Espadachín Jian

Due to their high pierce armor and bonus armor against archers, Jian Swordsmen can be seen as enhanced Eagle Warriors, rivaling Huskarls as anti-archer options for Wu, and can arguably outperform Huskarls thanks to their regeneration. However, unlike Huskarls, they have the armor class, making them extremely weak against Long Swordsmen and Champions, as well against many infantry unique units. Samurai and Jaguar Warriors, in particular, are the worst matchups for Jian Swordsmen, since both deal bonus damage to Shock Infantry, and the first deals also bonus damage to unique units, while the latter deals also bonus damage against infantry in general. The same logic applies to the ranged infantry, as they also gain the first attack against them, while all of them have an attack bonus against shock infantry with relatively fast speed and can kite them. Also, despite their high pierce armor, Jian Swordsmen are bad against Hand Cannoneers, which overpower their armor and can kill them in four shots, while Slingers and Grenadiers are extremely effective at countering them for the same reasons. However, their base pierce armor is high, being the second highest among infantry units (behind the Ghulam and Huskarl), taking just Scale Mail Armor to reach armor, meaning Crossbowmen will do just 1 damage per shot, and with Chain Mail Armor, Cavalry Archers also do just 1 damage per shot. This makes an early Castle Age raid with Jian Swordsmen on enemy towns extremely devastating, although their long training time makes massing them quickly difficult at this stage. Jian Swordsmen are not particularly effective against melee cavalry, as they tend to lose equal resource fights. Fortunately, Wu can pair them with their own Pikemen (that also regenerate) to form an army that can be hard to stop while also being easy to get into. if Sun Jian is nearby, their speed is boosted by 15%, further enhancing their already powerful performance against archers.