Espadachín Urumi

While outwardly similar to the Militia line, the Urumi Swordsman is a much more specialized unit which serves a very different role. Their greatest difference is their significantly lower pierce armor, which triples the damage taken from Elite Skirmishers. This makes them largely ineffective against Skirmishers, and more vulnerable to archers as a whole. While Militia do damage more slowly and consistently, Urumi Swordsmen deal a large portion of their damage upfront, in a powerful splash damage charge attack. However, this attack cannot target buildings, so while Militia can rapidly tear down structures, Urumis are not particularly effective in that role. In this sense, and in the same way as Shotel Warriors, Urumi Swordsmen can be seen as glass cannons: doing high amount of damage but having low durability overall. Urumis are most effective in two use cases. The first is against tightly-packed groups of weak enemies, such as archers. While an insufficient group of Urumis will fail to reach them at all, if successful, their powerful charge attack can rapidly deal hundreds of hit points worth of damage, completely annihilating their opponents in seconds. At least roughly equal numbers of Urumis to their targets are needed to achieve successful results. The second use case is defensively, protecting other units, like siege, elephant units, and especially Armored Elephants. Attacking units will run around the Urumi Swordsmen to get to the weaker units, maximizing the splash damage; the charge attack deals incredible damage, massacring enemies and reducing the damage taken by the weaker units being defended. This is true especially against Pikemen, and Urumis are capable of defending far more effectively than any other unit in the game. They can perform effectively in other engagements; however, their strength rapidly falls off once their charge attack is exhausted, and if outnumbered, they broadly underperform in a pitched battle. As a result, Urumi Swordsmen tend to either do extraordinarily well, or extraordinarily poorly, with very little middle ground. A difference of just a few units can mean a stunning victory or a crushing defeat, based largely on whether or not they are able to kill a significant portion of the enemy force in the first few seconds. === Wootz Steel === As a result of this unit's reliance on its powerful charge attack, Wootz Steel tends to benefit this unit less than other melee options. With an initial attack dealing 30 damage (plus any splash damage), an average difference of 4 damage often makes little difference. Arbalesters, for instance, will die to 2 charge attacks with or without Wootz Steel, and against Halberdiers, it will take 3 hits to kill them with or without Wootz Steel. It is only in prolonged melee engagements against particularly well-armored enemies that Wootz Steel begins to offer a true advantage (especially against Serjeants, Teutonic Knights, and Boyars), but thanks to the higher cost and lower stats of the Urumi Swordsman, after the charge attack has been exhausted, even these slightly better results are often sub-optimal, and it is often wiser to instead focus on achieving the necessary critical mass. === Counters === Urumi Swordsmen are generally weak against any units that can survive their powerful initial attack. They will lose against Battle Elephants and War Elephants, both of which have high hit points and their own Area of Effect attacks. Other heavy cavalry can defeat Urumi Swordsmen if they have not reached a critical mass, but will struggle (or even potentially lose) if there are enough Urumi Swordsmen. Konniks and Cataphracts will beat Urumi Swordsmen with equal resources even in large battles, but they require all of their associated upgrades to succeed (such as Stirrups and Logistica, respectively). Leiciai and Monaspas can do well in large battles, but both need to be boosted enough by their respective bonuses (with 4 Relics and fully massed at 29+ units, respectively). Like all infantry, Urumi Swordsmen are weak to ranged damage, due to their slower speed, lower hit points, and lack of pierce armor. Unlike the Militia line, however, they have a special weakness to Skirmishers, who deal three times the damage to Urumis compared to the swordsman line, and since they automatically retreat to acquire minimum range, they tend to separate, minimizing the effect of any splash damage. Siege can also be an effective - if risky - counter. While siege will quickly kill Urumis, Urumis will also quickly kill siege due to their high damage and slightly faster speed. Organ Guns are exceptionally deadly against groups of Urumi Swordsmen due to their low pierce armor and the former's bonus damage against infantry.