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Infantry are the mainstay of any force. They form a good all-around unit with good hit points, attack, and armor. Their weakness is a lack of speed. Cavalry can flee them easily, and cavalry archers can whittle away infantry with hit-and-run tactics. In addition, foot archers can harry infantry by firing and fleeing. There are two lines of infantry - swordsmen and spearmen. The militia doesn't belong in either group and is simply a villager with beefier hit points.
Swordsmen Man-at-arms, long swordsman, two-handed swordsman, champion, Celt woad raider, Franks throwing axeman, Goth huskarl, Japanese samurai, Teutonic knight, and Viking berserker. The swordsmen are strong units that do extra damage to buildings; the more advanced the infantry unit, the bigger the damage bonus. Infantry start poorly armored, starting with 0 regular and piercing armor. In close quarters, they can take down archers, skirmishers, camels, pikemen, and siege weapons. With archers, the swordsmen must first catch them, and until they do, the archers can hurt all but the huskarl greatly. They suffer against cavalry, however, which are stronger and have more hit points. They also lose out to cavalry archers; in the hands of a good micromanager, cavalry archers can kill hordes of infantry without ever getting hit. Spearmen Spearman and pikeman.
The spearmen are counter units designed to kill cavalry, including camels and elephants easily. They are absolutely atrocious against anything else, doing a paltry amount of damage. Their saving grace is they do 18 damage to cavalry (pikemen do 26) and up to 30 damage to war elephants (pikemen do 50). That's without upgrades! Plus, they cost only food and wood, meaning you have more gold to spend on other units. Like swordsmen, spearmen suffer greatly against cavalry archers, although the spearmen bonus versus cavalry also extends to cavalry archers. Both swordsmen and spearmen benefit from the armor and weapon upgrades at the blacksmith. They get a sight upgrade in the Feudal Age called tracking. They get a speed upgrade in the Castle Age called squires. |
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