Elite Royal Companion

Elite Royal Companion
Statistics
Health	6,850
Damage per Second	156
DPS vs Resource Buildings	46
Range	Melee
Training Cost	2,000
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, and low damages
Favourite Target	Defensive Buildings
Upgrade Information
Age Unlocked	Gunpowder Age
Upgrade Cost	2,800,000
Upgrade Time	2 days
Experience Gain	760
Upgrade Navigation
Previous	Heavy Royal Companion
Next	Stradioti

The Elite Royal Companion is the level 4 Greek unique Heavy Cavalry unit unlocked at the Gunpowder Age and replaces the lancer. Its predecessor is the Heavy Royal Companion. It can be upgraded to the Stradioti. It is researched in a level 6 blacksmith.

General Information

• Elite 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 Elite Royal Companion has more 10% more health than standard heavy cavalry and 25% more damage.
• The Elite Royal Companion is one of the strongest units in the game; as well as the strongest heavy cavalry.

Attacking Strategies

• Elite Royal Companion have a lot of health but are slow and have low attack power, so use them in groups.
• Elite Royal Companion are weak against many defenses grouped together.
• Due to their high health, Elite Royal Companion can be use as meat shields to protect infantry from the defenses.
• Cannon Towers can destroy Elite 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 cannon 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 Elite Royal Companion and a wall sapper. When attacking, deploy a wall sapper and wait until it destroys the necessary walls, then deploy all your Elite Royal Companion 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 Elite Royal Companion to destroy the Town Center.
• Elite Royal Companion would ignore defensive troops and would pursue their targets which are defensive buildings. However, if a defensive troop attacks the Elite Royal Companion, the Elite Royal Companion will attack back until the defensive troop is killed; thus making the Elite Royal Companion distracted. Try to use and deploy ranged infantry such as arquebusiers or heavy infantry such as halberdiers after deploying the guard chevaliers to eliminate the defensive troops.

Defending Strategies

• Elite 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 elite royal companion seems to be wearing a Corinthian helmet (a helmet created in the city of Corinth). Elite Royal Companions would wear Boeotian helmets instead since it allowed good peripheral vision and unimpaired hearing. Elite Royal Companions would also wear a bronze muscle cuirass, linothorax (linen upper body armor), and shoulder guards.
• 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.
• A misconception is that the last users of companions died out in the Medieval Age (The Byzantine Empire) and that companions went extinct in the Gunpowder Age. A fitting unique unit that existed in the era was the stradioti, which was created in the late 15th century which was the beginning of the Gunpowder Age and was used to the mid-17th century.