The Sachem is the unique unit of the Iroquois in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The American Tribes. It is best described as a powerful Pikeman with lots of melee and pierce armor. As such, it has a large attack bonus against cavalry, especially War Elephants.
Sachems can be upgraded to Elite Sachems in the Imperial Age.
Tactics[]
Sachems are powerful because they have a high base attack for spear-type units, and because they have lots of armor, fully upgraded. The Iroquois have access to all the infantry armor upgrades, so this means fully upgraded Elite Sachems have 6 melee armor and 7 pierce armor. As a result, most attacks from archers will only do 1 or 2 damage, and melee units' attacks will be fairly ineffective.
Sachems work well with Pikemen, because they are both anti-cavalry units. Two-Handed Swordsmen and Elite Eagle Warriors also work well, though they are much weaker to cavalry. The Sachem's general tankiness means that they will not need to be replaced as frequently as Pikemen. In addition, while Skirmishers are usually a fairly deadly counter to Pikemen, the Sachem's high pierce armor means that it can flip the counters. They are also good against archers in general, especially since they are considerably faster than Pikemen.
Further Statistics[]
As Sachems are unique to the Iroquois, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Cavalry, Skirmishers, archers, buildings |
| Weak vs. | Infantry, Hand Cannoneers, Samurai, Cataphracts |
| Upgrades | |
| Attack |  Forging (+1) Iron Casting (+1) Arson (+2 attack against standard buildings) Sagamore (+10 attack against cavalry; Iroquois only)
|
| Armor |  Scale Mail Armor (+1/+1) Chain Mail Armor (+1/+1) Plate Mail Armor (+1/+2)
|
| Speed |  Squires (+10%)
|
| Sight |  Tracking (+2)
|
| Conversion defense |  Faith
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription (+33%)
|
| Upgrades | Sachems can be upgraded to Elite Sachems |
Team Bonuses[]
- A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, Sachems are created and upgraded 25% faster, and Conscription and Sagamore are researched 25% faster.
- A team containing Goths: Researching Tracking, Squires, and Arson is 20% faster.
- A team containing Iroquois: Teammates can create Sachems at a Council.
- A team containing Teutons: Sachems are more resistant to conversion.
History[]
Sachems were chieftains hand-picked by tribes. They ruled over the tribal councils, and probably oversaw war. It's unknown if sachems actually engaged in combat, but they were chosen to represent the tribal system of the Iroquois.
Trivia[]
- Sagamore, the unique technology that improves the Sachem, is either another name for the sachem or an inferior chief to the sachem.