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"Fast Chinese warrior armed with a shield and a sword. Heavily armored and good against archers, skirmishers, and artillery."—In-game description
The Rattan Shield is a melee light infantry native warrior in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that can be trained at a Trading Post built on a Shaolin Temple settlement. It is armed with a sword and a shield, and lacks any multipliers making it more of a fodder unit rather than an essential part of an army.
Overview 
Edit
Rattan Shields are cheap and can get rid of long-range/ranged infantry and artillery with ease. They are very vulnerable to heavy infantry, basically working like a weaker light infantry version of the Hussar. They do not, however, take bonus damage from ranged cavalry, so can be used effectively against Skirmishers or archers guarded by Dragoons.
When playing as the Japanese (Level 40 Home City required) these units perform well when mixed with Spanish Rodeleros from the Consulate, which are nearly as fast despite being heavy infantry. This is also due to the fact the Shaolin unit upgrades effect the Rodeleros. Combine the two units speed with the Golden Pavilion hit point and speed aura bonuses and they can respond quickly to threats and hold off the enemy if not kill them due to their durability.
Upgrades Edit
| Age | Improvement | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  Shaolin Discipline Training
| 200 wood, 150 coin | Upgrades Rattan Shields to Disciplined (+25% hit points and attack) |
 |  Shaolin Honor Training
| 400 wood, 300 coin | Upgrades Rattan Shields to Honored (+40% hit points and attack); requires Shaolin Discipline Training |
 |   Legendary Native Warriors/Exalted Natives
| 1,500 food, 1,500 wood | Upgrades native warriors to Legendary/Exalted (+50% hit points and attack) |
- The Legendary Native Warriors improvement is available in the Capitol for European civilizations and in the Town Center for Native American and Asian (as Exalted Natives) civilizations.
Further statistics Edit
As the Rattan Shield is only available on the Mongolia, Silk Road, and Yellow River maps, only native improvements from native tribes on those maps (including the Shaolin Temple themselves) are listed here.
Since the Chinese can ship a limited number of Rattan Shields, native improvements that are unavailable on the above condition but affects them (excluding improvements that modifies cost and train time) are included as well.
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Ranged infantry, artillery |
| Weak vs. | Heavy infantry, light cavalry |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Infantry Breastplate (+10%) Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Maya Cotton Armor (+20%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
|
| Attack |  Carib Kasiri Beer (+10%) Mapuche Tactics (+50% siege attack) Zapotec Cult of the Dead (+20%) Yoga (+5%) Dim Mak (+50%) Master Lessons (+10%)
|
| Speed |  Apache Endurance (+5%)
|
| Sight |  Town Watch (+2)
|
| Other |  Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)
|
| Penalties |  Thin Red Line (-25% speed, British only) Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only) Tilly's Discipline (+10% cost, Germans only)
|
Home City Cards Edit
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Rattan Shield | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All
|
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Native Treaties
| Each different allied native tribe sends a shipment of their respective native warriors |  | 1 |
 Native Warriors
| Native warriors cost -25% |  | 10 |
 Native Warrior Combat
| Native warriors get +25% hit points and attack | | 25 |
 TEAM Native Warrior Societies
| Native warrior train limit +30% | | 25 |
 Blood Brothers
| Upgrades native warriors to Elite/Disciplined and Champion/Honored (if not already) |  | 25 |
- The Native Treaties and Native Warriors cards are available to European and Native American civilizations.
- The Native Treaties card ships 4 Rattan Shields if the player had built a Trading Post on a Shaolin Temple settlement.
- The Native Warrior Combat card is available to French and Iroquois.
- The Blood Brothers card is available to Aztecs, French, Germans, Iroquois, Portuguese, Russians, Sioux, and Spanish.
- The TEAM Native Warrior Societies card is available to Aztecs, Dutch, Iroquois, and Sioux.
Asians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Native Alliance
| Native warrior train limit +20% and cost -10% (also +1 Villager for the Indians) | | 1 |
 Native Warrior Hitpoints
| Native warriors get +30% hit points and +10% speed (also +1 Villager for the Indians) | | 10 |
 Native Warrior Attack
| Native warriors get +30% attack and train time -25% | | 10 |
- The Native Alliance card is not available to the Chinese.
- The Native Warrior Hitpoints card is not available to the Japanese.
- The Native Warrior Attack card is not available to the Indians.
Chinese Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Western Reforms
| All units get +8% hit points and attack | | 40 |
 Acupuncture
| Unit train time -20% | | 10 |
 Hire 10 Rattan Shields
| Ships 10 Rattan Shields; costs 500 coin | | 10 |
 Hire 26 Rattan Shields
| Ships 26 Rattan Shields and upgrades them to Disciplined (if not already); costs 1,000 coin | | 25 |
 Hire 30 Rattan Shields
| Ships 30 Rattan Shields and upgrades them to Disciplined (if not already); costs 2,000 coin | | 40 |
French Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Wilderness Warfare
| Coureurs des Bois, Skirmishers, and native warriors get +20% hit points | | 25 |
 TEAM Improved Native Warriors
| Native warriors get +15% hit points and attack | | 1 |
Germans Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cavalry Attack
| Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and light infantry gets +15% attack | | 10 |
Indians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Dravidian Martial Arts
| All units get +15% melee attack +1 Villager | | 40 |
 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
| All units get +5% hit points and attack | | 25 |
Japanese Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades
| Unit upgrades cost -20% | | 1 |
Russians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cavalry Scouts
| Cavalry and light infantry gets +10% hit points and +4 LOS |  | 1 |
Sioux Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Black Arrow
| Native warrior train time -85% | | 10 |
Spanish Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Hand Infantry Attack
| Melee infantry gets +15% attack | | 10 |
 TEAM Inquisition
| All units get +10 LOS | | 10 |
In-game dialogue Edit
- Main article: Chinese (Age of Empires III)#In-game dialogue
- 準備就緒 [Zhǔnbèi jiùxù.] ("Ready")
- 怎麼了 [Zénmele?] ("What [is happening]?")
- 請下命令 [Qǐng xià mìnglìng.] ("Please command")
- 是的 [Shì de.] ("Yes")
- 遵命 [Zūnmìng.] ("Affirmative")
- 好的 [Hǎo de.] ("OK")
- 出發 [Chūfā.] ("Embarking")
- 攻擊! [Gōngjí!] ("Attack!")
- 開戰 [Kāizhàn!] ("To battle!")
Trivia Edit
- While the history section hints that the Rattan Shield is a unit that is meant to represent south Chinese Ming loyalist troops, they instead represent Shaolin monks.
- Also, as with Iron Troopers, they speak Mandarin rather than Hokkien or Wu Chinese.
- Rattan Shields have only two ranged counters, Fusiliers and Colonial Militia; all other counters to Rattan Shields must be in melee to do bonus damage.
History Edit
"The practice of rattan shield fighting is an art form consisting of six distinct fighting methods that is still practiced in parts of Taiwan. During the Chinese battles of Formosa in the seventeenth century, Ming military leader Koxinga expected every member of his army, from the generals to the foot soldiers, to be versed in the methods of the rattan shield.
Rattan shields were widely used for a variety of reasons. Palms blanketed the regions of Taiwan and Hokkien, China, making rattan readily available. The shields were extremely light but uncommonly strong, able to block incoming projectiles, including bullets. They were even so buoyant as to be used by soldiers as flotation devices when crossing shallow bodies of water."
Gallery Edit
A group of Rattan Shields, close to the Yellow River
Player 2 Rattan Shields
Rattan Shield concept art
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