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This article is about the Age of Empires IV unit. For the unit in Age of Empires II, see Man-at-Arms (Age of Empires II). |
| “ | Tough infantry with good damage. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Man-at-Arms is a heavy melee infantry unit in Age of Empires IV. They can be trained at the Barracks from Dark Age by English, from Feudal Age by Holy Roman Empire, and from Castle Age by the rest.
The English can also train Men-at-Arms from Keeps.
Civilizations[]
| Available | Unavailable |
|---|---|
Tactics[]
Unit counters[]
As heavy infantry, Men-at-Arms have generally high stats in all categories, and defeat most units one-on-one. Their primary role is 'anti-Feudal-unit', as they counter the standard counter triangle of Horsemen, Archers, and Spearmen. For this reason, they are commonly used in "Fast Castle" strategies, and for the civilizations that have access to early Men-at-Arms, they are a strong option in Feudal Age aggression as well. The primary drawback that keeps them from being overpowering in the Feudal Age is their high cost (hence lower numbers) and lack of speed. This, along with the lower attack and armor of Early Men-at-Arms, allows civilizations that don't have a direct counter in the Feudal Age (such as the Musofadi Warrior) to still defeat them with a combination of archers and a front-line melee unit, or other high-damage, expensive units such as Early Knights or Camel Archers. Ghazi Raiders perform better vs Men-at-Arms than most Horsemen, but will still lose in a direct fight.
Once in the Castle Age, Men-at-Arms are heavily countered by anti-heavy units such as the Crossbowman, or Onna-Musha. Other units such as heavy cavalry and Elephants will also win due to having more hit points and attack, but are not strict counters. The primary exception is Holy Roman Empire Men-at-Arms, which have an attack bonus vs heavy units after researching Heavy Maces, and will win vs all other units with this class. Due to their high armor and health, Men-at-Arms perform much better than Feudal Age units in fighting while under fire from defensive buildings, and they are much better at taking down unguarded Mangonels and siege than most other infantry. Overall, Men-at-Arms are a well-rounded unit that can hold their own against most other units, with the only drawback being a slow move speed, making them somewhat unsuitable for raiding and susceptible to ranged cavalry as well.
Tanking damage[]
Men-at-Arms are one of the best units to use for tanking damage (so other units can avoid taking damage), especially before the other great tanking units get their upgrades.
Regular Men-at-Arms have 1.29 hit points/unit resource cost, compared with Veteran Spearmen having 1.38 hit points/unit resource cost. However, Men-at-Arms have base 4 melee and 4 ranged armor, which makes them generally better until gold runs out. Men-at-Arms do not need unit upgrades for most civilisations, unlike Veteran Spearmen, and generally take less bonus damage, especially as Archers have no attack bonus versus them. Spearmen are 11.11% faster than Men-at-Arms, which means they have an easier time staying in the front. Spearmen have the Spearwall ability to cancel out more damage, to help in the tank role. Spearmen have the added utility of having a high attack bonus versus cavalry.
Some of the best tanking units in the late game are forward Villagers (as they have a pretty high hit points/unit resource rate even in the Imperial Age and virtually never bonus damage) and Siege Towers. Players generally will not use Villagers for tanking damage until they have their desired number of Villagers for their economy, though forward Villagers have great utility for other things (building walls, quick walling, building Outposts and Keeps, repairing buildings, repairing siege, building forward production buildings, torching down expensive siege weapons with flanking attacks, etc.). Siege Towers have extremely good tanking stats, having 2.26 times as many hit points/unit wood as a Battering Ram and having very high ranged armor. However, they are most of the time useless for anything else, meaning the opponent can easily micro to avoid attacking them in the early stages of the game. They also require Siege Engineering or the Castle Age and a Siege Workshop be unlocked for most civilisations.
Compared to forward Villagers and Siege Towers, Men-at-Arms require much less micro to be used effectively, especially as they can auto-attack like a normal military unit, bringing them to the front. They also are more durable than forward Villagers (though less than Siege Towers), which is important if the tanking units need to survive for a long time to ensure the units/buildings they are protecting stay protected. They are slower than forward Villagers with Wheelbarrow though, making it harder for them to reach the front.
So, overall, Men-at-Arms are a pretty good unit for the tank role. They are especially good before the other great units for the tank role are lacking in upgrades, such as in the early Castle Age or early Imperial Age.
Raiding[]
Men-at-Arms and their substitute units for specific civilisations are often used for raiding, due to their relatively high armor, especially their ranged armor. This is especially true for highly aggressive strategies, like the Order of the Dragon's Dark Age rush into Feudal Men-at-Arms rush strategy. In these strategies, the Men-at-Arms/units which replace them often don't attack defending troops very often, focusing on killing Villagers and destroying key economic buildings, such as Mining Camps gathering stone for civilisations which really need stone for their best build order.
Walls[]
Some of the biggest counters to Men-at-Arms are walls, especially Palisade Walls. This is because it is extremely easy to delay an army of Men-at-Arms by building Palisade Walls and then building Palisade Walls behind them (which is cheaper and faster than repairing them, leading to saving repair costs and Villager work time) for an extremely long time.
As Men-at-Arms are relatively expensive, this means the builder of the Palisade Walls can grow their economy with economic technologies and economic buildings, while the Men-at-Arms continue to be delayed by the Palisade Walls. Moreover, the builder of the Palisade walls can make Archers to slowly kill them by firing over the walls as they cannot fight back.
Men-at-Arms are particularly bad versus walls. Spearmen have a higher torch damage/unit resource cost, have a higher movement speed to get over to the walls to start attacking, and can be generally be made in the Dark Age to start attacking before the walls have likely being built. Archers can fire over walls, even if they would struggle immensely to destroy them. Cavalry's high movement speed means they can sometimes attack before the walls come up, and they can move past static defences easier, as they spend less time taking damage.
Men-at-Arms' slow movement speed also makes it relatively easy for the opponent to quick wall. This strategy can be used defensively and/or offensively against Men-at-Arms to block their attacks and/or trap them to be killed by the quick wall player's army.
Further statistics[]
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Archers, Horsemen, Spearmen |
| Weak vs. | Crossbowmen, Musofadi Warrior, Onna-Musha |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Hit points |  Elite Army Tactics (+20%); Improved: (+30%  Mongols)
|
| Attack |  Bloomery (+1) Decarbonization (+1) Damascus Steel (+1) Elite Army Tactics (+20%); Improved: (+30%, Mongols) Honed Blades (+3,  Delhi Sultanate) Two-Handed Weapons (+2,  Holy Roman Empire) Heavy Maces (+6 vs heavy units, Holy Roman Empire) Additional Torches (+3 fire, Mongols) Additional Torches Improved: (+5 fire, Mongols)
|
| Armor |  Fitted Leatherwork (+1 melee) Insulated Helm (+1 melee) Master Smiths (+1 melee) Iron Undermesh (+1 ranged) Wedge Rivets (+1 ranged) Angled Surfaces (+1 ranged) Armor Clad (+2 melee and +2 ranged,  English)
|
| Creation speed |  Military Academy (+33%); Improved : (+53%, Mongols) Fast Training (+25% from Military School,  Ottomans)
|
| Ability |  Siege Engineering (Can build Battering Rams and Siege Towers) Siege Engineering Improved: (can construct Springalds, Mangonels, and Traction Trebuchets, Mongols)  Forced March (Gains Forced March ability, Delhi Sultanate)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Attack speed | Delhi Sultanate (+20% with Tower of Victory)
|
| Movement speed | Holy Roman Empire (+10%)
|
| Creation speed | English (+50%, additional +75% from  The White Tower) Holy Roman Empire (+400% from Burgrave Palace)
|
| Ability | Delhi Sultanate (Can build Palisade Walls by default, and Stone defenses with Compound of the Defender)
|
| Other | English (Available at Keeps)
|
Unique landmark boosts[]
The Mongols, through the Khaganate Palace can obtain unique technologies and units from other civilizations. As such, their Men-at-Arms can potentially have access to the following boosts normally not available to them:
| Aura enhancements | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Saint's Blessing (+2, Mongols)
|
| Armor | Saint's Blessing (+1 melee/ranged, Mongols)
|
Dialogue lines[]
- Delhi Sultanate: /Delhi Sultanate dialogue lines
- English: /English dialogue lines
- French and Jeanne d'Arc: /French dialogue lines
- Holy Roman Empire: /Holy Roman Empire dialogue lines
- Mongols: /Mongols dialogue lines
- Ottomans: /Ottomans dialogue lines
- Rus: /Rus dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- Originally, the elite upgrade took 90 seconds. With update 8324, it takes 60 seconds.
- Originally, English Man-at-arms were trained in 22.5 seconds, the same as for all the other civilizations. With the Season One Update, this was reduced to 15 seconds.
- Originally, Vanguard Man-at-arms had two pierce and two melee armor. With the Season One Update, this was increased to three. With update 7.0.5861, the melee armor was reduced to two.
- With Season Two Update 17718, all melee units now attack siege engines with their melee attack, instead of their torch attack.
- Originally, upgrading Vanguard Man-at-arms to Early Man-at-arms took 30 seconds and cost 25 food, 75 gold. With patch 20249, it takes 15 seconds and costs 15 food, 35 gold.
- Originally, all infantry had a minimum charge attack trigger distance of 2 tiles, and a duration of 5 seconds. With update 24916, this was changed to a 1 tile minimum distance and a 7 second duration.
- With update 7.0.5861, English Man-at-Arms gain the Setup Camp ability. With patch 10.1.48, it was removed and moved to the Scout.
Campaign version[]
Because the original four campaigns have not been rebalanced since the release of the game, Men-at-Arms have the following differences in those campaigns:
- Their Elite upgrade costs 200 food, 600 gold and takes 90 seconds to research
- They cost 90 food, 30 gold and have 135 hit points
Gallery[]
