Mounted unit (Age of Empires II)

Cataphract, a strong and expensive heavy cavalry

Mounted units in Age of Empires II are soldiers which use some mounts (like Camels, Elephants, or Horses), or are the mounts themselves (have implicit rider).

Classification on basis of upgrades

Mounted units can be classified into three types on the basis of properties:

• Cavalry units - soldiers using melee weapons on mounts OR elephants attacking by themselves
• Mounted archer units - soldiers using bows, javelins, guns, or darts on mounts
• Mixed or ambigious

List of ambiguous mounted units

Unit	Description	Classification(s)	Reason
Missionary	Monk on a donkey	Monk	Benefits from generic monk and mounted unit technologies
Conquistador	Hand Cannoneer on a horse	Hand Cannoneer	Benefits from archer armor upgrades, but not Ballistics or archer attack upgrades
Arambai	Dart thrower on a horse		The Arambai is the hardest unit to classify. It is something between a Cavalry Archer and a Hand Cannoneer. It benefits from Archer armor upgrades, Ballistics, and Parthian Tactics. It does not benefit from archer attack upgrades and Thumb Ring.
Ballista Elephant	Scorpion on an elephant	Cavalry	Benefits from cavalry armor upgrades, but not from melee attack upgrades (it does not have a melee attack to begin with), healed by Monks and converted without Redemption
		Scorpion (Siege)	Benefits from Siege Engineers, Chemistry, and Double Crossbow
Flaming Camel	Camel loaded with explosives	Petard (Siege)	Benefits from Siege Engineers (+40% instead of +20%), can be garrisoned in structures, healed by Monks and converted without Redemption
Melee Ratha	Melee version of the Ratha	Mounted archer*	Benefits from all technologies which benefit the ranged version of Ratha (it gets line of sight boost from Fletching; except Ballistics and Chemistry), but gets attack upgrades as if it were a cavalry but not armor upgrades Adds projectiles when garrisoned as if it were in the ranged mode
Armored Elephant Siege Elephant	Elephant with massive attack vs buildings	Cavalry	Benefits from all technologies like generic cavalry, healed by Monks and converted without Redemption
		Ram (Siege)	Benefits from Siege Engineers (+20% attack vs buildings, but not +1 range) Needs to be converted at close range

Classification on basis of mounts

On the basis of animals used, mounted units are made to benefit from different unique upgrades:

• Horse units - no specific upgrade benefits horse units in particular
• Camel units
• Elephant units
• Donkeys - only Missionary

Camel units

They are characterized by slightly above average speed for cavalry. They are the only mounted units which do not have Armor class: Cavalry, but their own Armor class: Camel. This classification is based on mount, so nothing else can be said about their costs and hit points.

Units

• Camel Scout → Camel Rider → Heavy Camel Rider → Imperial Camel Rider (cavalry)
• Mameluke → Elite Mameluke (cavalry)
• Camel Archer → Elite Camel Archer (archer)
• Flaming Camel (siege)

Role

All camel units fill in a mobile anti-cavalry role due to combinations of their properties.

Strengths

• The Camel Scout line is purely a mobile anti-cavalry unit. Having superior mobility and hit points, it counters siege units and Skirmishers too.
• Mamelukes are generalist units which counter most melee units with their hit-and-run tactics. Their range may seem less, but their mobility and high attack makes up for it. While cavalry possess the speed to catch them, Mamelukes possess an anti-cavalry attack to counter them better. They are good against rams and Skirmishers too.
• Camel Archers are generalist units too. Usually, mounted archers are soft-countered by foot archers and superior mounted archers. Camel Archers have 1 base pierce armor and an attack bonus vs mounted archers, which takes care of both types of units.
• Flaming Camels are a soft-counter to siege and cavalry, but a hard-counter to elephants.

Weaknesses

• Camel Riders and Mamelukes are countered by Monks and foot archers, on account of being good-value units and units with low pierce armor, respectively.
• The Camel Scout line is also countered by Champion-type infantry and the Spearman line.
• Mamelukes are also countered by the Camel Rider line and Throwing Axemen. Teutonic Knights completely negate Mamelukes. Their stacking potential also makes them vulnerable to siege weapons.
• Camel Archers are countered only by siege weapons, Skirmishers, Huskarls, and Genoese Crossbowmen.
• Flaming Camels are very effectively countered by the Spearman line. Champion-type infantry do well too. If managing to attack from a distance, archers perform well too.

Prominent civilizations

The Hindustanis and Gurjaras are considered the best camel civilizations throughout the game, having strong bonuses and unique upgrades. The Saracens have a slight advantage in the early Castle Age, with extra hit points, but they become much stronger after building a Castle, due to having even more hit points and especially a strong camel unique unit. The Berbers are good across the game too, but their strength mostly comes from cost-efficiency before their unique camel unit comes into play. Lastly, Malian Camel Riders can be made versatile with their unique technology, which comes in quite late.

Elephant units

These units are characterized by their high food cost, tankiness, and slow movement, even slower than infantry. In addition to the Cavalry armor class, they have the Elephant armor class.

Role

Elephant units (except Armored Elephants) fill the role of their non-mounted counterparts with more survivability (more population efficiency, less unit turnover) but with very high cost, especially food. Armored Elephants fill the same role as Battering Rams.

Units

• Battle Elephant → Elite Battle Elephant (cavalry)
• Elephant Archer → Elite Elephant Archer (archer)
• Armored Elephant → Siege Elephant (cavalry + siege)
• War Elephant → Elite War Elephant (cavalry)
• Ballista Elephant → Elite Ballista Elephant (cavalry + siege)

Strengths

• War and Battle Elephants beat most units in melee combat and are very resistant to archers. They also perform well against buildings. The Camel Scout line is not as effective against them as the Spearman line is.
• Elephant Archers negate enemy archers while themselves dealing a good amount of attack to them. Elephant Archers, despite being Elephants, are good vs Monks (due to being ranged) and, despite being archers, are good vs siege (due to being tanky).
• Ballista Elephants are basically tanky Scorpions which have no minimum range. They are unique in being able to kill trees in the Castle Age. They are fast for Scorpions, which increases with Husbandry. They are also good anti-infantry units, almost better than Scorpions.
• The Armored Elephant line is specialized as anti-building and anti-siege units. As a variation of rams, they resist attack from Villagers, Chu Ko Nu, Kipchaks, and the Fire Galley line.

Weaknesses

• Flaming Camels, Kamayuks, Flemish Militia, and the Spearman line devastate Elephants.
• War and Battle Elephants, being high value and slow units, are prime targets of Monks. Prominent Elephant civilizations lack Heresy too.
• Elephant Archers are hard countered by Skirmishers. They do not provide as much damage output as a similar-costing army of Arbalesters or Heavy Cavalry Archers, which makes them cost-ineffective vs. heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.
• Ballista Elephants have a natural weakness of design. Scorpions are anti-archer units which do not need any upgrades in the early Castle Age to do their job, while Ballista Elephants need cavalry armor technologies to be effective. Their shorter range also nerfs their anti-archer role. They are weak to Siege Onagers too.
• The Armored Elephant line, despite being a variation of rams, are even weaker against generalist anti-elephant units, Mamelukes, non-Redemption Monks (rams are immune to Monks without Redemption), and the Camel Scout line. They are also weak to melee and siege units like rams are.

Prominent civilizations

Among melee elephants, the Persians are the best with their unmatched brute strength, albeit needing a Castle and lots of farmers to start production, which also means that they come in a bit late. In the early game, the Malay can get their elephants rolling early due to a heavy discount, but they become useless in the late game against archers. The Khmer have superior food economy and a crucial boost to help their elephants, which makes them the second best elephant civilization across game length. The Burmese are consistently third best in both early- and late-game, generally supported by good economy, but are the best against archer civilizations. Bengali Elephants are more resistant against two out of their only three direct counters (Monks and Halberdiers) and have damage output similar to the Khmer, but suffer due to not having economy bonuses. Nonetheless, they should not be underestimated in the late game.

Among Armored Elephants, the Bengalis are best with all technologies, having the most damage output against buildings and resisting attack bonuses and conversion. The Gurjaras come in a close second in the Post-Imperial stage against buildings, and are the best before that stage due to their sheer brute strength without need for extra upgrades.

Among Elephant Archers, the Bengalis have the most survivability, whereas the Dravidians have the best damage output.

Further statistics

Listed below are technologies, team bonuses, and civilization bonuses that specifically benefit mounted units:

Technologies

Technology	Researched at	Age	Civilization	Effect
Bloodlines	Stable		31	Increases hit points by +20
Husbandry	Stable		38	Increases speed by +10%
Aznauri Cavalry	Castle		Georgians	Mounted units cost -15% population
Maghrebi Camels	Castle		Berbers	Camel units regenerate 15 HP/min
Medical Corps	Castle		Dravidians	Elephant units regenerate 30 HP/min
Paiks	Castle		Bengalis	Elephant units attack 20% faster

Civilization bonuses

• Bengalis - Elephant units receive -25% bonus damage and are more resistant to conversion.
• Cumans - Mounted units movement speed +5% each Age starting in the Feudal Age (+5%, +10.25%, +15.76% accumulative).
• Franks - Mounted units hit points +20% starting in the Feudal Age.
• Georgians - Mounted units regenerate 5/10/15 HP per minute in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Gurjaras - Mounted units deal +20%/+30%/+40% attack bonus in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Persians - Mounted units get 5 gold for each military unit killed.
• Saracens - Camel units +25% hit points.

Team bonuses

• Gurjaras - Elephant and camel units are created 25% faster.
• Hindustanis - Camel units +2 attack vs standard buildings.

Garrison properties

Mounted units have the property that they can be garrisoned in Castles (and Kreposts), but not Town Centers or towers.

• Missionaries cannot be garrisoned in Town Centers or towers, despite Monks being allowed to do so.
• Armored, Siege, and Ballista Elephants can be garrisoned in Castles, despite siege weapons not being allowed to do so.

This is not ambiguous for Flaming Camels, since Petards also follow the same rules.

Trivia

• The Tatars have the most mounted unit lines at seven - Cavalry Archer, Scout Cavalry, Knight, Camel Rider, Steppe Lancer, Keshik, and Flaming Camel.
• Mounted archer units benefit from all generic upgrades of foot archer units and mounted units, but not vice versa. Parthian Tactics benefits neither foot archers nor mounted units.