Heresy
Monastery - Castle AgeEvolution
Heresy
Castle AgeTechnology Effect
"Converted units die instead of switching sides"
Coach's Tip
Heresy makes your units die when converted instead of joining the enemy. Prevents your expensive units from being used against you.
Strategic Analysis
Strategic Identity
Heresy makes your units die when converted instead of joining the enemy. Prevents your expensive units from being used against you.
When to Research
High Priority
Research Heresy as soon as you have the resources and are using monastery units.
Combat Impact
Converted units die instead of switching sides
Civilization Access
* 32 civilizations have access to this technology.
Prepare your next matchup
Choose both civilizations for a game plan, key threats and an army composition.
Other Technologies to Explore
AoE Coach analysis
Context & meta
Heresy is a Castle Age technology researched at the Monastery. It costs 1,000 gold and takes 60 seconds. Units converted by an enemy Monk die instead of changing to the enemy color. The effect denies the opponent the usual reward of a conversion, but it also means a converted unit is lost rather than recovered. Heresy does not make units harder to convert and does not improve Monks. It is a deliberate answer for armies with expensive, irreplaceable bodies, and its enormous gold cost asks whether preventing enemy ownership is worth more than adding units or another technology.
History & balance
Heresy gives conversion warfare a different strategic endpoint. Instead of making a valuable unit survive or resist, it removes the possibility that the opponent will use that unit against its owner. The design creates a hard choice for both players: the Monk still threatens a kill through conversion, but the converted body cannot become a prize. Because Heresy costs a large amount of gold and has no general combat statistic, it remains a specialized matchup tool. Its role is clearest when the opponent plan is built around converting a small number of elite units rather than overwhelming the army with ordinary damage.
In pro play
Research Heresy when at least four expensive units are likely to face a Monk army and losing one to the enemy would be worse than losing it outright. Reserve 1,000 gold and the 60-second research window before the first conversion attempt; the Monastery must survive long enough to finish. Keep the army together, focus enemy Monks, and treat the technology as a backstop rather than an invitation to expose units. Against a single defensive Monk, the investment is usually too large. It becomes more credible in a prolonged Castle Age conversion war or when elite units cannot be replaced before the next timing.
How to counter it
No military unit counters Heresy itself. The classic timing error is researching the 1,000-gold technology after the important units have already been converted, or buying it against an opponent with no Monk army. The opportunity cost is enormous: 1,000 gold, 60 seconds, and a Monastery queue that produces neither Monks nor another technology. A practical threshold is four or more irreplaceable units facing at least three or four enemy Monks. Pressure the Monastery and fight before completion; after it finishes, still protect the units because Heresy trades enemy ownership for death. If this conversion decision keeps costing games, AoE Coach reads your matchup and gives you the composition and timing.