| “ | Vietnamese unique archer with high pierce armor. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Rattan Archer is the first unique unit of the Vietnamese in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas. It is a foot archer with very high pierce armor.
Rattan Archers can be upgraded to Elite Rattan Archers in the Imperial Age.
Tactics[]
The Rattan Archer has great pierce armor, which is comparable to the Huskarl's. They can reliably stave off enemy ranged units, despite lacking attack bonuses against them; even Elite Skirmishers and Genitours may struggle killing them (though they are still cost-effective). They can also resist Scorpion bolts and base defense arrows.
They also boast good attack for an archer, as well as decent speed; the second highest among foot archers, second only to the Plumed Archer. That allows them to pursue retreating archer units, as well as helping themselves retreat from massed Skirmishers and siege weapons. They can also take advantage of their speed to raid in search of Villagers, also helped by their armor, allowing them to survive tower and Town Center arrows.
However, they are vulnerable to any unit that can strike their weaknesses, particularly their lack of melee armor. Huskarls, fast infantry (especially Eagle Warriors and Ghulams), and of course, cavalry, can also tear them to shreds. They are also fairly costly in terms of wood for a foot archer unit, thus its cost may put a dent in construction of buildings, ships, and siege weapons. They are at their best when escorted by Battle Elephants and infantry units that can soak damage and strike against melee units, respectively.
It should be noted that unlike Crossbowmen during the Castle Age, Rattan Archers with Bodkin Arrow actually do 2 damage per shot against Mangonels, while their faster speed makes it much easier to dodge the latter's projectiles. As a tradeoff, they also have 1 less range than the Crossbowman. This means that with good micromanagement, Rattan Archers have a good chance of destroying the go-to hard counter against early massed archers. However, in the Imperial Age, multiple Onagers will still make short work of massed Rattan Archers and serve as an effective counter. Composite Bowmen ignore the Rattan Archer's pierce armor and are slightly cheaper in terms of wood, but the Armenians' lack of Thumb Ring leaves the fight in favor of the Rattan Archers due to their faster firing rate.
Despite the official description stating that Rattan Archers are weak to cavalry, they are actually stronger than the Archer line, with +1 attack and 14.6% faster movement speed. However, when considering total cost, Rattan Archers are worse off than the regular Archer line against cavalry. Their longer attack delay compared to the regular Archer line also makes it harder for them to hit-and-run against fast-moving melee units.
Comparison with similar units[]
 Rattan Archer line
|
 Archer line
| |
|---|---|---|
| Training cost | 50 wood, 45 gold | 25 wood, 45 gold |
| Training time | 16 seconds | 27 seconds |
| Attack bonus | +2 vs Spearman | +3 vs Spearman |
| Attack delay | 0.7 | 0.35 |
| Movement speed | 1.1 | 0.96 |
| Line of Sight | 6 | 7 |
 Castle Age
|
Rattan Archer
|
 Crossbowman
|
| Hit points | 40 | 42 |
| Attack | 6 | 5 |
| Range | 4 | 5 |
| Armor | 0/4 | 0/0 |
| Upgrade cost and time |
1,000 food, 750 gold 33.75 seconds |
450 food, 400 gold 37.5 seconds |
 Imperial Age
|
 Elite Rattan Archer
|
 Arbalester
|
| Hit points | 45 | 48 |
| Attack | 7 | 6 |
| Range | 5 | 5 |
| Armor | 0/6 | 0/0 |
Further statistics[]
As Rattan Archers are unique to the Vietnamese, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Archers, Cavalry Archers, infantry, Villagers |
| Weak vs. | Cavalry, Elite Skirmishers, Genitours, Huskarls, Ghulams, Eagle Warriors, siege weapons |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1)
|
 Range
|
Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1)
|
| Accuracy |  Thumb Ring (increases accuracy to 100%) Ballistics (hit moving targets)
|
| Armor |  Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1) Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1) Ring Archer Armor (+1/+2)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
|
 Attack speed
|
Thumb Ring (+18%)
|
| Creation speed |  Kasbah (+25%, with a Berber ally only)
|
Team bonuses[]
Britons: Researching Thumb Ring is 10% faster.- Bulgarians: Researching Blacksmith technologies is 80% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Devotion and Faith is 20% faster.
- Malians: Researching Chemistry and Ballistics is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Rattan Archers are researched 25% faster.
- Saracens: Rattan Archers have +3 attack against standard buildings.
- Teutons: Rattan Archers are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog[]
Rise of the Rajas[]
- Initially, Rattan Archers had an attack bonus against infantry of +1. With patch 5.3, the bonus was removed.
- Initially, (Elite) Rattan Archers had 35 (40) hit points. With patch 5.8, they have 40 (45) HP.
Gallery[]
