Mongol Scout

The Mongol Scout is a cavalry unit featured in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties.

Overview
Two of the scouts can be sent to each civilization in the Discovery Age if they are allied to China by way of the TEAM 2 Mongol Scouts card. While not very powerful in terms of damage output, they do have good ranged resistance and hit points, combined with other civilizations LOS boosting cards they can become a potent scouting and harassment tool.

The Mongol scout is the fastest scout unit in the game and has a higher line of sight than other scout units, on top of these advantages it can also see stealthed units. Against skilled flesh and blood opponents the use of the scouts is questionable, as food or settler shipments allow for a stronger economy and quicker age up to Colonial. Against more casual players or AI opponents however it can be quite useful for early harrassment, as the four (2v2), or six (3v3) scouts can be backed up by two to six explorers or monks and whatever other units the civilization may have started with (such as a native scout, envoy or war dog) or acquired along the way from treasures. While the group will realistically not be able to take down a town center they can intimidate an opponent into bunkering their settlers and slowing their economy, or work together to take down heavily guarded treasures. The latter is very effective if the Japanese are able to double the treasure value due to Mountain Warrior.