Camel Rider (Age of Empires II)

"Excels at killing other mounted units."

- Age of Empires II description

The Camel is a cavalry unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Stable once the Castle Age is reached. It is good against cavalry. Every civilization that has access to Camels can upgrade them to Heavy Camels.

Tactics
The Camel has an attack of 15 against cavalry which is notably high for a Castle Age unit. Cavalry can more easily escape from Pikemen than they can from Camels because of their speed, meaning that whilst Pikemen can often just scare cavalry away, Camels can pursue them and finish them off. Using Camels against civilizations that revolve around cavalry units, such as Berbers, Franks, Mongols, Persians, and Saracens often lands great results. Upgrading to Heavy Camel in the Imperial Age helps them keep pace.

Camels are best used only against melee cavalry or to ambush groups of Cavalry Archers. Because of their weak armor and base attack, they are at a disadvantage against infantry and archers. They also lose their bonus against the resilient Cataphract, which has a special defense against anti-cavalry attack bonuses.

Civilization Bonuses

 * Berbers: Camels are cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Byzantines: Camels are 25% cheaper.
 * Chinese: Technologies that benefit Camels are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Indians: Camels have +1/+1 armor.

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, researching Conscription is 25% faster.
 * A team containing Huns: Camels are created and upgraded 20% faster. Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry is 20% faster.
 * A team containing Indians: Camels have +6 attack against buildings.
 * A team containing Teutons: Camels are more resistant to conversion.

The Age of Kings

 * Camels have a base attack of 5.
 * Camels have an attack bonus against cavalry of +10.
 * Camels need 29 seconds to train.
 * Camels have a movement speed of 1.4.
 * Camels are in the cavalry armor class, thus taking bonus damage from anti-cavalry attacks.
 * The upgrade to the Heavy Camel needs 125 seconds.

The Conquerors

 * Camels now train in 22 seconds.
 * Camels now have a movement speed of 1.45.
 * The cavalry armor class is removed from the Camels, so they don't take bonus damage from anti-cavalry attacks anymore. Instead, Camels are moved in another armor class along with ships, and now take bonus damage from anti-ship/anti-camel attacks. The Camels themselves also gain an attack bonus of +5 against their own class (and as such, also against ships).
 * Bloodlines introduced.
 * Heresy introduced.
 * Saracens: Zealotry introduced.

The Forgotten

 * Camels now have a base attack of 6.
 * Camels now have an attack bonus against cavalry of +9.
 * The upgrade to the Heavy Camel now needs 105 seconds.

The African Kingdoms

 * The ship armor class is removed from the Camels, and they receive a new armor class, against which they also gain an attack bonus of +5. Nevertheless, the Camels keep their attack bonus of +5 against ships. Anti-cavalry attacks still don't affect Camels.
 * Berbers: Initially, Camels were 20% cheaper from the Castle Age on. With patch 4.8, that bonus was staggered to 15%/20% in the Castle/Imperial Age.

Trivia

 * The Camel is one of the few units whose availability among civilizations corresponds very well with real-world history. The Camel was used by different armies between the Mediterranean Sea and India from antiquity to modern day. While it is not known if the Mongols and Chinese used the Camel for combat, they certainly used it for transporting ammunition, and for food, respectively.
 * The Far Eastern civilizations of the Mongols and the Chinese would have been as likely to domesticate the lesser known of the two species of Camel, the Bactrian (two hump) Camel, native to the steppes of Central Asia, as the familiar Middle Eastern Dromedary; both would have been introduced by Silk Road traders.
 * Camels are one of two military land units that do not make the usual military sound when created, the others being Trebuchets.
 * The Camel makes the same sound effects as the Camel Rider.
 * The Camel line units are the only common cavalry units that don't have any base pierce armor.
 * Camels deal bonus damage against the cheat unit Saboteur (since The Conquerors) because it is in the same unit class as ships.

History
"The Camel was a useful mount for warriors in desert regions of the world because it could move quickly across sand and could go long periods without water. In addition, horses shied away from the presence of camels. The Saracens made good use of camels during the Crusades; camel riders appeared out of the desert to raid Crusader outposts and caravans and then escaped back into terrain that horses could not cross."