Hondero Imperial

Skirmishers are very weak to everything except archers, some gunpowder units like Hand Cannoneers and Conquistadors, and Pikemen (to a degree). With a weak and slow attack, as well as a minimum range, they deal almost no damage to infantry and cavalry. Nevertheless, their attack bonus against archers can make them valuable against any archer-using opponent, especially if the player's civilization bonuses benefit Skirmishers. Compared to its predecessor, Imperial Skirmishers have +1 attack, +1 pierce armor, +1 bonus damage against archers, and +1 bonus damage against cavalry archers. This is a notable increase against Arbalesters, where they take half the damage and deal out ~28.5% more damage. As Imperial Skirmishers cost no gold, they are trash units, and as such they become especially important in the late game when gold becomes scarce. The Imperial Skirmisher also have a +4 attack bonus against Pikemen, allowing groups of them to quickly take out approaching Pikemen, but their minimum range and low melee armor make them somewhat vulnerable. As the team bonus for the Vietnamese, Imperial Skirmishers can only be trained if the player has a Vietnamese ally (in the same fashion Condottieri and Genitours are shared with allies) or is playing as the Vietnamese. However, unlike the other shared units, it must be researched for each allied player at the Archery Range. It is also a trash unit, making it less useful in a team-game environment than a 1v1 environment. As the Imperial Skirmisher counts as a generic unit, it is unaffected by the Samurai's attack bonus. Unfortunately, the Turks cannot use the Imperial Skirmisher because it is an upgrade of the Elite Skirmisher, to which the Turks have no access. In contrast, other civilizations can put these units to great use, especially the Aztecs, Britons, Byzantines, Dravidians, Inca, Koreans, Lithuanians, and Maya; the first in particular, having somewhat lackluster Arbalesters, whereas Atlatl-boosted Imperial Skirmishers are superior to most domains, including cost efficiency, training time, and bonuses.