"Indian hand cavalry that rides a camel. Good against archers, skirmishers, and artillery."—In-game description
The Sowar is a melee heavy cavalry in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Indians and can be trained at Caravanserai and Galleon, as well as the Agra Fort wonder once it is upgraded to Delhi Gate. It brandishes a thin spear from atop a camel.
Overview 
Edit
Sowar is especially good against light infantry (like archers and Skirmishers). Its speed is the Sowar’s greatest asset, it has a very high speed even when compared to other cavalry units, which enables it to both reinforce a battle and retreat from unfavorable engagements.
The Sowar loses to heavy infantry and other cavalry due to the fact that it has a lower base damage than most cavalry units.
The Sowar gains an attack bonus against ranged infantry, and has two colonial upgrade cards increasing this attack bonus, and increasing its base attack by a massive 45%, making the Sowar potentially among the most cost-effective Colonial Age cavalry unit for countering ranged infantry. It is also very fast, making it easier to retreat or to catch other units, and a decent raider.
Upgrades Edit
| Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  Disciplined Sowar
| 200 wood, 100 coin | Upgrades Sowars to Disciplined (+20% hit points and attack) |
 |  Honored Sowar
| 600 wood, 600 coin | Upgrades Sowars to Honored (+30% hit points and attack); requires Disciplined Sowar |
 |  Exalted Sowar
| 1,500 wood, 1,500 coin | Upgrades Sowars to Exalted (+50% hit points and attack); requires Honored Sowar |
Mansabdar Sowar Edit
"Inspires all nearby Sowars. Indian hand cavalry that rides a camel. Good against archers, skirmishers, and artillery."—In-game description
The Mansabdar Sowar is a stronger version of the Sowar that can be trained from the Charminar Gate wonder or shipped from the Home City as part of Sowar Regiment. As a Mansabdar unit, the Mansabdar Sowar has twice the hit points of a Sowar and Imperial Service that increases the hit points and attack of nearby Sowars, but are two times more expensive.
Special ability Edit
- Imperial Service (passive): The Mansabdar Sowar increases the hit points and attack of Sowars in a radius of 24 around him by 10%.
Further statistics Edit
As (Mansabdar) Sowars are unique to the Indians, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Ranged infantry, artillery |
| Weak vs. | Heavy infantry, cavalry |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
|
| Attack |  Yoga (+5%)
|
| Speed |  Comanche Mustangs (+10%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
|
| Creation speed |  Cheyenne Horse Trading (-25%) Incan Chasquis Messengers (-25%)
|
| Train cost |  Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
|
| Other |  Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)
|
Home City Cards Edit
As (Mansabdar) Sowars are unique to the Indians, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the (Mansabdar) Sowar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team French
|
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack
| Heavy cavalry and Coyote Runners get +15% attack |  | 10 |
Germans Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cavalry Attack
| Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and light infantry get +15% attack | | 10 |
Indians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Dravidian Martial Arts
| All units get +15% melee attack +1 Villager | | 40 |
 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
| All units get +5% hit points and attack | | 25 |
 4 Sowars
| Ships 4 Sowars +1 Villager | | 1 |
 6 Sowars
| Ships 6 Sowars +1 Villager | | 10 |
 Sowar Regiment
| Ships 1 Mansabdar Sowar and 8 Sowars +1 Villager | | 25 |
 Camel Attack
| Sowars and Zamburaks get +30% attack +1 Villager | | 10 |
 Desert Terror
| Sowars get +0.5x multiplier against infantry; Zamburaks get +0.5x multiplier against heavy cavalry +1 Villager | | 10 |
 Grazing
| Sowars and Zamburaks generate 0.05 food every second; Brahmins, Mahout Lancers, Howdahs, Flail Elephants, and Siege Elephants generate 0.1 wood every second +1 Villager | | 40 |
 British East India Company
| Sepoys, Gurkhas, and Sowars get +10% hit points and attack +1 Villager | | 25 |
Japanese Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades
| Unit upgrades cost -20% | | 1 |
Russians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cavalry Scouts
| Cavalry and light infantry get +10% hit points and +4 LOS |  | 1 |
Spanish Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Inquisition
| All units get +10 LOS | | 10 |
Trivia Edit
- The Sowar is the only camel unit in the entire Age of Empires series that doesn´t deal bonus damage to any mounted units.
- The Sowar's unit portrait resembles the Honored/Exalted Sowar model.
History Edit
"In Persian, the word “sowar” literally means “the one who rides.” During the British East India Company’s occupation of the Indian subcontinent, “sowar” was used in reference to native cavalry units in the Company’s employ. These mounted soldiers were considered the equivalent of sepoy infantry soldiers, and they were often utilized as escorts and guards."
Gallery Edit
