- For other units with the same name, see Priest.
Description[]
Priests do not have an attack value. Their ability is to convert enemy units and with later upgrades enemy buildings and even enemy priests. A successfully converted enemy unit will put under the player's control, even if the population limit has already been reached. Their conversion hotkey is C, and their training one is E. Priests by default will run away if attacked, but if their Unit Behavior is set to aggressive, they will attempt to defend themselves by converting the attacking unit.
Strengths[]
Priests are a convenient way to acquire "free units" as there are no resource costs. The use of priests becomes even more important if the enemy possesses units which the player cannot build (for instance Horsemen in the Greek Campaign scenario "Warriors From The Sea"). They allow the acquisition of such units, even if the player has not yet reached the epoch which is required to train them. The more Priests that are focused on unit, the quicker the conversion. They are also a way to "cheat" the Population capacity limit.
Also, Priests can be given the power to convert other Priests (by researching the Printing Press technology in the Renaissance) and even buildings (by researching Missionaries in the Imperial Age). Units and buildings in the vicinity of a University cannot be converted by an enemy’s Priests.
By constructing the Tower of Babylon Wonder, Priests can convert more than one enemy at a time. Priests can therefore convert many with the same effort it previously took to convert one.
In The Art of Conquest, choosing the Kingdom of Israel civilization grants Priests invisibility from enemy units until they are close enough, even while they are being converted.
Weaknesses[]
Defending against priests is relatively easy from the Copper Age onwards. As long as a unit or building is in a range of a University, it cannot be converted by a priest.
Prehistoric Age and Stone Age do not offer specific defense mechanisms against priests, but early priests have relatively low hitpoints and can easily be taken down. Also, priests are relatively slower than other units.
One keynote is Priests cannot convert Prophets or Heroes. Although prophets themselves cannot kill the priests on their own, a right dose of Malaria would make it easier for ranged units to kill them.
They also cannot convert Aircraft and Cyber units although Priests themselves are hardly useful at this point in the game.
Another effective defense against priests is to have the Conversion Resistance civilization bonus, which makes it harder for enemy priests to convert player units.
