Indians (Age of Empires III)

The Indians are one of the three civilizations available in the Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties expansion. The Indians in-game requires wood to train their villagers, therefore, playing them will require an overhaul of the usual tactics used by traditional civilisations, making it essentially a "Dutch of the East". The Indians in-game are based on the Mughal Empire, which controlled the vast majority of present-day India and surrounding territories, under its illustrious ruler Akbar the Great, under whom the empire reached its greatest extent.

Advantages & Unique Units


Like the Spanish, the Indians main advantage in battle is a wide and balanced selection of different types of units. The Indianshave a unit to fufill every role in war - their Sepoys fight well as musketeers, the Gurkhas provide good skirmisher support, and Rajputs help shield the light infantry and assault enemy lines. The Indian hand cavalry, the Sowar, is relatively fast, even when compared to other cavalry, although fairly fragile. The Indians have another hand cavalry unit, the Urumi. The Urumi can only be sent from the Home City as it is one of the most vital constituents of any Indian force. The Urumi has bonuses against heavy infantry and ranged cavalry, yet it is hand cavalry. The Indian dragoon is the Zamburak,

All Indian units are unique, although most are modelled after a particular European civilisation's troops.

Elephant Mounts
In order to rebalance the general fragile units of the Indians, the Indians primary shock troopers are their elephants - powerful cavalry units with incredibly high hitpoints and splash damage. The Indians have four distinct elephant units, excluding their monks, each with a different role.

List of Elephant units

 * Howdah - Powerful dragoon unit. Expensive with very high hitpoints, it is excellent for its primary purpose - sniping enemyFlail_elephant.jpg cavalry. It is also suitable for taking out artillery.
 * Flail Elephant - The cheapest elephant available. Has a good siege attack and is suitable against artillery. With its high ranged resistance, it can bring down most fortifications without much cost of life and limb.
 * Siege Elephant - Basically a cannon on an elephant's back. As the name implies, the Siege Elephant is excellent at siege. However, it is also encompasses other artillery abilities, such as anti-artillery and ship bonus. Despite this, the Siege Elephant performs very poorly against troops, although they do have high hitpoints.
 * Mahout - This elephant unit is the strongest of all the elephants. Like the Cuirassier, the it has high India_-_charminar_gate.jpgints, high resistance and a wide splash area. Although not that effective against heavy infantry , this unit is devastating against archers and Skirmishers. Also effective against buildings.

Mansabdar units
The Charminar gate wonder acts as a universal unit trainer, however, units there have twice the amount of hitpoints and thus, costs twice as much. These units are affixed with the name "Mansabdar". Mansabdar units exude an aura which increases same-type units' hitpoints and boosts damage by 10%. These units are well worth their costs, as when used appropriately, they can dominate any battlefield,

Economy
The Indians main economic distinction is that their villagers costs wood, rather than food. Thus, instead of sending villagers to forage berries or hunt, an Indian player would be mostly chopping wood. This leaves them somewhat weakened if they are in a map with little trees. The Indian civilisation will also need to distribute the wood stock between building houses or training villagers early in the game. Fortunately, Indian players will receive free villagers with every shipment, much like how Germans receive Uhlan with every shipment, although the Indians lack any villager shipment cards. Due to this unique ability, Indian players are considered to be far to reliant on the Home City card deck, thus, a blockade would be devastating.

The Indians are unable to slaughter cows and other herdables due to religious reasons, but this is, in fact, viewed as a bonus rather than a handicap. When a cow is obtained, it would automatically begin providing additional XP. The Indians also have a unique building, the Sacred Field, which allows cows to be tasked on it in order for them to generate even more XP.

Founding
The Mughal Dynasty was founded when Babur, a conqueror from Ferghana (Modern day Uzbekistan), invaded large tracts of land in northern India. Babur was descended from Timur (Tamerlane) on his father's side of the family, thus, the Mughals are often known as the Timurids. Additionally, Babur's mother was descended from the great Mongol leader, Genghis Khan. The incursion culminated at the First Battle of Panipat, in 1526, where the sovereign at Delhi, Ibrahim Shah Lodhi, was defeated. The Delhi Sultanate was swiftly replaced by the Mughal Empire, which encompassed vast portions of modern day India.

Akbar the Great
However, in the reign of Babur's son Humayun, Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan official, founded the Suri Dynasty, defeating Humayun in battle and founding his own state. Oddly enough, Sher Shah suddenly died, leaving a trail of incompetent successors who were quickly vanquished. By 1555, Humayun had restored imperial rule and reclaimed his throne. A few months later, Humayun died, leaving the throne to his young 13-year-old son, Akbar, who was later referred to as Akbar the Great. Under the reign of Akbar the Great, the greatest acquisitions of land were made, and the empire expanded at its greatest rate as any other Mughal ruler had accomplished. The military might Akbar established effectively placed the Mughal empire as the dominant force on the Indian subcontinent for the next century to come.

Akbar introduced many new policies which ultimately benefited the people and contributed to an harmonious coexistence within the state. As the Hindu peoples in India had shown considerable resistance to Muslim conquests, Akbar abolished the jizya tax, promoting religious freedom. Hindus, for the first time since the founding of the Mughal Empire, were given a say in the ruling of the state. He arranged many important marriage-alliances with the Hindu Rajput caste, he himself marrying a Rajput princess



Mariam-Uz-Zahani.

Decline
Beginning with Bahadur Shah I, who was crowned in 1707, the Mughal Emperors progressively decline in power, eventually becoming figureheads manipulated by power-hungry court officials. Later, the officials were slowly being replaced by warlords ruling within their self-proclaimed semi-autonomous states. In the 18th century, the Empire suffered the depredations of invaders like Nadir Shah of Persia and Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan, who repeatedly sacked Delhi, the Mughal capital. The greater portion of the empire's territories in India passed to the Marathas, who sacked Delhi, reducing the once powerful and mighty empire to just lone city before falling to the British. The British began to address the Mughal Emperor as "King of Delhi" instead of "Emperor of India", reflecting the severely reduced authority that the Emperor wielded. By 1805, the British East India Company ordered the disbandment of the once-mighty Mughal army, with the exception of the Emperor's guard.

During the Sepoy Rebellion, some of the rebels declared their allegiance with the Mughal Emperor, although that was meant as nothing more than a figurehead cause. Alarmed, the British decided to dismiss with all courtesies and abolish the Mughals. The last Mughal Emperor was forced abdicate and was exiled to Burma, where he passed away 5 years later, ending the Mughal Empire.

Wonders
Indian wonders are among the best in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties. Like other Asian civilisations, the Indians advances in age by buildings wonders. Below is a list of Wonders available to the Indians and the bonuses they provide:
 * Tower of Victory - This wonder sends a shipment of Wood once built. It also unlocks the Inspiration ability, which boosts land units speed, hitpoints and damage for 15 seconds.
 * Agra Fort - Acts as a European Fortress. Initially, it can only train barracks units, but an upgrade available in the Fortress ageIndia_-_taj_mahal.jpg and the Industrial Age can unlock the training of Stable and Castle units respectively. Sends Sepoys after construction
 * The Karni Matar - Has the ability "Keeper of Rats" which boosts villager gathering within 36 range of the wonder. Sends all three resources once completed


 * Charminar Gate - This wonder sends Sowars if built to advance to the Colonial Age, but sends Mahouts if built later. Able to train Mansabdar units.


 * Taj Mahal - Once constructed, this wonder sends crates of coins. It also unlocks an ability, known as "Cease Fire". When activated, all units on the map cannot attack for 20 seconds.