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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Mountain Royals. For other uses, see Warrior Priest. |
| “ | Armenian unique Monastery Infantry that can heal friendly units. Can collect Relics and bring them to Monasteries. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
| “ | Armenian unique infantry unit which can heal friendly units. Can collect Relics and bring them to Monasteries. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Warrior Priest is a unique infantry unit of the Armenians in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Mountain Royals. It is a hybrid of a Two-Handed Swordsman and a Monk.
Warrior Priests require Atonement to be converted, just like Monks. Unlike Monks, they cannot convert units or buildings. Unlike most unique units, Warrior Priests do not have an Elite upgrade.
Tactics[]
Healing[]
Warrior Priests heal at the rate of 2 hit points per second, i.e. 120 hit points per minute, from a range of 4 tiles (same as the generic Monk). This is 80% as fast as regular Monks and Missionaries, who heal at a rate of 150 hit points per minute. Researching Fereters increases their healing speed by 100%, i.e. 4 hit points per second, making them 60% faster than regular Monks. With both a Byzantine ally and Fereters, the heal speed is doubled again to 8 hit points per second.
Keeping a small number of Warrior Priests close by and not making them fight while other units fight will help immensely during engagements. This can be done by keeping them on "Stand Ground" or "No Attack" stance. Warrior Priests are better than Monks at this, because they cannot be easily sniped, especially by archers or scout units, and can defend themselves when necessary.
Relics[]
- Main article: Relic (Age of Empires II)
Warrior Priests can pick up and garrison Relics. This lends the Armenians an advantage, as they can attack enemy Monks, who will most likely lack Atonement in the early Castle Age. They can also try to fight enemy scout units, but as the latter do bonus damage to religious units, the Warrior Priest may lose, depending on other technologies obtained by the players.
Warrior Priests should be favored in picking up Relics, because they move 21.4% (33.6% with Squires) faster, are created 70% faster, and of course can kill enemy Monks. The only disadvantage they have is their Line of Sight, which is capped at 7, whereas Monks start out at 11 (though Monks with Relics start at 9), and can have +3 with Block Printing.
Combat[]
In addition to picking up Relics and healing allied units, Warrior Priests, being infantry, can engage in combat. They cost 20% more than the Eagle Scout line. They do not exactly resist conversion like the latter, but they cannot be converted without Atonement. Coming to their combat statistics, they start out fairly strong for a Castle Age infantry, unless one remembers that Armenians have Imperial Age infantry available in the Castle Age, which makes the comparison fairer. However, they are not directly comparable to any unit in terms of statistics (other than cost).
- They start with 80 hit points, and, unlike other infantry, they can gain +15 from Sanctity. They can further increase their hit points by +30 with Fereters, like the Armenian Militia line.
- They start with a speed of 0.85 (which is mid-way between the Teutonic Knight and Obuch lines), but can increase their speed to 0.98 with Fervor (which is mid-way between the Militia and Spearman lines). They can further increase their speed by +10% with Squires, like other infantry.
- They do not have any attack bonuses. Heavy infantry usually have a huge attack bonus vs. Standard Buildings and shock infantry, and lighter infantry have a token attack bonus vs. the same. However, like other infantry, they can pick up +2 against the former with Arson.
- Being religious units, they take anti-Monks damage, making them worse against Light Cavalry, and even worse against Eagle Warriors (due to the lack of attack bonus as well).
- They have 11 melee attack and 1
melee / 1 pierce armor, which is comparable to the Two-Handed Swordsman. It is worse by 1 attack, and does not benefit from Gambesons. - They have a Line of Sight of only 3, which is worse than 4 of the Halberdier, and much worse than the 5 of the Two-Handed Swordsman.
- Like Unique Units and Infantry units, they also take attack bonuses as such.
Their high hit points and decent speed after Fortified Church technologies makes them decently good vs. foot archers by soaking up damage and chasing them down, respectively. Hand Cannoneers, however, remain very effective against them, as do Slingers. They are still slow enough to be mowed down by Plumed Archers and mounted archers.
Comparison with similar units[]
As infantry[]
- Note: Arson, Squires, and Blacksmith technologies ignored
Armenian  Militia line
|
 Warrior Priest
|
Mayan*  Eagle Scout line
| |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | 50 food, 20 gold | 30 food, 50 gold | 20 food, 50 gold |
| Additional armor class | Monks and Unique Units | Shock infantry | |
| Performance against Monks | Cannot be converted without Atonement | Cannot be converted before 8 seconds | |
Early  Castle Age
|
 Long Swordsman
|
Without Fortified Church technologies | Eagle Scout
|
| Training time | 21 | 30 | 35 |
| Hit points | 60 | 80 | 50 |
| Attack | 9 | 11 | 7 |
| Speed | 0.96 | 0.85 | 1.1 |
| Armor | 1/1+1 | 1/1 | 0/2 |
| Line of Sight | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Other | +6 vs shock infantry +3 vs Standard Buildings |
Heals at 2 HP/s | +8 vs Monks +3 vs Siege Weapons +2 vs Cavalry +1 vs Camel Units +1 vs Ships |
| Late Castle Age
|
 Two-Handed Swordsman
|
With Fortified Church technologies |  Eagle Warrior
|
| Training time | 21 | 30 | 35 |
| Hit points | 65 | 95 | 55 |
| Attack | 12 | 11 | 7 |
| Speed | 0.96 | 0.98 | 1.15 |
| Armor | 1/1+1 | 1/1 | 0/3 |
| Line of Sight | 9 | 7 | 8 |
| Other | +8 vs shock infantry +4 vs Standard Buildings |
Heals at 2 HP/s | +8 vs Monks +3 vs Siege Weapons +3 vs Cavalry +2 vs Camel Units +1 vs Ships |
 Imperial Age
|
 Champion
|
 Elite Eagle Warrior
| |
| Training time | 15.75 | 30 | 15 |
| Hit points | 100 | 125 | 100 |
| Attack | 14 | 11 | 9 |
| Speed | 0.96 | 0.98 | 1.3 |
| Armor | 1/1+1 | 1/1 | 0/4 |
| Line of Sight | 9 | 7 | 8 |
| Other | +8 vs shock infantry +4 vs Standard Buildings |
Heals at 4 HP/s | +10 vs Monks +5 vs Siege Weapons +4 vs Cavalry +3 vs Camel Units +2 vs Ships |
As a religious unit[]
Armenian  Monk
|
Warrior Priest
|
 Missionary
|
Common | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | 100 gold | 30 food, 50 gold | 100 gold | |
| Training time | 51 | 30 | 51 | |
| Ability | Conversion Pickup Relics |
Combat Pickup Relics |
Conversion | Healing |
| Armor class | Infantry and Unique Units | Cavalry and Unique Units | Monks | |
| Hit points | 30 | Base: 80 Fereters: +30
|
Base: 30 Bloodlines: +20
|
 Sanctity: +15
|
| Armor | 0/0 | Base: 1/1 Scale Mail Armor: 2/2 Chain Mail Armor: 3/3 Plate Mail Armor: 4/5
|
Base: 0/0 Scale Barding Armor: 1/1 Chain Barding Armor: 2/2 Plate Barding Armor: 3/4
|
|
| Speed | Base: 0.7 | Base: 0.85 Squires: 0.935
|
Base: 1.1 Husbandry: 1.21
|
 Fervor: +15%
|
| Line of Sight | Base: 11 Block Printing: +3Relic: -2 |
7 | Base: 9 Block Printing: +3 Inquisition: +1
|
|
| Healing rate | 2.5 HP/s | Base: 2 HP/s Fereters: 4 HP/s
|
2.5 HP/s |
Further statistics[]
As Warrior Priests are unique to the Armenians, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Most melee infantry units, Camel Riders, Magyar Huszars, Shrivamsha Riders |
| Weak vs. | Light Cavalry, Eagle Warriors, Samurai, Jaguar Warriors, Teutonic Knights, Urumi Swordsmen, Hand Cannoneers, Slingers, mounted archers, heavy cavalry |
| Conditional matchups | Foot archers, Mangonels |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
Sanctity (+15) Fereters (+30)
|
| Attack |  Forging (+1) Iron Casting (+1) Blast Furnace (+2) Arson (+2 against Standard Buildings)
|
| Armor | Scale Mail Armor (+1  melee / +1  pierce) Chain Mail Armor (+1 melee / +1 pierce) Plate Mail Armor (+1 melee / +2 pierce)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
|
 Movement speed
|
Squires (+10%) Fervor (+15%)
|
| Healing | Fereters (+100% faster)
|
| Team bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Khitans (+2 vs. Archers)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Teutons (+3 min, +1 max)
|
| Creation speed |  Lithuanians (+20%)
|
| Healing |  Byzantines (+100% faster)
|
Team bonuses[]
- Bulgarians: Blacksmith technologies that benefit Warrior Priests are researched 80% faster.
- Goths: Arson and Squires are researched 20% faster.
- Lithuanians: Fortified Church technologies that benefit Warrior Priests are researched 20% faster.
- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Warrior Priests are researched 25% faster.
Changelog[]
The Mountain Royals[]
- Warrior Priests cost 30 food, 60 gold.
- Update 99311
- On release, Warrior Priests with Relics were affected by Block Printing (+3 Line of Sight, similar to Monks with Relic). With the update, they are unaffected by Block Printing.
- On release, they did not generate gold for the enemy Viking player if they killed the Warrior Priest using an infantry unit after researching Chieftains. Since the update, they generate 20 gold for such an enemy.
- Warrior Priests in "No Attack" stance can automatically heal allied units.
Chronicles: Alexander the Great[]
- With update 162286, Warrior Priests cost 30 food, 50 gold.
Heroes[]
The following heroes in the game have the appearance of a Warrior Priest. While they can heal and benefit from technologies like Warrior Priests, neither of them can collect Relics:
Trivia[]
- The Warrior Priest's model wears the Samkhedroni, which is the traditional male attire of the Georgians living in Pshav Khevsureti region of Georgia, also called the Khevsur people. Despite this, the unit is available only to the Armenians.
- With 125 hit points when fully upgraded, the Warrior Priest has the highest hit points in the game among foot soldiers.
- At 60 gold each, the Warrior Priest is the most expensive non-hero infantry in terms of gold cost.
- The Warrior Priest is the only infantry unit which is countered by the Eagle Scout and Scout Cavalry lines, as they take additional damage from them. It is also one of the few infantry units without an attack bonus against the shock infantry armor class.
- The Warrior Priest is one of the few non-shock infantry units that do not get an attack bonus against shock infantry.
- In a custom scenario/Scenario Editor, a Teuton Warrior Priest is affected by the extra healing range bonus. As such, it can heal units beyond its Line of Sight.
- As infantry units, nearby predators will attack Warrior Priests. Initially, Warrior Priests carrying Relics were also attacked by wild animals, unlike Monks carrying Relics. This was eventually changed in an update[When?] so that Warrior Priests with Relics are not attacked by predators.
- During the Middle Ages, Christian priests in both Orthodox and Catholic churches were forbidden to take direct military roles, and could only defend themselves with a club. However, there have been historical records of Orthodox priests engaging in direct combat to defend their homelands (most famously, Alexander Peresvet, which a similar Warrior Monk unit in Age of Empires IV is based on).
Gallery[]
Videos[]
