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The Huskarl is a Norse Heroic Age infantry unit. It is trained at the Hill Fort and is a heavy counter to archers.
Attack bonuses[]
- Archers: ×2
- Cheiroballista: ×0.75
Upgrades and God Bonuses[]
Specific[]
General[]
- Odin enables Huskarls to regenerate 0.8 HP/s when idle.
- Odin also increases HP by 20%.
Eyes in the Forest (Loki) increases Line of Sight by 3.- Medium Infantry, Heavy Infantry and Champion Infantry all increase LOS by 1 and attack by 10%, and increase hit points by 10%, 15% and 20% respectively.
- Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons and Iron Weapons increase attack by 10%.
- Hammer of the Gods (Thor) increases attack by 10%.
- Copper Mail, Bronze Mail and Iron Mail decrease hack vulnerability by 10%.
- Meteoric Iron Mail (Thor) decreases hack vulnerability by 10%.
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields and Iron Shields decrease pierce vulnerability by 10%.
- Dragonscale Shields (Thor) decreases pierce vulnerability by 10%.
- Levy Hill Fort and Conscript Hill Fort decrease training time by 20%.
Strategy[]
Huskarls are unusual for infantry. They do not fear archers as they are fast, have high pierce armor and a large attack bonus against them. This makes them excellent at chasing down and killing archers quickly with minimal damage. Due to their slightly higher cost and poor hack armor, Huskarls are mediocre at best against cavalry and other infantry. Considering their expense, it is only worth massing them if the opponent is training a large number of archers. Odin players, however, may want to use Huskarls more generally.
Huskarls can also be used as raiding units, and they can take down defensive buildings when in small groups. The Mythic Age god Tyr grants Huskarls Bravery, which increases their attack and gives them an attack bonus against buildings, making them even better at destroying them.
History[]
The name of this unit derives from an old Norse name for common household servants (house karl), but it later came to mean the elite household guards of a Viking lord. One Viking king in England required that a man have a gold inlaid two-handed sword to be considered for his Huskarls. These were the king’s best professional troops, carrying the best equipment he could afford. Their sole duties were training, guard duty, and war. Although spearmen are generally regarded as the answer to enemy cavalry, the forest of upright spears could also do surprisingly well at stopping incoming arrows.
Gallery[]
