| ā | Burmese unique cavalry archer with a powerful but inaccurate dart attack. | ā |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Arambai is the unique unit of the Burmese in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas. It is a Conquistador-type ranged cavalry unit which throws darts at enemies. Despite the official description, Arambai are not Cavalry Archers.
Arambai can be upgraded to Elite Arambai in the Imperial Age.
Tactics
The Arambai is a ranged cavalry that is stronger in groups. It throws darts that cause a lot of damage compared to other ranged units, though less than a Conquistador's shot. Their speed and Rate of Fire make them well-suited for hit-and-run tactics, but their accuracy and range are abysmal, it has the second worst accuracy in the game; only the Trebuchet against units has worse accuracy. These characteristics make Arambai similar to cavalry archers, but require a different strategy to use Arambai.
The Arambai is comparatively more robust than the Burmese Cavalry Archer. Though the Burmese lack two archer armor upgrades, Arambai can withstand attacks with their innate 2 pierce armor, supplemented by Parthian Tactics. It's still best not to get hit, as it is not suited for soaking damage. At the Blacksmith, it only benefits from archer armor upgrades. It is also affected by Ballistics and Parthian Tactics, but unaffected by Thumb Ring.
Due to the accuracy and range of Arambai, hit-and-run tactics with a handful of troops are inappropriate for them. The lower the number of enemies, the worse it is. However, if their darts miss their original target and land on another enemy, it will cause full damage, unlike the halved damage regular archers would do in this case. This makes massed Arambai strong against units that are clumped up together.
In normal combat situations, Arambai can provide ranged support with their high damage. In this case, cavalry and/or Battle Elephants should escort Arambai to soak damage, while the strong Burmese infantry and Monks can assist the Arambai by killing or converting counter-units respectively.
Arambai are heavily enhanced by micro. While they will do decent as a backline unit, with micro they can beat almost everything. They can kill groups of archers in seconds due to the archers' low hit points if the Arambai get close to reduce the detrimental effects of their low accuracy.
All in all, Arambai are powerful units capable of dealing high amounts of damage, but are also lost fairly easily because lots of units counter them well (see the "Further statistics" section below). Therefore, they should always be used with caution as losses can prove quite costly.
Further statistics
As Arambai are unique to the Burmese, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Infantry, Villagers, Monks, units in dense formation |
| Weak vs. | Archers (especially Skirmishers), Kamayuks, Huskarls, Mamelukes, Camel Riders, Eagle Warriors |
| Upgrades | |
| Hit points |  Bloodlines (+20)
|
| Attack |  Chemistry (+1) Parthian Tactics (+2 attack against Spearmen)
|
| Accuracy |  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
|
| Armor |  Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1) Parthian Tactics (+1/+2)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
|
| Movement speed |  Husbandry (+10%)
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription (+33%) Kasbah (+25%, with a Berber ally only)
|
| Upgrade |  Elite Arambai
|
Civilization bonuses
Team bonuses
Britons: Researching Parthian Tactics is 10% faster.- Bulgarians: Researching Padded Archer Armor at the Blacksmith is 80% faster.
- Huns: Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry is 20% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Devotion and Faith is 20% faster.
- Malians: Researching Ballistics is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Arambai are researched 25% faster.
- Teutons: Arambai are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog
Rise of the Rajas
- The Arambai has a Rate of Fire of 2.
- Initially, (Elite) Arambai have 18 (20) attack and move at a speed of 1.35. With patch 5.7, they have 17 (19) attack and move at a speed of 1.3.
- Initially, Elite Arambai have +2 armor against anti-cavalry archer attacks. With patch 5.7, that bonus armor was removed.
- Initially, Arambai cost 50 wood, 60 gold. With patch 5.8, they cost 80 wood, 60 gold.
- Initially, Manipur Cavalry gives Arambai +6 attack against buildings. With patch 5.3, the bonus is spread over the two building classes (building and standard building) equally.
- Attack delay reduced from 0.7 to 0.6 seconds (unspecified in patch notes).
- Arambai train in 21 seconds.
- Arambai are not affected by Parthian Tactics.
- The Elite Arambai upgrade costs 1,100 food, 675 gold.
Definitive Edition
- With update 34699, Arambai cost 75 wood, 60 gold.
- With update 37650, Manipur Cavalry gives +6 attack against standard buildings and no damage against buildings.
- With update 42848, the Arambai has a Rate of Fire of 2.2.
- With hotfix 43210, the Elite Arambai has a Rate of Fire of 2.
Lords of the West
- With update 44725, (Elite) Arambai have 12 (15) attack. The Arambai has a Rate of Fire of 2. Stray shots do full (instead of half) damage to the unit they hit.
Dawn of the Dukes
- With update 56005, Manipur Cavalry now gives cavalry +5 attack against archers and no longer benefits Arambai.
Dynasties of India
- With update 61321, Arambai train in 18 seconds.
- With update 73855, Parthian Tactics also affects Arambai.
- With update 81058, the Elite Arambai upgrade costs 1,000 food, 750 gold.
Return of Rome
- With update 87863, (Elite) Arambai now properly affected by Chemistry instead of only using a graphic change to the projectile. Elite Arambai attack reduced from 15 to 14.
Trivia
- They belong to the Meitei people (also known as Manipuris, after the state of Manipur on the Indian-Burmese border), who speak a Sino-Tibetan language related, among others, to Burmese and Mandarin as well as other Chinese varieties like Cantonese, Wu, Min, etc.
- While they serve the Burmese civilization, the Kingdom of Manipur (also known as Kingdom of Kangleipak) was, in reality, often enemies with the Toungoo Empire, having had to stave off multiple Burmese invasions. It was not until much later, during the 17th-18th centuries long after Bayinnaung's death, that Manipur Cavalry served in the Burmese cavalry. Furthermore, the Burmese Manipuris fought primarily as lancers. However, the traditional primary arm for the Burmese cavalry was a short javelin that was used similarly to the Arambai.
- Arambai are one of just three mounted units in the game to attack with a thrown weapon (next to the Mameluke and the Genitour).
- Before Lords of the West, the Arambai was considered overpowered by many players, especially on closed maps like Arena, because they were capable of taking down most building in few seconds, due to their high base attack. This was highly criticized, because they are not supposed to take down buildings easily in the Castle Age. Their high base attack was also too effective against most units in small numbers, making them too dominant, especially in the Castle Age and, at the same, very similar to the Conquistador, as being too dominant in the Castle Age (and being easier to mass because of the cheaper and wood cost), but not scaling well into the Imperial Age. As the base attack was already high for the non-Elite Arambai, the elite upgrade didn't provide much difference. The Arambai was even more unbalanced before patch 5.7 because they also had extra armor vs anti cavalry archer attacks and higher attack, plus cheaper cost, making the presence of the Arambai (and even Burmese) feared by most players.
- Arambai belong to the Conquistador unit class, despite not using gunpowder. They do not belong to the cavalry class nor the cavalry archer class, and do not benefit from those upgrades for balancing reasons. Therefore, sometimes in-game mechanics treat Arambai as gunpowder units.
- For beginners to understand the Blacksmith upgrade easily, the Arambai was explained in conjunction with the gunpowder unit, but it is clearly stated that it is not actually a gunpowder unit: "Additionally, Arambai, which throw darts, are only affected by the armor upgrades."[1]
History
Arambai is the name of a dart-like weapon with a sharp point at the tip and feathered tail at the grip. It was the secret weapon of the Meiteis, the main community of Manipur in easternmost India. Arambai were carried in a quiver strapped near the horse saddle, and were tipped with poison in time of war. The arambai-carrying horsemen would gallop in, throw their arambai, and depart before the enemy could react.[2] Today, the art of arambai is still practiced by local people of Manipur during the Kwak Jatra festival.[3]
Gallery
Notes
- ā According to the in-game unit class system, Arambai belong to the Conquistador unit class despite not using gunpowder. This means they are affected by most of the standard mounted archer upgrades except for the Blacksmith attack upgrades.
