Camel Rider (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the unit Age of Empires II. For the unit in Age of Empires, see Camel Rider (Age of Empires).

Camel Rider
Unit information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Cavalry
Civilization	See table
Age	Castle Age
Training
Trained at	Stable
Food	55
Gold	60
Training time	22 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	100
Attack	6 melee
Attack bonuses	+9 vs Cavalry +5 vs Camel +5 vs Ship +5 vs Fishing Ship
Rate of Fire	2.0
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor classes	Camel
Speed	1.45
Line of Sight	4
Unit evolution
Upgrades to	Heavy Camel Rider
Upgrade cost	325 food, 360 gold
Upgrade time	105 seconds

“	Excels at killing other mounted units.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Camel Rider (called Camel before the Definitive Edition) 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 Camel Riders (except for the Cumans) can upgrade them to Heavy Camel Riders.

Unit availability

Available	Unavailable
Berbers Byzantines Chinese Cumans Ethiopians Indians Malians Mongols Persians Saracens Tatars Turks	Aztecs Bohemians Britons Bulgarians Burgundians Burmese Celts Franks Goths Huns Incas Italians Japanese Khmer Koreans Lithuanians Magyars Malay Mayans Poles Portuguese Sicilians Slavs Spanish Teutons Vietnamese Vikings

Tactics

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

Camel Riders are best used only against melee cavalry or to ambush groups of Cavalry Archers. Although Spearmen and Skirmishers can deal heavy damage to Cavalry Archers, only Camel Riders can force a fight with them. Due to to Camel Riders' 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.

It should be noted that although Pikemen cost-effectively defeat melee cavalry, Camel Riders can successfully duel most melee cavalry, winning a battle of equal numbers. Camel Riders tend to fare better than Pikemen against cavalry by landing more attacks due to superior attack speed and hit points. However, if gold is scarce, Pikemen should be used instead.

Comparison in the Castle Age

Civilization	Byzantines	Saracens	Indians	Berbers
Cost	41 food, 45 gold	55 food, 60 gold	55 food, 60 gold	47 food, 51 gold
HP	100	130	120	120
Attack	6+2	6+2	6+2	6+2
Armor	0+2/0+2	0+2/0+2	0+2/0+3	0+2/0+2
Extras	-	-	+4 attack vs standard buildings	-

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Skirmishers, siege weapons, Cavalry Archers, cavalry
Weak vs.	Infantry, archers, Cataphracts, defensive structures
Upgrades
Hit points	Bloodlines (+20)  Zealotry (+20, Saracens only)
Attack	Forging (+1)  Iron Casting (+1)  Blast Furnace (+2)  Farimba (+5, Malians only)
Armor	Scale Barding Armor (+1/+1)  Chain Barding Armor (+1/+1)  Plate Barding Armor (+1/+2)
Speed	Husbandry (+10%)
Conversion defense	Faith  Heresy
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%)
Other	Maghrebi Camels (gives regeneration ability, Berbers only)
Upgrades	Heavy Camel Rider

Civilization bonuses

• Berbers: Camel Riders are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Byzantines: Camel Riders are 25% cheaper.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Camel Riders are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Cumans: Camel Riders move 10%/15% faster in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Indians: Camel Riders have +1/+2 pierce armor in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Saracens: Camel Riders have +10 HP.
• Tatars: Camel Riders deal 50% bonus damage from elevations.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, researching Conscription is 25% faster.
• A team containing Huns: Camel Riders are created and upgraded 20% faster. Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry is 20% faster.
• A team containing Indians: Camel Riders have +4 attack against standard buildings.
• A team containing Teutons: Camel Riders are more resistant to conversion.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Heresy and Faith is 20% faster.
• A team containing Bulgarians: Researching cavalry armor and attack upgrades at the Blacksmith is 80% faster.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• The unit is called Camel.
• 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 Rider 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 do not 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.
• Indians: Camels have +1/+1 armor.
• Indians: As team bonus, Camels have +5 attack against buildings.

The African Kingdoms

• The ship armor class is removed from the Camel, 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 do not 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.

Rise of the Rajas

• Indians: With patch 5.8, Camels have +1 pierce armor.

Definitive Edition

• The unit is renamed to Camel Rider.
• Indians: With update 42848, Camel Riders have +1/+2 pierce armor in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Indians: With update 42848, as team bonus, Camel Riders have +4 attack against standard buildings.

Lords of the West

• Saracens: with update 44725, Camel Riders get +10 HP.

Trivia

• The Camel Rider is one of the few units whose availability is strictly geography-based. Camels were 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 camels for combat, they certainly used them for transport, trade, and food.
  • Since Rise of the Rajas, the Camel Rider is available to all civilizations with the Middle Eastern, African, and South Asian building styles. The East Asian building style is the only to feature both Camel Rider (Mongols, Chinese), and non-Camel Rider civilizations (Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese).
  • In Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the Byzantines are changed to the Mediterranean building style, making them the only Camel Rider civilization with this style (or any European building style, for that matter).
  • In Definitive Edition, the Camel Rider is also available to the two civilizations with the new Central Asian building style, the Cumans and Tatars.
• The Mongols and Chinese imported domesticated Bactrian camels, native to the steppes of Central Asia, as the more common one-humped dromedary is originally from Arabia. Both would have been ridden by Silk Road traders.
  • In-game, Saracen Mamelukes are depicted riding Bactrian camels, despite this being historically inaccurate, as most Mamelukes rode horses, and the Camel-riding minority rode dromedaries. This inaccurate depiction possibly resulted from developers' needs to distinguish Arab Mamelukes from generic Camel Riders.
• Camels are one of two military land units that do not make the usual military sound when created, the others being Trebuchets.
  • The Camel Rider makes the same sound effects as the Camel Rider from Age of Empires.
• The Camel Rider line units are the only common cavalry units that do not have any base pierce armor.
• Camel Riders deal bonus damage against the cheat unit Saboteur (since The Conquerors) because it is in the same unit class as ships.
• The Cumans are the only civilization that have access to Camel Rider, but not the Heavy Camel Rider.
• The sound effect for when Camels are killed is the same one used for when Imps are killed in Doom.

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.

”

Gallery

The Camel Rider line, with the Camel Rider on the left

A group of Camel Riders

A group of Camel Riders in the Definitive Edition

Camel Riders engaging enemy cavalry

A ceramic figure of a pack-camel (Sui dynasty, China)

A dromedary from a 13th c. northern French bestiary

A Camel Rider spearing a Snake, from Kitab al-Bulhan, late 14th c.

Camel Riders in The Age of Kings.