commit you made at the end about box formation is so big brain!

I'm surprised you didn't mention Monk conversions more. From what I've seen, they're basically siege elephants and are also really hard countered by monks with redemption.

"BUT THEY'RE FASTER THAN SIEGE." -Hera

Wow, that Box Formation shot was beautiful!! I think the Hussite Wagon needs a bit of melee armor, atm it feels very underwhelming to be completely honest. Great video as always SOTL!!

I don't know why but the wolf trying to chew on the wagons and just getting shot dead is hilarious at the start xD

1:00 hahah the classic song when you reach #1, very noice

I still miss the intro.

Pretty curious of the effects of Hussite wagons with organ guns, towers, elevations, castles, chokonu, and navy. Like do multiple arrows hit the Hussite wagon once or all? What about Carval ship with the ability to shoot through units?

Ironically, the Hussite wagons are not very historical insofar as they really shouldn't be countered by high-melee units. The thing about Hussite Wagons was that their were basically mobile wooden forts, so knights and infantry basically couldn't harm them. Formed in defensive laager or wagon-fort, knights and infantry piled up against the heavy wagons which were too heavy to be hacked apart or pushed over, unable to surmount their high sides without being stabbed, shot, or clubbed. Meanwhile, the Hussites inside were virtually invulnerable, unless a random arrow caught one as he leaned over the top to attack. This is why Hussites could defeat thousands with just hundreds in several battles. As real cannons and catapults were not particularly mobile weapons suitable for field battles in reality, there was no practical way to break a Hussite wagon fort directly so long as the wagon defenders didn't make some serious error. Personally, I like the idea of the Hussite Wagons in game having a "battle mode," where the wagons becomes immobile, acquires ungodly amounts of melee and piece armor, and become damage sponges. They would do firearms damage based on range, with melee attackers directly adjacent to the wagon taking 100% damage with 100% accuracy while units up to 6 squares away would take much less as you got further away. The idea would be that the only counter to a wagon would be to snipe it to death slowly with archers out of its range or roll up siege weapons, which would have bonuses specifically against the wagons that negated the high pierce armor, representing that the one thing the wagons weren't made to stop: a massive stone or iron shot from a cannon or catapult.

Just got here from the scholagladiatoria video on flails that mentioned they used them in Hussite Wagons.

Never knowing about it before, I love the idea of a Hussite wagon.

Interesting. In a game that came out over 20 years ago, I would not have thought that the projectiles would have a live hitbox in flight. I would have just thought it to be a check on reaching arrival coordinates.

I love how when he said i’d give it to he bohemians the number 1 music started. Love that soundtrack

I feel like this video missed one important aspect, and thats how castle age units stack up against castle age Hussite Wagons. Imperial Age, most melee units with full upgrades trade in an acceptable manner against Elite Wagons, but Castle Age Wagons are a different story with them trading very well against almost everything.

"Professional Artistic Render Using Cutting Edge Microsoft Paint Technology" Sir I don't even play this game and you just earned a like from me hahaha

These are like medieval tanks. Watched a few games and they seem extremely OP on closed maps

I’ve been waiting for this video. Thanks big guy 😎

Been playing them recently, really fun combo!

box-shaped wagon is at its best when used in a box formation... so BOXS'CEPTION it is!

Finding all of the subtle jokes in this video is my new favorite pastime.

0:34 RIP Wolf, the true hero.

I fought against a Bohemian player recently, first time. Didn't know what to do against these massed thick bois. Was so confused, then I realized too late they were siege, though they were like Korean wagons. So pike and archery mix with skirms just in case he brings his own archers, needless to say that didn't go too well. It didn't, actually go well at all.

Friday, after work, am extremely tired of searching for something good on YT to watch with my pizza. And then SOTL uploads. What a great beginning for the weekend.

yooooo new outro music is really cool

Having a squad of Hussite Wagon, Scorpion, Onager, and Archer really confuses the AI as it just doesn’t know what to about it. Also, imagine taking full damage despite having other units if front you. This message was brought to you by the Hussite Wagon Gang.

I don't even play AoE that much but I truly love your vids, thank you

Very good analysis!

I kept wondering how would they fare against water units. Does the covering effect cover units against Dragon Ships and Galleys?

It would be really interesting if walls blocked half the damage like this.

"God bless Henry!" ~Kingdom Come Deliverance.

I just checked about the Hussite Wagons. Turns out there are men garrisoning inside it, a lot. It is supposed to be an anti-cavalry device and the projectiles are a mixture of handgunners and crossbows. Therefore, it should have projectiles as much as a Chu Ko Nu.

Based on T90 video, it appears that Hussite wagon is pretty powerful in arena setup and mass wagon can beat higher level players with correct civ matchup in castle age, even with the counter built. I think dev might introduce negative melee armour just like ram to give wagon general weakness against melee units rather than just siege, as mass wagon takes out low number siege handily.

As I said last video, I like the change of combat. Obuchs taking off armor, the wagons giving cover. We already had siege cutting trees. Maybe monks could give some buffs and nerfs too.

0:39 RIP Wolf.

0:35 poor wolf never knew what was coming

Oh I love this tbh, I love that this is a strategic support unit instead of a "spam this and win" unit. This really changes things up a bit. I wouldn't mind if they take more unique units in this direction in the future.

Great overview, but now I'm curious about their "hitbox blocking" mechanic: do they take friendly fire from the mangonel line firing over top of them? Or is it specifically damage from enemy units only? Edit: Just tested, they don't seem to take friendly fire from projectiles passing overhead.

i'm gonna walk down the aisle to that #1 on the list track

Aw heck yea I love these! Is there another civ overview in the pipeline?

I wonder how mandatory is the Elite upgrade for a purely support/wall role.

“Siege counters the wagons” I don’t know how a siege unit will counter a wagon if it gets destroyed in one hit by a few bohemian bombard cannons(they are called honufices or something)

Hey Spirit, I'm fairly confident arrows (all projectiles infact) travel in straight lines in aoe2. The collision is primarily determined with 2D hitboxes, (one centred on the projectiles shadow) and the other on the unit. Note that shadows of projectiles always travel in a straight line towards to the target. The height of the projectile is merely a sprite offset trick that follows a parabola between the known point A (firing unit) and point B (target (+targets velocity if ballistics is researched). Arrows destroy themselves when the parabola hits a negative number (i.e. they've hit the ground) and then it checks the shadows position and the units position if a hit has occurred. If the shadow of the projectile passes through a cliff object, (or in this case a Hussite wagon hit box).. it knows to reduce its damage by half.

The real bohemian Siege unit is the Hussite Wagon. Very epic and good.

I think the reason siege does full damage is to show how projectiles from bows and hand cannons get stuck or deflect off the armour, while the more powerful siege just blasts through.

Incredible thanks to you Spirit for all the content you make over the years. It's truly incredibly interesting and fun the way you present your information and perform the tests. Love it. AoE2 deserves a huge thanks to you for keeping this game so interesting all this time.

That "Top 2 Wagon civs" was hilarious xD

Huszar Magyar: this is my moment to shine 😎

Now I want to see how well it deals with fireships.

Box information looks hilarious but its effective while moving

I think they are greatly designed and actually add an interesting mechanic to the game. Their attack animation can be a bit wonky sometimes though :D

I recommend everyone learning about the Hussite Wars. It’s really interesting. Jan Zizka is a bad ass and he revolutionized warfare back then.

I just love that you barely need upgrades for the wagons, it makes them easy to blend in with the rest of your army.

Some Hussite Wagons+Houfnice+Halbedier+Hand Cannon+Monks inside a square formation is really formidable. The Wagons tank everything up, against cavalry attack you have the +20% on Halbediers, against onagers or rams you have the houfnice which has pretty nice range. if you make this formation out of +-50 pop it's basically a walking castle :D but it's important to have them in defensive stance, otherwise they just break the formation

One word , OP

Seems like an incredible counter to the Briton longbow/trib scrub strat

they should give the projectile blocking ability to rams and give units an ability to ignore certain units like rams that way one ram doesn't force you to micro manage your archers, but the ram strat still works

In Age IV they should make a unique battle formation for each of the Civs. If the bohemians get in, they can get box formation. 😁

So I just thought of a tactic and I'm sure other people have thought of it before but still. A bohemians and Chinese team with a hussite wagon square around a mass of chi ko nus would probably be a mess to deal with unless you have decent pierce armor or good siege

I feel like that unboxing was solid…

That wolf at the start was shooting for the stars

So now for the follow-up question: since the hussite and Korean War wagons seem to have complementary strengths and weaknesses, would an allied force compromised of them be effective?

Onagers against hussite wagons is going to be very tricky when the bohemian monks come along. Even with all its bonus damage the mangonel needs 3 shots to finish a hussite wagon. I wonder how well light cav spam is equipped to deal with a full blown monk wagon push.

Garrisoned hand cannoneer increased attack speed. That would be awesome.

Fascinating

I think it doesn't reduce damage of mangonels or bbc, because it's basically melee damage, but scorps is a weird one. Maybe because it's projectile flies under it's hitbox?

practical box formation POG

In the 5th mission of the Lithuanians, next to the town center outside yellow city, there is a pig, a goose and a turkey labeled as 3 aoe players( can't remember the name ) if someone wants to go check. It's a funny Easter egg

you should work with the devs as a tester great work!

It would be nice if walls got a similar mechanic to the hussite wagon, since, y’know, they are also made to protect the units behind them (on a logical, if not in-game, level at least)

9:45 This is the way, nothing can stop this deathball. Ethiopian player with Torsion Engines: "How cute."

That box formation is aesthetic as fuck

While I will never be able to use these effectively because I'm bad at this game, the mechanics behind the HW are fascinating.

They also FULLY block arrows from forum and castle, acting like a shield if placed correctly

I'm surprised more civilizations didn't try this throughout history.

Can you put them directly in front of trebs during a treb war? Would the downward arc intersect the hit box?

Tfw you were really excited to see an in depth SotL explanation of how the damage reduction mechanic works with scorpions... And the answer is “It does nothing against siege, it’s basically the same as normal lol”