Brahmin

Brahmin
Unit information
Introduced in	The Asian Dynasties
Type	Hero Cavalry Melee cavalry
Civilization	Indians
Age	Exploration Age
Abilities	Claim Treasures Build Town Centers and Trading Posts Heals injured units (4 hit points per second, range 12) Reveal stealth enemies Regeneration
Special ability	See Special abilities
Training
Trained at	Town Center
Coin	175
Training time	20 seconds
Training limit	1
Statistics
Hit points	250
Resists	20% vs. Ranged
Speed	5.0
Line of Sight	18
XP bounty	45
Melee attack
Damage	4
Multipliers	x3.0 vs. Treasure Guardian x0.25 vs. Villager x0.5 vs. Hero
Area of Effect	2
Rate of Fire	1.5
Siege attack
Damage	10
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0
Notes
The Brahmin will collapse instead of dying when his hit points reaches 0 and can be revived by having a friendly unit or building around him once he regenerates at least 100 hit points

“	Religious leader and healer with a Stomp area attack that can stun Treasure Guardians. Explores, fights, and builds Town Centers and Trading Posts.	”
—In-game description

The Brahmin is a melee cavalry Monk in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Indians. It explores uncharted areas of the map and has some special abilities to help himself and his settlement, and can heal injured units from the start of the game. In standard random map games, the Indians start with two Brahmins; both are counted as separate units.

Overview

Brahmins have weak basic stats, but they inflict trample damage and have the Stomp ability, which gives them a chance to stun enemy units around them when attacking. They possess a higher ranged resistance than the other Monks, and due to being cavalry they have higher speed as well. Their LOS is the same as the Shaolin Master, and both have less than the Ikko-Ikki.

The Brahmin's healing ability is very weak, a mere 4 hit points per second versus the standard rate of 10 per second for units such as Surgeons. This realistically limits their usefulness to healing each other, as the natural Monk health regeneration stacks with the heal ability to restore hit points much quicker than it would for a non-regenerating unit like a Sepoy. The healing rate can be increased by Improved Healing at the Monastery.

Favorable Karma is of questionable use, as the Brahmin gains 60% hit points and attack, and can train Tigers. While it would allow the player to easily claim Treasures, it will ultimately leave their economy weaker due to not sending the typical resource card in the Exploration Age.

Special abilities

Stun: Stuns a treasure guardian from a range of 16 for 20 seconds. 60 seconds cooldown.

Stomp (passive; available in the Commerce Age*): Gives the Brahmin a 10% (20% with Crushing Force) chance to stun enemies for 0.8 seconds when attacking.

Terror Charge (passive; requires Terror Charge): Increases the speed of elephant units in a radius of 24 around the Brahmin by 5% (stacks if both Brahmins are close together).

Dukkha Suffering (passive; requires Dukkha Suffering Home City Card): Reduces the speed of enemy units in a radius of 24 around the Brahmin by 5% (stacks if both Brahmins are close together).

• Dukkha Suffering is similar to the Ikko-Ikki's Stream of Enlightenment, whereas it slows units instead of weakening them and prevents enemies from effectively fleeing when combined with the Brahmins' Stomp ability. It can also keep enemy units from chasing down and annihilating the Brahmins or the Indian army they are escorting.

Upgrades

The Brahmin gets +50% hit points and attack in every Age up.

Campaign appearances

In Act III: India, one Brahmin can be trained at Town Centers. He can heal and collect treasures like a normal Brahmin, but loses the ability to build Trading Posts and must be retrained at the Town Center if he dies.

Further statistics

As Brahmins are unique to the Indians, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Treasure guardians, ranged infantry
Weak vs.	Villagers, heavy infantry, light cavalry, Spies, Ninja
Improvements
Hit points	Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Sikh Gurus (+50%)
Attack	Yoga (+5%)
Speed	Terror Charge (+5%) Comanche Mustangs (+10%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Other	White Tiger Training (train Wagner the Pet White Tigers) Improved Healing (+67% healing) Terror Charge (gives the Terror Charge ability) Crushing Force (doubles Stomp chance) Carib Ambush Party (train Carib Ambushers) Loyal Nootka War Chief (train Nootka War Chief)

Home City Cards

As Brahmins are unique to the Indians, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Brahmin

Indians Card Description Age HC level Favorable Karma Brahmins get +60% hit points and attack, and can train Axehilt the Tame Tigers +1 Villager 1 Dukkha Suffering Gives Brahmins Dukkha Suffering +1 Villager 10 Dravidian Martial Arts All units get +15% melee attack +1 Villager 40 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Grazing Sowars and Zamburaks generate 0.05 food every second; Brahmins, Mahout Lancers, Howdahs, Flail Elephants, and Siege Elephants generate 0.1 wood every second +1 Villager 40 Russians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Scouts Cavalry and light infantry get +10% hit points and +4 LOS 1 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Explorer Combat Heroes get +20% hit points and attack 1 TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10

Changelog

The Asian Dynasties

• The Brahmin's Stomp ability is available in the Discovery Age.

Definitive Edition

• The Brahmin's Stomp ability is available in the Commerce Age.

History

“

A Brahmin is a member of India’s highest priestly Hindu caste. They are the only caste that can perform Vedic sacrifice, interpret the Vedas, and preserve Vedic hymns. They are considered to be of greater spiritual purity than members of other castes. The greater Brahmin caste is divided into ten sub-castes that are regionally based, with five in the north of India and five in the south. The Brahmin community has its root in ancient India’s Vedic period, roughly from 2,500 to 600 BCE. Brahmins adhere to the acceptance of the Vedas, the oldest scriptural texts of Hinduism. They believe that the means or ways to salvation are diverse, and that God is one being, but takes countless names and forms. This single deity is the same across all cultures and languages, seeming to change to fit individual perceptions. Scholars, teachers, priests, intellectuals, scientists, and knowledge-seekers formed the Brahmin class.

”

Gallery

An Indian Monk as they appear in the game

A fallen Indian Brahmin

Brahmins using the stun ability on a Tiger

The Brahmin's history portrait

See also

• Shaolin Master
• Ikko-Ikki