The Sepoy provides a more expensive but also more powerful replacement to the regular Musketeer for the Indians, with more hit points and attack. The Sepoy is good against melee cavalry due to its decent melee attack and strong multipliers versus them. It is good against most melee infantry and ranged cavalry units due to its powerful ranged attack. Overall, Sepoys are powerful units that are the backbone of the Indian army.
Sepoys are the strongest in the early Commerce Age, when compared to the regular Musketeers, Janissaries, Ashigaru Musketeers, and Caroleans, and are also capable of beating them in ranged combat (but in the case against Janissaries, it depends on which unit fires first). However, They start to fall behind when other Musketeer units get upgraded through Home City cards in later ages, especially Ashigaru Musketeers and Caroleans. The Sepoy costs more food but less coin when compared with Ashigaru Musketeer, and more coin when compared to the Janissary.
Using the Battlefield Constructions Home City Card, Sepoys gain the ability to build military buildings like Barracks, Caravanserai, and Castles. It is possible to receive 2 Sepoys instead of 1 villager with every Indian Home City card by sending the Conscript Sepoys card. It is also possible to convert all villagers into Sepoys in the Industrial Age by sending the Sepoy Resistance card for 2000 wood, which is similar to getting Revolutionaries after performing a Revolution.
Upgrades Sepoys to Exalted (+60% hit points and attack); requires Honored Sepoy
Mansabdar Sepoy[]
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Inspires all nearby Sepoys. Powerful Indian heavy infantry that has a slight bonus against cavalry at range and a large bonus against cavalry at melee.
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—In-game description
The Mansabdar Sepoy is a stronger version of the Sepoy that can be trained from the Charminar Gate wonder. As a Mansabdar unit, the Mansabdar Sepoy has twice the hit points of a Sepoy and Imperial Service that increases the hit points and attack of nearby Sepoys, but is twice as expensive.
Special ability[]
Imperial Service (passive): The Mansabdar Sepoy increases the hit points and attack of Sepoys in a radius of 24 around him by 10%.
Further statistics[]
As (Mansabdar) Sepoys are unique to the Indians, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
The Exalted upgrade for Sepoys grants 50% extra hit points and attack.
Mansabdar Sepoys cost 2 population.
Definitive Edition[]
Sepoys have 180 hit points.
With update 20322, the Exalted upgrade for Sepoys grants 60% extra hit points and attack.
With update 20322, Mansabdar Sepoys cost 1 population.
History[]
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By definition, the “sepoy” is an indigenous soldier serving in the armed forces of a European power. The most commonly known example is a native Indian fighting for the British occupational forces in India, starting in the sixteenth century. The rank of sepoy is the lowest enlisted rank in the British India army, similar to that of a private.
Sepoy soldiers were the driving force behind the 1857 uprising associated with the British East India Company, the commercial trade empire that had occupied and exploited the territories of India since as early as 1610. The mutiny erupted when a group of sepoys refused to use their new Lee-Enfield rifles. Loading the rifles required the soldiers to bite off the ends of greased cartridges, and rumors that the cartridges were greased with the fat of cows and pigs had circulated through the ranks. This outraged both Hindus, who regard cows as sacred, and Muslims, who regard pigs as unclean. After years of British mistreatment and disrespect, the sepoys found they had endured enough.