Sowar

Sowar
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Cavalry Heavy cavalry Melee cavalry
Civilization	Indians
Age	Commerce Age
Training
Trained at	Caravanserai Agra Fort (once upgraded to Delhi Gate) Galleon
Food	80
Coin	80
Training time	35 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	225
Resists	30% vs. Ranged
Speed	7.5
Line of Sight	20
Population	2
XP train bounty	16
XP bounty	16
Melee attack
Damage	20 11 (Trample mode)
Multipliers	x2.0 vs. Infantry x0.5 vs. Heavy infantry
Area of Effect	3 (Trample mode)
Rate of Fire	1.5 2.0 (Trample mode)
Siege attack
Damage	15
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0

“	Indian hand cavalry that rides a camel. Good against archers, skirmishers, and artillery.	”
—In-game description

The Sowar is a melee heavy cavalry unit 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

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 swiftly.

The Sowar does not perform well against heavy infantry and other cavalry due to the fact that it has a lower base damage than most cavalry units.

Although the Sowar starts out as a mediocre cavalry unit, it excels at killing Light Infantry once Home City cards are sent to upgrade them. One of the cards increases their attack bonus versus Light Infantry, and the others increase its base attack by a massive 45%. It does about 72.5 damage to Shock Infantry with all of these upgrades, making the Sowar potentially among the most cost-effective cavalry unit for countering Light Infantry in the Commerce Age. It is also very fast, making it easier to retreat or to catch other units.

Upgrades

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

Mansabdar Sowar
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Cavalry Heavy cavalry Melee cavalry
Civilization	Indians
Age	Commerce Age
Special ability	Imperial Service
Training
Trained at	Charminar Gate
Food	160
Coin	160
Training time	35 seconds
Training limit	1
Statistics
Hit points	450
Resists	30% vs. Ranged
Speed	7.5
Population	2
XP train bounty	32
XP bounty	32
Melee attack
Damage	20 11 (Trample mode)
Multipliers	x2 vs. Infantry x0.5 vs. Heavy infantry
Area of Effect	3 (Trample mode)
Rate of Fire	1.5 2.0 (Trample mode)
Siege attack
Damage	15
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0

“	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

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

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%) Quechuan Diet (-25%)
Train cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)

Home City Cards

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

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 Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Attack Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and Shock Infantry get +15% attack 10 Indians 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 Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades Unit upgrades cost -20% 1 Russians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Scouts Cavalry and Shock Infantry get +10% hit points and +4 LOS 1 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10

Changelog

The Asian Dynasties

• Sowars and Mansabdar Sowars have a x1.5 multiplier against infantry and a x0.67 multiplier against Heavy infantry.
• The Desert Terror Home City Card gives -0.17x multiplier against heavy infantry.
• Mansabdar Sowars cost 4 population.

Definitive Edition

• Sowars and Mansabdar Sowars have a x2.0 multiplier against infantry and a x0.5 multiplier against heavy infantry.
• The Desert Terror Home City Card gives -0.1x multiplier against heavy infantry and +0.5x against all infantry, making the Sowar's damage x2.5 versus all infantry and x2.5 (x0.4) = x1.0 versus heavy infantry.
• With update 20322, Mansabdar Sowars cost 2 population.

Trivia

• 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

“

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

An in game Sowar

An in-game Disciplined Sowar

An in-game Honored/Exalted Sowar

An in-game Mansabdar Sowar

The Sowar's history portrait