Palatinate Burgmänner
Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with the which thou shalt wound the adversaries.
— 2 Maccabees, 15:16
In game[edit | edit source]
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Medium infantry that has more armour and attack (especially against mercenaries) and a faster training speed than normal Swordsmen, making them in effect an Espadachine that comes into play one age earlier, although costing a bit more in food than usual.
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| Prereq: | Build time | HP | LOS | Attack | Attack speed | Movement speed |
Upgrade of | Upgrades to |
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6.9s (100t) |
135 | 8 | 18 | 2.1s (32t) |
28 |
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| Cost | Created from | Armour | Weapon range | Specialty | ||||
| Base | Ramp | Pop | ||||||
 : 60; : 40
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: 1;: 1
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1 | 
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4 | Melee |
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Overall strategy[edit | edit source]
Unlike ancient Roman emperors who could call upon absolute power, the rulers of the mostly German "Holy Roman Empire" (which also had Polish, Hungarian and Bohemian emperors as well) weren't always "born in the purple" so to speak, but were often chosen via semi-democratic (or rather, oligarchical) means through election by a council of nobles and clergy, the former often being their own peers invested by the Pope to elect an Emperor. For this reason and the fact that no centralisation really existed in matters of administration, finance nor military control, mediaeval Emperors were often forced to fall back on the strength of their own feudal possessions, and were also forced to rely on the swords of their most loyal men for security and victory.
Being of the Emperor's own followers, Palatinate Burgmänner can thus be understood to be an Emperor's own retinue taken from his feudal possessions, continuing the tradition of fast-training units under the Germans in the Castle Age. Unlike other contemporary sword units, Palatinate Burgmänner have some enhanced armour and very good training time, meaning that prospective Kaisers can sleep soundly with the knowledge of having a solid retinue of medium infantry available at all given times. The Palatinate Burgmänner also have enhanced armour, thus making them less fragile and more efficient in combat, although it must be said that the heaviest knights can still take them down easily, although mercenaries should be careful: Burgmänner knights have another ability and that is taking down enemy mercenaries from the Dark Age, making them useful even in cutting down enemy heavy cavalrymen from the saddle, such as Norman Adventurers.
Unit summary[edit | edit source]
- A Cut Above The Rest — Palatinate Burgmänner have some enhanced armour and very good training time, making them less fragile and more efficient in combat, although knights can still easily kill them.
- Mercenary Hunter — The anti-mercenary attack of Palatinate Burgmänner makes them useful against factions dependent on mercenaries like Scotland and Burgundy, even if such factions train mercenary cavalry.
See also[edit | edit source]
History[edit | edit source]
In the past, the Germanic tribal duchies and other German-influenced factions are often dominated by a professional warrior elite and as such, a pool of highly trained and highly disciplined warriors can be immediately deployed whenever conflict strikes. These men were sworn to serve their leader and thus served in the role of his (or in some cases, her) personal retainers. Examples of these men can be found among the Vikings and the Saxons in England, whose retainers were called thegns (or in England, thingmen), huskarlar or housecarles (literally meaning "servants"). This was more of a reference to their proximity to their lord due to their elite status, as opposed to actually doing menial tasks as normal house servants would, and over time would eventually evolve into the knight of the Middle Ages. These men often had a strong military ethos too: during the battle of Hastings in 1066, the housecarles of Harold Godwinson continued to fight against the Norman forces to the last man, even after their king had been slain.
