Papal Guard

This article is about the unit. For the politician, see The Papal Guard.

Papal Guard
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Knights of the Mediterranean
Type	Infantry Heavy infantry Hand infantry Pikeman Archaic infantry* Basilica unit
Civilization(s)	Italians
Age	Commerce Age
Training
Trained at	Basilica
Cost	120 XP 1 Population
Train time	60 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	220
Resistance	20% Ranged
Speed	4.25
Line of Sight	16
Special ability	See Special abilities
Train XP	12
Kill XP	12
Siege attack
Damage	17 Siege
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0
Hand attack
Damage	13 Hand
Rate of Fire	1.5
Bonus damage	3.5x vs. Cavalry 2.5x vs. Shock infantry

“	Papal hand infantry that protects nearby allies by absorbing some of the inflicted damage. Can hook enemies with his halberd to slow them down.	”
—In-game description

The Papal Guard is an infantry unit in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Knights of the Mediterranean that is unique to the Italians. It is an early Halberdier who is capable of protecting nearby allied units.

Overview

The Papal Guard is a melee heavy infantry unit which performs the role of an early Halberdier. It is effective against cavalry and shock infantry, but vulnerable against light infantry and artillery.

Papal Guards have less damage and Line of Sight than Halberdiers, but they are shipped in batches of seven from the Basilica for 300 food, 300 wood, 300 coin, which take 60 seconds to arrive. However, Papal Guards are queued as shipments, so any other Home City Cards that the player has sent before will arrive first, but in exchange, these batches do not require the player to have available shipments to train them.

Although not as effective as the Halberdier, the Papal Guard has the Deflection passive ability, which allows it to absorb some of the damage inflicted to nearby player or ally units in a radius of 12, making it an effective support infantry unit. However, it is recommended to combine Papal Guards with Hussars to defeat long-ranged infantry units (like Skirmishers) or artillery units, which can counter heavy and light infantry. Also, they have ranged resistance which helps withstand ranged attacks.

Special abilities

• Deflection: Absorb 25% of the damage inflicted to nearby allies (except artillery) within 12 range.
• Halberd Attack (automatically activated when attacking with a cooldown of 60 seconds): The Papal Guard attacks the enemy with his halberd, which deals 13 hand damage (×3.5 against cavalry, ×2.5 against shock infantry), has a range of 5, area damage of 1, and snares the enemy.
• Pistol Attack (requires the Papal Arsenal shipment): The Papal Guard fires a pistol which deals 26 ranged damage (×3.5 against cavalry, ×2.5 against shock infantry) and has a maximum range of 12.
• Health Regeneration: Regenerates hitpoints when idle (0.25% per second after 3.5 seconds idle).

Upgrades

The Papal Guard is automatically upgraded in the Fortress Age, Industrial Age and Imperial Age, but its name is not changed to reflect this.

• +20% hit points and damage
• +30% hit points and damage
• +50% hit points and damage

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Cavalry, shock infantry
Weak vs.	Light infantry, counter-skirmishers, artillery
Improvements
Hit points	Maya Cotton Armor (+20%) Infantry Breastplate (+10%) Cree Tanning (+10%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%)
Attack	Zapotec Cult of the Dead (+20%) Carib Kasiri Beer (+10%) Master Lessons (+10%) Yoga (+5%) Mapuche Tactics (+50% siege attack)
Resistance	Somali Oryx Hide Shields (+5% ranged resistance)
Speed	Military Drummers (+10%) Quechuan Mountaineering (+10%) Akan Fontomfrom (+5%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+3)
Other	Jagiellonian Legacy (delivers 8 Papal Guards if The Papal Guard was chosen for the Italians)

Home City Cards

As Papal Guards are unique to the Italians, 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 Papal Guard

Some cards are highlighted with:
Green	TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
Blue	Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds)

Chinese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Yongle Infrastructure	Delivers 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villager, healing unit, Envoy, and Disciple speed +5%

• "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" does not stack with the Inca "TEAM Inca Bridges" card.

Dutch

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints	Infantry hit points +10%; Dutch-only infantry hit points +15% instead

Haudenosaunee

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Scout Infantry	Delivers 1 Native Scout; infantry Line of Sight +8

Inca

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Inca Bridges	Delivers 1 Chasqui; infantry, land villager, healing unit, and Envoy speed +5%

• "TEAM Inca Bridges" does not stack with the Chinese "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" card.

Indians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	Unit hit points and damage +5%

Italians

Card	Description	Age
Infantry Hitpoints	Infantry hit points +15%
Schiavoni Swords	Infantry, cavalry, and shock infantry all melee attack damage +15%
Papal Arsenal	Basilica shipment arrive time -33%; grants Papal Bombards "Holy Fire", Papal Guards "Pistol Attack", Papal Lancers "Lance Charge", and Papal Zouaves "Carbine Attack" charged attacks
Papal Company	Delivers 18 Papal Guards and 3 Papal Bombards; costs 1,000 food, 1,000 wood, 1,000 coin
Mercenary Loyalty	Mercenary and native warrior shipment cost -25%, infinite shipment cost -10% instead, the "Hire Indian Jat Lancer" shipment cost -50% instead, the "Hire Ronin Army" shipment cost -33% instead

Maltese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Knights of the Round Table	Delivers 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center and Command Post present on the map; unit hit points +2%

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Mariachi	For the next 30 seconds, military building training and research work rate +400%, unit speed +10%

Spanish

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Hand Infantry Attack	Hand infantry damage +15%
TEAM Spanish Inquisition	Delivers 1 Inquisitor; military and economic unit Line of Sight +10

Swedes

Card	Description	Age
TEAM House of Bernadotte	Heavy infantry hit points +15%

Changelog

Knights of the Mediterranean

• Originally, Papal Guards had a ×3.0 multiplier against cavalry. With update 13.10442, Papal Guards have a ×3.5 multiplier against cavalry.
• With a later update, Papal Guards are tagged as archaic infantry.
• Originally, Papal Guards had 200 hit points. With patch 15.59076, they have 220, and their Halberd Attack ability deals 1 area damage.

In-game dialogue

The Papal Guard speaks Zürich German using the Swiss Pikeman's dialogue files.

Trivia

• Although the real-life Papal Swiss Guard works as a mercenary army, the in-game unit is not tagged as such.
• The Papal Guard could be inspired by the Napoleonic Era mod Swiss Guard unit, one of the unique units for the Swiss civilization. One of the developers of the mod worked on Knights of the Mediterranean.

History

“

During the late medieval period, the Swiss Confederacy rose to international fame due to its adept use of polearm tactics on difficult terrain to crush invading enemy armies such as those of the Duchy of Burgundy. This reputation caused neighboring regions to enlist them as mercenaries – one such being the Papacy, which hired its first regiment in 1506. After the conclusion of the Italian War of 1551-1559, the Swiss Papal Guard was relegated from field service to become a personal bodyguard of the Pope in Rome – a decision borne partially out of the desire to preserve these valuable troops, and also owing to their outstanding record in military service. Five centuries later, the Swiss Papal Guard remains the bodyguard of the Pope.

”

Gallery

Papal Guard image from the Compendium section

In-game Papal Guard