Archer unit (Age of Empires)

This article is about the archer units in Age of Empires. For other uses, see Archer.

Archers in Age of Empires are one of the four combat forces on land, the other ones being infantry, cavalry, and siege weapons.

General information

Archers are ranged soldiers, either on foot or mounted, are trained at the Archery Range, and deal pierce damage.

Armor upgrades are available at the Storage Pit and range upgrades at the Market, whereas Alchemy and Ballistics are both researched at the Government Center, along with the Nobility technology, which affects (among others) mounted archer units.

Despite being ranged and dealing pierce damage, Slingers are not archers because they are not upgraded as such, and are not affected by bonuses or technologies specific to archer units.

List of foot archers

Foot archer	A	HP	At	Ar	PA	R	ROF	LOS	Sp	Food	Wood	Gold	TT
Slinger		25	2	0	3	4	1.5	5	1.0	40	0	10	35
Bowman		35	3	0	0	5	1.4	7	1.0	40	20	0	30
Improved Bowman		40	4	0	0	6	1.4	8	1.0	40	0	20	30
Composite Bowman		45	5	0	0	7	1.4	9	1.0	40	0	20	30

Slinger added for comparison.

List of mounted archers

Mounted archer	A	HP	At	Ar	PA	R	ROF	LOS	Sp	Food	Wood	Gold	TT
Chariot Archer		70	4	0	0	7	1.5	9	1.66	40	70	0	40
Elephant Archer		600	6	0	0	7	1.5	8	0.75	180	0	60	50
Horse Archer		60	7	0	1	7	1.5	9	1.91	50	0	70	40
Heavy Horse Archer		90	8	0	1	7	1.5	9	2.08	50	0	70	40

Technologies

Listed below are technologies that benefit archers. This list does not contain unit upgrades.

Technology	Researched at	Age'	Civilizations	Effect
Woodworking	Market		All	Increases Range by +1
Artisanship	Market		All	Increases Range by +1
Craftsmanship	Market		13	Increases Range by +1
Leather Armor Archers	Storage Pit		All	Increases Armor by +1
Scale Armor Archers	Storage Pit		All	Increases Armor by +1
Chain Mail Archers	Storage Pit		14	Increases Armor by +1
Alchemy	Government Center		14	Increases Attack by +1
Nobility	Government Center		15	Chariot Archers and Horse Archers +15% hit points
Ballistics	Government Center		All	Increases accuracy

Civilizations

Civilizations with prominent archers include the Assyrians, Egyptians, Hittites, and Persians. The Minoans also boast the best foot archers, but lack all three ranged cavalry lines.

Civilization bonuses

• Assyrians: Archer units fire 11%/22%/33% faster in the Tool/Bronze/Iron Age.
• Egyptians: Chariot Archers have +33% hit points.
• Hittites: Archer units have +1 attack.
• Lac Viet: Archer units have +2 armor and are trained 25% faster.
• Minoans: Improved Bowman-line has +1/+2 range in the Bronze/Iron Age, respectively.
• Persians: Elephant Archers move 25% faster.
• Phoenicians: Elephant Archers are 25% cheaper.
• Yamato: Horse Archers are 15% cheaper. Archery Range upgrades cost -30%.

Team bonuses

• Palmyrans: Technologies that benefit archer units are researched 30% faster.
• Phoenicians: Archer units have +2 Line of Sight.

Trivia

• The Egyptians, Hittites, Minoans, and Yamato are the only civilizations to have available all technologies that benefit exclusively archer units.
• The Lac Viet are the only one to have all available archer units.
• The Greeks, Minoans, and Romans lack all ranged cavalry lines.
  • This is partially justified, as neither Greeks nor Romans were renowned for mounted archery traditions.
  • About the Minoans on the other hand, it is unknown whether they practiced archery on the first place, as most details concerning their warfare are shrouded in mystery.
• The Greeks lack 4 out of 5 archers lines, the most of any civilizations. The only unit they have is the Bowman (Age of Empires), which every civilization has.

Gallery

All archer units (note that Slingers are not archers)