Foot Asakir

"When ye meet a large host, hold firm and think of Allah much, that ye may be successful."
	— The Qur'an, 8:45

In game

Foot Asakir — Vital statistics
	Heavy infantry that sacrifices armour and hitpoints for technological simplicity, attack and movement speed. Strong versus melee units, especially cavalry. Weak versus missile units.
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrades from	Upgrades to
	11.1s (166t)	160	8	25	2.1s (32t)	33	Spear Jund	Apex unit.
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 60; : 40	: 2; : 2	1		4	Melee	Strong versus cavalry Defensive penalty versus ranged units Small attack penalty versus buildings.

Overall strategy

It would seem quite an aberration if an army's best defensive unit, its heavy units, were not as strong as others. While this would seem the case with the Foot Asakir, which tend to bear less armour, it would however be careless to brush them aside as something that can be sniffed at by the more heavily-armoured European pikemen.

The truth is, Foot Asakir Infantry are more highly specialised than the pike-pushing peons that the West usually uses as expensive cannon fodder. It is true that they have less armour. But given their origins in a desert-dwelling society, one can expect them to obtain a few abilities of their own as such, and these warriors are up to the task. Fleet on foot, Asakir are also technologically less complicated — whereas Pikemen will require the Imperial Era AND Centralisation, Asakir only need Darul Islam to be researched, and Spear Jund to be available. Worse, these units also have a powerful attack, making them highly dangerous against all-cavalry armies — but as usual, they are not so powerful against archers.

So as a result, the Saracen player will realise that he/she has a highly lethal unit, capable of keeping up with the mobile nature of desert warfare and raiding, and which can also potentially result in an endgame in the Castle Age, because it will be superior to any other pike unit in the game well until the enemy manages to research Centralisation. As part of a faction that is specialised in early game raiding, and added damage by infantry against enemy buildings, Foot Asakir thus can be a very useful unit by virtue of their combination of two traits — heavy infantry's propensity to hose cavalry, and medium infantry's ability to destroy buildings. Thus the key here is to use your Foot Asakir offensively in tandem with your other units, especially cavalry. Use Crossbow Infantry to cover your approach against your enemy's own, then send in Dromedary Jund on sneak attack missions to knock out melee infantry, leaving the Foot Asakir a field day mopping up the survivors and spitting any cavalry foolish to stray in their path. Do not use them defensively — you must bring them in to close in on the foe.

Unit summary

• 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.

See also

• Pikemen
• Thaghri Footmen
• Camel Raiders
• Ahdath Levy
• Ocak Cannon
• Mamluk Lancer
• Dromedary Jund
• Bedouin Horse Retinue
• Arbalest Dromedaries
• Akıncılar
• African Skirmishers