Semitic Battle-Chief
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"With my lance and sword I plough and reap; I am master of the house! The disarmed man falls at my feet and calls me Lord and Great King." -Gustave Flaubert, Sallambó
In game[edit | edit source]
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Mercenary light chariot unit. Fast but very expensive to train. | ||||||||
| Prereq: | Build time | HP | LOS | Attack | Attack speed | Movement speed
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| 12.5s (188t) |
117 | 8 | 15 | 2.1s (19t) |
32
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| Cost | Created from | Armour | Weapon range | Specialty | ||||
| Base | Ramp | Pop | ||||||
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2 | 
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1 | 2-10 |
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Overall strategy[edit | edit source]
These warriors represent the chieftains and princelings of Semitic tribes and city-states. While they do have the same propensity for added mobility as the Egyptian Werryt, vis à vis Light Chariotry, Semitic Battle-Chiefs however are armed with short-ranged, javelin-based attacks. While not as powerful as the Egyptian Werryt with its added range and rate of fire, they can still in small groups be used to harass the enemy, or counter enemy chariotry by using their superior speed to outrun most other chariot units.
Inasmuch as these units can be used to damage chariots, and even fend off war elephants, they are still chariots, nevertheless, and suffer from the same drawbacks as most chariot units do. Driving them into long spears or pikes is out of the question, as is engaging elephants from close up. In addition, they are somewhat mediocre if used against buildings, especially cities and fortifications.
Unit summary[edit | edit source]
- Amongst all other infantry types, Spearmen have the highest cost in resources, so you might wish to supplement them with light infantry.
- Spearmen are most effective but only as either purely defensive or offensive units, due to their speed. This also makes them vulnerable against more versatile units, such as missile infantry and cavalry, which can easily take them apart or massed light infantry.
- Rising Sun — The Japanese spearmen are instead salaried with more food as opposed to metal. While this may seem like a handicap, it in fact makes them very cheap in later stages of the game, helped by their being able to be spawned from the Barracks for free once completed.
- Mental Tartan — Far to the north of Britannia rule the Scots. Their Cliarthaire, while somewhat slow on foot, are highly proficient with the spear, making them the bane of cavalry.
See also[edit | edit source]
History[edit | edit source]
The term "Semite" is derived from the name "Sem/Shem", one of the sons of Noah in the Bible, and in the context of ancient history is a catch-all term used to refer to the ancient peoples of northern Arabia (to this day, the term "Shem" in Arabic parlance refers primarily to the Levant) who spoke languages from what is now known as the Semitic family of languages: modern Arabic is clearly the most widespread and spoken cognate of these languages, but in previous centuries, Aramaic and Chaldaean were probably more widely spoken; Aramaic itself became the lingua franca of the Middle East by the time of the Assyrians, and would retain its position until the rise of Islam and the proliferation of Arabic more than a millenium afterward.