| “ | Cheaper heavy cavalry with reduced health and armor. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Sofa is a heavy melee cavalry unit in Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition available to the Malians that can be trained at the Stable starting in the Feudal Age. Theoretically, it replaces the Lancer, but compared to standard heavy cavalry, it looks weaker.
Ability[]
Farima Leadership (passive, requires Farima Leadership): Infantry units within a 5-tile radius gain +15% movement speed
Tactics[]
The Malians get access to the Sofa in the Feudal Age, an Age earlier than most other civilizations get access to their heavy cavalry. Compared to other heavy cavalry, Sofa have higher movement speed, shorter training time, and cost less to produce. In turn, they have fewer hit points, attack damage, base armor, Rate of Fire, and no charge attack. However, most of their stats are still better than those of a Horseman. Hence, the Sofa is often (unofficially) classified as a "medium cavalry".
The Sofa has a small attack bonus against units classified as infantry, against which they deal the same attack as Lancers do, albeit with a slower Rate of Fire. While the bonus damage also helps against the Sofa's two important counters - the Spearman and Crossbowman - it does not flip the counter system, but simply makes them less helpless.
As the Sofa is the Malians' only unit with both melee and ranged armor, it often serves as a front line unit, where it takes the place of the Man-at-Arms, which is inaccessible to the Malians. Furthermore, its speed, damage, and cost make it an excellent unit for raiding. It should be noted that Villagers are not classified as infantry.
Starting from the Castle Age, the Malians have access to the unique technology Imported Armor, which grants +2 armor of each type to the Sofa. The Sofa goes from having 1 less armor than a Lancer to having 1 more armor, having up to 9 armor in total.
Starting from the Imperial Age, the Malians have access to the unique technology Farima Leadership. Once researched, infantry near a Sofa move 15% faster. Since Malian units are already generally faster than other civilizations, this gives them a very swift military that can outpace any that is not exclusively cavalry-based. Since units moving in a formation move with the movement speed of its slowest member, the buff works most reliably with small armies and the line formation. This also means that the buff goes to waste if the formation includes siege units, Monks, or Villagers.
Unit comparison[]
 Horseman
|
 Sofa
|
 Knight
| |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | 100 food, 20 wood | 120 food, 60 gold | 140 food, 100 gold |
| Training Time | 22.5 s | 26 s | 35 s |
| Attack | 9 (Regular) 11 (Veteran) 13 (Elite) |
17 (Regular) 20 (Veteran) 25 (Elite) |
19 (Early) 24 (Regular) 29 (Elite) |
| Hit points | 125 (Regular) 155 (Veteran) 180 (Elite) |
160 (Regular) 195 (Veteran) 230 (Elite) |
190 (Early) 230 (Regular) 270 (Elite) |
| Melee armor | 0 | 2 (Regular) 3 (Veteran) 4 (Elite) |
3 (Early) 4 (Regular) 5 (Elite) |
| Ranged armor | 2 (Regular) 3 (Veteran) 5 (Elite) |
2 (Regular) 3 (Veteran) 4 (Elite) |
3 (Early) 4 (Regular) 5 (Elite) |
| Other attack properties | Attack bonus vs ranged: +9 (Regular) +11 (Veteran) +13 (Elite) Attack bonus vs siege: +10 |
Attack bonus vs infantry: +2 (Regular) +3 (Veteran) +4 (Elite) |
Charge attack: +10 (Early) +12 (Regular) +14 (Elite) |
| Rate of Fire | 1.75 seconds | 1.625 seconds | 1.5 seconds |
| Movement speed | 1.875 tiles/s | 1.73 tiles/s | 1.63 tiles/s |
Further statistics[]
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Archers, Horsemen, siege engines |
| Weak vs. | Spearman, Crossbowman, War Elephant |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Biology (+25%)
|
| Attack |  Bloomery (+1) Decarbonization (+1) Damascus Steel (+1)
|
| Armor |  Fitted Leatherwork (+1 melee) Insulated Helm (+1 melee) Master Smiths (+1 melee) Imported Armor (+2 melee/ranged) Iron Undermesh (+1 ranged) Wedge Rivets (+1 ranged) Angled Surfaces (+1 ranged)
|
| Creation speed |  Military Academy (+33%)
|
| Ability |  Farima Leadership (Nearby infantry +15% move speed)
|
| Aura and ability enhancements | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Siege Festival (+50% fire for 90 seconds)
|
| Creation speed |  Military Festival (+100% for 90 seconds)
|
Dialogue lines[]
- Main article: /Dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- Originally, Sofa trained in 30 seconds. With patch 6.1.130, they train in 26 seconds.
- Originally, regular Sofa had 155 hit points and dealt 16 damage. With patch 12.2.3327, they have 160 hit points and deal 17 damage.
Trivia[]
- In the game files, they are derived from the light Horsemen, instead of the heavy Lancers.
- The term 'Sofa' refers to slave soldiers that took care of horses and were more commonly infantry. While some did fight as cavalry, the in-game depiction better resembles what were known as Farima/Farimba or Farari.
- The Sofa uses a spear during its charge attack and switches to a sword for standard melee attacks, but the difference is only cosmetic, unlike with other heavy cavalry.
Gallery[]
