Shielded

Shielded is an effect and the missile equivalent of the Melee Defence uni stat which increases the chances of blocking missile fire, in other words, of missile attacks not hitting and missing the defender (hidden Missile Parry unit stat). It is not an armour-related damage mitigation effect against missile fire. This effect is exclusive to infantry and cavalry units and those with Shield in their name are very likely to have it. Unlike contact effects, it cannot be removed or replaced by a different effect but it may be upgraded to a higher blocking tier level. It has with the following restrictions:

• Only affects missile attacks from the physical damage channel, so it does not increase the chance of missile magical attacks or flaming attacks not hitting and missing the defender.
• Only interacts with the so-called small-arms missile fire, that is to say missile damage from missile units of normal (human) size or smaller. For example, artillery and monstrous missile units' fire is unaffected.
• Only triggers against missile fire hitting from the front, in other words, the 120º degree cone area in front of the unit (to clarify, that is 60º degrees on each side of an immaginary vertical line in front of the defender).

A unit benefiting from the Shielded effect is identified with a shield icon next to its armour value in the unit panel. Currently, there are 5 tiers for Shielded effects with varying percentage of blocked damage which are differentiated with colour-coded icons (35% and below or 55% and above share the same icon at moment).

• = 20%
• = 30%
• = 35%
• = 55%
• = 60%

Similarly to Melee Defence, Shielded will trigger during the hit stage of an attack, the step where an attack is calculated to hit or miss the target. If it misses, it is deemed to have been blocked and this is why Shielded is said to increase the chances of blocking missile fire. If the missile attack hits, then armour mitigation and other applicable physical resistance effects against missile fire, such as missile resistance, physical resistance and ward save, are calculated and cumulatively.

Tooltip description

Shielded

This unit has a shield and will block xx% of all small-arms missile fire hitting it from the front.

Notable units

There is a small number of units in the game with the Shielded effect and some remarkable ones are itemised below - not a comprehensive list!

= 20%

• Dark Elves' Sisters of Slaughter whip infantry unit
• High Elves' Loremaster of Hoeth wizard hero
• High Elves' Swordmasters of Hoeth greatsword infantry unit

= 30%

• Beastmen's Centigors bestial cavalry unit
• Greenskins' Forest Goblin Spider Riders cavalry unit
• Greenskins' Goblin Wolf Riders and Moon-howlers (Goblin Wolf Riders) cavalry units
• Greenskins' Orc Boar Boyz shock cavalry unit
• High Elves' Silver Helms (Shields) shock cavalry unit
• Lizardmen's Cold One Riders cold one cavalry unit
• Lizardmen's Cold One Spear-Riders and Pop-Hopak Cohort (Cold One Spear-Riders) cold one cavalry units
• Lizardmen's Horned Ones cavalry unit
• Norsca's Marauder Horsemen (Throwing Axes) missile cavalry unit
• The Empire's Demigryph Knights monstrous shock cavalry unit
• The Empire's Empire Knights shock cavalry unit
• The Empire's Knights of the Blazing Sun shock cavalry unit
• The Empire's Reiksguard and Zintler's Reiksguard (Reiksguard) shock cavalry units
• Dwarf's Slayers and Dragonback Slayers (Slayers) axe infantry unit
• Warriors of Chaos Chaos Knights and Swords of Chaos (Chaos Knights) cavalry
• Warriors of Chaos Chaos Knights (Lances) shock cavalry
• Marauder Horsemen (Throwing Axes) Missile cavalry

= 35%

• Beastmen's Gor Herd (Shields) and Black-Horn's Ravagers (Gor Herd - Shields) spear infantry units
• Beastmen's Ungor Herd axe infantry unit
• Beastmen's Ungor Spearmen Herd (Shields) and Destroyers of the Drakwald (Ungor Spearmen Herd - Shields) spear infantry units
• Bretonnia's Boris Todbringer unique sword infantry lord
• Dark Elves' Cold One Knights cold one spear cavalry unit
• Dark Elves' Cold One Dread Knights and Knights of the Ebon Claw (Dread Knights) cold one cavalry units
• Dark Elves' Dark Riders (Shields) shock cavalry unit
• Dwarfs' Bugman's Rangers missile infantry unit
• Dwarfs' Dwarf Warriors and Warriors of Dragonfire Pass (Dwarf Warriors) axe infantry units
• Dwarfs' Ironbreakers and Norgrimlings Ironbreakers (Ironbreakers) axe infantry units
• Dwarfs' Longbeards axe infantry unit
• Dwarfs' Lord axe infantry lord
• Dwarfs' Quarrellers missile infantry unit
• Dwarfs' Rangers missile infantry unit
• Dwarfs' Slayers and Dragonback Slayers (Slayers) axe infantry units
• Dwarfs' Thane melee specialist hero
• Dwarfs' Thunderers missile infantry unit
• Greenskins' Orc Boyz sword infantry unit
• Greenskins' Orc Warboss sword infantry lord
• High Elves' Dragon Princes and The Fireborn (Dragon Princes) shock cavalry units
• Lizardmen's Saurus Oldblood mace infantry lord
• Lizardmen's Saurus Scar-Veteran melee specialist hero
• Lizardmen's Saurus Spears (Shields) and Legion of Chaqua (Saurus Spears) spear infantry units
• Lizardmen's Saurus Warriors (Shields) mace infantry unit
• Lizardmen's Skink Cohort cudgel infantry unit
• Lizardmen's Skink Cohort (Javelins) missile infantry unit
• Lizardmen's Temple Guards and Star Chamber Guardians (Temple Guards) halberd infantry unit
• Norsca's Marauder Chieftain axe infantry lord
• Norsca's Marauders and Icehorn Marauders (Marauders) axe infantry units
• Norsca's Marauder Champions axe infantry unit
• Skaven's Clarats (Shields) and Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (Clanrats-Shields) sword infantry units
• Skaven's Clanrat Spears (Shields) spear infantry unit
• Skaven's Stormvermin (Sword & Shield) sword infantry unit
• Skaven's Warlord sword infantry lord
• Skaven's Warplock Jezzails and Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (Warplock Jezzails) weapon team units
• The Empire's Empire Captain melee specialist hero
• The Empire's General of the Empire sword infantry lord
• The Empire's Spearman (Shields) spear infantry unit
• The Empire's Swordsmen and Sigmar's Sons (Swordsmen) sword infantry units
• Warriors of Chaos Chaos Marauders axe infantry
• Warriors of Chaos Chaos Warriors axe infantry

= 55%

• Beastmen's Minotaurs (Shields) and Butchers of Kalkengard (Minotaurs - Shields) monstrous infantry units
• Beastmen's Wargor melee specialist hero
• Dark Elves' Bleakswords sword infantry unit
• Dark Elves' Darkshards (Shields) and The Bolt-fiends (Darkshards - Shields) missile infantry units
• Dark Elves' Dreadlord (Sword & Shield) sword infantry lord
• Dark Elves' Dreadspears and The Hellebronai (Dreadspears) spear infantry units
• Dark Elves' Master melee specialist hero
• Dwarfs' Belegar Ironhammer legendary hammer infantry lord
• Greenskins' Black Orc Big Boss melee specialist hero
• Greenskins' Goblins spear infantry unit
• Greenskins' Goblin Big Boss melee specialist hero
• Greenskins' Night Goblins, Night Goblins (Fanatics), Da Eight Peak Loonies (Night Goblin - Fanatics) and Da Warlord's Boyz (Night Goblins) sword infantry units
• Greenskins' Night Goblin Warboss sword infantry lord
• High Elves' Lothern Sea Guard (Shields) missile and spear infantry unit
• High Elves' Prince sword infantry lord
• High Elves' Silvering Guard spear infantry unit
• High Elves' Spearmen and The Scions of Mathlann (Spearmen) spear infantry units
• Lizardmen's Gok-Rok legendary mace infantry lord
• Norsca's Wulfrik the Wanderer legendary sword infantry lord
• The Empire's Boris Todbringer unique sword infantry lord
• Warriors of Chaos Chaos Warriors and Mirror Guard (Chaos Warriors) infantry
• Aspiring Champions infantry
• Warriors of Chaos Chaos Lord lord
• Warriors of Chaos Prince Sigvald the Magnificent legendary lord
• Warriors of Chaos Exalted Hero hero

= 60%

• Dark Elves' Malekith legendary wizard lord
• Warriors of Chaos Archaon the Everchosen legendary lord
• Warriors of Chaos Chosen melee infantry

Interactions

Shielded interacts with a few abilities, ancillaries, such as items, and traits to enable upgraded or specific bonuses.

• tbc - find that armour, enchanted item and talisman i cant remember
• tbc - dig the abilities and traits
• Shieldbreaker

Trivia

• The unit with a Shielded effect and the lowest armour value, at 0!, is the Dwarfs' Slayers axe infantry unit with = 35%.
• The unit with a Shielded effect and the highest armour value, at 125!, is the Dwarfs' Ironbreakers axe infantry unit with = 35%.

History

This effect is one of the oldest effects in the Total War: Warhammer game series and has undergone several transformations. Originally, there were only 4 tiers for Shielded effects with varying percentage of blocked damage which are differentiated with colour-coded icons, namely:

• = 20%, so-called bronze tier
• = 40%, so-called iron tier
• = 60%, so-called silver tier
• = 80%, so-called gold tier