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The Immortal is a unique melee unit of the Persian civilization in Civilization VI. It replaces the Swordsman.

In the Gathering Storm expansion, the Immortal requires 10 Iron Iron to train.

  • Common abilities:
    • +5 Strength Combat Strength vs. anti-cavalry units. Also applies when making ranged attacks.
  • Special abilities:
    • Has a ranged attack (25 Ranged Strength Ranged Strength, 2 Range Range). Can still make melee attacks.
    • -17 Ranged Strength Ranged Strength against District District defenses and naval units.
  • Special traits:

Strategy[]

With the introduction of the Man-At-Arms, the power level and significance of Swordsman replacements got hampered, since now their opportunity windows become very narrow. The Immortal is not an exception, but its power spike got hit the least. Thanks to its unique attribute, the Immortal functions as both a Swordsman and an Archer, allowing it to perform things other unique Swordsmen cannot.

In the early game, sieging cities is mainly the job for Archers, since they can shoot cities without fear of retaliation, but Archers come with a major downside similar to other ranged units: they are very vulnerable up close, especially against Swordsmen and Horsemen, and they become practically a liability once enemy cities get their Walls up. For this reason, early armies that rely heavily on Archers need to be quite big, since they need a frontline to protect the Archers, and because they need to act quickly before Walls are finished, this frontline most likely comprises of Warriors only. This typical Archer rush can be feast-or-famine, since it depends a lot on how inept the response from the enemies is. The moment an enemy Horseman or Swordsman shows up, their cities will be almost twice as tanky, or if Walls get finished in time, a lot of your Production Production will go down the drain. And this is what makes the Immortal so powerful, since it is a foolproof unit that fixes all of these issues.

The Immortal is an anomaly: in spite of being a melee unit and following the appropriate promotion table, it is essentially an Archer with 20 extra Strength Combat Strength and the ability to capture cities. Being able to pelt enemies with arrows from a distance while having the resilience to defend itself against attacks allows the Immortal to quickly and safely gain XP and levels, and groups of them can chip away at cities until they're ripe for the taking. Having a ranged attack also gives the Immortal an unparalleled ability to focus fire and finish units within a turn, if the enemy tries to throw resistance back your way. Also, since they are melee units, they exert zone of control and can put cities under siege, something an army heavy on ranged units cannot perform easily. They can also use their melee attacks to capture cities, and they benefit from Battering Rams to counteract Walls.

The Immortals are exceptionally good at killing anti-cavalry units, since the Strength Combat Strength bonus against anti-cavalry units works on their ranged attacks. Also, their ranged attacks also benefit from Oligarchy's Strength Combat Strength bonus, making this government a priority for Persia in early conquest.

The bottleneck of using Immortals is the accumulation of Iron Iron. In the early game, hunt down 3 Barbarians to trigger the Eureka Eureka for Bronze Working, and make sure your empire has at least 2 sources of Iron Iron. Since the Immortal is a one-size-fits-all unit, there is almost no need for any other types of units in your army, besides a Battering Ram, so being able accumulate Iron Iron and Gold Gold quickly should be your priority within the first 2 eras. You can train Warriors en masse to upgrade at the beginning (each upgrade costs 130 Gold Gold), and then train Immortals the traditional way with Agoge after.

Later on, when the Persians have researched Apprenticeship and stockpiled some Iron Iron, they can upgrade their Immortals to Men-At-Arms and have a powerful force of melee units at their disposal.

Note that, by default, the Immortal attacks in melee. This matters because the right-click attack shortcut will trigger a melee attack instead of a ranged shot (as it does for ranged units). If you want your Immortal to shoot the target instead of approaching and attacking it in melee, you should explicitly give a ranged strike command, and not right-click!

Bugs[]

Immortals are incorrectly affected by modifiers that affect ranged units, such as the Coursers Promotion Promotion.

Civilopedia entry[]

The elite heavy infantry of the ancient Persian Empire has a fearsome reputation, but much that is known of them comes from the writings of Herodotus, whose accounts were widely read but not necessarily accurate. For example, the very name by which they are known—the Immortals—was of Greek origin, not Persian.

According to Herodotus, they were said to maintain a force of exactly 10,000 soldiers who, upon injury or death, were immediately replaced so they would never be anything less than full strength. As elite troops they were afforded special luxuries, such as their own food kept separately from the rest of the army. Their clothes were vibrant, covering coats made of armored metal scales, and they carried a variety of armaments such as short spears, swords, and powerful bows. Whatever their actual disposition, they were respected (and feared) by their contemporaries.

Gallery[]

See also[]

Civilization VI Units [edit]
Civilian SettlerBuilderTraderArchaeologistSpyNaturalistRock Band GS-Only
Land military AT CrewArcher (Hul'che1Pítati Archer1) • ArtilleryBarbarian Horse ArcherBarbarian HorsemanBombardCatapultCavalry (CossackHuszár GS-OnlyLlanero1) • Courser GS-Only (Black Army GS-OnlyOromo Cavalry1) • Crossbowman (Voi Chiến1) • Crouching TigerCuirassier GS-Only (Rough RiderWinged Hussar1) • Field Cannon (Hwacha R&F-Only) • Giant Death Robot GS-OnlyHeavy ChariotHelicopterHorseman (Hetairoi1) • Infantry (Digger1) • Keshig R&F-OnlyKnight (Mandekalu Cavalry GS-OnlyMamlukTagma1) • Line Infantry (Garde ImpérialeRedcoat) • Machine GunMalón Raider R&F-OnlyMan-At-Arms (Khevsur R&F-OnlyBerserkerSamurai) • Maryannu Chariot ArcherMechanized InfantryModern ATModern ArmorMountie GS-OnlyMusketman (ConquistadorJanissary GS-Only) • Nihang1Pike and Shot (Carolean GS-Only) • Pikeman (Impi R&F-Only) • Questing Knight4Ranger (Highlander R&F-Only) • Rocket ArtillerySabum Kibittum1Saka Horse ArcherScout (Okihtcitaw R&F-Only) • Skirmisher GS-Only (Warak'aq GS-Only) • SlingerSpearman (Hoplite) • Spec Ops R&F-OnlySwordsman (Hypaspist1Immortal1LegionNgao MbebaToa GS-Only) • TankTrebuchet (Domrey1) • Vampire3VaruWar-CartWarrior MonkWarrior (Eagle WarriorGaesatae1) • Zombie5
Naval military Aircraft CarrierBattleship (Minas Geraes) • Caravel (Nau1) • DestroyerFrigate (De Zeven Provinciën R&F-OnlyJong1) • Galley (Bireme GS-OnlyViking Longship) • IroncladMissile CruiserNuclear SubmarinePrivateer (Barbary Corsair GS-OnlySea Dog) • Quadrireme (Dromon1) • Submarine (U-Boat)
Aircraft BiplaneBomberFighter (P-51 Mustang) • Jet BomberJet Fighter
Support Anti-Air GunBattering RamCultist3Drone R&F-OnlyMedicMilitary EngineerMobile SAMObservation BalloonSiege TowerSoothsayer2Supply Convoy R&F-Only
Religious ApostleGuruInquisitorMissionary
See also Great PeopleHeroes
1 Requires DLC2 Apocalypse mode only • 3 Secret Societies mode only • 4 Heroes & Legends mode only • 5 Zombie Defense mode only

R&F-Only Added in the Rise and Fall expansion pack.
GS-Only Added in the Gathering Storm expansion pack.

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