Imperial Camel Rider

Imperial Camel Rider
Unit information
Introduced in	The Forgotten
Type	Cavalry
Civilization	Indians
Age	Imperial Age
Training
Trained at	Stable
Food	55
Gold	60
Training time	20 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	140
Attack	9 melee
Attack bonuses	+18 vs Cavalry +9 vs Camel +9 vs Ship +9 vs Fishing Ship +7 vs Mameluke +5 vs Building
Rate of Fire	2.0
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor classes	Camel
Speed	1.45
Line of Sight	5
Unit evolution
Upgraded from	Heavy Camel Rider

“	Stronger than Heavy Camel. Excels at killing other mounted units.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Imperial Camel Rider (called Imperial Camel before the Definitive Edition) is the second unique unit of the Indians in Age of Empires II: The Forgotten. It can be trained at the Stable once the Imperial Age is reached. It is an anti-cavalry unit.

Unlike most unique units, Imperial Camel Riders do not have an Elite version, as they are already a final upgrade.

Tactics

Imperial Camel Riders are one of the most versatile and powerful cavalry units in the game due to their variety of uses in the battlefield, and given the number of advantages they have compared to ordinary cavalry. Besides having an attack bonus against other cavalry units, they have decent attack, high hit points, fast speed, are cheaper than Knights, and have average armor (their original armor is 0/0 but the Indians' civilization bonus gives them +1 pierce armor from the very beginning. However, in update 42848 of the Definitive Edition, the pierce armor bonus was increased to +2 and extend to the Hussar, but with Plate Barding Armor removed, which means that they now get the same pierce armor as the Heavy Camel Riders of other civilizations, while also having less melee armor). Due to the Indian team bonus, they also have +4 attack against standard buildings, which makes them a fairly good substitute for siege weaponry. They can easily kill Paladins in one on one combat and can also defeat War Elephants in small groups.

As the Indians lack any unit from the Knight line, Camel Riders are a vital part of their armies for a fast, yet fairly resilient unit. They can be used as a shield for weaker units, while still being able to slaughter archers and cavalry. However, they are not as effective against Cataphracts, whose special resistance negates most of the bonus damage from the Camel Riders. Although they have an attack bonus against buildings, their low pierce armor means they should not deal against any of defensive structures on their own, especially in The Forgotten.

The Imperial Camel Rider is a well-rounded unit, and is able to handle almost any unit, even infantry, but while it can defeat even Halberdiers one on one, it is not cost effective enough to send them against a group of any kind of pole armed infantry because they can deal heavy damage even without defeating the Camel Rider force.

As a side note, despite being available only to a single civilization and the Imperial Camel Rider upgrade being unique to the Indians, the unit itself is treated as an ordinary member of the Camel Rider line by the game. Hence, unlike the Condottiero or Slinger, the Imperial Camel Rider takes no bonus damage from Samurai.

Further statistics

As Imperial Camel Riders are unique to the Indians, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Skirmishers, siege weapons, Cavalry Archers, cavalry
Weak vs.	Pikemen, Kamayuks, Teutonic Knights, Genoese Crossbowmen, Berserks, Cataphracts
Upgrades
Hit points	Bloodlines (+20)
Attack	Forging (+1)  Iron Casting (+1)  Blast Furnace (+2)
Armor	Scale Barding Armor (+1/+1)  Chain Barding Armor (+1/+1)
Speed	Husbandry (+10%)
Conversion defense	Faith
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%)

Civilization bonuses

• Indians: Imperial Camel Riders have +2 pierce armor.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, Conscription is researched 25% faster.
• A team containing Bulgarians: Researching cavalry armor and attack upgrades at the Blacksmith is 80% faster.
• A team containing Huns: Imperial Camel Riders are created 20% faster. Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry is 20% faster.
• A team containing Indians: Imperial Camel Riders have +4 attack against standard buildings.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Faith is 20% faster.
• A team containing Teutons: Imperial Camel Riders are more resistant to conversion.

Changelog

The Forgotten

• The unit is named Imperial Camel.
• Imperial Camels are in an armor class along with ships, and take bonus damage from anti-ship/anti-camel attacks.
• Indians: Imperial Camels have +1/+1 armor.
• Indians: Team bonus: Camels have +5 attack against buildings.

The African Kingdoms

• Imperial Camels reskinned.
• The ship armor class is removed from the Imperial Camels, and they receive an own armor class.

Rise of the Rajas

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

Definitive Edition

• The unit is renamed to Imperial Camel Rider.
• Indians: With update 42848:Imperial Camel Riders have +2 pierce armor. Team bonus: Imperial Camel Riders have +4 attack against standard buildings.

Trivia

• Camel Riders are one of two military units that do not make the usual military sound when created, the other being Trebuchets.
  • The Imperial Camel Rider makes the same sound effects as the Camel Rider from Age of Empires.
• They used the same icon as the Heavy Camel Rider until patch 3.5.
• The original unit design for the Imperial Camel Rider (up until patch 3.5) was based on the beta Age of Kings design for the Heavy Camel Rider.
• In Age of Empires II: The Forgotten Empires and Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten, up to patch 3.5, the Imperial Camel Rider was a redesigned regular Heavy Camel Rider with a longer fabric covering and an attack animation somewhat similar to a Mameluke. The design was brought up to speed with the other expansion units in patch 3.6.
• The Imperial Camel Rider is one of the only two unique units that is an upgrade of a regular unit (the other one being the Imperial Skirmisher).
• The Imperial Camel Rider is one of only two unique units not taking bonus damage from the Samurai (the other one being the Imperial Skirmisher), due to both being upgrades of common units.
• The Imperial Camel Rider is the only unique unit that is initially trained at the Stable. It is joined by the Tarkan when Marauders is researched.
• The Imperial Camel Rider is one of only five unique units only available in the Imperial Age (the other being the Condottiero, the Imperial Skirmisher, the Flaming Camel, and the Flemish Militia).
• The Imperial Camel Rider is one of the few unique units that do not have any base melee armor nor pierce armor. The others are the Chu Ko Nu, Gbeto, Slinger, and Missionary. The Imperial Camel Rider, however, always gets +2 pierce armor thanks to the Indian civilization bonus.

Gallery

Imperial Camels in The Forgotten, up to patch 3.5

Imperial Camels from patch 3.6

Imperial Camels from patch 4.4

The Camel line, with the Imperial Camel on the right

Official preview when the Indians were still in development, showing the original design for the Imperial Camel before it was reskinned

Imperial Camel Rider in the HD Edition and Definitive Edition

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