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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For the unit in Age of Empires IV, see Arbalétrier.

Ranged unit.
Age of Empires II description

The Arbalester (called Arbalest before the Definitive Edition) is a foot 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.

Availability chart[]

Arbalesteravailable Available Arbalesterunavailable Unavailable
x means that the civilizations gets fully upgradeable Arbalesters. The technologies being considered here are Bracer, Ring Archer Armor, and Thumb Ring.
+ means that the civilization gets some 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 volleys at the opponents' units. Arbalesters are very good against targets that are unable to close the distance. Arbalesters do extremely well against Halberdiers and Heavy Camel Riders due to these units' lack of pierce armor.

The Arbalester upgrade from Crossbowmen gives +1 attack and +5 hit points. This makes it a solid upgrade over the crossbowmen, though not as important as the Blacksmith technologies.

As with most ranged units, micro-managing Arbalesters is important to use them to their full potential. Hitting and retreating works with them, and is especially important against cavalry, against which they are otherwise weak.

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

Counters[]

The most basic counter to Arbalesters is the Elite Skirmisher. It beats the Arbalester at its own game because of its high pierce armor and attack bonus. With Ring Archer Armor, it is both cost- and population-effective.

Arbalesters are vulnerable to Elite Eagle Warriors, as they can close the distance with the fragile Arbalester before taking too much damage. Coustilliers are dangerous, as their charge attack can kill non-Vietnamese Arbalesters with one shot. The Tarkan and the Sicilian Cavalier have the most pierce armor of all cavalry, which makes them very resistant as well. Among unique infantry, the Huskarl and the Ghulam resist them well. Just like Elite Skirmishers, having the last armor upgrade, viz Plate Barding Armor/Plate Mail Armor, is necessary to make them a clear counter to Arbalesters.

Most siege weapons work great against Arbalesters. Rams and Siege Towers absorb their projectiles, shielding units behind them, which provides a very cost-effective shield, even if these units themselves do not attack. The Hussite Wagon takes this a step further, by reducing the damage taken by shielded units by 50% if the Arbalester fires behind.

Onagers, Heavy Scorpions, and Elite Organ Guns specialize in killing clumped-up units, which Arbalesters tend to because they are ranged and have a small collision box. However, the latter two only work with Siege Engineers, since otherwise, the Arbalesters outrange them.

Compositions[]

In a fast-Imperial strategy, the Arbalesters are paired with Bombard Cannons since the Arbalester kills everything other than buildings. This is also helped by the fact that the pre-requisite to Bombard Cannon is an upgrade to the Arbalester.

Pairing Arbalesters with Halberdiers works especially well since the Halberdier can cover one of the Arbalester's weaknesses: cavalry. This combination is weak to siege, Elite Skirmishers, and buildings. Ideally, Bombard Cannons will be created to complete this composition, but several civilizations lack them. The next best option are Hussars/Light Cavalry to counter siege and Elite Skirmishers, Trebuchets for taking down Castles, and Siege Rams for regular buildings. Unfortunately, several civilizations have Light Cavalry so poor that they are unable to aid, in which case Champions will have to suffice.

Pairing the Arbalester with cavalry units works extremely well, but is usually achieved in late game, because of the disjoint set of upgrades and the food-heavy cost of the cavalry units. A double-gold composition is very taxing in 1vs1 as well. Pairing with different types of cavalry works differently:

  • Light cavalry - Light cavalry serve more of a trash meatshield role here, than anti-cavalry. Light cavalry takes out Elite Skirmishers and siege and can soak up enemy archer fire themselves, whereas Arbalesters take care of Halberdiers, heavy infantry, and camel units. The strengths of this composition are cost-effectiveness and a combination of range and mobility. The weaknesses of this composition are heavy cavalry and buildings, which can be addressed with Halberdiers and siege.
  • Heavy cavalry - In this combination, the Arbalester becomes the support unit. Heavy cavalry fulfills all roles of light cavalry, but better. Their weakness to Monks, Halberdiers, and camel units is covered by the Arbalester. The combination does not have many weaknesses since both units counter the other unit's counter. Since civilizations are meant to focus on either heavy cavalry or archers, and this combination is heavily reliant on gold, it is rarely achieved in 1v1s but is the norm for team games.
  • Heavy Camel Rider - Heavy Camel Riders are effectively mobile Halberdiers, and as such can counter both cavalry and siege units. They also do well against Elite Skirmishers. The weaknesses of this combination are its heavy reliance on gold, a stronger mass of archers, and buildings.
  • Elite Battle Elephant - This composition is very hard to destroy because of the lack of counters and the brute-force strength of the elephants. As with the heavy cavalry combination, the Arbalester becomes the support unit here. The combination lacks mobility in general and may struggle against heavy siege weapons. Another way to look at this is that both units in the combination are in the same speed tier.

The Native American civilizations can pair their Arbalesters with the Elite Eagle Warrior, which works similarly to light cavalry as a support unit and can also take out enemy light cavalry. The drawback is that they cost gold (less than heavy cavalry), but the civilizations have strong economic bonuses. The Aztec one functions more as a front-line unit with its extra attack, but since their Arbalesters lack two upgrades, they will not be using Arbalesters much.

Further statistics[]

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs. Infantry, Villagers, Camel units
Weak vs. Skirmishers, siege units, Huskarls, Eagle Warriors, Rattan Archers
Upgrades
Attack FletchingDE Fletching (+1)
BodkinArrowDE Bodkin Arrow (+1)
BracerDE Bracer (+1)
ChemistryDE Chemistry (+1)
UniqueTechImperialDE Bogsveigar (+1, Vikings only)
Range FletchingDE Fletching (+1)
BodkinArrowDE Bodkin Arrow (+1)
BracerDE Bracer (+1)
UniqueTechCastle-DE Yeomen (+1, Britons only)
Firing rate ThumbRingDE Thumb Ring (+18%)
Accuracy ThumbRingDE Thumb Ring (increases accuracy to 100%)
BallisticsDE Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Armor PaddedArcherArmorDE Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1)
LeatherArcherArmorDE Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1)
RingArcherArmorDE Ring Archer Armor (+1/+2)
UniqueTechCastle-DE Pavise (+1/+1, Italians only since The African Kingdoms)
Conversion defense Devotion icon AoE2DE Devotion (+1 min, +1 max)
FaithDE Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
HeresyDE Heresy (die upon getting converted)
UniqueTechCastle-DE First Crusade (+4 min, +4 max, Sicilians only)
Creation speed ConscriptionDE Conscription (+33%)

Civilization bonuses[]

Team bonuses[]

Changelog[]

AoE2-DLCicon-0 The Age of Kings[]

AoE2-DLCicon-1 The Conquerors[]

AoE2-DLCicon-2 The Forgotten[]

AoE2-DLCicon-3 The African Kingdoms[]

AoE2-DLCicon-4 Rise of the Rajas[]

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

AoE2-DLCicon-5 The Last Khans[]

AoE2Icon-LordsWest Lords of the West[]

Dawn of the Dukes icon Dawn of the Dukes[]

AoE2Icon-DynastiesIndia Dynasties of India[]

AoE2Icon-ReturnRome Return of Rome[]

  • CivIcon-Chinese Chinese: With update 87863, technologies that benefit Arbalesters are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
  • CivIcon-Koreans Koreans: With update 87863, Arbalesters cost -50% wood.
  • CivIcon-Magyars Magyars (team bonus): With update 87863, foot archers lose the +2 Line of Sight team bonus.

Heroes[]

There are three heroes in the game with the appearance of an Arbalester:

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 do not 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 Last Khans have access to the Arbalester, while both civilizations in Dawn of the Dukes have.
  • None of the civilizations with the Central Asian architecture have access to the Arbalester upgrade. Conversely, all of the civilizations with the East Asian, Mesoamerican, and African architecture set have access to Arbalester.
  • The Malian Arbalester is the only one that lacks Bracer.
  • With patch 5.5 the Indians are the only civilization that have lost access to the Arbalester, and in patch 5.8 the Khmer are the only civilization that gained access to the Arbalester.

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, with the most distinct mark being its higher draw weight due to steel prongs instead of wooden ones. Before the Definitive Edition, the name of this unit was "Arbalest", which was incorrect since the word denotes the weapon instead of the wielder. It has been since then corrected into "Arbalester".

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Units in Age of Empires II
CivilianMaleVillDE Villager · Tradecart aoe2DE Trade Cart · FishingShipDE Fishing Ship · Trade cog aoe2DE Trade Cog · King eu aoe2DE King
ReligiousMonk aoe2DE Monk
InfantryMilitiaDE Militia · Manatarms aoe2DE Man-at-Arms · Longswordsman aoe2DE Long Swordsman · Twohanded aoe2DE Two-Handed Swordsman · Champion aoe2DE Champion
Spearman aoe2DE Spearman · Aoe2-infantry-2-pikeman Pikeman · Halberdier aoe2DE Halberdier
Eaglescout aoe2DE Eagle Scout · Eaglewarrior aoe2DE Eagle Warrior · EliteEaglewarrior aoe2DE Elite Eagle Warrior
ArcherArcher aoe2DE Archer · Crossbowman aoe2DE Crossbowman · Arbalester aoe2DE Arbalester
Skirmisher aoe2DE Skirmisher · Elite skirmisher aoe2DE Elite Skirmisher
Hand cannoneer aoe2DE Hand Cannoneer
Cavalryarcher aoe2DE Cavalry Archer · Heavycavalryarcher aoe2de Heavy Cavalry Archer
Aoe2de DOI elephant archer icon Elephant Archer · ElephantArcherIcon-DE Elite Elephant Archer
CavalryScoutcavalry aoe2DE Scout Cavalry · Lightcavalry aoe2DE Light Cavalry · Hussar aoe2DE Hussar
Knight aoe2DE Knight · Cavalier aoe2DE Cavalier · Paladin aoe2DE Paladin
Camelrider aoe2DE Camel Rider · Aoe2 heavycamelriderDE Heavy Camel Rider
Battle elephant aoe2DE Battle Elephant · Elite battle elephant aoe2DE Elite Battle Elephant
Steppelancericon Steppe Lancer · Elitesteppelancericon Elite Steppe Lancer
Xolotlicon Xolotl Warrior
AoE2DE Armored Elephant icon Armored Elephant · AoE2DE Siege Elephant icon Siege Elephant
SiegeBattering ram aoe2DE Battering Ram · Capped ram aoe2DE Capped Ram · Siege ram aoe2DE Siege Ram
Mangonel aoe2DE Mangonel · Onager aoe2DE Onager · Siege onager aoe2DE Siege Onager
Scorpion aoe2DE Scorpion · Heavyscorpion aoe2DE Heavy Scorpion
Bombard cannon aoe2DE Bombard Cannon
Trebuchet aoe2DE Trebuchet
Petard aoe2DE Petard
Siegetower aoe2DE Siege Tower
War shipTransportship aoe2DE Transport Ship · Galley aoe2DE Galley · War galley aoe2DE War Galley · Galleon aoe2DE Galleon
Fire galley aoe2DE Fire Galley · Fireship aoe2DE Fire Ship · Fastfireship aoe2DE Fast Fire Ship
Demoraft aoe2DE Demolition Raft · Demoship aoe2DE Demolition Ship · Heavydemoship aoe2de Heavy Demolition Ship
Cannon galleon aoe2DE Cannon Galleon · Elite cannon galleon aoe2de Elite Cannon Galleon
AoE2 Dromon Dromon
Unique
ReligiousMissionaryIcon-DE Missionary · AoE2 WarriorPriest Warrior Priest
InfantryBerserkIcon-DE Berserk · Aoe2de Chakram Chakram Thrower · CondottieroIcon-DE Condottiero · Aoe2-icon-flemish-militia Flemish Militia · GbetoIcon-DE Gbeto · Aoe2de Ghulam Ghulam · HuskarlIcon-DE Huskarl · JaguarWarriorIcon-DE Jaguar Warrior · KamayukIcon-DE Kamayuk · Karambitwarrioricon-DE Karambit Warrior · AoE2 DE Legionary new icon Legionary · Aoe2-icon--obuch Obuch · SamuraiIcon-DE Samurai · Aoe2-icon-serjeant Serjeant · Shotelwarrioricon-DE Shotel Warrior · TeutonicKnightIcon-DE Teutonic Knight · ThrowingAxemanIcon-DE Throwing Axeman · Aoe2de Urumi Urumi Swordsman · AoE2 WarriorPriest Warrior Priest · WoadRaiderIcon-DE Woad Raider
ArcherArambaiicon-DE Arambai · CamelArcherIcon-DE Camel Archer · ChukoNuIcon-DE Chu Ko Nu · AoE2 CompositeBowman Composite Bowman · ConquistadorIcon-DE Conquistador · GenitourIcon-DE Genitour · GenoeseCrossbowmanIcon-DE Genoese Crossbowman · Imperialskirmishericon-DE Imperial Skirmisher · JanissaryIcon-DE Janissary · Kipchakicon Kipchak · LongbowmanIcon-DE Longbowman · MangudaiIcon-DE Mangudai · PlumedArcherIcon-DE Plumed Archer · Aoe2de ratha ranged Ranged Ratha · Rattanarchericon-DE Rattan Archer · SlingerIcon-DE Slinger · WarWagonIcon-DE War Wagon
CavalryBallistaelephanticon-DE Ballista Elephant · BoyarIcon-DE Boyar · Aoe2de camel scout Camel Scout · CataphractIcon-DE Cataphract · Aoe2de roman unique centurion icon Centurion · Aoe2-icon-coustillier Coustillier · Flaming camel icon Flaming Camel · ImperialCamelRiderIcon-DE Imperial Camel Rider · Keshikicon Keshik · Konnikicon Konnik · Leitisicon Leitis · MagyarHuszarIcon-DE Magyar Huszar · MamelukeIcon-DE Mameluke · AoE2 Monaspa Monaspa · Aoe2de ratha melee Melee Ratha · AoE2 Savar Savar · Aoe2de shrivamsha rider Shrivamsha Rider · TarkanIcon-DE Tarkan · WarElephantIcon-DE War Elephant · Aoe2-icon-winged-hussar Winged Hussar
SiegeAoe2-icon--houfnice Houfnice · Aoe2-icon-hussite-wagon Hussite Wagon · OrganGunIcon-DE Organ Gun
War shipCaravelIcon-DE Caravel · LongboatIcon-DE Longboat · Aoe2de Thirisadai Thirisadai · TurtleShipIcon-DE Turtle Ship
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