Bagains

Bagains
Availability
Introduced in	The Last Khans
Civilization	Bulgarians
Age	Imperial Age
Research
Researched at	Castle
Food	900
Gold	450
Research time	40 seconds
Effect
Militia line units +5 armor

Bagains is a technology in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition that is unique to the Bulgarians and can be researched at the Castle once the Imperial Age is reached. Once researched, it gives +5 armor to Militia line units.

Strategy

Bulgarians lack the Champion upgrade. But with Bagains, their Two-Handed Swordsman has 8 armor, which is just 1 less than a fully upgraded Elite Boyar. As a consequence, they receive only 1 damage from Halberdiers, Light Cavalry, and Hussars, without Blast Furnace. Bagains reinforces Two-Handed Swordsmen role as anti-trash units and also adds more protection against Eagle Warriors and Huskarls.

Two-Handed Swordsmen with Bagains can defeat fully upgraded Champions, with some exceptions: Aztec, Burmese, Teuton, Slav (post-Druzhina and massed), and Japanese Champions, all in equal numbers. And they are arguably tied with Viking Champions. With all upgrades, they have the third-highest melee armor of all units, being only beaten by the Elite Boyar with 9 melee armor and the Elite Teutonic Knight with 13 melee armor.

However, Cataphracts and Jaguar Warriors are still devastating against them, as their bonus attack against infantry outperforms their high melee armor. The Leitis' attack ignores melee armor, so this will be totally useless when facing them.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, researching Bagains is 25% faster.

Changelog

Definitive Edition

• Initially, Bagains gives +3 armor. With update 34055, it now gives +5 armor.

Trivia

• The technology's name comes from the Anglicized plural form of bagain (багаин), a Bulgarian aristocratic title for the lowest-ranking commanders during the 7th and 8th centuries, in the time of the First Bulgarian Empire. By the 9th century, the Bagains were high officers but still below the high aristocrats of noble birth called the Boilas (Bulgar language title that which would mutate to Boyar as it was adopted by Slavic nations) and above the common people, serving as a military caste in the middle of the social hierarchy. The Bagains were commanders of small military detachments and were in charge of the maintenance and storage of heavy armor and helmets.