Iron Flail

Iron Flail
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Cavalry Heavy cavalry Melee cavalry
Civilization	Chinese
Age	Fortress Age
Training
Banner army	Forbidden Army Imperial Army
Food	240
Training time	40 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	292
Resists	30% vs. Ranged
Speed	6.5
Line of Sight	15
Population	2
XP train bounty	24
XP bounty	24
Melee attack
Damage	19
Multipliers	x1.5 vs. Infantry x0.67 vs. Heavy infantry
Area of Effect	1
Rate of Fire	1.5
Siege attack
Damage	17
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0

“	Chinese heavy cavalry. Good against archers, skirmishers, and artillery.	”
—In-game description

The Iron Flail is a melee heavy cavalry in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Chinese and are trained as part of Forbidden Army and Imperial Army.

Overview

The Iron Flail is a powerful heavy cavalry available to the Chinese. It behaves similarly to the Naginata Rider, in that it possesses a multiplier against ranged infantry such as Skirmishers (please note that this does not include true Shock Infantry such as Coyote Runners). The thing that sets the Iron Flail apart is that it has a splash damage attack, making it especially effective vs massed infantry and an exceptional raider as well. If Double Faced Armor is shipped, it boosts the range resist up to an impressive 41%, allowing it to tank an incredible amount of ranged fire, even allowing it to stand up to ranged cavalry for a short time.

The Iron Flail can be trained in the Imperial Army alongside Arquebusiers, or in the Forbidden Army alongside Meteor Hammers.

Due to the Iron Flail's fairly low base damage, it is quite poor against other cavalry and not especially quick at killing artillery. Fortunately, to compensate, it has a high amount of hit points, making it still a valuable unit to round out the Chinese army.

Upgrades

The Iron Flail is automatically upgraded to Disciplined (+20% hit points and attack) in the Fortress Age.

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Honored Iron Flail	300 wood 300 coin	Upgrades Iron Flails to Honored (+30% hit points and attack)
	Exalted Iron Flail	750 wood 750 coin	Upgrades Iron Flails to Exalted (+50% hit points and attack); requires Honored Iron Flail

Further statistics

As Iron Flails are unique to the Chinese, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Ranged infantry, Shock Infantry, artillery
Weak vs.	Heavy infantry, light cavalry
Improvements
Hit points	Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
Attack	Yoga (+5%)
Speed	Comanche Mustangs (+10%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Creation speed	Cheyenne Horse Trading (-12%, Imperial Army)
Train cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost, Forbidden Army and Imperial Army)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)

Home City Cards

As Iron Flails 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 Iron Flail

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Chinese Card Description Age HC level Western Reforms All units get +8% hit points and attack 40 Mongolian Scourge Steppe Riders get +1.0x multiplier against villagers and +50% siege attack; Keshiks get +1.0x multiplier against heavy cavalry and Shock Infantry; Iron Flails get +0.5x multiplier against infantry and -0.17x multiplier against heavy infantry 25 4 Iron Flails Ships 4 Iron Flails 1 7 Iron Flails Ships 7 Iron Flails 10 Ever Victorious Army Ships 8 Iron Flails and 3 Flying Crows; costs 2,000 food 40 Double-Faced Armor Iron Flails and Meteor Hammers get +15% hit points and +35% resistance 25 Banner School Banner army train time -23% 10 French Card Description Age HC level TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack Heavy cavalry and Coyote Runners get +15% attack 10 Germans Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Attack Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and Shock Infantry get +15% attack 10 Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Japanese Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades Unit upgrades cost -20% 1 Russians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Scouts Cavalry and Shock Infantry get +10% hit points and +4 LOS 1 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10

History

“

The flail is a medieval weapon used primarily in Europe during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Its construction consists of a weighted head, often spiked, that is attached to a wooden handle with a whip or length of chain. While not as commonly used in Asia, the flail was quite similar to other flail weapons, such as the Chinese nunchaku, or two-section staff, and Sanjiegun, or three-section staff.

”

Trivia

• Before the Definitive Edition, Iron Flails, together with Meteor Hammers, were the only units in Age of Empires III which could receive an upgrade to their resistance: the Double-Faced Armor card.

Gallery

An in-game Iron Flail

The Iron Flail's history portrait

The Iron Flail icon from the website