This unit narrowly beat the Battle Boar in our choice for this week's Norse MU guide. In the interim, I hope all of you enjoyed ChimeraArtemis' excellent guide to the Automaton as much as I did. We'll be continuing the alternating week system next week when he brings out a new Egyptian guide. Be warned, every phonetic to do with this MU from its name to its upgrade are real jaw breakers.

The Unit

Special Attack: Blows a horn causing exactly 23 hp damage to the unit directly targeted. It also boosts the attack of surrounding friendly units for a short period of time. The main features of this special are-

1. It takes 5 seconds to take effect during which the Einherjar takes damage form any enemy units.
2. The targeted unit or building loses exactly 23 hp over this time regardless of armour.
3. Enemy Heroes are not damaged.
4. Friendly units, heroes and seige weapons within a 8 unit radius have their attacks boosted by 25% at the peak of the horn blast.
5. Friendly Myth Units and Titans within the radius have their attacks boosted by over 50%.
6. The boost only lasts for a short period of time (5 seconds) starting at the peak of the blast during which it tapers off.
7. The Einherjar blowing the horn does not boost its own attack. It's attack cany only be boosted by other Einherjars.
8. It takes 15 seconds to recharge.
9. Two or more boosts do not stack up. The damage it does, however does stack up.
10. If a unit does more than one type of damage, all damage done by it gets boosted

Note: Some guy did a really good guide on this special some time back even though it was difficult to understand.

Bonuses: 2.5x damage vs other MUs

Cost: 175G 15Fv 3Pop

Upgrade(s): Research the Eldhrimnir Kettle 250F 10Fv: Increases hack damage by 40% and hitpoints by 10%.

This is one powerful unit. Make no mistake, the upgrade is very expensive in terms of food but it makes a colossal difference to this unit. The extra hack damage makes this an extremely powerful unit while the extra hitpoints are useful. The hitpoints might seem low at first glance but the armour ratings are one of the best in all of AOM. This is a very tough unit to kill. It is also pretty cheap for what it does. The special gets more and more useful as you advance further when you can make more and more powerful units. This special is a real game changer. True, the damage done is curious and the Einherjar by itself is actually better off fighting for those 5 seconds, but it makes a world of difference. Consider this scenario. When your Giant Killer Einherjar blows the horn, it takes 21 hack damage per second capability out of your force for those 5 seconds. This may seem like a big loss and it is, if it is alone. Consider, however that it is grouped with 10 Medium Raiders. Each raider does 10 hack damage. with the boost they do an average (over the 5 seconds) of 2 hack damage more. Therefore, while you lose the 21 hack damage of the Einherjar, you get an extra 20 hack damage plus the 4.5 damage the special does per second. The larger the group the better the effect. It is even better with MUs. You do not even need so many Einherjars to do this as the boost does not stack. The best use is with the Titan. The special boosts the Titan's attack to 103 hack, crush and pierce damage. That's almost as good as eclipse and you can reuse it. This unit is also pretty good against buildings and it does a decent amount of crush damage as well. The only chink in this unit's armour is its slow speed which is a real disadvantage. Anyway, let's see if it lives up to this glowing paragraph in the tests.

Tests
Note: all human units have full classical upgrades (Medium All and Copper All)

1. vs Infantry - 1 Zeus Hoplite (126hp 10 hack damage 41% hack armour):
In these 1 v 1 tests, the Einherjar isn't exactly the best MU available because it wastes 5 seconds blowing its horn- which causes little damage and does not boost its own attack. Once that it over though, it proves a very capable unit indeed. The stock Einherjar kills the hoplite in 16 seconds. It takes out 10 hp per second from the hoplite losing only 3 itself due to its monster armour ratings. It finishes with 237 hp left. The Giant Killer Einherjar does even better. It damages the hoplite by 14 hp each second while it itself takes only 3 hp worth of damage. It kills the hoplite in 13 seconds with 266 hp left. It is important to note that the times recorded include the 5 second horn blast. It is fair to say that they would take 3 seconds less to kill the hoplite without the horn.

2. Group Test
This test is basically to show what sort of impact the Einherjar's boost has. First, I sent up 3 Battle Boars against a TC (2800 hp). They took 35 seconds to destroy it. This is quite a common scenario for Norse players in heroic. Next, I added one Einherjar to the fray but not as a combat unit. I made sure it did not attack the TC but just boosted the Batlle Boars. With the boost working, the 3 Battle Boars took just 28 seconds to destroy the TC. This clearly shows the value of the Einherjar's boost effect on friendly units. In short, the more powerful the unit, the better the effect is.

3. vs a Shieldmaiden Valkyrie (375hp 18 hack damage 60% hack armour x4 bonus vs MUs):
Once again, in 1 v 1 situations, the horn blast really hurts this unit. The Valkyrie does 20 dmage per second to the Einherjar. The Einherjar actually tops that with 22 per second but as it has less hp and it takes 5 seconds and consequently 100 hp damage to blow its horn, it falls behind. The valkyrie wins in 18 seconds with 84 hp left. Overall-

The Giant Killer Einherjar without its horn blast beats all classical MUs except the Elder Cyclops and the Bull Minotaur

The Giant Killer Einherjar with its horn blast beats all classical MUs except-
Heiracosphinx
Shieldmaiden Valkyrie
Elder Cyclops
Bull Minotaur

The stock Einherjar loses to all stock classical MUs except-
Wadjet
Centaur
Anubite
Promethean
Automaton

The Einherjar is affected by-
All instant kill Mythic MU specials and the Frost Giant's freeze
The Bull Minotaur's throw
The Battle Boar's spinning kick
The Hekagigantes' ground pound

4. Titan Boost Test- 1 Einherjar + 1 Titan vs 1 Wonder (9999 hp, 30% hack armour, 5% crush armour) :
This test shows what a difference the Einherjar's boost makes to your titan. Once again the Einherjar does not take part in the combat itself. It merely attacks a nearby building withing range of its horn. Without the boost, the titan takes 50 seconds to destroy the wonder. With the boost working, it's attack is boosted to a maximum of 103 and that makes a big difference. It takes the titan a whole 10 seconds less to wreck the wonder.

5. vs Buildings- 3 Giant Killer Einherjars vs 1 TC (2800 hp):
This test shows that the Einherjars are no slouches when it comes to buildings. It takes them 60 seconds to destroy the building losing one of their number in the process.

These tests show that the Einherjar is a good combat unit on it's own. It also shows what a world of difference it's special can make if used properly.

Suggested Usgae

Before I go onto the specific civs, I'd like to make some general suggestions on how to maximise the effect of the specials. It is worth noting that the boost is on the base attack of the unit affected. Therefore, it stands to logic that it is better to use the boost with units that have big multipliers to their base attacks. Two norse units perfect for this boost are the Throwing Axemen and the Fire Giants. Norse TAs get a big multiplier vs infantry. A top upgrade TA does about 9 hack damage. The boost would take this to a maximum of 11. But given the 3x multiplier TAs get vs infantry, you are actually getting a boost of about 6 vs infantry which is so ubiquitous to the game. In the case of the Fire Giant, even though it has been emasculated since we first saw it and it's base attack is very low, it gets a big multiplier vs anything other than heroes. It has a huge multiplier vs human units, a huge multiplier vs buildings and also one against other MUs. This is the perfect unit to boost with the Einherjars. True, the boost does not last that long but it still makes a difference. Do you know that it is theoretically possible to actually time the attacks of the Einherjars so that the boost lasts longer where one Einherjar's horn takes over where the previous one just stopped. Practically though, that requires micro at a level that has not been seen ever before. Still, using the line formation makes sure that no more than two arrive on the target at the same time. That apart, Einherjar's can be a very useful melee combat unit. Now civ specific-

vs Greeks- Use to take out infantry and defend agianst cavalry. Also use them against the expensive military buildings. Watch out for the heroes.

vs Norse- Rips apart TA and other infantry. Can also stand up to hersirs. Good as a defense against RC. Watch out for other Norse MUs though.

vs Egyptians- Try not to use them vs Egyptians. They are so slow that the priests will have them for breakfast. If you have to use them, keep them as a counter for war elephants.

vs Atlanteans- Excellent to counter weak MUs, infantry and arcus. Turmae are too fast for it. Excellent vs the weak buildings of the Atlanteans. Watch out for ranged units + valour which you would be too slow to escape from.

Conclusion
The Einherjar is an exceptionally good unit. As a combat unit alone, it is better than just useful. The upgrade is great and it does not cost that much given how easy gold is for Norse players (use dwarves) to accumulate. The best part though, is it's special. While the boost might not seem to last for long, it can make a major difference to a battle. Taking everything into consideration, I give this unit a thumbs up.
What about the Heimdall package? Does it back up it's excellent myth unit? The major myth tech is pretty useful in as much as it strengthens your weak norse buildings but I do not believe that it is as useful as Thundering Hooves, Mithril Breastplate or the Hall of Thanes. The god power is slightly better than useful and is probably more useful than the other two available in Classical. All in all, a solid package. Now to the choices-
For Loki players, taking Heimdall is a no brainer. Your hersirs automatically summon healing Valkyries and ranged Trolls in combat free of charge and at a much higher probability rate than they summon Einherjars. I would not reccommend any other choice in classical. For Odin players, is it really worth giving up the ability to heal and Thundering Hooves for Heimdall? Personally, I do not think so. The Valkyrie is as I showed last week, very good at raiding so I definitely think Odin players are better off taking Freyja.
To sum it up, the Einherjar is a solid, accomplished melee unit with an excellent special. It has a few flaws but on the whole, I have no complaints. Happy hornblowing.

Next after week, I'll do any Norse or Greek MU not covered by me so far-

Next week, I can't wait for ChimeraAtremis' next guide which will be covering an Egyptian MU.

Try making your choice in bold. You can do this by enclosing the text with tags-

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