What do you counter Conquistadors with?

[Badtz Maru]

They are as strong as a knight, but have a 50% bonus vs. Melee. All the counters to mounted units at that tech level are melee units. The best would be Pikemen, who are Strength 6 with a 100% bonus vs. mounted units. That's still 12 to 15.

[Solomwi]

Muskets and suicide cats, then rifles. I've never faced Conquistadors in their prime, but it seems like this would work.

[Blake]

The conq's get defensive bonuses too. You pretty much can't beat them if they are in forest. Otherwise kill them in the open with whatever you have available. Elephants are ideal. You're next best bet are Knights, probably. Mainly weather the attacks with whatever you have available, until a solid counter arrives. Rifles or Calvary.

[xxFlukexx]

Yup, Conqs are one of the most powerful UUs in the game because they break their counter. Unfortunately, Isabella's traits and starting techs are not so hot so not many people see the true power in the Conqs.

If worse came to worse I think I'd use a combination of knights/pikeman. Make sure the pikeman stay on hills/jungle/forest tiles as then they have a better shot at Conqs. Pure knights may not work since if you get unlucky you might not have another knight to finish off a Conq with .1/10 power and you don't want him to get away to heal & promote. Elephants are of course the best vs Conqs but they are pretty rare and the AI will probably want 2-4 of your resources for one elephant resource. If you are Aggressive, you can go Theocracy or Vassalage + a barracks to make Pikemen with Combat II + the anti-cavalry promotion (I forget what it's called atm, formation?)

Just like you don't try to upset Rome in the early game, you don't want Isabella all mad at you during the Medieval Era or Russia mad at you during the Renaissance.

[Dominae]

I like Isabella's traits. Probably the strongest civ for early vertical growth: Expansive for Health, Religion for Happiness. With just 4 or so cities you can set up a nice rush for Guilds, using Missionaries to keep your neighbors happy and a Shrine to stay at 100% Science. Then you crank out some Theocracy+Vassalage powered Conquistadors to expand by force.

[Badtz Maru]

I forgot about elephants, that's an effective counter.

I played the Spanish last night to experiment with Conquistadors, and saw that, unlike every other mounted unit except for Immortals, they can fortify themselves. Wow.

[Mujadaddy]

cheapest counter? *TWO* pikemen