Charminar Gate

Charminar Gate
Building information
Introduced in	The Asian Dynasties
Type	Wonder
Civilization	Indians
Age	Discovery Age Colonial Age Fortress Age Industrial Age
Use	Advances the player into the next Age Sends a shipment of Sowars or Mahout Lancers when built Train Mansabdar units
Construction
Food	800 1,200 2,000 4,000
Coin	1,000 1,200 4,000
Max. builders	8
Build time	120 seconds
Build limit	1
Statistics
Hit points	5,000
Line of Sight	12
XP bounty	240

“	Trains mansabdars that increase attack and hitpoints of your troops.	”
—In-game description

The Charminar Gate is a wonder in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Indians and can be built to advance into the next Age. It sends a shipment of Sowars or Mahout Lancers when built and can train Mansabdar units which enhances units of the same type (see below).

Mansabdar units

Example of an Mansabdar unit: an in-game Mansabdar Siege Elephant. Note the unit's ornamental garb, which distinguish the unit from other Siege Elephants, even from Exalted Siege Elephants.

The Charminar Gate trains Mansabdar units which are more stalwart than their corresponding units and they have a passive ability that increase the hit points and attack of all nearby similar units, somewhat similar to the Japanese Daimyo, but Mansabdars themselves cannot train units or receive Home City shipments. They are enabled with proper Age; the Mansabdar Mahout Lancer cannot be trained until the player enters the Fortress Age. They typically have decorative uniforms and equipment, making it easy to distinguish them from normal units. Every Mansabdar unit only affects identical units and do not affect other non-related units (e.g. the Mansabdar Gurkha inspires all other Gurkhas and the Mansabdar Flail Elephant inspires other Flail Elephants).

All Mansabdar units cost twice as much as regular ones and train a little bit slower than a simple unit, making the Mansabdar units only available for players who mixed a good and productive economy with a powerful and hard-to-beat army. The most expensive units that the Indians can train are the Mansabdar elephants. However, the high cost of the Mansabdar units are compensated by their high combat stats and unique special abilities, helping the player achieve a conquest victory if the same player handles them very carefully and with intelligence.

The Mansabdar units are not upgradable to Disciplined, Honored or Exalted level, but they can receive some upgrades from arsenal technologies, Home City Cards shipments (such as TEAM cards from ally players) and some Native/Religious upgrades at the trading posts.

The Mansabdar units are also shipped from the Indian Home City with the Regiment cards. Those cards ship at the town center a group of units with a Mansabdar unit as the leader of the regiment. For example, the Sowar Regiment card will send a group of Sowars, and a Mansabdar Sowar, with an extra villager (due the Indian special civilization ability), getting ready to assault the enemies without the request of a Charminar Gate wonder if the player can’t get it, but the player must be careful with this, because if the Mansabdar unit gets killed in combat and the player doesn’t have a Charminar Gate wonder, the Mansabdar unit is gone for good.

Note: Mansabdar Elephants do not lose 2 population with the Professional Handlers Home City Card, only 1. With update 13088, Mansabdar Siege Elephants lose 2 population.

Age	Unit	Cost	Pop.	Limit
	Mansabdar Rajput	200 food, 70 wood	2	1
	Mansabdar Sepoy	180 food, 60 coin
	Mansabdar Gurkha	140 food, 100 coin
	Mansabdar Sowar	160 food, 160 coin	4
	Mansabdar Zamburak	120 food, 120 coin	2
	Mansabdar Flail Elephant	250 food, 250 coin	8
	Mansabdar Mahout	800 food, 500 wood	14
	Mansabdar Howdah	500 food, 700 coin	12
	Mansabdar Siege Elephant	600 wood, 800 coin	14

Note: The Urumi has its Mansabdar variant included with the Urumi Swordsmen Regiment Home City Card, but cannot be retrained at the Charminar Gate should it die. This is fixed in the Definitive Edition.

Shipments

2 Sowars

1 Mahout Lancer

2 Mahout Lancers

3 Mahout Lancers

Further statistics

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

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything
Improvements
Hit points	Flying Buttress (+20%)

Home City Cards

As the Charminar Gate is 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 Charminar Gate
Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Improved Buildings Buildings get +25% hit points 10 Advanced Wonders Wonders get +50% hit points and build time -25% 25

History

“

Located in the City of Hyderabad, a former capital city of India, the Charminar Gate was built in 1591 at the center of the city to commemorate the eradication of a plague. At the place where Emperor Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah prayed for an end to the plague, he vowed to erect a mosque if his prayer were granted. When the plague ended, he built the mosque. The structure became known as Charminar because of its four characteristic minarets (“char,” meaning four, and “minar,” meaning spires). Each minaret has four stories, each of which opens into a plaza. Four is a number of significance in Islam. In this case, each of the four pillars represents a different aspect of knowledge. When India became a British colony, the gate served as a storage facility for liquor and opium. The domes at the top of the gate offer unobstructed views of the city - a city once offered up in hopeful prayer by a distraught emperor.

”

Gallery

The Charminar Gate's Age up choice picture

Charminar Gate in-game

A photo of the real Charminar Gate located in Hyderabad, India

All the Mansabdar units lined in classification of elephants (top), camels (middle), and infantry (bottom)

Add a photo to this gallery