Pierce armor is an armor type used in the Age of Empires and Age of Empires II. Unlike ordinary armor which resists melee damage, pierce armor resists missile damage.
Contents
Age of Empires[edit | edit source]
Damage formula[edit | edit source]
In Age of Empires, the damage formula is:
- n denotes normal attack / armor
- p denotes pierce attack / armor
- If the target belongs to the category i and the attacker has a bonus AttackBonus against i, then the bonus (minus BonusResist if the target has one) is added to the total damage.
- kelev is the elevation multiplier (applied to both cliffs and hills), equal to 2/3 if a melee unit attacks below its target, 3/2 if a ranged unit attacks above its target or 1 otherwise.
Units dealing pierce damage[edit | edit source]
The following units and buildings deal pierce damage and are affected by their target's pierce armor:
- Slingers
- All Archery Range units
- Ballistae and Helepolises
- Scout Ship line
- Towers
Technologies[edit | edit source]
To improve pierce armor for all infantry based units, technologies from the Storage Pit must be researched.
Age of Empires II[edit | edit source]
Damage formula[edit | edit source]
In Age of Empires II, the damage formula is:
- n denotes normal attack / armor
- p denotes pierce attack / armor
- If the target belongs to the category i and the attacker has a bonus AttackBonus against i, then the bonus (minus BonusResist if the target has one) is added to the total damage.
- The elevation multiplier kelev is 5/4 if a unit attacks above its target (hills and cliffs), 3/4 if a unit attacks below its target (hills only) or 1 otherwise.
Units dealing pierce damage[edit | edit source]
The following units deal pierce damage and are affected by their target's pierce armor:
- All Archery Range units
- All unique archer units
Janissaries- Conquistadors
- Organ Guns
- Scorpions
- Trebuchets
- Galley line
- Fire Ships*
- Longboats
- Caravels
*Fire Ships and Fast Fire Ships also deal melee damage.
Also, all buildings deal pierce damage (The Bombard Tower only since patch 1.0b).
Units with high pierce armor[edit | edit source]
The following units have high pierce armor and excel at battle against units dealing pierce damage (values for fully upgraded units):
Infantry
The Huskarl, the horror of all archers
- Elite Huskarl - 10 (Goths only)
- Elite Eagle Warrior - 8 (10 for the Incas)
- Champion - 8 (for the Malians only, 5 for the other civilizations)
- Condottiero - 7 (for the Malians only, 5 for the Italians only, 4 for the other civilizations)
- Pikeman - 7 (for the Malians only, 4 for the other civilizations)
Archers
- Elite Rattan Archer - 10 (Vietnamese only)
- Imperial Skirmisher - 9 (Vietnamese and allies only; 11 for the Lithuanians)
- Elite Elephant Archer - 9 (Indians only)
- Elite War Wagon - 8 (Koreans only)
- Elite Genitour - 8 (Berbers and allies only; 9 for the Tatars)
- Genitour - 8 (Berbers and allies only; 9 for the Tatars)
- Elite Skirmisher - 8 (10 for the Lithuanians)
- Heavy Cavalry Archer - 7 (for the Tatars only, 6 for the other civilizations)
Cavalry
- Elite Tarkan - 8 (Huns only)
- Elite War Elephant - 7 (Persians only)
- Elite Boyar - 7 (Slavs only)
- Elite Battle Elephant - 7 (8 for the Burmese)
- Elite Ballista Elephant - 7 (Khmer only)
- Paladin - 7
- Hussar - 7 (for the Tatars only, 6 for the other civilizations)
- Imperial Camel Rider - 5 (Indians only)
- Heavy Camel Rider - 5 (for the Indians only, 4 for the other civilizations)
Siege units
The Siege Ram, the horror of all Castles
- Siege Ram - 195
- Trebuchet - 150 (unpacked; packed: 8)
- Siege Tower - 100
Ships
- Elite Caravel - 10 (Portuguese only)
- Fast Fire Ship - 9
- Elite Longboat - 9 (Vikings only)
- Galleon - 9 (10 for the Portuguese)
- Elite Cannon Galleon - 9 (10 for the Portuguese)
- Transport Ship - 9 (10 for the Portuguese)
- Fishing Ship - 7 (for the Japanese only, 6 for the Portuguese only, 5 for the other civilizations)
Other
Technologies[edit | edit source]
The first place to upgrade a military unit's pierce armor is the Blacksmith. Infantry, cavalry, and archers can get +4 pierce armor there.
- Infantry: Scale Mail Armor (+1), Chain Mail Armor (+1), Plate Mail Armor (+2)
- Cavalry: Scale Barding Armor (+1), Chain Barding Armor (+1), Plate Barding Armor (+2)
- Archers: Padded Archer Armor (+1), Leather Archer Armor (+1), Ring Archer Armor (+2)
Additionally, Cavalry Archers can be further improved at the Archery Range:
- Parthian Tactics: Improves pierce armor of Cavalry Archers (+2).
At the Dock, the pierce armor of all ships can be improved:
- Careening: Improves pierce armor of ships (+1).
At the Town Center, Villagers are improved:
- Loom: Improves pierce armor of Villagers (+2).
Also, a few unique technologies researched at the Castle improve the pierce armor of certain units:
- Carrack: Improves pierce armor of ships (+1).
- Couriers: Improves pierce armor of Eagle Warriors, Kamayuks, and Slingers (+2).
- Howdah: Improves pierce armor of Battle Elephants (