“ | 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[]
“ | I will live again, if only as a butterfly... | ” |
—Brahmin upon collapsing |
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 Line of Sight is the same as the Shaolin Master, and both have less than the Sohei Archer.
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 Priests. This still generates significant value/second. An un-upgraded Brahmin healing an un-upgraded Sepoy generates about 2.67 resource value/second, or 1.33 resource value/second depending on how one contemplates it. Either way, it is significantly better than the resource generation of a single villager. The healing rate can be increased by Improved Healing at the Monastery.
Favorable Karma is not useful in the early game. While the Brahmins gain 60% hit points and attack and can train Axehilt the Tame Tiger, which makes collecting Treasures easier, it does not increase resource generation as much as the other Exploration Age shipments.
Favorable Karma becomes much more useful in the late game, as both the Brahmins and Axehilt get automatically upgraded with each Age. With the automatic upgrades for the Brahmins being particularly strong. Axehilt the Tame Tiger is a soft counter to light infantry, with a 1.3x multiplier versus them. Axehilt is generally worse than Wagner the Pet White Tiger, which has the same multiplier, but has more hit points, a lower cost, and lower attack. This is because pets are generally useful for tanking in the front line, due to not having any common enemy military unit having an increased attack multiplier versus them, so they should ideally have high hit points/unit cost. However, due to train limits, Axehilt will still have utility to be made as well.
India has access to strong upgrade cards in general, though, so players may choose to include one of them instead of Favorable Karma depending on what game plan they are going for. Since both the Brahmins and Axehilt are good at tanking, the card has the most synergy with defensive play, where dragging fights out is good because of the firing of defensive structures like Castles.
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 elephants 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 Sohei Archer'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 is automatically upgraded on each Age starting from the Commerce Age.
- +50% hit points and attack
- +100% hit points and attack
- +150% hit points and attack
- +200% hit points and attack
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 ranged cavalry, ranged shock infantry, MercType2 |
Improvements | |
Hit points | Sikh Gurus (+50%) Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%) Wind Horses (-10% Rate of Fire) |
Attack | Yoga (+5%) Crushing Force (+15% hand attack) |
Resistance | Sudanese Quilted Armor (+10% hand resistance) Pancerni (+10% ranged resistance) |
Speed | Apache Endurance (+5%) Comanche Mustangs (+5%) Terror Charge (+5%) Wind Horses (+0.5) |
Other | Crushing Force (doubles Stomp chance) Improved Healing (+67% healing) Terror Charge (gives the Terror Charge ability) White Tiger Training (train Wagner the Pet White Tigers) Carib Ambush Party (train Carib Ambushers) Loyal Nootka War Chief (train Nootka War Chief) Tupi Animal Lore (train Buttercup the Pet Cougars) |
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
Some cards are highlighted with: | |
Green | TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team |
Blue | Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds) |
Chinese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Yongle Infrastructure | Ships 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villagers, healing units, Envoys, and Disciples get +5% speed |
- "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" does not stack with the Inca "TEAM Inca Bridges" card.
French[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack | Hand cavalry and hand shock infantry get +15% attack |
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
Favorable Karma | Monks get +60% hit points and attack; Brahmins can train Axehilt the Tame Tigers; +1 Hindu Villager | |
Dukkha Suffering | Gives Brahmins Dukkha Suffering; +1 Hindu Villager | |
Dravidian Martial Arts | All units get +15% hand attack; Rajputs get +20% hand attack istead; +1 Hindu Villager | |
Elephant Combat | Elephants get +20% hit points and attack; +1 Hindu Villager | |
Tame Elephants | Elephants' cost and train time -10%; +1 Hindu Villager | |
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics | All units get +5% hit points and attack | |
Grazing | Camels generate 0.05 food/sec.; Brahmins and elephants generate 0.1 wood/sec.; Sacred Cows generate 0.075 coin/sec.; +1 Hindu Villager |
Inca[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Inca Bridges | Ships 1 Chasqui; infantry, land villagers, healing units, and Envoys get +5% speed |
- "TEAM Inca Bridges" does not stack with the Chinese "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" card.
Maltese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Knights of the Round Table | Ships 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center owned by the player; all units get +2% hit points |
Mexicans[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Mariachi | For the next 30 seconds, military buildings work 400% faster and units get +10% speed |
Russians[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Kamchatka Expeditions | Cavalry and shock infantry get +10% hit points and +4 Line of Sight |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Fencing Instructor | Heroes get +20% hit points and attack (except Shaolin Masters' Roundhouse Kick attack and Sohei Archers' Sabotage attack) | |
TEAM Spanish Inquisition | Ships 1 Inquisitor; all units get +10 Line of Sight |
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
Favorable Karma | Monks get +60% hit points and attack; Brahmins can train Axehilt the Tame Tigers; +1 Villager | 1 | |
Dukkha Suffering | Gives Brahmins Dukkha Suffering; +1 Villager | 10 | |
Elephant Combat | Elephants get +15% hit points and attack; +1 Villager | 25 | |
Tame Elephants | Elephants' cost and train time -10%; +1 Villager | 10 | |
Dravidian Martial Arts | All units get +15% hand attack; +1 Villager | 40 | |
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics | All units get +5% hit points and attack | 25 | |
Grazing | Camels generate 0.05 food/sec.; Brahmins and elephants generate 0.1 wood/sec.; +1 Villager | 40 |
Russians[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Cavalry Scouts | Cavalry and shock infantry get +10% hit points and +4 Line of Sight | 1 |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Explorer Combat | Heroes get +20% hit points and attack (except Shaolin Masters' Roundhouse Kick attack and Sohei Archers' Sabotage attack) | 1 | |
TEAM Inquisition | All units get +10 Line of Sight | 10 |
Random names[]
- Swami Dayananda
- Swami Vivekananda
- Kanaka Dasa
- Gosvami Tulsidas
- Surdas
- Ramanuja
- Sri Vedanta Desika
- Ramakrishna
- Swami Virjananda
- Adi Shankara
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. | ” |
Trivia[]
- Though the Brahmin's elephant is correctly depicted as an Asian Elephant, its portrait in the History section shows an African elephant instead. The same happens with the Siege Elephant and the Wild Elephant.
- The Brahmin's pop-up text when they collapse and dialogue when revived are references to the Hindu belief in reincarnation.
- Like the other Monks, the Brahmin's collapsed state dialogue refers to it as dying (in this case via the euphemism of going to heaven). This makes it unusual flavor-wise for a starting hero, as they usually refer to that state as them being injured.
- Unlike the other Monks, the Brahmin implies they believe they died, when they are revived in the revive dialogue line. This probably means they are the only starting hero in the game who flavor-wise believes they have died then been brought back to life when they are revived.
- Dukkha Suffering is a tautological name, as Dukkha means suffering.