Cliarthaire
| "I have seen his forward spear. It is a meteor of death. The blood of thousands is on its steel." | |
| — James Scott MacPhearson, Ossian |
In game
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Best anti-cavalry unit in the game, but are slower than most heavy infantry.
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| Prereq: | Build time | HP | LOS | Attack | Attack speed | Movement speed |
Upgrades to | |
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12.5s (188t) |
145 | 8 | 15 | 2.1s (32t) |
22 |
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| Cost | Created from | Armour | Weapon range | Specialty | ||||
| Base | Ramp | Pop | ||||||
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1 | 
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4 | Melee |
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Overall strategy
Armed with spears and clad in kilts of different colours and patterns, Cliarthaire are among some of the strongest units available to the Scots, being the best anti-cavalry unit in the game, but are slower than most heavy infantry. The Cliarthaire nevertheless holds his own among some of the more powerful Dark Age warriors available in the game. In suffiicient numbers and with a general's Forced March ability, they can even charge enemy archers, in which case the only enemy standing in the cliarthaire's way would be castles and other melee infantry units. The sluggish speed of the Cliarthaire makes them prime targets for archers, although it will be said that their superior stats should help them in a melee fight than most other spearmen.
There is a different version of this unit, which is armed with a Viking-style sparth axe, known as the Galloglaich. This unit is an exact copy save in four areas: it has 25% less armour, takes 33% less time to train and costs wealth to be recruited. Galloglaich infantry form the core of the mercenary armies of the Franks, Welsh and the Byzantines.
Unit summary
- Indomitable — Spearmen's combat proficiency and endurance render them effective for counter-cavalry and melee infantry supremacy work.
- 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.
- Slow and Steady Won't Win The Race — The sluggish speed of the Cliarthaire makes them prime targets for archers, although they are highly proficient melee fighters.
- Galloglaich Infantry — Galloglaich Infantry are mercenaries which are trained faster but somewhat outclassed by other infantry units, as they are available one age later than normal Cliarthaire, but nevertheless remain just as powerful.
Notes
Due to how Rise of Nations works, Cliarthaire's substantial anticav bonus - +40% damage versus mounted units - also applies to elephant units. Elephant units - the War Elephant and the Gajnal Mahout in turn - deal +40% damage to Cliarthaire units!
History
The first few centuries of the post-Roman era were highly turbulent times for many communities throughout Europe, which often found themselves at the mercy of several different enemies, and it was thus natural that sooner or later a body of chosen men would be required to supply the strong arms which was needed to ensure survival. A man armed with a spear could defeat many attacking warriors without getting hurt himself.
Mediaeval communites (especially the larger towns and free cities of the High Middle Ages) learned to employ large formations of spearmen, usually clad in some semblance of armour, as a counter to heavy cavalry attacks because horses would not charge home against a bristling wall of spear points. Spearmen were originally deployed in a defensive posture, but the best of the spearman armies, such as the Swiss, Scots, and Flemish, learned to maneuver and take the offensive. From the spear, the pike was developed. The pike was a longer spear with different iron tips for different situations.
