Ring Archer Armor is a technology in Age of Empires II that can be researched at the Blacksmith once the Imperial Age is reached. Once researched, it increases the armor and pierce armor of all archers by +1/+2.
The Italians have access to Ring Archer Armor and the Castle Age unique technology Pavise, which gives foot archers +1/+1 armor, thus giving them the Arbalesters with the highest armor. The Lithuanians have the Elite Skirmishers with the highest pierce armor thanks to the Imperial Age unique technology Tower Shields, which grants +2 pierce armor to Skirmishers (with a Vietnamese ally, their Imperial Skirmishers get 11 pierce armor). The Tatar Heavy Cavalry Archer has the highest armor of all thanks to the Castle Age unique technology Silk Armor, which gives +1/+1 to Cavalry Archers (With a Berber ally, the Tatar Genitour also gets the highest armor). The Hindustanis have a civilization bonus that gives +1/+1 armor to gunpowder units, so their Hand Cannoneers have the highest armor of all. Despite lacking Ring Archer Armor and Parthian Tactics, Gurjara Elite Elephant Archers have the highest melee armor of all, thanks to the Imperial Age unique technology Frontier Guards, which grants +4 melee armor to Elephant Archers.
Availability chart[]
Available | Unavailable |
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Civilization bonuses[]
- Chinese: Ring Archer Armor is 15% cheaper.
- Koreans: Ring Archer Armor is free.
- Spanish: Ring Archer Armor costs no gold. Receive 20 gold after researching Ring Archer Armor.
Team bonuses[]
- Bulgarians: Researching Ring Archer Armor is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Researching Ring Archer Armor is 25% faster.
Changelog[]
The Forgotten[]
- Indians: Cannot research Ring Archer Armor.
The African Kingdoms[]
- Berbers: On release, cannot research Ring Archer Armor. With patch 4.8, it has been added to their technology tree.
- Indians: Ring Archer Armor added to their technology tree.
Definitive Edition[]
- Koreans: With update 42848, Ring Archer Armor is free.
- Portuguese: With update 42848, Ring Archer Armor is researched 30% faster.
The Mountain Royals[]
- Celts: On release, cannot research Ring Archer Armor. With update 95810, it has been added to their technology tree.
Trivia[]
- The ring armor depicted in the technology icon (metal rings sown into a suit made out of cloth or leather) is not certain to have even existed within the game's time frame. There are no known surviving examples and historical depictions of the suit (such as the one in Bayeux tapestry) are likely to be portrayals of similar-looking mail armor.
- Archers were almost always of a lower social standing than knights and therefore could not afford such protection.
- The brigandine seems like the most historically accurate contender for what ring armor is meant to resemble, albeit on the outside there are metal studs connecting the plates to the leather layer, instead of rings. Brigandine armor was fairly cheap and popular amongst the archers.
- Several civilizations lacking Ring Archer Armor have either unique technologies or civilization bonuses that strongly improve some of their archer units:
- The Aztec unique technology Atlatl gives their Skirmishers +1 attack and range; as a result, they have the Skirmishers with the highest attack and the longest range (the latter tied with the Briton ones with Yeomen).
- The Burgundians have a civilization bonus giving their gunpowder units +25% attack; as a result, they have the Hand Cannoneers with the highest attack.
- The Burmese unique unit is the Arambai, a cavalry archer with high attack and strong against units in dense formation due to its low accuracy.
- The Huns have a civilization bonus making their Cavalry Archers 10%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age; as a result, they have the cheapest Cavalry Archers.
- The Mongols have a civilization bonus making their Cavalry Archers fire 25% faster; as a result, their Cavalry Archers have the highest damage per second. Also, the Mongol unique unit is the Mangudai, a stronger cavalry archer with an anti-siege bonus.
- Neither of the two civilizations introduced in Lords of the West have access to Ring Archer Armor.
History[]
ā | As the Middle Ages progressed, light troops were more aggressively employed in battle. They supported pikemen phalanxes and were put into combined formations with these units. Crossbowmen needed to get close to the enemy to shoot. During assaults on fortifications and castles, they were exposed to enemy fire. In conjunction with their more aggressive roles, the armor that light troops wore was upgraded to ring, or chain mail. This was the lightest and most flexible of the metal armors and minimized interference with fighting, while providing better protection than padded leather. | ā |