Militant Clergy
“He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.”
— Job, 39:22
In game[edit | edit source]
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Priestly unit with poor attack and speed, but good hitpoints, armour, and the ability to heal friendly units.
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| Prereq: | Build time | HP | LOS | Attack | Attack speed | Movement speed |
Upgrades to | |
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10s (150t) |
120 | 8 | 18 | 2.1s (32t) |
30 | ||
| Cost | Created from | Armour | Weapon range | Specialty | ||||
| Base | Ramp | Pop | ||||||
 : 40; : 40
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: 1;: 1
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1 | 
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2 | Melee |
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Overall strategy[edit | edit source]
The very first level of the "paladin" line of chivalric order units, Militant Clergy are available to any and all Christian factions as well as Japan, and can be used by factions who for various reasons are unable to attract Nobles' Court units. These are men of the cloth who have taken up arms for the earthly wellbeing of the parishes they administer, with an eye on looking out for their followers (or, in the case of Japan, their own followers).
These units are armed with clubs and warhammers, making them somewhat ineffective in combat, but their faith (and banditry at home) makes them doughty fighters that can absorb quite a number of blows and with tactics informed only by passion, they are just as hard and unruly to control like Peasant Levy. Even so, to send them into battle is the wrong thing to do: their main specialy is in healing your units and encouraging them to make a stand together against cohorts of pillaging unbelievers. Only factions that have accepted Monotheism can hope to convince these men to actually grace their communities.
Unit summary[edit | edit source]
- The Chosen One — Only factions that have dabbled with Monotheism can hope to convince these men to actually grace their communities.
- Peter the Hermit — Militant Clergy are tough, but their main purpose is not to fight — their main specialy is in healing your units and should be kept near but not in the fighting.
- Assassins and Creeds Don't Mix — Although fairly strong, Militant Clergy however are prime targets for subterfuge and assasination, so even if they can protect your troops (especially in trench warfare) you must protect them at all costs.
Notes[edit | edit source]
Prior to porting to Steam, this unit had the ability to heal units around. It lost this ability when Chronicles was ported to the so-called "Extended Edition" of Rise of Nations, because it was discovered that RoN:EE would cause multiplayer games to crash when this unit was created. Since then, this issue has been fixed.
History[edit | edit source]
Despite the pacifist teachings of Christianity (Exodus 20:13; "Thou shalt not kill") and the expectations that men of the cloth were not to shed blood, it was clear that ideals (or at least their human hosts) would not survive the chaoic Dark Age in Europe unless some use of lethal force or neutralisation of the same of an adversary or deviant was used to protect one's livelihood. In contrast, weak government and a proper means of mediating disputes between various interpretations of Buddhism (and not to mention Imperial policy) soon led to religious violence between various Buddhist schools of thought, the Tendai school becoming influential in Japan through this method. More commonly, some clergymen would follow their friends or patrons who were in the army on expeditions to administer to their friends and their followers, such as the Norman Odo of Bayeux, or the legendary Benkei of Japan, who was defeated by and then later joined Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Some of these holy men even rose to become warlords in their own right, such as the prince-bishops of mediaeval Germany or the Ikko-Ikki sect in early modern Japan.
