The Iron Troop is a heavily armored archer, with exceptional ranged resistance, and attacks quickly with a bow and arrow with extra damage to heavy infantry and light cavalry. It also has a better hand attack than most ranged infantry.
For the Chinese, the Atonement card allows Iron Troops to be trained from the Monastery, similarly to how the European Dance Hall card allows players to train Ronin from the Saloon, and even ship the "Koxinga" Home City Card to increase their attack speed. They can also be rescued from certain treasures on Chinese maps, such as Mongolia.
Infantry and shock infantry train time -40% (also +2 Uhlans for the Germans; +1 Villager for the Indians)
Outlaw Combat
Outlaws and mercenaries get +15% hit points and attack (also upgrades Filibusters to Veteran for Baja California; costs 750 coin for Baja California, Hungary, and Revolutionary Mexicans)
"Liberation March" is available to the Mexicans and Spanish.
"Fencing School" is available to the Europeans (except the French, Maltese, Ottomans, and Spanish) and Indians.
Daimyo and Shogun Tokugawa get +10% speed, +20 Line of Sight and train units 15% faster; land military units' train time -20%; Banner army train time -10%
Ships 13 random mercenaries; up to 3 random mercenaries available at Saloon; costs 3,500 coin
Indiana Mobilization
Ships 1 Carbine Cavalry for each shipment sent so far this game including this one; unit train time (except Heavy Cannons), technology research time, and age-up time -10%; costs 250 food, 250 wood
With update 23511, the Iron Troop is added to the mercenary random pool, which makes it trainable in random maps for any civilization, and is tagged as foot archer.
With update 13.58326, Iron Troops have a ×2.5 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and ranged shock infantry, ×0.6 vs. cavalry and ×0.5 vs. shock infantry.
With update 14.43676, Iron Troops have a ×0.6 ranged multiplier against shock infantry.
The Iron Troops have the highest resistance among non-cheat units in the game, with a spectacular 60% ranged resistance. This makes them alarmingly dangerous against all non-artillery ranged units.
Ironically, despite their heavy armor, they are highly vulnerable to hand attacks, especially from heavy cavalry.
They have a very interesting combination of weapons. In ranged combat, they use a composite bow, whereas in melee, they fight using a Pudao (樸刀), a Chinese bladed polearm.
Despite being based on a unit that formed part of the forces of the pirate Koxinga (often remembered as a Ming Loyalist), based in South China, they speak Mandarin rather than Hokkien or Wu Chinese.
This is a similar case with another unit, the Rattan Shield.
History[]
“
The Iron Troops were the brainchild of Koxinga, the Ming military leader and man responsible for ousting the Dutch from Formosa, now Taiwan, in 1662. Recalling memories of heavily armored Japanese soldiers from his youth, Koxinga brought the idea of iron-armored infantry units to his generals. They balked at the suggestion, claiming that with its weight of 50 pounds or more, iron armor was incredibly restricting. But one general, Gam Hui, had the brilliant idea of having their soldiers train specifically to carry such a weight and learn to fight while bearing it. He suggested that men train with sand bags attached to each foot, and those who wanted to be selected for the elite guard, known as iron man, would have to move a 400-pound stone around the training field three times in a single day. Only the toughest warriors would earn the right to fight as iron troops. With this training regimen in place, Koxinga began to build his army of iron troops, which reached a size of 10,000 men.
At first sight, the iron troops sowed confusion in their enemies. Other armies feared them and often hesitated to attack. The iron troops wore metal masks, armor, and often painted their faces to frighten and discombobulate the opposing soldiers. Members of the Chinese Qin army even wondered if the iron troops were gods, and if they should attack them at all. During Koxinga's battles for Formosa, the Dutch soldiers quickly developed a deep fear of the iron troops. Diaries of Dutch soldiers include sketches, as well as passages such as this one: "All of his troops, besides their arms and feet, were covered in iron scaled armor. Even though many of them died, the others wouldn't even look and charged on like crazy dogs."
”
Gallery[]
An in-game Iron Troop
The icon from the website
Iron Troops, showing their weapons, note the polearm used in melee
A treasure consisting of 2 Iron Troops guarded by Smugglers
The Iron Troop history portrait
Iron Troop concept art
In-game Iron Troop in the Definitive Edition
Iron Troop in Melee mode in the Definitive Edition
Liberation March
Fencing School
Outlaw Combat
Feudal Armies
Loyal Warriors
Western Reforms
Acupuncture
Hire Mandarin Mercenary Army
Koxinga
Atonement
Hire Ming Iron Troops
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints
Dutch States Army
TEAM Coffee Consumption
Ignatian Spirituality
Wanderlust
TEAM Senegalese Riflemen
Royal Fencing School
Improved Mercenaries
TEAM Scout Infantry
Sahelian Kingdoms
TEAM Inca Bridges
Dravidian Martial Arts
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
Zamindars
Infantry Hitpoints
Schiavoni Swords
Onin War
Bakufu
TEAM Knights of the Round Table
Squires
TEAM Mariachi
Colegio de San Nicolás
National Servant
Bastimento
Pok Ta Pok
Matrakci School
Ransack
Dueling School
Archaic Infantry Hitpoints
Archaic Infantry Combat
Peninsular Guerrillas
TEAM Spanish Inquisition
German Mercenary Contracts
Poker
Indiana Mobilization
Hamilton's Own
