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[]
Available | 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 | |
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Strong vs. | Infantry, Villagers, Camel units |
Weak vs. | Skirmishers, siege units, Huskarls, Eagle Warriors, Rattan Archers |
Upgrades | |
Attack | Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1) Bogsveigar (+1, Vikings only) |
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 | Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted) First Crusade (+4 min, +4 max, Sicilians only) |
Creation speed | Conscription (+33%) |
Civilization bonuses[]
- Aztecs: Arbalesters are created 11% faster.
- Britons: Arbalesters have +2 range.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Arbalesters are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Ethiopians: Arbalesters fire 18% faster.
- Italians: Researching Ballistics and Chemistry is 33% cheaper.
- Koreans: Arbalesters cost -50% wood. Archer armor upgrades are free.
- Mayans: Arbalesters are 30% cheaper.
- Portuguese: Arbalesters cost -20% gold.
- Sicilians: Arbalesters take -33% bonus damage.
- Vietnamese: Arbalesters have +20% hit points. Conscription is free.
Team bonuses[]
- Britons: Arbalesters are created 10% faster. Researching Thumb Ring is 10% faster.
- Bulgarians: Researching archer armor and attack upgrades at the Blacksmith is 80% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Devotion, Faith, and Heresy is 20% faster.
- Malians: Researching Ballistics and Chemistry is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Arbalesters are researched 25% faster.
- Saracens: Arbalesters have +3 attack against standard buildings.
- Teutons: Arbalesters are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- Saracens (team bonus): Arbalests have +2 attack against standard buildings.
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.
- Italians: Pavise does not benefit Arbalests.
- Mayans: Obsidian Arrows introduced. It gives Arbalests +4 attack against standard buildings.
The African Kingdoms[]
- Italians: Pavise benefits Arbalests.
- Mayans: Obsidian Arrows gives Arbalests +6 attack against standard buildings. With patch 4.8, Arbalests also gain +6 attack against stone defenses.
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.
The Last Khans[]
- 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: Initially, Arbalesters cost -15% wood. With update 39284, Arbalesters cost -20% wood. With update 42848, archer armor upgrades are free.
- Mayans: With update 42848, Obsidian Arrows no longer grants double the attack bonus versus stone defenses.
- Portuguese: With update 42848, technologies are researched 30% faster.
- Saracens: Arbalesters deal +3 bonus damage against standard buildings.
Lords of the West[]
- Mayans: Obsidian Arrows removed.
- Saracens: With update 44725, Arbalesters no longer deal bonus damage against standard buildings as civilization bonus. Their team bonus increases from +2 to +3.
Dawn of the Dukes[]
- Vikings: With update 56005, Thumb Ring removed.
Dynasties of India[]
- Vikings: With update 81058, Bogsveigar added.
Return of Rome[]
- Chinese: With update 87863, technologies that benefit Arbalesters are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Koreans: With update 87863, Arbalesters cost -50% wood.
- 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".