Correcting a historical misconception

So I was watching SotL's latest vid on AoE 4 (see it here - https://youtu.be/mh0ZCGL3tzM) and some of the comments joking about the expected power of the Mongol (one of the 2 civs revealed in the trailer) horse archers trouncing everyone else kinda triggered me, cos I know this is a very common belief i.e. that cavalry archers are the ultimate military unit (at least prior to modern times).

So I just want to let people here know that that very much isn't the case.

I understand how the real world Mongol conquests (and the strength of the Mangudai in AoE2) gave people the idea that cavalry archers are some kind of super-unit with no way to counter it, but it's really not. Remember that the Chinese successfully fought off the Mongols for centuries both before and after Genghis. The Koreans and other civilizations bordering nomadic horse peoples as well. One of the simplest counters to horse archers is, fittingly, foot archers. Cavalry bows typically have less size and hence range and power than what you can handle standing up. The AoE2 Korean War Wagon is also a representation of an actually good counter-unit to lightly armored horse archers. And don't forget that 2-handed weapons became more common in later ages because improvements to armor made the necessity of carrying a shield all but redundant. A sufficiently heavily armored warrior is all but immune to arrow fire, especially the kind you can get off from horseback. Also don't ever underestimate the power projection of fortifications: forts not only guard their immediate area (as Castles in AoE2 do), but also allow you to do your own form of 'raiding' - sallying out from them to hit the non-fortified tribes while being immune to counterattack if you can make it back in later . And so on... Genghis Khan was very much the exception (cue Crash Course World History memes!), not the rule (and people argue to this day as to whether he would've actually been able to conquer Europe, give the MUCH denser collection of castles and fortified towns as well as widespread forests compared to the flat and open Eurasian plains they were used to). Settled peoples can and have countered nomadic horse archer civs for centuries.

I know some of you here likely know a lot more about the topic than me and so can probably even write more (and even provide links to all sorts of examples) on the topic, but I didn't want to make this post too long so no one bothers reading it. But suffice to say that while the recurved composite bow (the bow type that the Mongols used) is a great invention, but it isn't unbeatable.

Now trebuchets on the other hand... :)