Shotel Warrior

"Ethiopian unique unit. Cheap infantry unit with high creation speed."

- Age of Empires II description

The Shotel Warrior is the unique unit of the Ethiopians in Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms. It is a quick and frail infantry unit with a very high attack and creation speed.

Shotel Warriors can be upgraded to Elite Shotel Warriors in the Imperial Age.

Tactics
Shotel Warriors excel at raiding because of their high damage and movement speed, and can serve as a last minute defense due to their quick creation speed. Especially with Royal Heirs researched, they can be massed extremely quickly, they train even more quickly than Goth infantry.

They also pick off enemy Villagers very effectively, needing only two strikes to kill them in the Imperial Age, a feat very few melee units can deck themselves out with. They also raid buildings quite effectively, although they should not take on defensive structures.

Shotel Warriors are very frail, with the Elite version providing only one pierce armor and 50 HP. Consequently, they die quickly to anything that has a fair amount of damage output, such as Knights, Champions, or archers in larger numbers.

Still, in the early Castle Age they can be very valuable when the player decides to place an offensive Castle, because they can easily fend off enemy Rams and thereby guarantee the Castle to stand since Rams are almost the only threat Castles fear in the Castle Age. Generally, in open battles, Shotel Warriors are effective against siege units due to their high speed and attack.

Given the Ethiopian siege might, it is also a sound strategy to garrison groups of Shotel Warriors inside Ram before sending them towards the enemy. Provided the enemy leans more towards archery, and uses Castles and Towers for protection, or that the Rams themselves are adequately upgraded and escorted, large armies of the Warriors can be transported without much hassle into the heart of an enemy town where they can unload and cause major damage. The Rams also serve as additional building destroyers during a siege.

Generally speaking, the use of Shotel Warriors is rather situational as they demand a high amount of gold and are short-living. In general, the Shotel Warrior is mostly meant to be used as a raiding unit and a Shotel Warrior rush is a somewhat a better alternative to the Knight rush for the Ethiopians since a group of Shotel Warriors in terms same resource cost with Knights are more threatening to enemy villages due to their high mobility and much higher attack (in conjunction with Arson) than Knights. In addition, the Ethiopians lack key important upgrades for their cavalry such as Bloodlines, Plate Barding Armor, and the Paladin upgrade, making the Ethiopian Knight rush far weaker than other civilization's Knight rushes such as the Berbers, Huns, and the Franks. However, given the Ethiopians' strong economic bonuses with free Pikeman and Halberdier upgrades in addition to their free food and gold whenever they age up, they have better alternative rushing strategies than Shotel Warriors or their below average Knight rush (such as a Feudal/Castle Age Archer rush).

Further Statistics
As Shotel Warriors are unique to the Ethiopians, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, Shotel Warriors are created and upgraded 25% faster, and Conscription, Kasbah, and Royal Heirs are researched 25% faster.
 * A team containing Goths: Researching Tracking, Squires, and Arson is 20% faster.
 * A team containing Teutons: Shotel Warriors are more resistant to conversion.

The African Kingdoms

 * Initially, Shotel Warriors have +2 (+3 for Elite) attack against buildings. With patch 4.8, that bonus was reduced to +1 for Elite (0 for non-Elite).

Trivia

 * The Elite Shotel Warrior has 18 attack, more than any other infantry unit. It also has the second highest unranged attack overall, only the Elite War Elephant has a more powerful attack (20).
 * Shotel Warriors are the fastest training unit in the game, only taking 4 seconds to train (with Royal Heirs researched).
 * Shotel and Karambit Warriors (the seconds fastest training unit) are the only units in the game that handle weapons ambidextrously (they handle two weapons at the same time).

History
Shotel is a sword shaped like sickle originated in Ethiopia. Its unique design allows the user to reach around the shield and wound enemy's vital body parts. Against cavalry, Shotel was also used to hook and pull the warrior off the horse.