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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome. For other uses, see Legionary. |
| “ | Roman unique infantry unit. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Legionary is a unique infantry unit of the Romans in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome. It is a unique upgrade that replaces the Two-Handed Swordsman and Champion in the Imperial Age.
The Imperial Legionary was named Legionary prior to Return of Rome, and was an untrainable infantry unit featured in some campaign scenarios of Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten, and in the Battle Royale game mode.
Overview and tactics[]
The Legionary can be thought of as skipping the Two-Handed Swordsman, and directly going to Champion level strengths for a mere 50 food, 50 gold cost and 15 seconds time over the Champion upgrade. Since the Romans already have double effect from their blacksmith armor technologies, the lack of Two Handed Swordsmen or Plate Mail Armor (but not both) in early Imperial Age does not bother them much.
When both are fully upgraded, the Legionaries have +2 melee armor (for a total of 6, like the Teutons), +5 hit points, and +4 attack vs infantry, but -1 attack over the Champion. The Legionary is strong by itself, but becomes even better when complemented with the Centurion and Heavy Scorpion, with the former boosting its speed and rate of fire, and the latter helping against archers and infantry. However, the typical infantry shortcomings do exist as they are still slow and are modest in terms of health, making them vulnerable to archers, heavy cavalry, and splash-damage siege weaponry.
The Legionary has attack bonuses against buildings, infantry, and Eagle-line, making it respectable at taking down buildings and infantry. The extra attack against infantry makes them exceptionally good at enganging several infantry unique units, such as the Berserk, Kamayuk, and Woad Raider, as well as not being countered by the Samurai due to being an upgrade from a common unit. However, Jaguar Warriors and Teutonic Knights have stronger stats that Legionaries can't overcome in combat. Even strong Champions from prominent infantry civilizations such as Armenians (with Fereters), Dravidians (with Wootz Steel), Japanese, and Slavs (with Druzhina) are tough to fight against, especially as all said civilizations have access to Supplies, which allows them to be fielded in larger numbers than Legionaries. However, by having a nearby Centurion to boost their attack speed, the Legionary can stand up against those.
Legionaries excel in two particular situations: early Imperial Age when their counters are not as prominent and late Imperial Age when gold is scarce. Legionaries can be called 'trash busters' since they can easily defeat all the trash units (Halberdiers, Elite Skirmishers, and Hussars). The unique trash units, the Genitour and the Magyar Huszar, may give them a harder time.
The Roman unique technology Comitatenses increases their production speed by 50% and gives them a charge attack of +5 over 20 seconds. The former helps in mass producing them, while the latter has an effect of +0.5 attack in sustained combat, which the Legionaries are supposed to engage in.
Comparison with similar units[]
 Elite Jaguar Warrior
|
 Legionary
|
Generic  Champion
| |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upgrade cost and time |
1,000 food, 500 gold, 45 seconds | 800 food, 400 gold, 100 seconds | 300 food, 100 gold, 60 seconds 750 food, 350 gold, 85 seconds |
| Cost | 60 food, 30 gold | 60 food, 20 gold | 45 food, 20 gold |
| Training time | 10.8 seconds | 14 seconds | 21 seconds |
| Hit points | 75 | 75 | 70 |
| Attack | 12+4+4 | 12+4 | 13+4 |
| Attack bonus | +2 vs Eagle Warrior +2 vs Standard Building +11 vs Infantry |
+8 vs Eagle Warrior +4 vs Standard Building +4 vs Infantry |
+8 vs Eagle Warrior +4 vs Standard Building |
| Armor | 2+3/2+4 (5/6) |
2+4/2+4 (6/6) |
1+3/1+5 (4/6) |
| Speed | 1.1 | 0.99 to 1.14 | 0.99 |
| Other | Armor class: Unique unit | +5 charge attack over 20 seconds |
N/A |
Boost from Centurions[]
| Without boost | Boost from non-Elite | Boost from Elite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 0.99 | 1.09 | 1.14 |
| Reload time | 2 | 1.667 | 1.667 |
Further statistics[]
As Legionaries are unique to the Romans, only technologies available to them are listed in the table.
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Elite Skirmishers, Genitours, Halberdiers, Heavy Camel Riders, Eagle Warriors, buildings, Huskarls, Samurai |
| Weak vs. | Archer units, Heavy Scorpions, Onagers, Cataphracts, Jaguar Warriors, Paladins, Boyars, War Elephants, Elite Battle Elephants, Teutonic Knights |
| Conditional matchups | Hussars |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Forging (+1) Iron Casting (+1) Blast Furnace (+2) Arson (+2 against standard buildings) Comitatenses (+5 charge attack over 20 seconds)
|
| Armor |  Scale Mail Armor (+2/+2) Chain Mail Armor (+2/+2)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
|
| Movement speed |  Squires (+10%)
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription (+33%) Comitatenses (+50%)
|
| Aura enhancements | |
|---|---|
| Attack speed |  (Elite) Centurion (+20%)
|
| Movement speed | Centurion (+10%) Elite Centurion (+15%)
|
| Team bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Conversion resistance |  Teutons (+3 min, +1 max)
|
| Line of Sight |  Armenians (+2)
|
| Creation speed |  Goths (+20%)
|
Team bonuses[]
Bulgarians: Researching Blacksmith technologies is 80% faster.- Goths: Researching Squires and Arson is 20% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Devotion and Faith is 20% faster.
- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Legionaries are researched 25% faster.
Changelog[]
Return of Rome[]
- Upon release, the Legionary did not have an attack bonus against Condottieri. With hotfix 85208, it receives +4 attack against Condottieri to match the attack against the infantry armor class.
Trivia[]
- The appearance of Legionaries is based on Late Roman weapons and armor, wearing a ridge helmet based on the Berkasovo II find, a shield based on corniacenses unit style and the longer spatha sword traditional of the later period.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
