Cavalry units (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the cavalry units in Age of Empires II. For the armor class, see Armor class: Cavalry. For cavalry units in other games of the series, see Cavalry.

Cavalry in Age of Empires II is one of the four combat forces on land, the other ones being archers, infantry, and siege weapons.

General information Edit

Singlepaladin — The Paladin, probably the most cost effective unit

Generally speaking, cavalry units are mounted units with high speed, attack, HP, and armor. They have no range (except Mamelukes and Steppe Lancers) and are expensive. In direct combat, they easily overpower archer, infantry, and siege units.

Note that mounted archers do in some way count as cavalry as well. For instance, they take bonus damage from anti-cavalry attacks and profit from certain cavalry technologies, such as Bloodlines and Husbandry. But basically they are treated as archers rather than cavalry by the game, so they are not dealt with in this article.

Regular cavalry units are trained at the Stable and become available in the Feudal Age.

Unique cavalry units are trained at the Castle with only two exceptions: Tarkans can be trained in the Stable as well after Marauders is researched, and Imperial Camel Riders are available at the Stable only.

The Scout Cavalry line and Corvinian Army Magyar Huszars aside (which cost only food), all cavalry units cost food and gold.

Cavalrygroup — Cavalry units are trained at the Stable

Despite the many advantages the cavalry branch has, there are a few drawbacks that should be considered. Just like archers, they have a common, cheap, and easy to mass counter unit: the Pikeman. Every player frequently using cavalry is bound to meet them sooner or later. Also, cavalry units are expensive, especially in terms of gold, and a strong reliance on them can lose the game if gold runs out or supplies are cut off. And on narrow maps with lots of obstacles like cliffs or woods, cavalry units can fall prey to ranged units that can exploit their range.

Camel Riders, Mamelukes, Kamayuks, and Genoese Crossbowmen are also very effective against cavalry units.

Still, since every unit only takes up exactly one population space (except Karambit Warriors), cavalry units fill these spaces effectively, especially if the population cap is set to a low value.

The Native American civilizations cannot build Stables and normally cannot train cavalry units. As a replacement, they can train Eagle Warriors. If given a Stable in the Scenario Editor or if they convert one (note that Mayans don't have Redemption), they can train Xolotl Warriors (reskinned Knights) in in the Definitive Edition.

List of cavalry units Edit

Marked with yellow background are unique units.

Cavalry unit	Building	A	HP	At	Ar	PA	Ra	ROF	LOS	Sp	F	G	TT	Ci
Scout Cavalry	Stable		45	5	0	2	0	2	6	1.55	80	0	30	32
Light Cavalry	Stable		60	7	0	2	0	2	8	1.5	80	0	30	31
Hussar	Stable		75	7	0	2	0	1.9	10	1.5	80	0	30	22
Knight/Xolotl Warrior	Stable		100	10	2	2	0	1.8	4	1.35	60	75	30	31/2
Cavalier	Stable		120	12	2	2	0	1.8	4	1.35	60	75	30	30
Paladin	Stable		160	14	2	3	0	1.9	5	1.35	60	75	30	11
Camel Rider	Stable		100	6	0	0	0	2	4	1.45	55	60	22	12
Heavy Camel Rider	Stable		120	7	0	0	0	2	5	1.45	55	60	22	11
Imperial Camel Rider	Stable		140	9	0	0	0	2	5	1.45	55	60	20	1
Battle Elephant	Stable		250	12	1	2	0	2	4	0.85	120	70	24	4
Elite Battle Elephant	Stable		300	16	1	3	0	2	5	0.85	120	70	24	4
Steppe Lancer	Stable		60	9	0	1	1	2.3	5	1.45	70	45	24	2
Elite Steppe Lancer	Stable		80	11	0	1	1	2.3	5	1.45	70	45	20	2
Cataphract	Castle		110	9	2	1	0	1.8	4	1.35	70	75	20	1
Elite Cataphract	Castle		150	12	2	1	0	1.7	5	1.35	70	75	20	1
War Elephant	Castle		450	15	1	2	0	2	4	0.6	200	75	31	1
Elite War Elephant	Castle		600	20	1	3	0	2	5	0.6	200	75	31	1
Mameluke	Castle		65	8	0	0	3	2	5	1.4	55	85	23	1
Elite Mameluke	Castle		80	10	1	0	3	2	5	1.4	55	85	23	1
Tarkan	Cas / Sta		100	8	1	3	0	2.1	5	1.35	60	60	14/26	1
Elite Tarkan	Cas / Sta		150	11	1	4	0	2.1	7	1.35	60	60	14/24	1
Magyar Huszar	Castle		70	9	0	2	0	1.8	5	1.5	80	10	16	1
Elite Magyar Huszar	Castle		85	10	0	2	0	1.8	6	1.5	80	10	16	1
Boyar	Castle		100	12	4	1	0	1.9	5	1.4	50	80	15	1
Elite Boyar	Castle		130	14	6	2	0	1.9	5	1.4	50	80	15	1
Ballista Elephant	Castle		250	8	0	3	5	2.5	7	0.8	100	80	25	1
Elite Ballista Elephant	Castle		290	9	0	3	5	2.5	7	0.8	100	80	25	1
Konnik	Cas/Kre		100	12	2	1	0	2.4	5	1.35	60	70	19	1
Elite Konnik	Cas/Kre		120	14	2	2	0	2.4	5	1.35	60	70	19	1
Leitis	Castle		100	12	1	2	0	1.9	5	1.4	50	80	23	1
Elite Leitis	Castle		130	14	2	2	0	1.9	5	1.4	50	80	20	1
Keshik	Castle		110	9	1	2	0	1.9	5	1.4	50	40	23	1
Elite Keshik	Castle		140	11	1	3	0	1.9	5	1.4	50	40	20	1
Average	N/A	N/A	150	11	1.1	1.8	0.55	2.02	5.3	1.29	76.2	58.9	23.24	N/A

Technologies Edit

Listed below are all technologies that benefit cavalry units. Marked with yellow background are unique technologies. This list does not contain unit upgrades.

Technology	Researched at	Age	Civilization	Effect
Bloodlines	Stable	II	24	Increases HP by +20
Husbandry	Stable	III	29	Increases speed by +10%
Forging	Blacksmith	II	All	Increases attack by +1
Iron Casting	Blacksmith	III	All	Increases attack by +1
Blast Furnace	Blacksmith	IV	31	Increases attack by +2
Scale Barding Armor	Blacksmith	II	32	Increases armor by +1/+1
Chain Barding Armor	Blacksmith	III	31	Increases armor by +1/+1
Plate Barding Armor	Blacksmith	IV	28	Increases armor by +1/+2
Heresy	Monastery	III	21	Converted units die instead of changing color
Faith	Monastery	IV	32	Increases conversion resistance
Conscription	Castle	IV	All	Increases creation speed by +33%
Kasbah	Castle	III	Berbers	Creation speed for Castle units increased by +25%
Maghrabi Camels	Castle	IV	Berbers	Camel troops regenerate (0.25 HP/s)
Howdah	Castle	III	Burmese	Increases Battle Elephant armor by +1/+1
Manipur Cavalry	Castle	IV	Burmese	Increases attack against buildings and standard buildings by +3
Logistica	Castle	IV	Byzantines	Gives Cataphracts trample damage and +6 attack bonus against infantry
Chivalry	Castle	III	Franks	Stables work faster by +40%
Marauders	Castle	III	Huns	Tarkans can be trained at Stables
Tusk Swords	Castle	III	Khmer	Increases Battle Elephant attack by +3
Corvinian Army	Castle	III	Magyars	Magyar Huszar gold cost removed
Farimba	Castle	IV	Malians	Increases attack by +5
Mahouts	Castle	IV	Persians	Increases War Elephant speed by +30%
Zealotry	Castle	IV	Saracens	Mameluke and Camel Rider hit points increased by +30
Chatras	Castle	III	Vietnamese	Increases Battle Elephant hit points by +50
Stirrups	Castle	III	Bulgarians	Scout Cavalry line and Konniks attack 33% faster
Silk Armor	Castle	III	Tatars	Scout Cavalry line +1 pierce armor
Steppe Husbandry	Castle	III	Cumans	Scout Cavalry line created 400% faster

Civilizations Edit

The Berbers, Bulgarians, Cumans, Franks, Huns, Lithuanians, Magyars, Persians, and Spanish all are very good cavalry civilizations and rely on cavalry units. The Burmese, Indians, Malians, Mongols, and Tatars are also great cavalry civilizations, though much less reliant on cavalry than the above-mentioned ones.

If the Battle Elephant (which is exclusive to the South East Asian civilizations) and the Steppe Lancer (which is exclusive to the Cumans, Mongols and Tatars) are not taken into account, the Persians are the only civilization to have access to all cavalry units and technologies.

Civilization bonuses Edit

The following civilizations have bonuses that specifically benefit cavalry units:

Berbers: Stable units are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
Byzantines: Camel Rider line is 25% cheaper.
Cumans: Cavalry units now move 5%/10.25%/15.7625% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
Franks: Cavalry units have +20% HP.
Indians: Camel Riders have +1 pierce armor.
Khmer: Battle Elephants are 15% faster.
Lithuanians: Knight line and Leitis get +1 attack for each garrisoned Relic (maximum +4).
Magyars: Scout Cavalry are 15% cheaper.
Malay: Battle Elephants are 30% cheaper.
Mongols: Light Cavalry and Hussars have +30% HP.
Portuguese: Cavalry units cost 15% less gold.
Turks: The Light Cavalry and Hussar upgrades are free.

Team bonuses Edit