Cliarthaire

"I have seen his forward spear. It is a meteor of death. The blood of thousands is on its steel."

— James Scott MacPhearson, Ossian

Cliarthaire: Vital statistics
Unit type	Heavy infantry
Built/trained at	Barracks
Damage and weapon type	Strong
Armour	High
Production cost	Pop cost: 1 Resource cost: 50; 60 Ramp cost: 2; 2
Range	Melee Low LOS
Unit move and creation speed	Unit movement speed: Slow Creation speed: Slow
Unit HP	Rather high
Technological requirements	Library Military Level 3 (Heraldry and chivalry) Upgrades to Sciltron Infantry
Factions available	Scotland

Armed with spears and clad in kilts of different colours and patterns, Cliarthaire are among some of the strongest units available to the Scots, being the best anti-cavalry unit in the game, but are slower than most heavy infantry. The Cliarthaire nevertheless holds his own among some of the more powerful Dark Age warriors available in the game. In suffiicient numbers and with a general's Forced March ability, they can even charge enemy archers, in which case the only enemy standing in the cliarthaire's way would be castles and other melee infantry units. The sluggish speed of the Cliarthaire makes them prime targets for archers, although it will be said that their superior stats should help them in a melee fight than most other spearmen.

There is a different version of this unit, which is armed with a Viking-style sparth axe, known as the Galloglaich. This unit is an exact copy save in four areas: it has 25% less armour, takes 33% less time to train and costs wealth to be recruited. Galloglaich infantry form the core of the mercenary armies of the Franks, Welsh and the Byzantines.