Mameluke (Age of Empires II)

"Saracen unique unit. Camel with hand-to-hand attack at distance. Excels vs. other mounted units."

- Age of Empires II description

The Mameluke is the unique unit of the Saracens in Age of Empires II. It is a Camel with a ranged melee attack and an attack bonus against cavalry.

Mamelukes can be upgraded to Elite Mamelukes in the Imperial Age.

Tactics
Similarly to Throwing Axemen, Mamelukes are melee units, but they throw their scimitar for a range of 3. Due to their high speed (which makes them effective against foot-soldiers) and their natural strength against cavalry, Mamelukes are considered some of the best units in the game. This is offset by their high cost.

A well controlled group of these can take down any unit, except by higher number of ranged foot soldiers. Mamelukes are well rounded units suited for most combat situations.

When allied with Indians, Mamelukes benefit from the Indian team bonus that gives +5 attack bonus against buildings to Camels. In team games if the player has an Indian ally he or she can use the Mameluke as a supporting unit that can take down some buildings in a siege as well as they can counter the opponents cavalry that can put in danger the players siege engines that are used against Towers and Castles.

Mamelukes work well when paired with regular Camels, Hussars, or Cavalry Archers.

Mamelukes have a +11 bonus armor against anti-cavalry attacks since The Conquerors, however they are also in the camel armor class which means they actually take more damage from Pikemen and Camels. Mamelukes also take bonus damage from anti-archer attacks, which makes Skirmishers and Huskarls effective against them to a reasonable degree, even though these units have low melee armor meaning they take a lot of damage from Mamelukes. Furthermore, in The Conquerors and The Forgotten, Mamelukes take bonus damage from anti-ship attacks, due to being in the ship armor class. Therefore, defensive structures deal huge damage to Mamelukes and should be avoided. In The African Kingdoms, however, that is fixed.

Further statistics
As Mamelukes are unique to the Saracens, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:

Team bonuses

 * A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, Mamelukes are created and upgraded 25% faster, and Conscription and Zealotry are researched 25% faster.
 * A team containing Huns: Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry are 20% faster.
 * A team containing Indians: Mamelukes have +5 attack against buildings.
 * A team containing Teutons: Mamelukes are more resistant to conversion.

The Age of Kings

 * Mamelukes move at a speed of 1.41.
 * Non-Elite Mamelukes have an attack of 7.
 * Elite Mamelukes have a frame delay of 0.

The Conquerors

 * Mamelukes now move at a speed of 1.4.
 * Mamelukes receive +11 bonus armor against anti-cavalry attacks. Also, Mamelukes get a new armor class they share with ships. Consequently, they take bonus damage from anti-ship attacks.
 * Bloodlines introduced.
 * Heresy introduced.
 * Zealotry introduced.

The Forgotten

 * Non-Elite Mamelukes now have an attack of 8.

The African Kingdoms

 * The ship armor class is removed from the Mamelukes, and they receive a new camel armor class. Now only anti-camel, but not anti-ship attacks affect Mamelukes.
 * With patch 4.8, Elite Mamelukes now have a frame delay of 5.

Trivia

 * The Mameluke has the cheapest Elite upgrade in the game (with a total of 1,100 resources).
 * The Mameluke rides a camel which is incorrect, as in the history, the Mameluke used a horse instead.

History
"The mamelukes were slaves trained as warriors by various Arab leaders, partially because early believers in Islam would not fight each other. Slave warriors got around this ban. The mamelukes were well trained and highly motivated. A mameluke army from Egypt won a rare victory against the Mongols in Syria, turning these barbarian horsemen back from the Nile and North Africa. In time the mamelukes rose up against their Arab rulers and took control themselves. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in the eighteenth century, he defeated a mameluke army at the Battle of the Pyramids."