Heavy Camel Rider

The Heavy Camel is the upgraded version of the Camel in Age of Empires II. It is stronger than the Camel, with more hitpoints and attack. They are powerful against cavalry but nothing else. Any civilization that has camels, can upgrade them to heavy camels.

Tactics
Camels are essentially mounted Spearmen, doing bonus damage to their own kind as well as other cavalry units. Camels have an advantage over Spearmen since they have enough speed to prevent cavalry from escaping, at the cost of higher food and gold costs. Using Camels against civilizations that revolve around cavalry units, such as Franks, Saracens, Persians, and Mongols often lend great results. They can go head to head with other Imperial Age cavalry and defeat them in combat.

They are ultimately good against cavalry, though they still lose one-on one against heavy cavalry. They are not strong against Cataphracts, which are immune to the bonus damage from Camels. Heavy Camels inflict a slight amount of extra damage, but too little to perform well against them. Camels are best used against melee cavalry, or to ambush groups of Cavalry Archers. Since they have a very low armor, they are not effective against anything else than cavalry, so it is wise not send them against Archers or Infantry, particularly Spearmen. Camels are also ineffective against buildings and actually take extra damage from defensive ones. This is because Camels and Ships share the same unit type in Age of Empires II, so Camels will be annihilated by defensive structures with Heated Shot. Units that do bonus damage against ships, also do bonus damage against camels. This makes Fire Ships, Galleons and Longboats surprisingly effective against them. In The African Kingdoms expansion, camels are no longer classified as ships.

Only Mongols, Chinese, Middle East (Berbers, Saracens, Turks, Persians, Indians, Byzantines) and African Civilizations have Heavy Camels.

Civilizations bonuses

 * Chinese: Technologies that benefits Camels are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in Feudal/Castle/Imperial age.
 * Byzantines Camel units are 25% cheaper.
 * Indians Camels have +1 armor/+1 pierce armor.
 * Berbers Heavy Camels are 20% cheaper in Imperial age

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Huns, Camels are produced 20% faster.
 * A team containing Teutons, Camels are more resistant to conversion.
 * A team containing Indians, Camels have +6 attack vs buildings.

The Conquerors Changes
Heavy Camels gain 0.05 speed and gain 9 damage against other Camels (but no longer count as cavalry, resulting in a net loss of 9 damage against Camels).

The Forgotten Changes

 * Camels have +1 attack.

African Kingdoms Changes

 * Camels are no longer classified as ships

History
''The heavy camel was an especially experienced warrior and camel rider who wore some armor. They were used by desert civilizations of the Middle East who fought against archers from the Byzantine Empire and horse archers raiding down from the steppes of Asia.''