Chain Mail Armor

This article is about the technology in Age of Empires II. For the technologies in Age of Empires, see Chain Mail.

Chain Mail Armor
Availability
Introduced in	Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Civilization	All except Tatars
Age	Castle Age
Research
Researched at	Blacksmith
Prerequisite(s)	Scale Mail Armor
Required for	Plate Mail Armor
Food	200
Gold	100
Research time	55 seconds
Effect
Infantry armor ​+1 melee / ​+1 pierce

Chain Mail Armor is a technology in Age of Empires II that can be researched at the Blacksmith once the Castle Age is reached. Once researched, it increases infantry armor and pierce armor by +1.

Chain Mail Armor is available to all civilizations except for the Tatars.

Plate Mail Armor is the further upgrade of this technology.

Further statistics

Civilization bonuses
Resource cost	Bulgarians (-50% food) Chinese (-10%/-15% in the Castle/Imperial Age) Spanish (-100% gold)
Other	Inca (affects Villagers) Malay (free) Romans (gives ​+2 melee / ​+2 pierce armor (instead of ​+1 melee / ​+1 pierce)) Spanish (receive 20 gold after researching Chain Mail Armor)

Team bonuses
Research speed	Bulgarians (+80%) Portuguese (+25%)

Changelog

Definitive Edition

• With update 42848:
  • Bulgarians: Initially, the team bonus makes Chain Mail Armor research 50% faster. With the update, Chain Mail Armor is researched 80% faster. Chain Mail Armor costs -50% food.
  • Portuguese: Chain Mail Armor is researched 30% faster as a civilization bonus.

Dynasties of India

• Portuguese: With update 73855, Chain Mail Armor is researched 25% faster as a team bonus.
• Malay: With update 81058, Chain Mail Armor is free.

History

“	Armor made of linked metal chains was an improvement over a cascade of metal scales. It had greater intergrity and held up better after taking some damage. Whereas a row of scales might come loose after a blow, chain mail armor stayed largely intact. Because the linked chains were smaller than the scales they replaced, chain mail armor was more flexible and comfortable to wear. While an improvement, chain mail armor was also more expensive and time-consuming to manufacture.	”
—Age of Empires II manual

Trivia

• Since the word "mail" in the context of armor properly refers only to the type of armor that consists of small metal rings linked together, the names of the other infantry armor technologies are contradictory, while the name of this technology is arguably redundant.