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Armor

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Armor refers to various types of covering worn to protect the wearer from harm. In the Age of Empires series, armor is a vital statistical value for units and buildings.

In Age of Empires and Age of Empires II, attacks are applied against armor of the corresponding type.

In Age of Empires, attacks other than melee/pierce usually have a non-positive value, meaning the attacker deals bonus damage against units (or buildings) whose corresponding armor has a lower negative value. If the target's corresponding armor is 0 (the generic base armor), the attacker will deal no bonus damage.

In Age of Empires II, attacks usually have a non-negative value. If the target is in the corresponding armor class, the corresponding armor is usually 0 (exceptions include the Cataphract and Condottiero), so the bonus damage will fully apply. If an armor value is not equal to 0, the damage is reduced by this value. Units almost always have non-negative armor, the only exceptions being Houses*, rams, Siege Towers, Elephant Archers, Armored Elephants, and War Wagons. If the target is not in the corresponding armor class, the armor is 10,000 (the generic base armor), thus the corresponding attack will do no damage.

All units have two basic types of armor: melee armor (simply called 'armor') and pierce armor, which protects against most ranged attacks such as arrows. However, some units like the Throwing Axeman and the Mameluke in Age of Empires II deal melee damage (i.e. reduced by melee armor) at range. Depending on the unit type, the units may have additional armor classes.

Age of Empires[]

Damage formula[]

In Age of Empires, the damage formula against units is:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "http://mathoid-facade/v1/":): {\displaystyle \sum_i\max(0,AttackBonus_i-BonusResist_i))\times k_{elev})}

  • m denotes melee attack / armor.
  • p denotes pierce attack / armor.
  • If the attacker has a bonus AttackBonusi against the armor class i, then the bonus (minus BonusResisti) is added to the total damage. Usually, and . The attacker is said to deal bonus damage against the target when and .
  • kelev is the elevation multiplier (applied to both cliffs and hills), equal to 0.67 if a melee unit attacks below its target, 1.5 if a ranged unit attacks above its target, and 1 otherwise.

The damage formula against buildings is:

Units dealing melee damage[]

The following units deal melee damage and are affected by their target's armor:

Technologies[]

To improve armor for infantry, cavalry, and archer units, technologies from the Storage Pit must be researched.

The Ballista line, ships, and buildings have 0 melee armor and the Stone Thrower line has -2 melee armor. In both cases, the armor cannot be increased by technologies or bonuses.

Age of Empires II[]

Damage formula[]

Main article: Attack#Age of Empires II

Units dealing melee damage[]

The following units deal melee damage and are affected by their target's melee armor:

*The Fire Galley line also deals pierce damage.

The Bombard Tower used to deal melee damage before patch 1.0b.

While Chu Ko Nu, Kipchaks, and Scorpions main damage is pierce, they also deal 0 melee damage per projectile, meaning each projectile will do more than 1 damage to units with very high pierce armor but negative melee armor such as Rams and Siege Towers. In particular, Chu Ko Nu and Kipchaks are a good counter against rams since they fire multiple arrows, each of them doing 0-(-3)=3 damage.

Units with high melee armor[]

The following units have high melee armor and excel at battle against units dealing melee damage (values for fully upgraded units):
Infantry

Archers

Cavalry

Siege units

Ships

Other

Technologies and bonuses[]

The first place to upgrade a military unit's melee armor is the Blacksmith. Infantry, cavalry, and archers can get +3 melee armor there.

Infantry

Cavalry

Archers

Additionally, Cavalry Archers can be further improved at the Archery Range:

At the Town Center, Villagers are improved:

  • Loom: Improves melee armor of Villagers (+1).

Also, a few unique technologies researched at the Castle improve the melee armor of certain units:

The following civilization bonuses improve the melee armor of certain units:

Buildings can also get their melee armor upgraded at the University.

Furthermore, most buildings gain +1 melee armor per Age.

If the melee armor of a unit is improved with technologies or bonuses, the added value is separately shown in the infobox.

Age of Mythology[]

Kastor Armor

Displayed here is the armor of Kastor, with all Heroic Age Armory upgrades.

In Age of Mythology, there are three types of armor: hack armor (the same as 'armor' in the previous games), pierce armor, and crush armor. All units and buildings have ratings for all three armor types, given in percentages. The percentage quoted is the proportion of damage that is absorbed by the armor type.

For example, a Huskarl has 50% pierce armor, which halves the attack of an Arcus from 6 to 3. Units typically have 99% crush armor and much lower hack and pierce armor ratings, while buildings tend to have very high pierce armor and much lower crush and hack armor.

Armor can be improved by researching technologies at the Armory (or, when playing Thor, at the Dwarven Armory).

The concept of armor is more complicated in Age of Mythology than in the other games of the series, because it does not align with the standard definition. Armor is similar to resistance in Age of Empires III, but technologies which modify them do not mean what they advertise. Players might assume that the effect of these technologies is simple addition of current and effect values of the technologies, but this is not how it works. The armor addition values of the technologies instead affect the armor vulnerability, which represents the gap between the current armor and 100% of blocked damage.

Explanation by example[]

Assume technologies "A" and "B" advertise that they provide +25% and +50% pierce armor, respectively. Also assume there are the units "X" and "Y" with 40% and 60% pierce armor, respectively.

Wrong table
Base Technology A (+25%) Technology B (+50%)
Unit X (40%) 40% 40% + 25% = 65% 40% + 50% = 90%
Unit Y (60%) 60% 60% + 25% = 85% 60% + 50% = 110%
Correct table
Base Technology A (+25%) Technology B (+50%)
Armor Vulnerability New vulnerability New armor New vulnerability New armor
Unit X (40%) 40% 100% - 40% = 60% 25% x 60% = 15% 40% + 15% = 55% 50% x 60% = 30% 40% + 30% = 70%
Unit Y (60%) 60% 100% - 60% = 40% 25% x 40% = 10% 60% + 10% = 70% 50% x 40% = 20% 60% + 20% = 80%

Age of Empires III[]

Age of Empires III does not use the armor system of its predecessors. Instead, the concept of resists is used.

Age of Empires IV[]

Main article: Armor (Age of Empires IV)
Gameplay elements in the Age of Empires series
Genie Engine-exclusive
Frame delay · Full Tech Tree · Team bonus
Age of EmpiresRuins · Discovery
Age of Empires IIProjectile duplication
Bang Engine-exclusive
Autoqueue · Multiplier
Age of MythologyGod (Major · Minor) · God power · Settlement (Settlement Victory) · Weight class
Age of Empires IIIAge-up methods (Politician/Tribal Council/Wonder/Federal State/Alliance) · Banner army · Consulate · Damage Cap · Home City · Home City Card · Inspiring Flag · Minor civilization · Promotion · Revolution · Target Lock · Trade Monopoly · Trade Route · Treasure
Age of Empires IV-exclusive
GenericInfluence · Landmark · Point of Interest · Sacred Site · Variant civilization
Civilization-uniqueBounty · Dynasty · Golden Age · Imperial Council (Vizier Point) · Commanderie
If a gameplay element has different pages across games, like civilization, the individual pages are linked in brackets.
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