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The Jarl is an elite Heroic Age Norse cavalry unit in Age of Mythology.
Contents
Attack bonuses[]
- Myth units: ×4
- Animals of Set: ×3
God Bonuses and Upgrades[]
Specific[]
Thundering Hooves (Freyja) increases hit points and speed by 10%.- Ring Giver (Njord) increases hit points by 25%.
General[]
Odin enables Jarls to regenerate, at 0.8 hp/s when idle. Odin also increases hit points by 15%.
- Levy Hill Fort and Conscript Hill Fort decrease training time by 20%.
- Medium Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry and Champion Cavalry all increase LOS by 1 and attack by 10%, and increase hit points by 10%, 15% and 20% respectively.
Note: after the above technologies are researched, Jarls are not renamed 'Medium Jarl' etc like other units. Instead, they have the names Ulf Jarl, Great Jarl and Legendary Jarl.
- 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%.
Strategy[]
Jarls are one of the most well-rounded cavalry units in the game. They are well armored, have very high hit points and do a lot of damage in melee combat. Due to their mobility and high pierce armor, they are strong against archers and siege weapons (Although not as good as the Raiding Cavalry) Furthermore, their high hit points and reasonable hack armor enables them to outclass other regular cavalry.
However, what really sets Jarls out from other cavalry is their large attack bonus against myth units. A group of four Jarls can defeat all the regular myth units. As Jarls are far more versatile than Hersirs, who are only average against human units, with a primary focus on myth units, they can be used more effectively in a wider variety of situations.
On the other hand, Jarls are somewhat vulnerable to infantry and quite slow for a cavalry unit. Also, while they do bonus damage to myth units, Jarls are human units, not heroes. This means that myth units do not have an attack penalty against them but have their usual bonuses. More importantly, Jarls are not immune to myth units' special attacks, which can be devastating. Caution is particularly advised when fighting myth units with instant kill abilities, such as the Cyclops and the Medusa.
Changelog[]
Age of Mythology[]
- Originally, Odin's Jarls had +20% hit points. With patch 1.06, this was changed to +10%.
- Originally, Thundering Hooves gave Jarls +20% hit points. With patch 1.06, this was changed to +10%.
Tale of the Dragon[]
- With patch 2.7, Odin's Jarls have +15% hit points.
History[]
| “ | The high-ranking men who owned substantial land were called Jarls, a word possibly related to the Anglo-Saxon word that became Earl. Because of their wealth and elite status, they possessed the best equipment. They had owed allegiance to their superiors and were expected to fight on their behalf. For this reason and their own interest in martial affairs, they were elite warriors, often trained from childhood. | ” |
| —In-game help section | ||
Trivia[]
- Jarl is the cognate of English word earl, both from Proto-Germanic *erlaz; the Anglo-Saxon ancestors of modern English people are related in culture, religion, military, and linguistics to the Norse, Goths, and Teutons.
- Originally the Jarl was called simply the Heavy Cavalry, it was originally the Norse equivalent to the Hippikon of the Greeks and the Knight from Age of Empires II, functioning as a slow, good all-round, heavy cavalry unit. Much like the Hirdman and the Norse Archer unit, it could be upgraded into a more powerful version of itself with a bonus vs. myth units and boosted statistics.
Gallery[]
