Javelineers

The weapon was heavy with magic. It [...] was a javelin, designed purely for flight; in its making Spearmaker had breathed his spirit into it, and now it had its own life and its own desires, seeking the heart of its prey.

—Richard Herley, The Flint Lord (Pt I, cap 7)

In game

Javelineers — Vital statistics
Javelineers	Light melee infantry with slow but powerful, armour-piercing attack. Ideal for attacking buildings and large units, especially war elephants, siege weapons and chariots. Strong versus unarmed units, siege weapons and missile units with low accuracy or rate of fire Weak versus military units, especially heavy cavalry.
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed
31px Military	3.3s (110t)	140	6	23	2s (30t)	24
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 50; : 50	: 5; : 1	1		3	0-9	Armour-piercing attacks. Decent defensive bonus versus buildings. Decent attack bonus versus archers.

Overall strategy

Unlike other nations which have to wait until the Heroic Age to receive their first sword units, or must rely on the production of Wealth in order to recruit their own skirmisher units, the Thracians can handily recruit Javelineers with ease which conbine the range of the latter units with the power and strength of a Swordsman; this new unit can be fairly powerful, as it also carries some punching power to the scene in the early game. The only issue however is that it has far poorer armour than normal Swordsmen, so it would be nearly useless if facing Slingers, since these units are bound to be amassed in large numbers and have a superior rate of fire (besides being fairly mobile on their own, perhaps far more than Javelineers do) - but you are better off using your own cavalry to hunt them down. Equally dangerous are also heavy cavalry units such as Medium Chariots and Lancers — keep your own Archers and Spearmen (not to mention cavalry) to fend off these units.

The best use thus for Javelineers is to use them offensively, by charging them upfront to suppress your opponents' heavy infantry, leaving other units such as Axemen and Spearmen protected from their attacks. En masse, they can also be used to defend against melee charges in the early game when armoured units are lacking, owing to their relatively faster movement and their lack of a minimum range, thus making them more useful in combat.

See also

• Skirmishers

Notes

In Age of Empires, this unit is trained from a Fort and has a base cost of 50, 30; and a ramp cost of 1, 1.

Velvetclaw (talk) 14:31, 13 February 2023 (UTC) Uses thraciah.bh3 for WBI