The Contarius is a Heroic Age cavalry unit and the only one available to the Atlanteans. It is a standard Atlantean heavy cavalry unit: hard-hitting, relatively fast, but expensive. The Contarius is excellent against archers and siege weapons, but weak against infantry and counter-cavalry.
Attack bonus[]
God Bonuses and Upgrades[]
General[]
Oranos increases Contarius movement speed by 10%.
Medium Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry and Champion Cavalry all increase LOS by 1 and attack by 10%, and increase hit points by 10%, 15% and 20% respectively.- Levy Mainline Units and Conscript Mainline Units decrease training time by 20%.
- Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons and Iron Weapons increase attack by 10%.
- Copper Mail, Bronze Mail and Iron Mail decrease hack vulnerability by 10%.
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields and Iron Shields decrease pierce vulnerability by 10%.
- Heart of the Titans (Prometheus): costs 20% less food and gold to upgrade into Contarius Hero.
- Volcanic Forge (Leto) decreases pierce vulnerability by 10% (Extended Edition)
- Lemurian Descendants (Theia) increases LOS by 9.
- Poseidon's Secret (Theia) increases movement speed by 10% and hack damage by 15%.
Strategy[]
The Contarius is a fast unit that can be quickly deployed behind enemy lines to eliminate archers and siege weapons before retreating back inside the base before the enemy has time to respond with infantry. Unfortunately, their high population value of three, costliness and lack of versatility means they can only be deployed in small numbers, as a support unit. They also make for effective raiders due to their high speed and large attack.
Contarius Hero[]
Like all Atlantean human units, a Contarius can be converted into a Hero at any time, provided the player has sufficient resources.
Attack bonuses[]
- Archers: ×1.25
- Arcus Hero: ×1.25
- Turma Hero: ×1.25
- Myth units: ×4.5
- Animals of Set: ×5
Upgrades[]
Specific[]
- Lance of Stone (Theia): +15% attack; ×3 attack vs buildings.
General[]
- Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons and Iron Weapons increase attack by 10%.
- Copper Mail, Bronze Mail and Iron Mail decrease hack vulnerability by 15%.
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields and Iron Shields decrease pierce vulnerability by 15%.
- Poseidon's Secret (Theia) increases movement speed by 10% and hack damage by 15%.
- Heroic Renewal (Hyperion) regenerates 1.5 HP/second (2.5 in the Extended Edition).
- Volcanic Forge (Leto) decreases pierce vulnerability by 15% (Extended Edition)
Strategy[]
The Contarius Hero is formidable as it is strong against archers, siege weapons and myth units. In addition, the Lance of Stone technology grants them more attack versus buildings, making them even more viable as raiders.
Changelog[]
The Titans[]
- Originally, Contariuses had 120 hit points, and Contarius Heroes had 135. With patch 1.02, they have 130 and 145 hit points, respectively.
History[]
Early Atlantean soldiers tamed and rode the wild horses that roamed across their island. These mounted soldiers were very successful in Atlantis' early conquests, but as Atlantis grew, farmland overtook wilderness and grazing became scarce. Cavalry all but disappeared from Atlantean tactics. Only an elite few rode horses into combat. Atlantean generals beaten in battle surrender their precious horses as a sign of defeat.
Trivia[]
- These units' internal names are Lancer and Lancer Hero, respectively.
- According to their icon, and the icon for Lance of Stone, the Contarius' lance was originally based upon a Jousting Lance.
- The Contarius gets its name from the Kontos lance, which was famously used by the Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, Persian and Byzantine cataphracts.
Gallery[]
