“ | 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 shock 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
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 shock 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. They are fast, cheap, lack any negative multipliers and are resistant to ranged attacks from defensive buildings, making them solid raiding units against Settlers and Villagers.
Upgrades
Age | Upgrade | 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
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
Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Rattan Shield | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Changelog
The Asian Dynasties
- Rattan Shields have 15 melee attack and a 15 build limit per Shaolin Trading Post.
Definitive Edition
- Rattan Shields have 16 melee attack and a 16 build limit per Shaolin Trading Post.
In-game dialogue
- Main article: Chinese (Age of Empires III)#In-game dialogue
Words before the slash sign are rendered in simplified Chinese. Words after the slash sign are rendered in traditional Chinese.
- 准备就绪 / 準備就緒 [Zhǔnbèi jiùxù.] ("Ready")
- 怎么了 / 怎麼了 [Zénmele?] ("What [is happening]?")
- 请下命令 / 請下命令 [Qǐng xià mìnglìng.] ("Please command")
- 是的 [Shì de.] ("Yes")
- 遵命 [Zūnmìng.] ("Affirmative")
- 好的 [Hǎo de.] ("OK")
- 出发 / 出發 [Chūfā.] ("Embarking")
- 攻击! / 攻擊! [Gōngjí!] ("Attack!")
- 开战 / 開戰 [Kāizhàn!] ("To battle!")
Trivia
- 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 four ranged counters, Caroleans, Nizam Fusiliers, Fusiliers and Revolutionaries; all other counters to Rattan Shields must be in melee to do bonus damage.
History
“ | 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. | ” |