Kiam-P'openg

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He took up the shield, sliding his arm through the loops, and drew the long double-edged sword. It glittered in the firelight as he twitched it back and forth easily, making the whisssht sound of cloven air.

— S. M. Stirling, Dies the Fire

In game[edit | edit source]

Swordfs icon.png
Kiam-P'openg — Vital statistics
Swordsmen

Affordable light-medium infantry, suitable for taking down pikemen and archers, but average performance against light cavalry and definitely unsuited for fighting ranged cavalry or heavy cavalry.

Prereq: Build time HP LOS Attack Attack speed Movement
speed
Upgrade of Upgrades to
  • Castle Age;
  • Level 2: Mercenaries Military
10s
(150t)
120 6 13 2.1s
(32t)
23
Cost Created from Armour Weapon range Specialty
Base Ramp Pop
Timber: 40;
Food.jpg: 40
Timber: 1;
Food.jpg: 1
1 Barracks 1 Melee

Small defensive bonus versus missile infantry.

Venice Papal States.jpg England.jpg Turks.jpg Saracens.jpg Russians.jpg Spain.jpg Portugal.jpg Magyarok.jpg Serbians.jpg

Overall strategy[edit | edit source]

Unlike Chronicles, Swordsmen are usually a rarity on most battlegrounds, owing to the lack of metal and the inexperience of early cultures with metalworking, so Swordsmen, while being a strong counter-infantry and counter-building unit, aren't usually trainable by all but the major factions.

Thus, your swordsmen like all light infantry should always be placed on the wings of your army, or used as a flanking force at all time. This is feasible given their fleetness of foot. Another feasible but far more risky tactic using swordsmen is the sword rush, given the relative cheap cost for producing swordsmen: in the time that it takes to create 1 pikeman, you could easily create at least 2 bodies of swordsmen.

Unit summary[edit | edit source]

  • Affordable light-medium infantry, suitable for taking down pikemen and archers, but average performance against light cavalry and definitely unsuited for fighting ranged cavalry or heavy cavalry.
  • Hack is the New Black — Versatility is key to using Swordsmen — they do exceedingly well against archers and possibly fortifications, and will perform well in melee against cavalry too but only if they enjoy crushing superiority.
  • Conscript Swordsmen — Asian factions instead employ Conscript Swordsmen, which are weaker but substantially cheaper versions of the swordsman. This makes them almost unsuited towards attacking anything unless they have crushing numerical superiority, thanks to their poor stats.
  • Ceithernn — Thanks to internecine conflict in Ireland, countless scores of men have taken up the task of being semi-mercenary warbands. As a result, the two nations closest to Ireland, Wales and Scotland, can raise detachments of Irish javelineers, whose specialty is a weaker ranged attack which is nevertheless still sufficiently devastating in numbers.
  • Lithuanian Axe Retinue — Poland sports a type of medium infantryman known as the Lithuanian Axemen which distinguish themselves well against most other infantry, thanks to their substantial hitpoints.
  • Palatinate Burgmänner — The Germans are able to train knightly Palatinate Burgmänner. Recruited from the nobility, these men are the elite of the German military aristocracy, and while they are often tied to a code of Christian-inspired chivalry, their more pagan roots can be seen in the dedication and fervour expected of from their service. Which often involves felling your opponents' mercenaries.
  • Hasham Infantry — The Moors are capable of recruiting a variety of African tribesmen from across the Straits of Gibraltar to serve. While they are not as strong as Christian swordsmen, their ability to cover large distances of hostile territory is a valuable asset that however requires some proper use to be mastered.
  • Milites — Sicily has access to Milites, which are a powerful melee unit with attack bonuses against regional melee infantry units shared between different factions, thus being very effective against most factions' other infantry.