History Characters / AgeOfEmpiresIIUnits

* ActionSurvivor: Usually you'll be wise to keep your villagers out of combat and protected at all times. However, certain civilizations have ways of spicing up their villagers' combat capabilities:

* CallBack: The Burgundian "Flemish Revolution" turns all Villagers into Flemish Militia, akin to the Revolutionary nations of ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' and the Ragnarok god power in ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology''.

* UniquenessDecay: Used to be the unique unit of the Indians. When the Indians became a DecompositeCharacter in ''Dynasties of India'', the Elephant Archer became a regional unit that remains exclusive to the four Indian civilisations.

* SmashMook: The Knight line is one of the few unit lines in the game without any attack bonuses against other unit types (with the exception of Persian teammates against archers). This is to compensate for their powerful combination of high HP, armor, movement speed, and attack.

* AntiInfantry: They cause bonus damage to infantry units.

* HeavilyArmoredMook: Zigzagged. Their pierce armor is only exceeded by the Battering Rams that they replace (which is nonetheless sufficient for them to shrug offf arrow fire). And alongside Battering Rams, Armored Elephants are one of the few units with negative melee armor, though unlike Rams this can be mitigated by Blacksmith technologies.

* BoringButPractical: The Monks' other abilities. Healing is not common in the game, so it's helpful to have units that can heal expensive ones. While collecting all relics can allow the player to win instantly, the primary use for having Monks collect them is that they give an endless supply of gold.

* TheMedic: Monks can heal friendly units.

Military units exclusive to the Mesoamerican civilizations (Aztecs/Incas/Mayans). They act as the replacement for the Scout Cavalry line, as Mesoamerican civilizations cannot train Stable units due to lacking the building itself.

While the line was present from ''The Conquerors'' onwards, ''The African Kingdoms'' introduced the Eagle Scout unit in order to give Mesoamerican civs another alternative on Feudal Age.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The line acts as one for the other civilizations' Scout Cavalry units. They have ample line of sight and the same Auto Scout ability than the Scout Cavalry line. The only difference is that they're still vulnerable to Monk conversion.

* AntiInfantry: They get a significant damage bonus against infantry, and a little extra damage to the Spearman Line, making them dangerous to almost all infantry.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Non-Mesoamerican monks all appear as Catholic monks, even for civilizations that were Orthodox Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim. While models for Buddhist and Muslim monks exist in the resources, they were never implemented.

* RegeneratingHealth: Bengali Cogs get a HealingFactor of 15 HP/s.

* FragileSpeedster: With a meager 70 HP, it cannot resist a lot of attacks. The "Caravan" upgrade make up for this by increasing its speed. Furthermore, the Hindustanis have the unique Caravanserai building that allows them to gather quite a lot of speed and regenerate HP.

* RegeneratingHealth: Pole villagers get a scaled HealingFactor that starts in 10 HP/s at Dark Age and goes all the way up to 25 HP/s on Imperial Age, allowing them to survive raids in higher ages.

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Most cavalry units are vulnerable to conversion by Monks. The Scout Cavalry line lacks their vulnerability and does extra damage to Monks, making them useful as support for the stronger cavalry.

* AchillesHeel: Battle Elephants are incredibly vulnerable to conversion, which isn't helped by all of the Southeast Asian civilizations except Malay, as well as the Bengalis and Dravidians, lacking Heresy. However, no Southeast Asian civilization is exactly dependent on incredibly expensive units (especially the Burmese and Khmer, where they are known for [[JackOfAllStats their versatile tech tree]]).

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: The unit exists for a very specific purpose: to unload units on the other side of a wall. Therefore, if your enemy is a Goth player (who lack walls) or doesn't use walls, you're only wasting your resources. Furthermore, it needs space for landing, which your enemy can deny by either reinforcing their own walls, or constructing buildings near it.

* BalanceBuff:
** From ''The Conquerors'' onwards, Villagers are also affected by "Heresy".
** Between ''Age of Kings'' and ''The Conquerors'', Villagers gained +3 attack against stone defenses (walls, gates, castles and towers).
** ''The Forgotten'' allowed villagers to be garrisoned on rams.

* {{Nerf}}:
** Gothic villagers had a bonus of +6 vs. siege weapons (Rams, Onagers, Trebuchets and Scorpions). They lost this bonus from ''The Conquerors'' onwards.
** Incan villagers used to benefit from "Forging" and "Scale Mail Armor" in the Feudal Age. While ''Lords of the West'' allowed them to still benefit from these techs, they now have to wait until the Castle Age in order for said techs to have any effect.
** Korean villagers used to build fortifications 33% faster from ''The Forgotten'' onwards, with an additional 5% speed introduced by a patch for ''Rise of the Rajas''. In ''Definitive Edition'' they lost this bonus.

* WorkerUnit: The backbone of your civ's economy, being able to gather food from hunting, fishing and farming, gold and stone from mining, and wood from lumberjacking. They also act as the universal builders. Oddly, when hunting animals they will use a bow, which is more effective than the knife they use against units.

* {{Nerf}}: ''Rise of the Rajas'' increases their training time in the Castle Age, and Definitive Edition reduces the Eagle Scout's line of sight in the Dark Age, making them less effective early game scouts.

* BalanceBuff: New expansions and patches frequently buff this unit line. They have gained increased range and a lower cost, and Civilizations gain bonuses improving the unit or buffs to existing bonuses. The exception is the Huns, whose bonus lowering the cost of this unit line has been decreased.

* BalanceBuff: In the base game, Hand Cannoneers and other gunpowder units have their own technologies that need to be researched for players to access them. As these technologies are expensive, on top of the cost of researching Chemistry, they are removed in ''The Conquerors'', so gunpowder units only require researching Chemistry. ''The Conquerors'' also increases the Hand Cannoneers' accuracy and bonus damage. Lords of the West increases their accuracy again, and Dawn of the Dukes increases their HP.

* BalanceBuff: ''The Conquerors'' reduces this unit line's training time and increases their speed. The Forgotten increases the Camel Riders' damage and lowers the time it takes to upgrade them to Heavy Camels, and ''Dynasties of India'' improves their line of sight.

An unit exclusive to the Aztecs and Incas, it's only available once a Monk converts an enemy Stable from ''Definitive Edition'' onwards. Acts as the stand-in for the Knight.

* BatteringRam: The Battering Ram is a stout log designed to demolish enemy buildings by repeatedly slamming into them. They are slow and can only attack in melee, but are capable of dealing great damage to buildings and are nearly impervious to archer (including tower) fire.

* BalanceBuff: Before ''The Forgotten,'' researching Chemistry reduced the speed of this unit line's projectiles.

* BalanceBuff:
** ''The Conquerors'' introduced the Heresy and Theocracy techs.
** After a long stint with a healing team bonus of 50%, teams with Byzantine allies saw a buff with ''Dawn of the Dukes'' increasing it to 100%, basically duplicating the bonus.
** Spanish Monks benefitted from ''The Forgotten'' giving their civ "Inquisition" as their new Imperial Age unique tech.

* {{Nerf}}:
** Relic-carrying Monks used to resist anti-Monk damage in ''The Conquerors''. This stopped being the case in ''The Forgotten''.
** {{ZigZagged|Trope}} with Fervor and Relic carrying. Fervor initially affected all Monks, then it affected only Relic-carrying Monks in ''The Conquerors''. Then ''The Forgotten'' reverted this change.
** The Monks from teams with Byzantine allies used to heal 200% faster. Then it was reduced to 50% for ''The Conquerors''.
** Chinese and Cuman monks used to benefit from Redemption until the Definitive Edition update 36202 removed this tech from their trees.
** Slav Monks used to have access to the Castle Age Unique tech "Orthodoxy" which gave them +3 armor and +3 pierce armor. It was removed in ''Dynasties of India'' update 61321 and replaced with "Detinets", which affects Castles instead.

* BalanceBuff:
** ''The Conquerors'' introduced the Caravan tech, giving them a necessary speed boost.
** For ''Definitive Edition'', Dry Dock stopped reducing the gold per trip.
** ''Dynasties of India'' allowed them to resist {{armor piercing attack}}s.

* {{Nerf}}: ''The Conquerors'' almost doubled the time it takes to build these ships.

* BalanceBuff: ''The Forgotten'' increases the HP of Demolition Ships and Heavy Demolition ships.

* CripplingOverspecialization: These ships excel at dealing with structures thanks to their damage and long range. Since they fire a PainfullySlowProjectile, they are terrible at attacking units since their attacks are easy to dodge. The exception is with the Spanish, as their ships have faster and more accurate projectiles.

The Lithuanians and Poles lack the Hussar upgrade, getting instead the Winged Hussar upgrade.

* ReducedResourceCost:
** They benefit from the training time reduction of "Conscription". The Vietnamese get this tech for free.
** Malay Battle Elephants cost -30% in Castle Age and -40% in Imperial Age.

* AchillesHeel: Cavalry. Their speed means they can avoid the projectiles and get in close where the siege units cannot attack them.

* AchillesHeel: Like the Magnonel Line, the Scorpion Line is highly vulnerable to cavalry since their speed means the Scorpion line's projectiles have difficulty hitting them.

* HerdHittingAttack: They deal damage in a line, which, depending on the formations of the enemy, can be devastating.

* BoringYetPractical: The Monks' other abilities. Healing is not common in the game, so it's helpful to have units that can heal expensive ones. While collecting all the relics can allow the player to win instantly, the primary use for having Monks collect them is that they give an endless supply of gold.

* FragileSpeedster: One of the weakest units of the game at 30 HP. They make up for this thanks to Fervor increasing their movement speed.
* InstantWinCondition: If the Monks collect all of the Relics for their controlling player, that player wins automatically if they hold onto them for a set period.

* ReducedResourceCost:
** Bohemians grant the Mining Camp techs for free.
** Techs that benefit Burgundian villagers are 40% cheaper.
** Not only the Burmese benefit from having the Lumber Camp techs for free, but researching "Heresy" costs 50% less.
** The Chinese benefit from a gradual discount for Villager-benefitting techs starting with 10% on Dark Age and going all the way to 25% on Imperial Age.
** The Franks get all the Mill techs for free.
** The Goths get Loom for free.
** Hindustani villagers get a training cost decrease starting at 10% in Dark Age and going all the way to 25% in Imperial Age.
** Persian villagers are trained faster at a gradual pace (from -10% on Dark Age to -25% in Imperial Age) and also get Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart for free.
** Techs that benefit Vietnamese villagers cost no wood.
** The Bengalis and their allies can train more units thanks to their unique tech Mahayana reducing the population slot occupation of the Villagers.

* ReducedResourceCost: ''Definitive Edition'' switched Tracking (which was made a core gameplay mechanic) with Supplies, which reduced the food cost of units by 15 food units.

A regional unit exclusive to the Southeast Asian civilizations (Burmese, Khmer, Malay, Vietnamese). It's a weak and cheap counterpart to the Persians' War Elephant that also deals trample damage.

In ''Dynasties of India'' the unit was also given to the Bengalis and Dravidians.

* AntiStructure: The Battering Ram line has low base damage and heavy bonus damage against buildings. As such, they are useless against anything that isn't a building or siege engine.

* ReducedResourceCost:
** Aztec Siege Towers are constructed 11% faster.
** Portuguese Siege Towers cost 20% less gold.
** Slav Siege Towers cost 15% less resources.
** Siege Towers belonging to civs with a Celt ally are trained 20% faster.

** Armored Elephants are classified as a cavalry unit, instead of a siege unit. While it makes them vulnerable to anti-Elephant and cavalry units and Monks, it means that they benefit from unit and cavalry upgrades, like Bloodline and Blacksmith upgrades, and can be healed by monks and castles. Battering Ram has to be repaired, which cost resources and the villager's time, and can only be converted by monks with Redemption researched, which is not available to some civilizations.
** Battering Rams are completely useless against anything organic due to their negative melee armor, low damage and slow attack speed. Armored Elephants are not, since they deal trample damage and benefit from Blacksmith upgrades that increases their damage and put their negative armor to average armor.

* ReducedResourceCost:
** Gurjara Armored/Siege Elephants get a 25% food cost discount via their unique Castle Age tech "Kshatriyas".
** Armored/Siege Elephants belonging to a civ with a Celt or Gurjara ally are trained 20% faster.

* ReducedResourceCost: Portuguese monks cost 20% less.

* WorkerUnit: Resource gatherers that only gather food from sources on water. While they only collect food, they do so faster than Villagers.

* HeavilyArmoredMook: Each rank wears armor, but the higher ranked wear heavier armor, the highest two wearing plate mail.

!! Knight/Cavalier/Paladin

* HeavilyArmoredMook: Knight line units are covered in armor. The basic Knights wear chainmail, and the Cavaliers and Paladins wear plate mail.

* ReducedResourceCost:
** Aztec Xolotl Warriors are trained 11% faster, and the Hun ally bonus stacks.
** Xolotl Warriors belonging to a civ with a Hun ally are trained 20% faster.

Utility units available to all Civilizations in the Feudal Age. If a player has an ally, Trade Carts can travel to their Market and back to their player's market. The process generates gold. The further the distance traveled, the more gold is generated. Most maps have a limited amount of gold, so this helps players keep their gold from running out. However, Trade Carts cannot attack and need to be protected.

Naval military ships that attack by throwing loads of heavy stones to a building, much like the Mangonel line. They can be trained by the Romans, Byzantines, Huns, and Goths as a replacement of Cannon Galleons.

* [[Characters/AgeOfEmpiresIIDefinitiveEditionCivilizations [=AoE2=] Definitive Edition Civilizations]]: Konnik (Bulgarians), Kipchak (Cumans), Leitis (Lithuanians), Keshik and Flaming Camel (Tatars), Coustillier and Flemish Militia (Burgundians), Serjeant (Sicilians), Hussite Wagon (Bohemians), Obuch (Poles), Ratha (Bengalis), Urumi Swordsman and Thirisadai (Dravidians), Chakram Thrower and Shrivamsha Rider (Gurjaras), Centurion (Romans).

* SomeDexterityRequired: Units of the Cavalry Archer Line are not meant to stand and shoot. Players need to ensure they stay out of the reach of slower units, which, if done correctly, means melee units will never get close to them.

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Beats Infantry units, Siege weapons, Villagers and the Scout/Light Cavalry line. Is beaten by Pikemen, Monks, and half the Unique unit roster.

* {{Foil}}: To the Battering Ram that it replaces:

** Battering Ram are completely useless when it is forced to engage with other units because of its low attack power, negative armor that increases damage dealt to them, and their low fire rate. Meanwhile, Armored/Siege Elephants can fight other units, since they benefit from Blacksmith upgrades that increases their damage and put their negative armor to average armor, and the elephant's trample bonus.

* RegeneratingHealth: Dravidian Armored/Siege Elephants get the health regeneration rate (20 HP/s) benefits of "Medical Corps".
* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Strong against Buildings, Archers and Trebuchets. Weak against Infantry and Cavalry units, the Mangonel line, Monks, Flaming Camels and Mangudai.

* DualModeUnit: Trebuchets switch between their packed forms to move and unpacked forms to attack. Switching takes a little over ten seconds, so it should not be done carelessly.

* WorkerUnit: The Trade Cart has no combat capacities whatsoever and instead travels between Markets, gathering gold in the process (and a little food, if the team has a Burgundian player).

A regional unit exclusive to the Southwest Asian civilizations (Burmese, Khmer, Malay, Vietnamese). It's a weak and cheap counterpart to the Persians' War Elephant that also deals trample damage.

* AntiCavalry: Their primary purpose, as their attacks inflict bonus damage to cavalry.
* BladeOnAStick: It is in their name; after all, they carry large polearms.

An unit exclusive to the Mesoamerican civilizations, it's only available once a Monk converts an enemy Stable from ''Definitive Edition'' onwards. Acts as the stand-in for the Knight.

* WorkerUnit: Its main function is to gather gold from other Markets. Some civilizations increase the gold generation and even allow other resources to be collected as well:
** In addition to the Caravanserai, the Hindustanis have the unique tech "Grand Trunk Road" that allows them to gather 10% more gold.
** Teams with Burgundian allies also benefit from gathering a bit of food with every gold reception.

The basic infantry unit produced from the Barracks. All Civilizations have access to the first three ranks. The Militia are the first ones available in the Dark Age. After advancing to the Feudal Age, they can be upgraded to Men-at-Arms. In the Castle Age, they can be upgraded to the Long Swordsmen. All Civilizations aside from the Persians have access to an upgrade in the Imperial Age called the Two-Handed Swordsmen.

* AntiCavalry: Strong against the Scout line.
* AntiInfantry: Strong against the Spearman line.
* BalanceBuff: Since the Militia Line tends to fall out of use past the early game, they received several buffs post-''The Forgotten'' like the Arson[[note]]improved infantry bonus damage against buildings for all infantry[[/note]] Supplies[[note]]lowered food cost for the line[[/note]], and Gambesons[[note]]improved pierce armor for the line[[/note]] upgrades, as well as Tracking[[note]]improved line of sight for all infantry[[/note]] being made a core gameplay mechanic, along with improvements to their stats.
* {{BFS}}:
** As their name implies, the Two-Handed Swordsmen carry giant swords that are almost as long as they are tall and require two hands.
** The Champions have similar-sized swords.

* DiscardAndDraw: The Bohemians's "Hussite Reforms" unique tech exchanges the monks' gold cost with food cost, turning them into "trash monks".