Samurai (Age of Empires II)

"Japanese unique unit. Infantry with fast attack."

- Age of Empires II description

The Samurai is the unique unit of the Japanese in Age of Empires II. It is a fast-attacking infantry unit with an attack bonus against other unique units.

Samurai can be upgraded to Elite Samurai in the Imperial Age.

Tactics
Samurai should be used to seek out the strongest late-game enemies, as they possess an attack bonus against other unique units. At first glance, Samurai appear to be weaker in combat than its equivalent swordsman from the Barracks, (the Long Swordsman in the Castle Age, and the Champion in the Imperial Age), the Japanese bonus to infantry attack speed makes them roughly equal in combat ability in general combat. However, due to their bonus against unique units (10 for regular, 12 for Elite), the Samurai fares better in the late-game, when unique units play a bigger role in combat. The Samurai already innately has a faster attack rate than most infantry but combined with the Japanese civilization bonus of 25% faster attack speed gives them a lightning fast attack. However, the unique units they aren't cost effective against are Cataphracts and War Elephants. As with most sword-wielding infantry, they struggle against the Knight line and archers.

Samurai perform well when paired with Pikemen (who also receive the Japanese infantry attack bonus) to answer cavalry, but against archers they need ranged support. They should be supported by the strong Japanese archers, Skirmishers, or Scorpions when dealing with an archer-using opponent.

The Imperial Camel and the Imperial Skirmisher are the only unique units not to take the bonus damage from the Samurai, due to both being unique upgrades of common units.

Further statistics
As Samurai are unique to the Japanese, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:

Civilization bonuses

 * Japanese: Samurai attack faster.

Team bonuses

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

The Age of Kings

 * Samurai train in 16 seconds.
 * Samurai have 0 pierce armor, a Rate of Fire of 2.03, and move at a speed of 0.9.
 * Samurai have an attack bonus of +5 (+6 for Elite) against unique units.

The Conquerors

 * Samurai now train in 9 seconds.
 * Samurai now have 1 pierce armor, a Rate of Fire of 1.93, and move at a speed of 1.
 * Samurai now have an attack bonus of +10 (+12 for Elite) against unique units.
 * Heresy introduced.

The African Kingdoms

 * Arson introduced.

Trivia

 * When the Samurai is out of hit points, one of his death animations shows him stabbing himself with his sword, then dropping to the ground. This was their means of ritual suicide, known as seppuku, ('belly-cutting') or, more familiarly, hara-kiri.
 * The Samurai was originally meant to have both melee and ranged attacks, before developers ultimately removed their ranged attack due to being too unfriendly and cumbersome to use. The risk of quickly ordering a Samurai to attack a Ram in a melee attack, attend to other things and check back to see the Samurai accidentally having been ordered to attack with a Bow instead of his sword was deemed too much.
 * The Samurai is the only unit that has an attack bonus against other unique units.
 * With Rate of Fire of 1.425 seconds per strike, the Samurai is tied with the Japanese Condottiero for the fastest attacking melee unit in the game.
 * In real life, medieval samurais were usually mounted.

History
''When knights were coming into dominance as lords and warriors in Europe, a similar social and military change was taking place simultaneously in Japan. A weak central government and a scramble for control of land gave rise in Japan to a local military ruling class called the samurai. These men of noble birth trained continuously in the military acts, as well as various cultural arts, They put great emphasis on honor and tradition, as did European knights with the code of chivalry. Samurai fought with a variety of weapons, including the bow and their unique curved swords made of the strongest steel. They sought out high-ranking enemies on the battlefield for personal duels and were trained to seek death in battle to increase their aggression and avoid hesitancy.''