The Fire Lance is a siege weapon (or "siege infantry") used by the Chinese in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. Although the Fire Lance is classified as both a human unit and siege weapon, it is considered neither an archer nor an infantry unit. As such, they are countered by units that deal bonus damage to siege weapons.
God bonuses and upgrades[]
General[]
- Nü Wa reduces wood and gold cost by 10%.
- Shennong allows Fire Lances to deal Area of Effect damage and deal ×2.5 damage against buildings.
Medium Castle Soldiers, Heavy Castle Soldiers, and Champion Castle Soldiers: +10% attack, +1 Line of Sight, and +10%/15%/20% hit points respectively.- Levy Castle Soldiers and Conscript Castle Soldiers: -20% training time.
- Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons, and Iron Weapons: +10% pierce attack.
- Copper Mail, Bronze Mail, and Iron Mail: +10% hack armor.
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields, and Iron Shields: +10% pierce armor.
- Burning Pitch: +25% crush attack.
- Draft Horses: +20% movement speed.
- Engineers: +25% attack and +35% attack vs. walls.
- Jade Rabbit (Chang'e): +10% movement speed.
- Dragon Scales (Ao Kuang): +10% hack armor.
- Celestial Palace (Xi Wangmu): -20% training time.
- Golden Peaches (Xi Wangmu): +25% HP.
Note that Fire Lances get bonuses from Armory weapons technologies, but only as pierce attack. The attack in the lower screen description is crush damage (as the crush damage is greater than the pierce damage, and only the largest damage type is shown there), which is not affected by the armory weapons technologies. The Engineers technology benefits both crush damage and pierce damage.
Relic bonuses[]
Fire Lances are affected by Relics that benefit siege weapons, as well as those that benefit archers.
- Bow of Artemis: -15% resource cost
- Dwarven Calipers: -20% cost.
- Scarab Pendant: +1.0 attack bonus multiplier vs. buildings.
- Toothed Arrows: +5% attack.
- Trios Bow: +2 Line of Sight and range.
Strategy[]
The Fire Lance functions similarly to the Atlantean Destroyer, as it is a human unit that is effective against buildings. It is not as heavily armored, but it moves slightly faster, and can attack from a decent range (though not one as impressive as the Greek Gastraphetes). It is the only anti-building unit the Chinese have access in the Heroic Age, and is not as good at taking fortifications down on its own, due to its lower attack stat. As compensation, it costs less resources and occupies less population, so the Fire Lance is easier to mass and can be quite effective in groups.
Fire Lances are also the only true anti-archer unit the Chinese have access to, as they deal +150% bonus damage to them. Against anything with a melee attack however, they are highly vulnerable. Fire Lances have a minimum range and infantry or cavalry units will easily push them back. Therefore, like siege weapons, they must be accompanied by units that can counter those. As it is also considered a human unit, it is vulnerable to the instant kill abilities of some myth units.
The good pierce attack also make Fire Lances quite effective against infantry. With Chang'e's Jade Rabbit technology and Draft Horses Fire Lances get a total speed of 4.7 m/s. With that speed they can outrun almost every foot unit of the game which make them quite useful for raiding and may be combined together with cavalry.
To counter Fire Lance, one should not use anti-archer units such as Peltasts, Slingers, and Turmae as the Fire Lance is not considered an Archer; it is a Siege Weapon. One should use fast units or units with bonus damage against Siege Weapons, like Raiding Cavalry and Spearmen that deal +100% damage, Prodromoi and Katapeltes that deal +150% damage, or even Villagers that deal +100% bonus damage.
Changelog[]
Tale of the Dragon[]
- Initially, Fire Lances could not garrison in buildings. With patch 2.0, they can.
- Initially, Fire Lances have 80 hit points, 8 pierce damage, 10 crush damage, 150% damage against archers, and take 15 seconds to train. With patch 2.7, they have 65 hit points, 4 pierce damage, 12 crush damage, 250% damage against archers, and Burning Pitch adds +3 crush damage. With patch 2.8, they have 5 pierce damage and take 12 seconds to train.
- Initially, Shennong's Fire Lances have a splash area of 3 and 400% bonus damage vs buildings. With patch 2.7, this is reduced to an area of 2 and 250% bonus damage.
- With patch 2.8, Fire Lances can properly garrison.
History[]
| “ | The fire lance was perhaps the first employment of naphtha among singular infantrymen on a large scale. Prior to this naphtha was an agent used primarily for incendiary bombs and siege warfare. The fire lance is essentially a primitive hand-cannon attached to a long spear which ejected a projectile and a jet of fire for several feet. Originally designed to shoot small poisoned darts or other projectile points from a bamboo tube, they were one-shot weapons issued to give spearmen an edge in hand-to-hand combat against other spearmen. However, as technology improved the cannon became its own effective weapon, and the lance disappeared: the gun was born. | ” |
| —In-game help section | ||
Trivia[]
- Shennong's Fire Lances and Sitting Tigers are actually different units from those trained by Nü Wa or Fu Xi (due the area damage ability). This is evident in the Scenario Editor where two units named Fire Lance can be placed, and if this is done, double-clicking units of one type in-game will not select units of the other type.
- The Fire Lance was first introduced to the public in the He Bo teaser behind some Chu Ko Nu and Halberdiers.
- Its appearance is extremely anachronistic, as gunpowder wasn't invented in the Antiquity, but in the Middle Ages.
- The unit's anti-archer role might have been inspired by the Fire Lances unit of Rise of Nations, another well-known RTS.
Gallery[]
