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.
Age of Empires
Damage Formula
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
The following units and buildings deal pierce damage and are affected by their target's pierce armor:
- Slingers
- All Archery Range units
- Ballistas and Helepolis
- Scout Ship line
- Towers
Technologies
To improve pierce armor for all infantry based units, technologies from the Storage Pit must be researched.
Age of Empires II
Damage Formula
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
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
Also, all buildings deal pierce damage. (The Bombard Tower only since patch 1.0c.)
Units with high Pierce Armor
The following units have high pierce armor and excel at battle against units dealing pierce damage (values for fully upgraded units):
- Siege Ram (195)
- Trebuchet (packed: 8, unpacked: 150)
- Siege Tower (100)
- Elite Huskarl (10)
- Elite Elephant Archer (10)
- Fast Fire Ship (10)
- Elite Caravel (10)
- Elite Longboat (9)
- Galleon (9)
- Elite Cannon Galleon (9)
- Transport Ship (9)
- Siege Onager (8)
- Elite Eagle Warrior (8)
- Elite War Wagon (8)
- Elite Skirmisher (8)
- Elite Genitour (8)
- Heavy Scorpion (7)
- Elite Tarkan (7)
- Elite War Elephant (7)
- Paladin (7)
- Elite Turtle Ship (7)
- Trade Cog (7)
Technologies
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 improve the pierce armor of certain units:
- Pavise: Improves pierce armor of archers (+1 (only for Genoese Crossbowmen in The Forgotten)).
- Carrack: Improves pierce armor of ships (+1).
- Orthodoxy: Improves pierce armor of Monks (+3).
- Couriers: Improves pierce armor of Eagle Warriors, Kamayuks, and Slingers (+2, only in The African Kingdoms).
Age of Empires III
In Age of Empires III, pierce armor has been replaced by the resist parameter.
- Main article: Resists