| “ | Disciple to the Chinese Monk. Good against archers, skirmishers, and artillery. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Disciple is a melee shock infantry in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Chinese and can be trained by the Shaolin Master or sometimes converted from units defeated by the Shaolin Master from the Commerce Age onwards. It is essentially a weaker version of the Shaolin Master that can be acquired in large numbers. In standard random map games, the Chinese starts with a Disciple along with the Shaolin Master, instead of two Monks that Indians and Japanese do.
Overview[]
Disciples are unusually quick-footed for foot soldiers and take up no population but have a small build limit, which can be exceeded through the conversion of enemy units killed in combat.
The Disciple has a weak hand attack and acts as hand cavalry, being good against skirmishers and artillery but are vulnerable to Heavy Infantry and Ranged Cavalry. Disciples are treated by the game in the same way as Coyote Runners, so light ranged cavalry units have large multipliers against them.
The Disciple can be upgraded at the Monastery, increasing his hit points and damage. The White Pagoda Wonder increase Disciples' hit points, attack and build limit.
Special ability[]
Critical Strike (passive): Gives the Disciple a 10% chance to do double damage when attacking.
Upgrades[]
The Disciple is automatically upgraded at every Age up.
- +20% hit points and damage, +0.5 speed
- +30% hit points and damage
- +40% hit points and damage
- +50% hit points and damage
Further statistics[]
As Disciples are unique to the Chinese, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Treasure guardians, light infantry, artillery, mercenaries |
| Weak vs. | Villagers, heroes, heavy infantry, light ranged cavalry, ranged shock infantry |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Maya Cotton Armor (+20%) The Five Precepts (+20%) Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%)
|
| Attack | The Five Precepts (+20%) Zapotec Cult of the Dead (+20%) Carib Kasiri Beer (+10%) Master Lessons (+10%) Yoga (+5%) Mapuche Tactics (+50% siege attack)
|
| Resistance |  Sudanese Quilted Armor (+10% hand resistance) Pancerni (+10% ranged resistance)
|
| Speed |  Apache Endurance (+5%) Comanche Mustangs (+5%)
|
| Cost |  Somali Oryx Hide Shields (-10%)
|
| Train time |  Cheyenne Horse Trading (-40%) Quechuan Diet (-15%) Immigrants (-10%) Shaman Drums (-10%)
|
| Other |  Jagiellonian Legacy (delivers 4/6/10/16 Disciples if White Pagoda was built for the Chinese to reach the Commerce/Fortress/Industrial/Imperial Age respectively)
|
Home City Cards[]
As Disciples are unique to the Chinese, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:
- Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Disciple
| Some cards are highlighted with: | |
| Green | TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team |
| Blue | Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds) |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 5 Disciples
| Delivers 5 Disciples |  |
 Year of the Tiger
| Delivers 1 Wagner the Pet White Tiger for each 2 Disciples lost so far (up to 12) | |
 TEAM Yongle Infrastructure
| Delivers 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villager, healing unit, Envoy, and Disciple speed +5% |  |
 Western Reforms
| Unit hit points and damage +8% |  |
 Acupuncture
| Unit (except monk) train time -20%; Summer Palace banner army, Flying Crow, and Heavy Cannon spawn time -5% |  |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack
| Hand cavalry and hand shock infantry damage +15% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cavalry Attack
| Heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry damage +10%; Germans-only heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry damage +15% instead | |
- "TEAM Cavalry Attack" does not stack with the Italian "TEAM Cavalry Attack" card.
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
| Unit hit points and damage +5% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
| TEAM Cavalry Attack
| Heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry damage +10%; Italians-only heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry damage +15% instead | |
- "TEAM Cavalry Attack" does not stack with the German "TEAM Cavalry Attack" card.
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Jujutsu
| Villager hit points +35%; unit affected by villager upgrades hit points +10%; Surgeon, Priest, Architect, Native Scout, and Envoy damage +20%; Disciple and Shaolin Master damage +10% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Mustangs
| Cavalry and shock infantry cost -10% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Knights of the Round Table
| Delivers 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center and Command Post present on the map; unit hit points +2% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Mariachi
| For the next 30 seconds, military building training and research work rate +400%, unit speed +10% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Kamchatka Expeditions
| Cavalry and shock infantry hit points +10%, Line of Sight +4 | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Hand Infantry Attack
| Hand infantry damage +15% | |
 TEAM Spanish Inquisition
| Delivers 1 Inquisitor; military and economic unit Line of Sight +10 | |
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Disciples
|
Ships 5 Disciples | |
10 |
| Western Reforms
|
All units get +8% hit points and damage | |
40 |
| Acupuncture
|
All units' train time -20%; Heavy Cannon, Flying Crow, and Summer Palace banner army spawn time -5% | |
10 |
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
| TEAM Cavalry Attack
|
Heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry get +15% attack | |
10 |
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
| TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
|
All units get +5% hit points and damage | |
25 |
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cavalry Scouts
|
Cavalry and shock infantry get +10% hit points and +4 Line of Sight | |
1 |
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
| TEAM Hand Infantry Attack
|
Hand infantry get +15% attack | |
10 |
| TEAM Inquisition
|
All units get +10 Line of Sight | |
10 |
Changelog[]
The Asian Dynasties[]
- Disciples train in 11 seconds.
Definitive Edition[]
- With a later update, Disciples train in 7 seconds.
Knights of the Mediterranean[]
- With update 13.58326, Disciples have x2.5 damage vs mercenaries.
- With patch 15.30007, Disciples get +0.5 speed from the Commerce Age.
- With patch 15.59076, Disciples train in 14 seconds.
Trivia[]
- There are unused voice files for the Disciple for Claim, Disabled and Revived. Probably the Disciple would be a Hero-type unit, as are the second Monks of other Asian civilizations.
- Disciples converted by the Shaolin Master through the Make Disciple ability will always be Chinese, regardless of the original background of the unit. Strangely, this also applies to Treasure guardians that are animals and pets.
History[]
| “ | One of the most famous Buddhist monasteries is the Shaolin Monastery, located in the Henan province of China, founded in 495 CE. The edifice is associated specifically with Chan Buddhism and the martial art of Kung Fu. Monastery legend states that the Indian monk Bodhidharma visited the temple in 527 CE. During his time meditating on the mountain overlooking the monastery, Bodhidharma taught himself a form of martial arts to defend against wild animals and bandits. He stayed at the temple for nine years, and before his departure he taught his disciples the skills he had learned, creating the martial arts legend that surrounds the Shaolin monks to this day. | ” |
Gallery[]
The Shaolin Master, accompagnied by some of his Disciples.
The White Pagoda, the Wonder that is obligatory for Disciple rushes.
In-game Disciple in the Definitive Edition
