Advanced Plate Useless?

[Leaf-Fan-Forever]

In all the vanilla games I've played, I have yet to find a unit that can use Advanced Plate? Can any unit?

[Ishan]

Eg are Broken Lances, Famiglia Ducale units that uses Plate Armour and can be upgraded to Gothic Armour which is the last level.

[Lysimachus]

In all the vanilla games I've played, I have yet to find a unit that can use Advanced Plate? Can any unit?

Armoured Swordsmen, Men at Arms and Chivalric Knights can be upgraded to advanced plate, and the units Ishan mentioned already use it.

[PotentSchraphlon]

I hadn't noticed armoured swordsmen having it. But I suppose any unit that starts with full plate should upgrade to advanced plate, though I dare say there are some that don't have an upgrade

[Leaf-Fan-Forever]

thanks for the responses. not sure if I can give rep yet but if I can I will. But only a few units can get it then?

[Ishan]

thanks for the responses. not sure if I can give rep yet but if I can I will.

Read the FAQ's it will help in querying a lot of things about basic things on TWC.

But only a few units can get it then?

Yes that is correct.

[Lysimachus]

thanks for the responses. not sure if I can give rep yet but if I can I will. But only a few units can get it then?

Yes. It would be quite silly to have plate-armoured militias since the armour is pretty high up on the technology tree in the game. It can be useful to upgrade the armour of lower grade units though because it increases their resistance to arrows quite nicely and makes them a bit more sturdy if you don't have any better units available in a specific area of the map where an enemy may be attacking you.

[Double A]

Also General's Bodyguard. +1 armor may not SOUND like much, but trust me, you'll need it if the AI also has super duper elite troops.

[thespaniard]

Also General's Bodyguard. +1 armor may not SOUND like much, but trust me, you'll need it if the AI also has super duper elite troops.

maybe if u playina human enemy otherwise its just easyier to outflank attack and reattack and etc

[Double A]

maybe if u playina human enemy otherwise its just easyier to outflank attack and reattack and etc

True, but why take a chance against those crossbowmen?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Actually only a few units can use advanced plate. Most units mentioned in this thread can only be upgraded to full plate (like armored swordsmen etc.). Those units Ishan mentioned can be upgraded to advanced plate.

[... where did it run?]

Man at arms (mounted and dismounted), Broken lances (mounted and dismounted) Familia ducale. More units have advanced plate but rest of them already starts with it like french Lancers or HRE gothic knights.

Armor upgrades are good thing, unfortunatly units which can get Adv plate upgrade are reletivly weak. Like man-at-arms. The cav itself is medicore at best. And dismounted versions has quite low morale. In conclusion the upgrade is quite essiantial to make them to be worth the cost.


Armoured swordsmen, chivalric knights, noble swordsmen and similiar can be upgraded up to full plate only.

[thespaniard]

True, but why take a chance against those crossbowmen?

thats why i keep a couple units of peasents with every army

[Ishan]

thats why i keep a couple units of peasents with every army

Yes a couple of canon fodders also helps.

[MJDreamWalker13]

Those few units that can get an advanced plate upgrade are awesome as they are. But they are awesomer* with the upgrade.


*A spelling mistake used on purpose in order to literally highlight the importance of the given point.

[beckyolt]

I think all ( Faction name ) Knights can use adv plate

[midget_roxx]

I find the armour buildings to be a bit too expensive and take too long to build. I would much rather have an army than a 8000 forge taking forever to build.

[Silverheart]

Only the heaviest armoured elite troops of a small number of factions can use the advanced plate.
There are some factions which doesn´t have any units at all that can use it, but they can still build the Armour factory to acquire the possibility. To those factions, Armour factories only serve the purpose of incresing the chance of your family members getting "fine armour" in their retinue list.
I think there should be at least one unit in every faction that can get it, just to make it somewhat useful...
I only build the Armour factory if I´m financially independent, and if there isn´t any other buildings that I feel is more necessary in that particular region.

[Avatar]

Its not historically accurate during this time frame for all factions to have access to advanced plate. The Italian states get it because historically Italy was turning out some super-armored knights in the middle ages, which sadly ran into a pointy end when they were hired by the French and got in the way of a couple of English longbow volleys. Nations such as the Islamic factions and Spain had armies designed to fight in hotter climates, so wouldnt have been so keen to have extra heavy armor weighing them down on long desert marches.

[Shasqua]

Its not historically accurate during this time frame for all factions to have access to advanced plate. The Italian states get it because historically Italy was turning out some super-armored knights in the middle ages, which sadly ran into a pointy end when they were hired by the French and got in the way of a couple of English longbow volleys. Nations such as the Islamic factions and Spain had armies designed to fight in hotter climates, so wouldnt have been so keen to have extra heavy armor weighing them down on long desert marches.

Actually, the heavily armored Italian cavalry effortlessly massacred the English longbowmen at the Battle of Verneuil. The arrows simply could not pierce their armour. Then the Italian mercs got distracted looting the baggage train and when they got back to the fight, they found that their side had lost.