Arbalester

Arbalester
Unit information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Archer
Civilization	See table
Age	Imperial Age
Training
Trained at	Archery Range
Wood	25
Gold	45
Training time	27 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	40
Attack	6 pierce
Attack bonuses	+3 vs Spearman
Rate of Fire	2.0
Frame delay	20
Attack delay	0.35
Range	5
Accuracy	90%
Projectile speed	7
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor classes	Archer
Speed	0.96
Line of Sight	7
Unit evolution
Upgraded from	Crossbowman

“	Stronger than Crosbowman. Quick and light.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Arbalester (called Arbalest before the Definitive Edition) is an archer unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Archery Range once the Imperial Age is reached. It is the final tier in the Archer line.

Unit availability

Available	Unavailable
Aztecs Britons^ Byzantines* Chinese* Ethiopians*^ Incas* Italians*^ Japanese* Khmer Koreans*^ Magyars*^ Malay* Malians Mayans*^ Mongols Portuguese*^ Saracens*^ Vietnamese*^ Vikings*	Berbers Bulgarians Burmese Celts Cumans Franks Goths Huns Indians Lithuanians Persians Slavs Spanish Tatars Teutons Turks

The * indicates that the civilization can fully upgrade their Arbalesters, i.e. gets Bracer, Ring Archer Armor, and Thumb Ring. Faith and Heresy are not taken into account because they only contribute to their combat strength in a very situational manner.

The ^ indicates that the civilization has at least one civilization or team bonus or a unique technology that benefits the combat strength of the Arbalester.

Tactics

Arbalesters work better in large groups as they can fire arrow volleys at the opponents' units. Arbalesters are very good at slowing down massed infantry, as well as inflicting severe damage. They are vulnerable to cavalry as they can close the distance with the fragile Arbalester before taking too much damage. As such, they should be deployed with an escort.

Pairing Arbalesters with Halberdiers works especially well since the Halberdier can cover the Arbalester's main weakness that is cavalry. Pairing the Arbalester with other melee units can also protect them from siege units.

If playing defensively, Arbalesters can become a good tool to protect a walled area as they can attack enemy units from behind the Wall at a relatively safe distance, even protecting themselves from melee cavalry. However, they do almost no damage to rams.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, Villagers
Weak vs.	Skirmishers, Scorpions, Mangonels, cavalry, Huskarls, Eagle Warriors, Rattan Archers, Woad Raiders
Upgrades
Attack	Fletching (+1)  Bodkin Arrow (+1)  Bracer (+1)  Chemistry (+1)  Obsidian Arrows (Mayans only, gives +6 attack against standard buildings and fortifications)
Range	Fletching (+1)  Bodkin Arrow (+1)  Bracer (+1)  Yeomen (+1, Britons only)
Firing rate	Thumb Ring (+18%)
Accuracy	Thumb Ring (increases accuracy to 100%)  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Armor	Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1)  Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1)  Ring Archer Armor (+1/+2)  Pavise (+1/+1, Italians only since The African Kingdoms)
Conversion defense	Faith  Heresy
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%)

Civilization bonuses

• Aztecs: Arbalesters are created 11% faster.
• Britons: Arbalesters have +2 range.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Arbalesters are 20% cheaper.
• Ethiopians: Arbalesters fire 17.6% faster.
• Mayans: Arbalesters are 30% cheaper.
• Portuguese: Arbalesters cost 20% less gold. Upgrading to Arbalester and researching technologies that affect them are 30% faster.
• Vietnamese: Arbalesters have +20% hit points. Conscription is free.
• Koreans: Arbalester costs -20% wood. Archer armor upgrades are free.
• Saracens: Arbalester deal +3 bonus damage against buildings.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, researching Conscription is 25% faster.
• A team containing Britons: Arbalesters are created 20% faster. Researching Thumb Ring is 20% faster.
• A team containing Magyars: Arbalesters have +2 LOS.
• A team containing Malians: Researching Chemistry and Ballistics is 80% faster.
• A team containing Saracens: Arbalesters have +2 attack against standard buildings.
• A team containing Teutons: Arbalesters are more resistant to conversion.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Heresy and Faith is 20% faster.
• A team containing Bulgarians: Researching archer armor and attack upgrades at the Blacksmith is 80% faster.

Changelog

The Conquerors

• Arbalests receive an attack bonus of +3 against Spearmen.
• Heresy introduced.
• Thumb Ring introduced.
• Britons: Yeomen introduced.

The Forgotten

• Indians: Can train Arbalests.
• Mayans: Obsidian Arrows introduced. It gives Arbalests +4 attack against standard buildings.

The African Kingdoms

• Italians: Pavise now affects Arbalests.
• Mayans: Obsidian Arrows now gives Arbalests +6 attack against buildings. With patch 4.8, Arbalests also gain +6 attack against stone defense.

Rise of the Rajas

• Indians: With patch 5.5, the Arbalest was removed from their technology tree.
• Khmer: Initially cannot train Arbalests. With patch 5.8, they were added to their technology tree.

Definitive Edition

• Arbalest renamed to Arbalester, which is technically correct.
• Bulgarians: Initially, the Team Bonus gave the Blacksmith a 50% work rate boost. With update 42848, this was changed to a 80% work rate boost.
• Koreans: Arbalesters cost 20% less wood.
• Koreans: With update 42848, Archer Armor upgrades are free.
• Mayans: With update 42848, Obsidian Arrows no longer grants double the attack bonus versus Stone Walls, Stone Gates, Towers, and Harbors.
• Portuguese: With update 42848, technologies are researched 30% faster.
• Saracens: Arbalesters deal +3 bonus damage against buildings.

Trivia

• In terms of wood, the units from the Archer line are the cheapest archers in the game.
• The Archer line units are the only common archer units that don't have any base melee armor nor pierce armor.
• In pre-release versions of Age of Empires II, Archers and Crossbowmen were two separate lines. Archers were trash units that were cheap, fast firing, inaccurate, and weak, and consisted of the Archer itself, and the Composite Archer. Crossbowmen were expensive, cost wood and gold, slower firing, more accurate, and gave a high damage output. Arbalests were the upgrade of the Crossbowman and originally called "Advanced Heavy Crossbowmen".
• The Franks historically utilized the Arbalest, and the word itself was from Medieval French spelling of arcuballista in Latin. Franks lacking this upgrade was both for gameplay balance purposes and because in French, the word was used without clear distinction for both crossbows and arbalests. Many French "crossbowmen" actually wielded arbalests instead, as illustrated in Jean Froissart Chronicle depiction of the Battle of Crécy.
• None of the four civilizations introduced in the Definitive Edition have access to the Arbalester.
• The Malian Arbalester is the only one that lacks Bracer.

History

“	The arbalest was an advanced crossbow made of steel. The greater tensile strength of steel gave the weapon greater power.	”
—Age of Empires II manual

Arbalests were a particularly heavy and powerful type of crossbow developed in the mid-to-late Middle Ages. The naming this class of soldier an "Arbalest" is incorrect since the word denotes the weapon instead of the wielder. It would be more correctly referred to with the name "Arbalist", which refers to a person that shoots the crossbow.

Gallery

The Archer line, with the Arbalester on the right.

The Archer line, with the Arbalester on the right, in the Definitive Edition.

A group of Arbalests

A render of the Arbalest model

Add a photo to this gallery