Heavy Camel Rider

Heavy Camel Rider
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Type	Cavalry
Civilization	See table
Age	Imperial Age
Training
Trained at	Stable
Food	55
Gold	60
Training time	22 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	120
Melee attack	7
Attack bonus	+18 vs Cavalry +9 vs Camel +9 vs Ship, Fishing Ship +7 vs Mameluke
Reload time	2
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor class	Camel
Speed	1.45
Line of Sight	5
Unit evolution
Upgraded from	Camel Rider
Upgrades to	Imperial Camel Rider (Hindustanis only)
Upgrade cost	1,000 food, 500 gold
Upgrade time	125 seconds

“	Fast anti-cavalry unit.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Heavy Camel Rider (called Heavy Camel before the Definitive Edition) is a cavalry unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Stable once the Imperial Age is reached. It excels at battling other cavalry, but is rather ineffective otherwise. Every civilization that has access to Camel Riders except for the Cumans can upgrade them to Heavy Camel Riders, but the upgrade to the Imperial Camel Rider is unique to the Hindustanis.

Availability chart

Available	Unavailable
Berbersx+ Byzantines+ Chinesex Ethiopians+ Gurjaras+ Hindustanisx+ Malians+ Mongols Persiansx Saracensx+ Tatarsx+ Turksx	Armenians Aztecs Bengalis Bohemians Britons Bulgarians Burgundians Burmese Celts Cumans Dravidians Franks Georgians Goths Huns Incas Italians Japanese Khmer Koreans Lithuanians Magyars Malay Mayans Poles Portuguese Romans Sicilians Slavs Spanish Teutons Vietnamese Vikings

^x means that the civilizations gets fully upgradeable Heavy Camel Riders. The technologies being considered here are Blast Furnace, Plate Barding Armor, and Bloodlines.

⁺ means that the civilization gets some civilization or team bonus or a unique technology that benefits the combat strength of the Heavy Camel Rider.

Tactics

Heavy Camel Riders are a great counter to enemy cavalry. They perform better in combat than Halberdier as they deal similar amounts of damage but are much more durable. Additionally, unlike Halberdiers, they can force engagements against enemy cavalry. They also fare well against enemy mounted archers due to their bonus damage, something the Halberdier line is unable to do. Camel units are the second fastest land unit type in Age of Empires II, only superseded by light cavalry.

Since they have very low armor and base attack, they are not effective against anything else than mounted units, so it is wise not to send them against foot archers or infantry. Camel Riders are also ineffective against buildings and take extra damage from defensive structures (especially before The African Kingdoms). They also have a decently expensive cost of 55 food, 60 gold, especially when compared to the cheap Halberdier.

Compared to its predecessor, the Heavy Camel Rider has +20 hit points, +1 attack, and +8 anti-cavalry bonus damage. The latter in particular makes this upgrade paramount against enemy cavalry, and the inexpensive cost makes it worth picking up before other upgrades.

Comparison in the Imperial Age with all upgrades

Civilization	Berbers	Byzantines	Ethiopians	Hindustanis	Gurjaras	Malians	Saracens
Cost	44 food, 48 gold	41 food, 45 gold	55 food, 60 gold		41 food, 60 gold	55 food, 60 gold
Hit Points	140	120		140			170
Attack	7+4	7+2	7+4		7+2	7+7	7+4
Attack bonus	+18 vs Cavalry +9 vs Camel				+25 vs Cavalry +13 vs Camel	+18 vs Cavalry +9 vs Camel
Armor	0+3/0+4		0+2/0+2	0+3/0+4	0+7/0+4	0+3/0+4
Rate of Fire	2			1.6	2
Extras	Regenerates 0.25 HP/s	-	Receives -2 damage from cavalry	+2 vs buildings Imperial Camel Rider Upgrade	Trained 25% faster	-

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Skirmishers, siege weapons, mounted archers, cavalry
Weak vs.	Infantry, foot archers, Cataphracts, defensive structures
Upgrades
Hit points	Bloodlines (+20)
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) Frontier Guards (+4/+0, Gurjaras only)
Speed	Husbandry (+10%)
Conversion defense	Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%)
Train cost	Kshatriyas (-25% food, Gurjaras only)
Other	Maghrebi Camels (regenerates 15 HP/min, Berbers only) Royal Heirs (-3 damage from mounted units, Ethiopians only)
Upgrades	Imperial Camel Rider (Hindustanis only)

Civilization bonuses

• Berbers: Heavy Camel Riders are 20% cheaper.
• Byzantines: Heavy Camel Riders are 25% cheaper.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Heavy Camel Riders are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Gurjaras: Heavy Camel Riders deal +40% bonus damage. Heavy Camel Riders placed at start of the game have the option of auto-scout.
• Hindustanis: Heavy Camel Riders attack 20% faster. Can upgrade to the Imperial Camel Rider.
• Saracens: Heavy Camel Riders have +25% Hit Points.
• Tatars: Heavy Camel Riders deal +20% damage (+50% instead of +25%) from elevations.

Team bonuses

• Bulgarians: Blacksmith upgrades are researched 80% faster.
• Gurjaras: Heavy Camel Riders are created 25% faster.
• Hindustanis: Heavy Camel Riders have +2 attack against standard buildings.
• Huns: Heavy Camel Riders are created and upgraded 20% faster. Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry is 20% faster.
• Lithuanians: Researching Heresy, Devotion, and Faith is 20% faster.
• Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Heavy Camel Riders are researched 25% faster.
• Teutons: Heavy Camel Riders are more resistant to conversion.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• The unit is named Heavy Camel.
• Heavy Camels take 29 seconds to train.
• Heavy Camels have a movement speed of 1.4.
• Heavy Camels are in the cavalry armor class, thus taking bonus damage from anti-cavalry attacks.
• Heavy Camels have 4 Line of Sight.

The Conquerors

• Heavy Camels train in 22 seconds.
• Heavy Camels have a movement speed of 1.45.
• The cavalry armor class is removed from the Heavy Camels, so they do not take bonus damage from anti-cavalry attacks anymore. Instead, Heavy Camels are moved in another armor class along with ships, and take bonus damage from anti-ship/anti-camel attacks. The Heavy Camels themselves also gain an attack bonus of +9 against their own class (and as such, also against ships).
• Bloodlines introduced.
• Heresy introduced.
• Saracens: Zealotry introduced in the Imperial Age. It gives Heavy Camels +30 HP.

The Forgotten

• Indians: Heavy Camels have +1/+1 armor.
• Indians: Upgrade cost of Imperial Camel Rider is 1,200 food, 600 gold.
• Indians (team bonus): Heavy Camels have +5 attack against buildings.

The African Kingdoms

• The ship armor class is removed from the Heavy Camels, and they receive a new armor class, against which they also gain an attack bonus of +9. Nevertheless, the Heavy Camels keep their attack bonus of +9 against ships. Anti-cavalry attacks still do not affect Heavy Camels.

Rise of the Rajas

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

Definitive Edition

• The unit is renamed to Heavy Camel Rider.
• Indians (team bonus): With update 37650, Heavy Camel Riders have +5 attack against standard buildings instead, so that it is no longer negated by Masonry or Architecture. With update 42848, the bonus is reduced to +4.
• Indians: With update 42848, Heavy Camel Riders have +2 pierce armor. Indians lose access to Plate Barding Armor.

Lords of the West

• Saracens: with update 44725, Heavy Camel Riders get +10 HP. Zealotry gives Heavy Camel Riders +20 HP.

Dynasties of India

• With update 61321, Line of Sight is increased to 5.
• With update 61321, the cost of Imperial Camel Rider research was reduced to 1,000 food, 500 gold.
• Saracens: With update 61321, Zealotry moved to the Castle Age.
• Gurjaras: Originally, Heavy Camel Riders deal +50% bonus damage. With update 66692, they deal +40% bonus damage.
• Hindustanis: Originally, Heavy Camel Riders attack 25% faster. With update 73855, they attack 20% faster.
• Ethiopians: With update 81058, Royal Heirs gives Heavy Camel Riders -3 damage from mounted units.

The Mountain Royals

• Persians: With update 95810, killing military units with Heavy Camel Rider provides 5 gold per unit. With update 99311, this bonus is removed.
• Saracens: Heavy Camel Riders +10 hit points civilization bonus changed to Heavy Camel Riders +25% hit points. Zealotry removed.

Heroes

There is one hero in the game with the appearance of a Heavy Camel Rider:

• Young Babur

History

“

The heavy camel was an especially experienced warrior and camel rider who wore some armor. They were used by desert civilizations of the Middle East who fought against archers from the Byzantine Empire and horse archers raiding down from the steppes of Asia.

”

Trivia

• The Camel Rider is one of the few units whose availability among civilizations corresponds very well with real-world history. 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 camels for transporting ammunition, and for food, respectively. Cumans have no access to the Heavy Camel Riders in-game, possibly for balancing reasons.
• The Far Eastern civilizations of the Mongols, Chinese, Cumans, and Tatars (the two latter originated from East Asia) would have been as likely to domesticate the lesser known of the two species of camel, the two-humped Bactrian Camel, native to the steppes of Central Asia, as the familiar Arabian one-humped dromedary; both would have been introduced by Silk Road traders.
• The Camel Rider line is one of three military units that do not make the usual military sound when created, the other being Trebuchets and Flaming Camels.
  • The Heavy Camel Rider makes the same sound effects as the Camel Rider from Age of Empires.
• Even though they have "heavy" in their name, Heavy Camel Riders have no armor.
• The Heavy Camel Rider's beta model was modified and reused for the Imperial Camel Rider in Forgotten Empires until patch 3.5.
  • This beta sprite has the camel wearing a caparison. Although this is not the case in the final sprites, the icon for the Heavy Camel Rider upgrade still shows a camel with a caparison, and the icon for the Imperial Camel Rider upgrade shows the camel with caparison and armor.
• The Camel Rider line units are the only common cavalry units that do not have any base pierce armor.
• Heavy Camel Riders deal bonus damage against the cheat unit Saboteur (since The Conquerors) because it is in the same unit class as ships.
• With 7 melee armor, the fully upgraded Gurjara Heavy Camel Rider is now tied with the Teutonic Paladin for the highest melee armor of stable units.
  • Despite lacking Blast Furnace, Gurjara Heavy Camel Riders might be the strongest Heavy Camel Riders in the game, as they deal 40% more bonus damage (which means they perform as good as Malian Heavy Camel Riders with Farimba, killing Paladins in 7 hits), cost the same amount of food as Byzantine Heavy Camel Riders after researching the Castle Age unique technology Kshatriyas while having access to Bloodlines, extra melee armor with the Imperial Age unique technology Frontier Guards, and also training 25% faster thanks to the team bonus. However, it is necessary to invest a large amount of resources to upgrade the Camel Riders.
• None of the civilizations introduced in The Conquerors and The Forgotten (the latter since Dynasties of India) have access to (Heavy) Camel Riders. Lack of Camel Riders in further expansions is not notable since they are region based, rather than generic.
• All civilizations with access to Heavy Camel Riders have access to Husbandry as well.

Gallery

The Camel Rider line, with the Heavy Camel Rider in the middle

The Camel Rider line in the Definitive Edition, with the Heavy Camel Rider being the second from the right

A group of Heavy Camel Riders

A group of Heavy Camel Riders in the Definitive Edition

Unit sprite in the Definitive Edition

Heavy Camel Riders in-game

Heavy Camel Riders engaging enemy cavalry

The Heavy Camel Rider in beta, used for the Imperial Camel Rider in the Forgotten Empires mod

Video

HEAVY CAMEL RIDER (Gurjaras) vs EVERY UNIQUE UNIT (Total Resources) - AoE II- DE