Shade (Age of Empires: Mythologies)

The Shade is a Greek Myth Unit in Age of Empires: Mythologies available to worshipers of Nyx.

Statistics

 * Cost: 60 Gold, 10 Favor
 * Type: Myth Unit, Light Infantry
 * Range: N/A
 * Attack: 50
 * Defense: 0
 * HP: 10


 * Movement: 4

General
Age I: Attack x0.6, HP x0.6

Age II: Attack x0.75, HP x0.75

Age III: Attack x0.9, HP x0.9

Hermes increases movement by 2
 * Mother of Deceit (Nyx): hides its HP from enemy units unless there is an enemy unit directly adjacent to it
 * Gift of Wisdom (Athena): gains +1 Sight
 * Arboreal Passage (Hermes): moves through hills or forests as if they were plains.

Strategy
They may be cheap, but Shades are arguably the weakest Myth Units that can be trained from a Temple. Their Defense is non-existent and their HP is tied with the Egyptian Hyena of Set and the Norse Huginn and Munnin units as the lowest in the game. Therefore, they should never make up the bulk of an army but do have a unique niche. Shades can be used to stall enemies, forcing them to use up one of their more powerful units' only attack move per turn in order to bypass it. This is useful on choke points such as narrow passes or bridge tiles. This is further encouraged with Nyx's Mother of Death research which causes units killed by enemy heroes to respawn as Shades, which forces the enemy to kill a unit twice in order to proceed.

They also can attack though they do less damage than most other Greek Myth Units. As all units receive minor damage in a battle unless the enemy unit is killed, Shades should never fight healthy units as the retaliation will kill them. However, they can be used to finish off a severely weakened unit, allowing the player's stronger units to save their attack move for greater threats. Finally, Shades are airborne and so can fly over most obstacles and join a battle quickly or scout ahead for threats.

Shades are common foes in Hell maps in the Greek campaign.

Trivia

 * The Shade is the only trainable Myth Unit in Age of Empires: Mythologies that lacks a research unique to it.
 * Unlike in Age of Mythology where they fall in their own unit category, Shades in Age of Empires: Mythologies are true Myth Units.