| “ | Wu unique Foot Archer that fires multiple arrows at units and uses a long range attack against buildings. Strong vs. Infantry, Siege Weapons and buildings. Weak vs. Cavalry and Skirmishers. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Fire Archer is the first unique unit of the Wu in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Three Kingdoms. It is an anti-building anti-ship foot archer unit that can be trained at the Castle once the Castle Age is reached. When attacking ships and buildings, it has a very long range. Against units, its range is shorter, but it shoots multiple arrows which also deal Area of Effect damage, but not friendly fire.
Ability[]
The anti-unit attack of the Fire Archer is programmed as a "ranged charge attack" (charge type 6 in Genie Editor):
- Charge event: -4 (range of charge attack is 4 less than regular attack)
- Recharge rate: Infinite (always available)
- Charge target: Infantry, cavalry, foot archers, mounted archers, Monks, civilians (Villagers and Trade Carts), and siege weapons. This specifically excludes ships and buildings.
- It fires multiple arrows which are released one after the other (like a Chu Ko Nu) rather than concurrently (which would be like a Kipchak).
Against buildings, it uses the regular attack attributes defined in the data file, firing one projectile at a longer range.
Tactics[]
Fire Archers are the only Castle Age unit capable of out-ranging even upgraded Castles and towers. Combined with their attack bonus against buildings and their unique technology Red Cliffs Tactics, this presents Wu with the unique possibility to siege down fortifications in the Castle Age from relative safety. They remain able to do this in the Imperial Age, but due to the presence of Trebuchets and the like, this is generally less impactful.
To balance this, they suffer from reduced efficiency in regular combat, and will perform substantially worse than an even number of Crossbowmen or Arbalesters in most engagements.
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Further statistics[]
As Fire Archers are unique to Wu, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Slow and weak melee units, especially Spearmen, buildings, and ships (assuming close range) |
| Weak vs. | Archers, especially Elite Skirmishers, cavalry, Huskarls, Eagle Warriors, siege weapons |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1) Red Cliffs Tactics (+5 over 5 seconds, anti-building mode)
|
 Range
|
Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1)
|
| Accuracy |  Ballistics (track moving targets)
|
| Armor |  Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1) Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription (+33%)
|
| Upgrading | Conscription (+33% faster)
|
Heroes[]
There is one hero in the game with the appearance of an Elite Fire Archer.
Trivia[]
- It uses its anti-building attack against all animals.
- While both Fire Archers and Lou Chuans have multiple attack types, Fire Archers use their anti-building attack vs. ships and anti-unit attack vs all siege units, whereas Lou Chuans use their anti-unit attack vs ships and anti-building attack vs mechanical siege weapons.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
