Tatars

"For centuries, fierce nomads roamed the Central Asian steppe, periodically launching distant migrations or campaigns to conquer or extort their sedentary neighbors. Don arrow-resistant silk armor and dominate the hills and plains with mobile horsemen and cavalry archers, or join the Mongol hordes and swell the ranks of the Keshiks, honored bodyguards of the Great Khan himself! Dare you follow in the footsteps of Tamerlane and mercilessly conquer an empire from Transoxiana to India, Anatolia, and Russia?"

- Description

The Tatars are a Central Asian civilization introduced in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. They focus on Cavalry Archers.

Historically, the Tatars were a para-Mongolic people who originated from the vast plains of North and Central Asia and would later become the namesake of the region Tartary. Later on, the ethnonym is erroneously applied to everyone from that approximate area, which also includes the Mongols proper as well as Turkic peoples under Mongol rule. Today, the term simply refers to those who call themselves such and speak Turkic languages. The Tatars eventually became part of Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire and participated in the Mongol conquest, gaining new lands to settle in the process. Much of the Tatars eventually founded the Golden Horde after the Mongol Empire was dissolved, which was then split into several independent khanates that were later conquered by the Ottoman Empire and Russian Empire.

Campaign appearances
The Tatars have a campaign devoted to their civilization: Tamerlane.

Unique units

 * Keshik: Cavalry that generates gold with each attack.

Unique technologies

 * Silk Armor: Scout Cavalry line and Cavalry Archers +1 pierce armor.
 * Timurid Siegecraft: Trebuchets +1 range.

Civilization bonuses

 * Herdables contain.
 * Units do +50% damage when attacking from higher elevations (instead of +25%).
 * Parthian Tactics are free.

Team bonus

 * Cavalry Archers +2 LOS.

In-game dialogue language
Tatar units speak their namesake, a Kipchak Turkic language spoken in Tatarstan on the modern-day Russia. It is also referred to as Volga Tatar to differentiate it with Crimean and Siberian Tatar languages.

Even though Volga Tatar is closely related to Crimean Tatar (spoken by the Cumans) and Siberian Tatar, they belong to different subgroups: Crimean Tatar to the Kipchak-Cuman group, Siberian Tatar to the Kipchak-Nogai group, and Volga Tatar to the Kipchak-Bulgar group. That being said, all three of them are nonetheless related to the Oghuz language spoken by the Turks.


 * Salam – Hello
 * Emriniz? – Your command?
 * Hazır – Ready

AI player names
When playing a random map game against the computer, the player may encounter any of the following Tatar AI characters:
 * Bilge Kul Qadir-Khan: First known ruler of Karakhanids; died 893.
 * Emir Edigu: Emir of the White Horde and founder of the Nogai Horde; died 1419.
 * Harun Bughra Khan: Karakhanid ruler of Transoxiana; died 1034.
 * Jahan Shah: Born Muzaffar al-Din Jahan Shah ibn Yusuf, an Oghuz Turk poet and leader who leads the Kara Koyunlu dynasty in the present-day Iranian Azerbaijan and Arran (now Caucasus) from ca. 1438 to 1467.
 * Muhan Qaghan: Khan of the Göktürk Khaganate; died 572.
 * Oz Beg Khan: longest-reigning khan of the Golden Horde; died 1341.
 * Qara Osman: Ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu; died 1435.
 * Qara Yusuf: Ruler of the Kara Koyunlu; died 1420.
 * Tamerlane: A Turco-Mongol conqueror. As the founder of the Timurid Empire in Persia and Central Asia he became the first ruler in the Timurid dynasty. According to John Joseph Saunders, Timur's background was Iranized and not steppe nomadic.
 * Timur Qutlugh: Khan of the Golden Horde; died 1399.
 * Tong Yabghu Qaghan: Khan of the Western Turkic Khaganate; died 628.
 * Urus Khan: Khan of the White Horde and a disputed Khan of the Blue Horde; died 1377.
 * Uzun Hassan: Ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu; died 1478.
 * Yabgu Shahmalik: Last ruler of the Oghuz Yabgu State; died 1042.

Trivia

 * The Tatars' civilization icon is based on the tamga (emblem) of the Golden Horde.
 * The Tatars are the only civilization that lack Chain Mail Armor at the Blacksmith.

History
Historically, the meaning of the ethnonym Tatar has changed continuously to denominate a variety of Turkic and Mongol-speaking groups in and around the Eurasian steppes. The term was first applied to a confederation of nomadic tribes who inhabited northeastern Mongolia starting in the fifth century. By the eleventh century, they had become engaged in a bitter war against the Mongols. Under the rule of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), however, the Mongols defeated the Tatars and established one of the largest empires in all of history. Ironically, the Rus’ and Europeans referred to the people under Mongol control as Tatars. After the death of Genghis Khan, these Tatars founded the many successor states of the Mongol Empire. While none would match its extent, some of these polities became mighty empires:

When the Mongol Empire was divided into four appanages, the connotation with the Tatars became more specific to the northwestern region, known as the Golden Horde (1227-1502). Under Batu Khan (r. 1227-1255), the Tatars continued their westward expansion, conquering Cumania, Volga Bulgaria, Kievan Rus’, and Eastern Europe. To control these vast territories, they relied on the high mobility of their armies of light cavalry. The sturdy Mongolian horses allowed them to campaign effectively in the cold weather of the Russian steppe. Although they preferred to lure their enemies into open battles, the Tatars regularly contracted Chinese engineers to build siege weapons when attacking cities.

Due to the conquest of the many Turkic tribes, Tatar culture became Turkicized over time. The Golden Horde also became Islamicized when Ozbeg Khan (r. 1313-1341) adopted Islam as the state religion. To further break with tradition, he moved the capital of Sarai to a new location. This city quickly became one of the largest urban centers in the region. When Ozbeg died, the Golden Horde had reached its greatest territorial extent, but it soon fell into decline. The immense casualties caused by the Black Death in the 1340s disrupted the Tatar economy, which was based on tribute and the intercontinental trade of the Silk Road. Unable to maintain its massive armies, the empire fell apart into smaller khanates.

By the end of the fourteenth century, the age of the nomad warriors seemed to be over as the successor states of the Mongol Empire were all disintegrating. In this political vacuum, however, a new Tatar warlord named Timur (r. 1370-1405), known in the West as Tamerlane, rose to power. Beginning his career at the head of a small band of raiders, Timur used his military genius to take over the Chagatai Khanate in 1370, establishing the Timurid Empire (1370-1507). Throughout the following decades, he conquered much of Central Asia through a series of bloody campaigns. In Delhi and Aleppo, for example, he ordered the construction of ‘minarets’ of skulls after captured enemy soldiers had been beheaded.

In contrast to his brutality on the battlefield, Timur was an active patron of culture. He contracted skilled artisans throughout the empire and brought them together at his court in Samarkand. The arts flourished as new styles and techniques developed because of the cultural interaction that he facilitated. The Timurids mastered the Seljuq architectural style, featuring domes and geometrical patterns of blue and turquoise tiles. The Gur-i Amir, the mausoleum of Timur, is considered to be the pinnacle of Persian-Mongolian architecture. While this cultural boom would continue after Timur’s death, his political legacy was limited. The union of the Timurid Empire was based on Timur’s personal charisma, and after he died the polity was torn apart by civil wars. The era of Tatar dominance had finally ended.