“ | A Knight of Malta armed with a great sword. Absorbs some of the damage inflicted to nearby allies. Faster near Buildings. | ” |
—In-game description |
The Hospitaller is a heavy melee infantry in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Knights of the Mediterranean that is unique to the Maltese. It is a swordsman whose attack causes splash damage with each sweep, is capable of protecting nearby allied units, and whose speed gets a boost near allied buildings.
Overview[]
The Hospitaller is a heavy melee infantry unit that deals area of effect damage. Its most comparable unit is the German Doppelsoldner, which costs the same total resources, but more coin and less food. As food can be gathered faster by Villagers, Hospitallers are cheaper to train in comparison. They have slightly more hit points (250 vs. 240), train 5 seconds faster, but are equal in speed and resistances. Their main difference is in their damage; both deal 20 damage, but the Doppelsoldner has double the AOE and better multipliers against cavalry and shock infantry. The Doppelsoldner deals 33% more siege damage. Factoring this together, the Hospitaller can be seen as a weaker, but cheaper and faster-to-train Doppelsoldner (in raw stats).
Besides its raw stats, the Hospitaller can deflect damage from nearby units, which may aid in protecting more valuable units. Additionally, they gain extra speed when near buildings, making them more effective at chasing units trying to stay out of melee range. The passive bonus will also be received from enemy buildings after Crusader Knights is researched.
Special abilities[]
- Deflection: Absorb 25% of the damage inflicted to nearby allies within 12 range.
- Courage Aura: +0.5 Movement speed when near own or allies' buildings (also enemy buildings when Crusader Knights is researched) within 34 range.
- Pistol Attack (automatically activated when attacking with a cooldown of 60 seconds; requires the "Dignitaries" Home City Card): Charged ability that performs a ranged pistol attack which does 40 damage from a range of 14; has a multiplier the same as hand attack.
- Health Regeneration: Regenerates hitpoints when idle (0.25% per second after 3.5 seconds idle).
Upgrades[]
Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
Veteran Hospitallers | 200 wood, 200 coin | Upgrades Hospitallers to Veteran (+20% hit points and attack) | |
Guard Hospitallers | 600 wood, 600 coin | Upgrades Hospitallers to Guard (+30% hit points and attack); requires Veteran Hospitallers | |
Imperial Hospitallers | 1,500 wood, 1,500 coin | Upgrades Hospitallers to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Guard Hospitallers |
Further statistics[]
As Hospitaller are unique to the Maltese, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
---|---|
Strong vs. | Cavalry, shock infantry, buildings |
Weak vs. | Light infantry, counter-skirmishers, artillery |
Improvements | |
Hit points | Maya Cotton Armor (+20%) Infantry Breastplate (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%) |
Attack | Teutonic Knights (+25%) Zapotec Cult of the Dead (+20%) Carib Kasiri Beer (+10%) Master Lessons (+10%) Yoga (+5%) Mapuche Tactics (+50% siege attack) |
Resistance | Somali Oryx Hide Shields (+5% ranged resistance) |
Speed | Military Drummers (+10%) Quechuan Mountaineering (+10%) Akan Fontomfrom (+5%) Apache Endurance (+5%) |
Line of Sight | Town Watch (+3) |
Train time | Standing Army (-25%) Akan Fontomfrom (-20%) Quechuan Diet (-15%) Immigrants (-10%) |
Cost | Somali Oryx Hide Shields (-10%) Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost) Golden Liberty (-5% coin cost) |
Other | Crusader Knights (Hospitallers are faster near enemy buildings) Knights of the Hospital (delivers 1 Hospitaller for each Hospital built, up to 25; Hospitallers can build Hospitals) Jagiellonian Legacy (delivers 4 Hospitallers if The Sergeant at Arms was chosen for the Maltese) Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost) |
Penalties | Teutonic Knights (-20% speed) |
Home City Cards[]
As Hospitaller are unique to the Maltese, 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 Hospitaller
Some cards are highlighted with: | |
Green | TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team |
Blue | Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds) |
Chinese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Yongle Infrastructure | Ships 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villagers, healing units, Envoys, and Disciples get +5% speed |
- "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" does not stack with the Inca "TEAM Inca Bridges" card.
Dutch[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints | The player's infantry get +15% hit points; allied infantry get +10% hit points |
Haudenosaunee[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Scout Infantry | Infantry get +8 LOS |
Inca[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Inca Bridges | Infantry and civilian units get +5% speed; +1 Chasqui |
- "TEAM Inca Bridges" does not stack with the Chinese "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" card.
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics | All units get +5% hit points and attack |
Japanese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Sengoku | Unit upgrades cost -20% |
Maltese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Knights of the Round Table | Ships 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center owned by the player; increases all unit hit points by 2% | |
Knights of Bodrum | Ships 1 Hospitaller for each Outpost owned by the player | |
Knights of Rhodes | Ships 3 Hospitallers for each Commandery owned by the player | |
5 Hospitallers | Ships 5 Hospitallers | |
4 Hospitallers | Ships 4 Hospitallers | |
8 Hospitallers | Ships 8 Hospitallers | |
Sovereign Order of Malta | Sentinel, Hospitaller and Fire Thrower get +15% attack and hit points | |
Dignitaries | Hospitaller ranged resist +0.2, LOS +4, and Hospitallers now use a charged 'Pistol Attack' with a range of 14 | |
Knights of Malta | Ships 5 Hospitallers for each Fort owned by the player | |
Squires | Military buildings train and research work rate +80%, except Forts which get train and research work rate +340% | |
De Redin Towers | Ships 2 Outpost Wagons; Outposts can now train Crowssbowmen, Pikemen, Hospitallers, Sentinels and Fire Throwers |
Mexicans[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Mariachi | For the next 30 seconds, military buildings have their work rate increased by 400% and units have their speed increased by 10% |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Hand Infantry Attack | Hand infantry get +15% attack | |
TEAM Spanish Inquisition | All units get +10 LOS; +1 Inquisitor |
Swedes[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM House of Bernadotte | Heavy infantry get +15% hit points |
Trivia[]
- Depending on some improvements, Hospitallers can get different head skins:
- Dignitaries Home City Card gives a top hat.
- Teutonic Knights technology gives a great helm.
- The Hospitaller portrait is a modified Boneguard Swordsman portrait.
History[]
“ | The Hospitallers were originally a knightly order founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades. They derived the byname from their association with the hospital of St. John in Jerusalem, and grew over time to become one of the most prominent Christian knightly orders. However, as their holdings in the Holy Land and eastern Mediterranean were gradually pried away, their power faded. However, they experienced a resurgence in 1530 when they were granted the island of Malta, which they held despite numerous invasions until 1798. Hospitaller soldiers were famed for their bravery, piety, and steadfast loyalty to the order which they served. | ” |