Gaesatae (Civ6)

The Gaesatae is a unique melee unit of the Gallic civilization in Civilization VI. It replaces the Warrior.
* Common abilities:
** +5 Combat Strength vs. anti-cavalry units.
** Costs no to maintain.
* Special abilities:
** 
** 
* Special traits:
** 
== Strategy ==
The Gaesatae is an extremely powerful replacement for the Warrior. Their combat bonus against defenses makes them ideal for an early rush against a neighbor, and their bonus against stronger units will allow that conquest to be drawn out even in spite of a disadvantage. Combined with Ambiorix's bonus towards Combat Strength, the Gaesatae can be quite a menace to deal with in the early game, even for civilizations with strong early unique units like Sumeria or the Aztecs.
The highlight of this unit lies in its 10 Combat Strength bonus whenever it fights a unit with a higher base Combat Strength. This makes it especially strong against Spearmen and Heavy Chariots, whose Combat Strength is high enough to activate their bonus but low enough to have lower Combat Strength after the bonus is factored in; even War-Carts and Eagle Warriors pale in a one-on-one combat against a Gaesatae. It also receives 5 Combat Strength bonus when fighting against defensible s, which will be elevated to 7 Combat Strength if the is garrisoned, thanks to Ambiorix's ability. These two bonuses combined make the Gaesatae a prime unit for early rushes. Beeline for Archery and Craftsmanship at the same time to unlock Archers and the Agoge policy card. The main drawback of the Gaesatae is that its cost is 50% higher than the normal Warrior, so this policy card is vital. Try to get at least 3 Gaesatae and 3 Archers, or you can flexibly lower the number of Archers and train more Gaesatae if the situation calls for it, since these two units have relatively similar cost. Use the Gaesatae as the frontline and try to keep your army close together when your units are carrying out attacks to maximize the horde-based bonus from Ambiorix. However, this rush may not work too well against civilizations with good early , since all your enemies need to do is to train Warriors. Warriors fight Gaesatae on equal footing if you don't take into account Combat Strength from Ambiorix, despite being a lot cheaper.
Before the April 2021 Update, the Gaesatae upgrades into the Musketman, which leaves a gaping void between the Ancient Era and the Renaissance Era in the frontline of the Gallic army, forcing them to train either cavalry units (which don't benefit from Ambiorix's ability), or anti-cavalry (which don't have pre-existing s from fighting earlier). However, this update, despite having no direct changes to Gauls, brought forth a change that shakes up the entire Gallic arsenal. The Man-At-Arms enters the fray at Apprenticeship as an intermediate unit between the Swordsman and Musketman, and the Gaesatae now upgrades into this new unit. What appears to be another weakness of the Gaesatae is that they cannot upgrade into Swordsmen, instead upgrading into Men-At-Arms. And thanks to the Gallic Oppidum, which instantly unlocks Apprenticeship, the Gaesatae will be able to quickly upgrade into Men-At-Arms, way before any other civilizations can, allowing them to extend their militaristic prowess long past the relevancy of the Gaesatae. When combined with Ambriorix's bonus Combat Strength for adjacent units and free upon training a military unit, the Gallic war machine can be unstoppable if they hit all their timing correctly. Due to the obvious lack of income, Gauls may have a hard time pre-building a lot of Gaesatae to upgrade them into Men-At-Arms, so the best way to field Men-At-Arms for Gauls is actually the conventional method. The extra from all the Mines and Apprenticeship, plus the from the Oppidum, makes it an achievable task. Also, every Man-At-Arms trained grants you 32 , coupled with from Mines, helps you reach Feudalism a lot faster than normal, which unlocks Feudal Contract policy card. For more information regarding build order to actualize the Man-At-Arms rush, head here.
Note that the Gaesatae's bonus against units with higher base Combat Strength applies on both offense and defense. Also, the comparison will always be drawn between the Gaesatae's base Combat Strength of 20 and the other unit's base Combat Strength, even when the Gaesatae is defending against a ranged or a siege unit. That is why you should not expect your Gaesatae to be sturdy against Archers' attacks, as they are not any better at defending against Archers than a regular Warrior.
== Civilopedia entry ==
== Gallery ==
File:Civ6 Gaesatae In-Game.jpg|Gaesatae in game
File:Historic Moment Gaesatae (Civ6).png|Historic Moment for building the Gaesatae
== Related achievements ==
ru:Гесат (Civ6)
Category:Units (New Frontier Pass)
Category:Gallic