Heavy Royal Companion

Heavy Royal Companion
Statistics
Health	5,016
Damage per Second	138
DPS vs Resource Buildings	39
Range	Melee
Training Cost	1,400
Training Time	3 minutes & 30 seconds
Troop Space	6
General Information
Nation	Greeks
Troop Type	Heavy Cavalry
Strength	High hitpoints
Weakness	Vulnerable to ballista towers, deals low damage
Favourite Target	Defensive Buildings
Upgrade Information
Age Unlocked	Medieval Age
Upgrade Cost	700,000
Upgrade Time	1 day
Experience Gain	520
Upgrade Navigation
Previous	Royal Companion
Next	Elite Royal Companion

The Heavy Royal Companion is the level 3 Greek unique Heavy Cavalry unit unlocked in the Medieval Age. Its predecessor is the Royal Companion and it can be upgraded to the Elite Royal Companion. It is researched in a level 5 blacksmith. It replaces the knight.

General Information

• Heavy Royal Companions are front runners among all troops, with a great deal of hitpoints, they can endure more than any other troop. For their strength in taking damage, they do sheer damage themselves and cannot win battles unless they are supported by stronger troops.
• As a Greek unique unit, the Heavy Royal Companion has more 10% more health than standard heavy cavalry and 25% more damage.
• The Heavy Royal Companion is one of the strongest units in the game; as well as the strongest heavy cavalry.

Historical Description

"After Alexander's death,his vast empire broke into pieces,some of which continued to employ Alexander's cavalry formations,but adapting as arms and armour advanced.Some later Heavy Companion units wore partial horse armour as well as arm and leg protection for the rider,similar to the cataphracts and early European Knights."

Attacking Strategies

• Heavy Royal Companions have a lot of health but are slow and have low attack power, so use them in groups.
• Heavy Royal Companions are weak against many defenses grouped together.
• Due to their high health, Heavy Royal Companions can be use as meat shields to protect infantry from the defenses.
• Ballista Towers can destroy Heavy Royal Companions easily like all heavy cavalry. If you can, try swarming it with heavy infantry or ranged infantry to destroy it quick enough since the ballista tower is slow.
• When pushing for trophies, you would need to destroy the Town Center. In many bases, the town center would be in the center of the base. First, train up an army of Heavy Royal Companions and a veteran wall miner. When attacking, deploy a veteran wall miner and wait until it destroys the necessary walls, then deploy all your Heavy Royal Companions in the areas which the Town Center is more close to. If there are a few defenses blocking the way, destroy them. Then rally your Heavy Royal Companions to destroy the Town Center.
• Heavy Royal Companions would ignore defensive troops and would pursue their targets which are defensive buildings. However, if a defensive troop attacks the Heavy Royal Companion, the Heavy Royal Companion will attack back until the defensive troop is killed; thus making the Heavy Royal Companions distracted. Try to use and deploy ranged infantry such as crossbowmen or heavy infantry such as pikemen after deploying the Heavy Royal Companions to eliminate the defensive troops.

Defensive Strategies

• Heavy Royal Companions are a good alliance troop due to its high health; making it longer to kill them.

Trivia

• A misconception in the photo above is that the companion seems to be wearing a Galea helmet (a Roman helmet). Royal Companions would wear Boeotian helmets instead since it allowed good peripheral vision and unimpaired hearing. Royal Companions would also wear a bronze muscle cuirass, linothorax (linen upper body armor), and shoulder guards. Another misconception is that companions don't use shields. The shield also has the lambda sign on it which represents Sparta. Sparta would never used cavalry such as companions and would rely on infantry such as hoplites and phalanxes.
• Companions uses 2 weapons; the xyston (a spear, the main weapon of the companion) and a kopis (curved slashing sword) or xiphos (cut and thrust sword) which is used for close combat and a replacement if the xyston breaks. The image shows the companion holding a xiphos.
• Companions had existed in the Medieval Age. They were used by the Byzantine Empire. They were called Hetaireia or Hetaeria which means "The Company" in Greek. They were bodyguards, part of the Imperial Guard, and were comprised of foreigners.