Mameluke (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For the unit in Age of Empires III, see Mameluke (Age of Empires III).

Mameluke
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires II
Type	Cavalry
Civilization	Saracens
Age	Castle Age
Training
Trained at	Castle
Food	55
Gold	85
Statistics
Hit points	75, 90 (Elite)
Attack	8, 10 (Elite) melee
Attack bonus	+9, +12 (Elite) vs Cavalry +1 (Elite) vs Mameluke
Rate of Fire	2
Frame delay	24, 12 (Elite)
Attack delay	0.4, 0.2 (Elite)
Range	3
Accuracy	100%
Projectile speed	7
Melee armor	0, 1 (Elite)
Ranged armor	0
Armor class	Archer Mameluke Camel Unique unit
Speed	1.4
Line of Sight	5
Unit evolution
Upgrades to	Elite Mameluke
Upgrade cost	600 food, 500 gold
Upgrade time	50 seconds

“	Saracen unique unit. Camel with hand-to-hand attack at distance. Excels vs. other mounted units.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Mameluke is the unique unit of the Saracens in Age of Empires II. It is a Camel with a ranged melee attack and an attack bonus against cavalry.

Mamelukes can be upgraded to Elite Mamelukes in the Imperial Age.

Tactics

Similarly to Throwing Axemen, Mamelukes are melee units, but they throw their scimitar for a range of 3. Due to their high speed (which makes them effective against foot-soldiers) and their natural strength against cavalry, Mamelukes are considered some of the best units in the game. This is offset by their high cost.

A well controlled group of these can take down any unit, except by higher number of ranged foot soldiers. Mamelukes are well rounded units suited for most combat situations.

When allied with Indians, Mamelukes benefit from the Indian team bonus that gives camel units +4 attack bonus against standard buildings. In team games if the player has an Indian ally they can use the Mameluke as a supporting unit that can take down some buildings in a siege as well as they can counter the opponents cavalry that can put in danger the players siege engines that are used against Towers and Castles.

Mamelukes work well when paired with regular Camels, Onagers and Cavalry Archers, all of which Saracens have above average (Siege Onagers with Siege Engineers and fully upgradeable Cavalry Archers without bonuses alone qualify as above average). They are also good when paired with the Saracen fully upgradeable Hussars to take down enemy Onagers, Bombard Cannons, regular archers and skirmishers, monks or even as a cheap meatshield.

Mamelukes are in the camel armor class as well as the Mameluke armor class, which means they actually take more damage from Elite Mamelukes (+1), Spearmen (+4), Pikemen and Halberdiers (+11), and Heavy and Imperial Camel Riders (+7). Mamelukes also take bonus damage from anti-archer attacks, which makes Skirmishers (+2/+3/+4), Huskarls (+6/+10), and even Persian-allied Knight-line (+2) effective against them to a reasonable degree, even though these units have low melee armor or cavalry armor class, meaning they take a lot of damage from Mamelukes. Despite being in both the camel armor class and the archer armor class, Mamelukes are not in the cavalry archer armor class (unlike the Camel Archer).

Counter-intuitively, Camel Riders are a great counter to Mamelukes, since Mamelukes do not deal bonus damage to the Camel line. The Camel Rider line, on the other hand, deals bonus damage against the camel armor class, with Heavy and Imperial Camels both dealing +7 damage against the Mameluke armor class.

Also, in The Conquerors and The Forgotten, before The African Kingdoms, camel armor class was the same as Ship armor class (fixed with patch 4.8). They also used to be in the cavalry armor class (+11). So, in addition to all normal anti-camel attacks, it received 1, 4, 11, 21, 7 and 7 extra damage from Elite Mamelukes, Spearmen, Pikemen, Halberdier, Heavy Camels and Imperial Camels, before the release of the Definitive Edition.

Further statistics

As Mamelukes are unique to the Saracens, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Siege weapons, Cavalry Archers, melee units especially cavalry
Weak vs.	Pikemen, Kamayuks, Genoese Crossbowmen, Teutonic Knights, Camel Riders, Camel Archers.
Upgrades
Hit points	Bloodlines (+20) Zealotry (+20)
Attack	Forging (+1) Iron Casting (+1) Blast Furnace (+2)
Armor	Scale Barding Armor (+1/+1) Chain Barding Armor (+1/+1) Plate Barding Armor (+1/+2)
Speed	Husbandry (+10%)
Conversion defense	Faith Heresy
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%)
Upgrades	Elite Mameluke

Civilization bonuses

• Saracens: Mamelukes have +10 HP.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, Mamelukes are created and upgraded 25% faster, and Conscription and Zealotry are researched 25% faster.
• A team containing Bulgarians: Blacksmith upgrades are researched 80% faster.
• A team containing Huns: Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry are 20% faster.
• A team containing Indians: Mamelukes have +4 attack against standard buildings.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Faith and Heresy are researched 20% faster.
• A team containing Teutons: Mamelukes are more resistant to conversion.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• Mamelukes move at a speed of 1.41.
• Non-Elite Mamelukes have an attack of 7.
• Elite Mamelukes have a frame delay of 0.
• Mamelukes are in the cavalry armor class.

The Conquerors

• Mamelukes now move at a speed of 1.4.
• Mamelukes receive +11 bonus armor against anti-cavalry attacks. Also, Mamelukes get a new armor class they share with ships. Consequently, they take bonus damage from anti-ship attacks.
• Bloodlines introduced.
• Heresy introduced.
• Zealotry introduced.

The Forgotten

• Non-Elite Mamelukes now have an attack of 8.

The African Kingdoms

• The ship armor class is removed from the Mamelukes, and they receive a new camel armor class. Now only anti-camel, but not anti-ship attacks affect Mamelukes.
• With patch 4.8, Elite Mamelukes now have a frame delay of 5.

Rise of Rajas

• With patch 5.8, the cavalry armor class is removed from Mamelukes. Instead, a new unique armor class is added, against which the Elite Mameluke itself has an attack bonus of +1. Consequently, Halberdiers now deal -5 damage to Mamelukes.

Definitive Edition

• Elite Mameluke firing delay reduced to half of that of non-elite Mameluke. With the recreation of the game, the frame delay had to be scaled for all ranged units, so it is difficult to say which unit got nerfed or buffed.
• Halberdiers -5 attack vs Mameluke armor class (from +16 to +11).

Lords of the West

• Saracens: With update 44725, Mamelukes have +10 HP.

Trivia

• The Mameluke has the cheapest Elite upgrade in the game among all unique units (with a total of 1,100 resources).
• In-game, Mameluke rides a camel. This is historically incorrect, as mamelukes rode horses.
  • Furthermore, even the in-game Mameluke's mount is the wrong species: Arab camel-riders rode the one-humped dromedaries, not the two-humped Bactrians, which were sometimes ridden by Timurid Tatars.
• Mamlūk مَمْلُوك literally means owned in Arabic.
  • Indeed, Arab rulers recruited mamelukes from enslaved Turkic peoples (e.g. Oghuzes, Cumans and Kipchaks, etc.), Arabicized Egyptians, Circassians, Georgians, as well as Greeks, Albanians, and South Slavs.

History

“

The mamelukes were slaves trained as warriors by various Arab leaders, partially because early believers in Islam would not fight each other. Slave warriors got around this ban. The mamelukes were well trained and highly motivated. A mameluke army from Egypt won a rare victory against the Mongols in Syria, turning these barbarian horsemen back from the Nile and North Africa. In time the mamelukes rose up against their Arab rulers and took control themselves. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in the eighteenth century, he defeated a mameluke army at the Battle of the Pyramids.

”

Gallery

Mameluke render

A group of Mamelukes

A group of Mamelukes in the Definitive Edition

Mamelukes in the Definitive Edition

Mameluke in the HD Edition and Definitive Edition

In this historically informed reconstruction, the Mameluke rides a horse instead of a camel as in-game.

Three Mamelukes on horseback, by German artist Daniel Hopfer, from the early 16th century

A Mameluke riding a Bactrian camel in a fantastic modern drawing

Mamaluchi del Cairo (Mameluke from Cairo). Illustration by Cesare Vecellio, 1589