Steppe Lancer

This article is about the unit introduced in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Last Khans. For other units called Lancer, see Lancer.

Steppe Lancer
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Last Khans
Type	Cavalry
Civilization	Cumans Mongols Tatars
Age	Castle Age
Training
Trained at	Stable
Food	70
Gold	40
Training time	24 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	60
Melee attack	9
Reload time	2
Range	1
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	1
Armor class	Cavalry
Speed	1.45
Line of Sight	5
Unit evolution
Upgrades to	Elite Steppe Lancer
Upgrade cost	900 food, 550 gold
Upgrade time	55 seconds

“	Light cavalry unit with increased attack range.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Steppe Lancer is a cavalry unit in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition that can be trained at the Stable once the Castle Age is reached. It is a light cavalry unit which carries a lance and can attack at range, albeit it is very short. It is considered a regional unit as it is only available to the Cumans, Mongols, and Tatars. All three civilizations can upgrade Steppe Lancers to Elite Steppe Lancers.

Tactics

Steppe Lancers are useful for quick raids early in the Castle Age. Their range allows them to tear through Palisade Walls and regular buildings much faster than most units, as more units can attack at once. This makes them great at opening up an opponent's walled-off base. This is helped by the fact that they have a lower cost than Knights, making them easier to afford.

Against Pikemen, the Steppe Lancer's range means that they can hit-and-run depending on the situation, and hit-and-run on masses of cluttered units.

Micromanagement is critically important when the player faces melee units. Thanks to its high movement speed, it can outrun every unit except for the Camel Rider and Light Cavalry lines. This makes it very hard to counter early on in the Castle Age, as Crossbowmen are too slow to force an engagement.

While the Steppe Lancer is great at raiding and hard to counter early on, it becomes less viable as armies become bigger and more developed. The best units to counter an army of Steppe Lancers are Knights, camel units, and Crossbowmen.

Stable units comparison

Units	Light Cavalry	Steppe Lancer	Knight
Cost	80 food	70 food, 40 gold	60 food, 75 gold
HP	60	60	100
Attack	7	9	10
Rate of Fire	2	2	1.8
Armor	0/2	0/1	2/2
Speed	1.5	1.45	1.35
Line of Sight	8	5	4
Training Time	30s	24s	30s
Upgrade Cost and Time	500 food, 600 gold 50 seconds	900 food, 550 gold 55 seconds	300 food, 300 gold 100 seconds

Comparison among Civilizations

Civilization	Cumans	Mongols	Tatars
HP	80	98	80
Attack	9+2	9+2	9+2
Armor	0+2/1+2	0+2/1+2	0+3/1+3
Speed	1.595	1.45	1.45
Training Time	12s	24s	24s
Extras	-	-	+20% damage when attacking from higher ground

All civilizations that have access to the Steppe Lancer have a bonus that may make their use slightly different:

• Cuman Steppe Lancers move 10%/15% faster in the Castle/Imperial Age, but since they have no access to Husbandry, this effectively only results in a speed +5% bonus in the Imperial Age. Regardless, this enhances their raiding capabilities. Since update 36202, they also benefit from the Steppe Husbandry technology, which increases their creation speed by 100%, making them much more easy to mass.
• Mongol Steppe Lancers have +30% hit points, which makes them better at soaking damage and somewhat compensates for their low (pierce) armor.
• Tatar Steppe Lancers do +20% damage when attacking from higher ground, which may make them more useful than the Knight line on maps that feature a lot of elevation, as their range may give them an edge in pitched battles in these circumstances. However, since their range is very short, this is rather situational. Since update 36202 they also benefit from Silk Armor, making them more resilient against arrow-fire, and update 42848 added extra melee armor to the technology, making them more effective in melee combat as well.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, Light Cavalry, Villagers, siege weapons, masses of cluttered units (if massed)
Weak vs.	Archers, Stronger cavalry, Pikemen, camel units
Upgrades
Hit points	Bloodlines (+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) Silk Armor (+1/+1, Tatars only)
Speed	Husbandry (+10%)
Conversion defense	Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%) Steppe Husbandry (+100%, Cumans only)
Upgrades	Elite Steppe Lancer

Civilization bonuses

• Cumans: Steppe Lancers move 10%/15% faster in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Mongols: Steppe Lancers have +30% hit points.
• Tatars: Steppe Lancers deal +20% damage (+50% instead of +25%) when attacking from higher elevation.

Team bonuses

• Bulgarians: Blacksmith technologies that benefit Steppe Lancers are researched 80% faster.
• Hindustanis: Steppe Lancers have +2 attack against standard buildings.
• Huns: Steppe Lancers are created and upgraded 20% faster. Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry is 20% faster.
• Lithuanians: Researching Devotion, Faith, and Heresy is 20% faster.
• Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Steppe Lancers are researched 25% faster.
• Teutons: Steppe Lancers are more resistant to conversion.

Changelog

Definitive Edition

• Initially, Steppe Lancers cost 70 food, 30 gold, have 10 attack, a Rate of Fire of 1.9, and move at a speed of 1.5. With update 34055, they now cost 70 food, 45 gold, have 8 attack, a Rate of Fire of 2.3, and move at a speed of 1.45.
• Initially, Steppe Lancers have a small collision size, allowing multiple of them to be stacked tightly. With update 34055, their collision size is doubled.
• With update 36202, Steppe Lancers have 9 attack.
• Cumans: With update 36202, Steppe Lancers now benefit from Steppe Husbandry.
• Mongols: Initially cannot train Steppe Lancers. With update 35584, Steppe Lancers are added to their technology tree.
• Tatars: With update 36202, Steppe Lancers now benefit from Silk Armor.

Lords of the West

• With update 47820, Steppe Lancers cost 70 food, 40 gold.

Dawn of the Dukes

• With update 51737, Steppe Lancers have a Rate of Fire of 2.

Heroes

There is one hero in the game with the appearance of a Steppe Lancer:

• Bleda the Hun

Trivia

• Before update 34055, Steppe Lancers had much better attack, a small collision size, and moved at the same speed as the Light Cavalry, allowing Cuman and Tatar players to stack masses of Steppe Lancers in very small spaces (which in consequence allowed the stacked Steppe Lancers to deal high amounts of damage to an opponent but receiving low damage themselves), leading to the community viewing the Steppe Lancer as overpowered. This issue led to many players dropping out from ranked games when they encountered an opponent Cuman player (since in the release version, they were 10% faster and had Husbandry, making regular cavalry counters ineffective), as well as led to hosts kicking players who picked Cumans or even Tatars in non-ranked games.
  • Stacking Steppe Lancers in a small space can still be done, but it now requires heavy micromanagement and specific commands like patrolling a compact area in a compact formation.
    • After the first nerf, Steppe Lancer lines are the most unused units in competitive matches, as they are not only expensive, but also have low attack, slow ROF, and are prone to pierce attacks, making them an unwise choice for most cases, causing the small adjustment to their price and ROF to compensate their weaknesses.
• Visually, Steppe-Lancer-line units wield lances just as long as those of lancer-wielding Leitis and Magyar Huszar; yet those two units' melee attacks ironically do not gain the longer range advantage.
• The Steppe Lancer line was originally exclusive to the new Central Asian civilizations introduced in the Definitive Edition (Cumans and Tatars). However, in update 35584, Mongols received Steppe Lancers and the extra HP of Light Cavalry affected them.
• All three civilizations that have access to the Steppe Lancer (Mongols, Cumans, and Tatars) are noted to miss several key technologies in their Monastery (more particularly, all three of them lack Redemption and Theocracy), and lack Supplies, Arrowslits, Bombard Cannon, and Keep in their tech trees.
• Despite the Huns, Bulgarians, Magyars, and Turks being civilizations that originated from the steppes of Central/North Asia, they do not have access to the Steppe Lancer.
• Originaly, Steppe Lancers have a helmet covering the horse head. With update 34055, it was removed.
• During the beta, the Steppe Lancer cost 10 more food.

Gallery

A group of Steppe Lancers

Steppe Lancer on the left and Elite Steppe Lancer

16th-century Crimean-Tatar horsemen, by Marek Szyszko

A mounted lancer, of undetermined ethnicity, with captive and a dead foe's severed head, on an ewer from Nagyszentmiklós Treasure

Masked Polovtsian Lancer, by Igor Dzys'

Masked Polovtsian Lancer, by V. Vuksic and Z. Grbasic

Steppe Lancer art from the Mongol civilization event (July 2020)

Mongol Steppe Lancer