Tatars (Age of Empires II)

Civilization	Technology tree	Strategy

“	For centuries, fierce nomads roamed the Central Asian steppe, periodically launching distant migrations or campaigns to conquer or extort their sedentary neighbors. Don arrow-resistant silk armor and dominate the hills and plains with mobile horsemen and cavalry archers, or join the Mongol hordes and swell the ranks of the Keshiks, honored bodyguards of the Great Khan himself! Dare you follow in the footsteps of Tamerlane and mercilessly conquer an empire from Transoxiana to India, Anatolia, and Russia?	”
—Description^[1]

The Tatars' civilization music theme in the Definitive Edition

The Tatars are a Central Asian civilization introduced in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. They focus on Cavalry Archers.

Historically, the Tatars were a para-Mongolic people who originated from the Gobi desert's northeast corner. Some Tatars left early and joined the Turkophone Kimek-Kipchak confederation. Tatars who stayed in their homeland were subjugated by Temujin, incorporated into his Mongol Empire and participated in the Mongol conquests, gaining new lands to settle in the process. Tatars would later be Turkicized and absorbed into their Turkic-speaking neighbours. The in-game Tatars civilization is mostly representative of the Turco-Mongol successor Khanates and states established during and after the decline and dissolution of the Mongol Empire that were often called "Tartars" by Europeans, such as the Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate and the Timurid Empire (which is the primary basis of the Tatar campaign) but also represent other turkic peoples of the Central Asian steppes like Gokturks and Kara-Khanids. Today, many Kipchak-Turkic-speaking peoples still call themselves Tatars.

The steppe people that later became known as Tatars were known for their nomadic lifestyle which relied on hunting and herding. To reflect this, the Tatars can obtain 50% more food from herdable animals; Also, they get two free Sheep per new Town Center.

The Tatars, like other equestrian nomadic folks (Mongols, Huns, Oghuz Turks, Cumans-Kipchaks, early Magyars, etc.), often used feigned retreat tactics: they would lure pursuing enemies, whom they'd shoot back at, into ambushes which Tatars had laid by taking full advantage of terrain. To reflect this, the Tatars' units can deal 50% more damage when attacking enemy units from higher locations.

The Tatar horsemen were famous for their skillful ability when using weapons (especially bow) on horseback. This is reflected by their free Parthian Tactics and Thumb Ring technologies. In addition, the Tatars also has access to the Silk Armor unique technology which increases the armor of their Scout Cavalry, Steppe Lancer and Cavalry Archer-line as well increased Line of Sight of their Cavalry Archers as their team bonus.

After the dissolution of the Mongol Empire, various new kingdoms or khanates were established in former Mongol Empire territory by Tatar warlords. These khanates often invaded and plundered their neighbours to collect war booty. To reflect this, the Tatars can train the Keshik unique unit that generates gold automatically when attacking enemy units.

One of the most powerful Tatar states established after the dissolution of the Mongol Empire was the Timurid Empire, which was known to deploy siege weapons intensively. To reflect this, the Tatars has access to the Timurid Siegecraft unique technology which gives additional range to the Trebuchet.

During the Battle of Delhi (1398), the Timurid army used camels carrying burning straws to frighten Delhi's war elephants and make them trample their own troops. To reflect this, once Timurid Siegecraft is researched, the Tatars are able to train Flaming Camels that deal bonus damage against Elephants and other cavalry.

Overview

The Tatars are classified as a cavalry archer civilization. Their Cavalry Archers are extremely powerful, not only having all possible upgrades (two of those, Parthian Tactics and Thumb Ring, are free for them), they also deal 50% more damage when fight on higher grounds (this bonus applies to all Tatar units), increased Line of Sight (which is their team bonus) and the Silk Armor unique technology, which gives additional melee and pierce armor to them, putting the Tatar cavalry archers at the same level as the Mongol, Hun, Turk, Magyar and Cuman cavalry archers.

Tatars also have strong cavalry, despite lacking the Paladin upgrade, as they have the Keshik, a medium armored cavalry unit which generates gold when fighting other units, and complete upgrades to all Stable units (the Scout Cavalry also benefits from the Silk Armor unique technology) as well access to the Steppe Lancer which is exclusive to the Tatars, Cumans, and Mongols, and affected by Silk Armor.

Though having Hand Cannoneer, their foot archers aren't great, due to lacking the Arbalester upgrade. Tatars also have the weakest infantry of all civilizations, to the point that is completely unusable, not only lacking the Champion upgrade and Supplies, they are the only civilization that lack Chain Mail Armor.

Despite having average siege units (lacking Siege Onager and Bombard Cannon), the Tatar Trebuchet has the longest range in the game, thanks to the Timurid Siegecraft unique technology which grants them +2 range (with Siege Engineers they reach 19 range).

The Tatar navy is average, only lacking Heavy Demolition Ship and Shipwright.

Their defenses are lackluster, due to lacking Hoardings, Architecture, Keep, and Arrowslits, but they have access to the Bombard Towers.

Tatar Monks are very weak, as they lack several upgrades.

Their economy is pretty strong at the start and part of the mid-game, as their herdables contain 50% more food and they get two free Sheep per new Town Center, starting in the Feudal Age, but much more limited in the late game, due to lacking Stone Shaft Mining and Two-Man Saw.

Campaign appearances

The Tatars have a campaign devoted to their civilization: Tamerlane. They also appear in:

Genghis Khan

Crucible (in the Definitive Edition)
- Uighurs

Prithviraj (Definitive Edition)

The Digvijaya
- Soomra
The Fate of India
- Ghori

Ivaylo

A Most Unlikely Man
- Tulcha Tatars
Tsar of the Bulgars
- Kasim Beg
- Tatars
- Nogai's Khans

Kotyan Khan

Raising the Banners
- Tatar Scouts
The Battle at the Kalka River, Saving the Huts and Blood for Blood
- Tatars

Characteristics

Unique units

Keshik: Cavalry that generates gold with each attack.

Flaming Camel: Camel that explodes like a Petard, with attack bonuses against mounted units and elephants

Unique technologies

Silk Armor: Scout Cavalry line, Steppe Lancers and Cavalry Archers +1/+1.

Timurid Siegecraft: Trebuchets +2 range, enables access to the Flaming Camel.

Civilization bonuses

Herdables contain +50% food.
Units do +50% damage when attacking from higher elevations (instead of +25%).
Parthian Tactics and Thumb Ring are free.
Two Sheep spawn near the Town Center upon reaching the Feudal Age. Two additional Sheep spawn near each additional Town Center built.

Team bonus

Cavalry Archers +2 LOS.

Changelog

Definitive Edition

Initially, Keshiks cost 50 food and 80 gold. With update 34055, they now cost 50 food and 40 gold.
Initially, (Elite) Keshiks have 100 (130) HP and 12 (14) attack. With Update 34055, they now have 110 (140) HP and 9 (11) attack.
Initially, they cannot research Halberdier. With update 35584, it is added to their tech tree.
With update 36202: Now gain the Thumb Ring technology for free as a civilization bonus.
With update 36202: Reduced the training time of Keshiks from 23 to 16 seconds and Elite Keshiks from 20 to 14 seconds.
With update 36202: Silk Armor now grants its benefits to Steppe Lancers.
With update 36202: Timurid Siegecraft now increases the bonus range granted to Trebuchets from +1 to +2 and makes the new Flaming Camel unit available when researched — a fast-moving Petard with bonuses vs. mounted units and elephants.
Initially could research Supplies. It was made unavailable in Update 37650.
Initially, Silk Armor grants +1 Pierce armor. With update 42848, Silk Armor provides +1/+1 Armor.
With update 42848, two Sheep spawn near the Town Center upon reaching the Feudal Age. Two additional Sheep spawn near each additional Town Center built.

In-game dialogue language

Tatar units speak Chagatai, which was historically used by Turkic people in Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate and their descendant states (whom Europeans collectively called Tatars) and to whom Tamerlane and Urus Khan belonged. Being a Turkic language it is related to the languages spoken by the Turks and Cumans. But in stark contrast with the lines spoken by the latter, where mainly words with Turkic roots are used, Tatar dialogue lines contain a lot of loanwords from Arabic and Persian, even if they have purely Turkic synonyms, most probably to make spoken lines of these two civilizations as different as possible.

It also should be noted that voice actors are either speakers of different modern Turkic languages or non-Turkic speakers at all and because of that different voice actors pronounce the same words differently or even mispronounce them.

Villager

Military

Monk

King

Select 1 Merḥamet (مرحمة) – Mercy/Grace
Select 2 Ne arzu qïlïrsïz? (نه آرزو قیلرسیز؟) – What will you desire?
Select 3 Maŋa ne ičin zaḥmet berirsiz? (منکا نی اوچون زحمة بیرورسیز؟) – Why do you bother me?
Select 4 Keldim (کلدیم) – I came
Move 1 Tiliǧiŋizni qïlǧaymen (تیلاغینکیزنی قیلغای‌من) – I shall carry out your wish
Move 2 Lüṭf qïlǧaymen (لطف قیلغای‌من) – I shall do a favor
Move 3 Tiliǧiŋiz tek bolsun (تیلاغینکیز تیك بولسون) – Let it be your only wish
Move 4 Qïlǧaymen (قیلغای‌من) – I shall do

Source used - An Introduction to Chaghatay: A Graded Textbook for Reading Central Asian Sources by Eric Schluessel

AI player names

When playing a random map game against the computer, the player may encounter any of the following Tatar AI characters:

Bilge Kul Qadir-Khan: First known ruler of Karakhanids; died 893.
Emir Edigu: Emir of the White Horde and founder of the Nogai Horde; died 1419.
Harun Bughra Khan: Karakhanid ruler of Transoxiana; died 1034.
Jahan Shah: Born Muzaffar al-Din Jahan Shah ibn Yusuf, an Oghuz Turk poet and leader who leads the Kara Koyunlu dynasty in the present-day Iranian Azerbaijan and Arran (now Caucasus) from ca. 1438 to 1467.
Muhan Qaghan: Khan of the Göktürk Khaganate; died 572.
Oz Beg Khan: longest-reigning khan of the Golden Horde; died 1341.
Qara Osman: Ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu; died 1435.
Qara Yusuf: Ruler of the Kara Koyunlu; died 1420.
Tamerlane: A Turco-Mongol conqueror. As the founder of the Timurid Empire in Persia and Central Asia he became the first ruler in the Timurid dynasty. According to John Joseph Saunders, Timur's background was Iranized and not steppe nomadic.
Timur Qutlugh: Khan of the Golden Horde; died 1399.
Tong Yabghu Qaghan: Khan of the Western Turkic Khaganate; died 628.
Urus Khan: Khan of the White Horde and a disputed Khan of the Blue Horde; died 1377.
Uzun Hassan: Ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu; died 1478.
Yabgu Shahmalik: Last ruler of the Oghuz Yabgu State; died 1042.

Trivia

The Tatars' civilization icon is based on the tamga (emblem) of the Golden Horde. This is ironic but justified, as while the Golden Horde historically opposed the Timurids, the Tatars actually fought on both sides.
User interface image displays a pattern found in Timurid architecture
The Tatars are the only civilization that lack Chain Mail Armor at the Blacksmith and the only civilization to have access to Bombard Towers but lack Keeps.
Some Tatar AI player names are Göktürk, Karakhanid, Oghuz Yabgu, Kara Qoyunlu, and Aq Qoyunlu rulers. However, those states were distinct from the Tatar states:
- Göktürks spoke Old Turkic, which is the oldest form of a Turkic language to be preserved in writing dating back to the early 8th century - Orkhon inscriptions. These inscriptions mention Tatars' hostility, referring to Mongolic tribes of the Tatar confederation.
  - Göktürks' historical architecture would be likely Sinicized.
- Oghuz Yabgu, Kara Qoyunlu, and Aq Qoyunlu all spoke Oghuz languages, and the latter two sometimes warred against Timurid Tatars.
- Karakhanids spoke Karluk-Turkic, only much later would Tatars in Central and West Asia adopt the related Chagatai Karluk dialect.
The above shows that the ingame Tatars represent not only the Golden Horde and the Timurids as well the Tatars themselves, but also other Turkic peoples who had reached Central and partially West Asia.
- Two of the Tatar AI player names, Tamerlane and Oz Beg Khan (Uzbeg), were previously Mongol AI player names.
European chroniclers added an extra -r- to the ethnonym Tatar, resulting in the derogatory exonym Tartar, likely in connection with Tartarus, the underworld in Greek mythology. Tartar would be erroneously used by other European ethnographers for Mongols as well as various Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol rule. Thus, Tatars would become the namesake, as "Tartars", of the vast historical region Tartary.
The Tatars are the only "nomadic steppe civilization" as well as the only Central Asian one to have access to Hand Cannoneers, even through is not really historically accurate. The possible reason behind it is because most of the steppe people of Central Asia had access to the Silk Road, so when the Mongols took control of it, they spread some gunpowder weapons through the region, although at a small scale.
- Another reason could be because of the Timurid armies, which used firearms in small quantities. In addition, the Timurids were predecessors of the Mughal Empire, one of the "gunpowder empires" (this could also explain their access to Bombard Towers).
At release, the Tatars were the only civilization added in The Last Khans who did not have access to Halberdiers. However, since update 35584, Tatars now have access to Halberdiers, making it available to all civilizations introduced in the The Last Khans expansion.
During the beta, the Tatars had access to Shipwright, which made them the only civilization in the Definitive Edition with access to it. The also lacked access to the Fortified Wall.
The Tatars have the worst resistance against conversion, as they are the only civilization lacking both Heresy and Faith.
They are the only civilization that got a lot of buffs in later patches, but were still very weak in land maps, due to lacking a significant way to use their main strength, which is Cavalry Archers. They lacked options in the Feudal Age and for booming in closed maps. Their new bonus in update 42848 allows them to delay their Farms more and save wood for their ranged units, and in the competitive scene, is considered a very strong and flexible bonus.
Whilst not appearing as a true civlization, the Tatars reappear in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition in the Battle of Chuvash Cape, as the enemy 'civilization'.

History

“	Historically, the meaning of the ethnonym Tatar has changed continuously to denominate a variety of Turkic and Mongol-speaking groups in and around the Eurasian steppes. The term was first applied to a confederation of nomadic tribes who inhabited northeastern Mongolia starting in the fifth century. By the eleventh century, they had become engaged in a bitter war against the Mongols. Under the rule of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), however, the Mongols defeated the Tatars and established one of the largest empires in all of history. Ironically, the Rus’ and Europeans referred to the people under Mongol control as Tatars. After the death of Genghis Khan, these Tatars founded the many successor states of the Mongol Empire. While none would match its extent, some of these polities became mighty empires: When the Mongol Empire was divided into four appanages, the connotation with the Tatars became more specific to the northwestern region, known as the Golden Horde (1227-1502). Under Batu Khan (r. 1227-1255), the Tatars continued their westward expansion, conquering Cumania, Volga Bulgaria, Kievan Rus’, and Eastern Europe. To control these vast territories, they relied on the high mobility of their armies of light cavalry. The sturdy Mongolian horses allowed them to campaign effectively in the cold weather of the Russian steppe. Although they preferred to lure their enemies into open battles, the Tatars regularly contracted Chinese engineers to build siege weapons when attacking cities. Due to the conquest of the many Turkic tribes, Tatar culture became Turkicized over time. The Golden Horde also became Islamicized when Ozbeg Khan (r. 1313-1341) adopted Islam as the state religion. To further break with tradition, he moved the capital of Sarai to a new location. This city quickly became one of the largest urban centers in the region. When Ozbeg died, the Golden Horde had reached its greatest territorial extent, but it soon fell into decline. The immense casualties caused by the Black Death in the 1340s disrupted the Tatar economy, which was based on tribute and the intercontinental trade of the Silk Road. Unable to maintain its massive armies, the empire fell apart into smaller khanates. By the end of the fourteenth century, the age of the nomad warriors seemed to be over as the successor states of the Mongol Empire were all disintegrating. In this political vacuum, however, a new Tatar warlord named Timur (r. 1370-1405), known in the West as Tamerlane, rose to power. Beginning his career at the head of a small band of raiders, Timur used his military genius to take over the Chagatai Khanate in 1370, establishing the Timurid Empire (1370-1507). Throughout the following decades, he conquered much of Central Asia through a series of bloody campaigns. In Delhi and Aleppo, for example, he ordered the construction of ‘minarets’ of skulls after captured enemy soldiers had been beheaded. In contrast to his brutality on the battlefield, Timur was an active patron of culture. He contracted skilled artisans throughout the empire and brought them together at his court in Samarkand. The arts flourished as new styles and techniques developed because of the cultural interaction that he facilitated. The Timurids mastered the Seljuq architectural style, featuring domes and geometrical patterns of blue and turquoise tiles. The Gur-i Amir, the mausoleum of Timur, is considered to be the pinnacle of Persian-Mongolian architecture. While this cultural boom would continue after Timur’s death, his political legacy was limited. The union of the Timurid Empire was based on Timur’s personal charisma, and after he died the polity was torn apart by civil wars. The era of Tatar dominance had finally ended.	”
—^[1]

Gallery

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 https://www.forgottenempires.net/age-of-empires-ii-definitive-edition/civilizations/tatars

v • d • e Civilizations in Age of Empires II
Categorised by architecture sets
African	Ethiopians · Malians
Central Asian	Cumans · Tatars
Central European	Goths · Huns · Teutons · Vikings
East Asian	Chinese · Japanese · Koreans · Mongols · Vietnamese
Eastern European	Bohemians · Bulgarians · Lithuanians · Magyars · Poles · Slavs
Mediterranean	Armenians · Byzantines · Georgians · Italians · Portuguese · Romans · Sicilians · Spanish
Middle Eastern	Berbers · Persians · Saracens · Turks
Native American	Aztecs · Incas · Mayans
South Asian/Indian	Bengalis · Dravidians · Gurjaras · Hindustanis · Indians (removed)
Southeast Asian	Burmese · Khmer · Malay
Western European	Britons · Burgundians · Celts · Franks
Categorised by expansions
The Age of Kings	Britons · Byzantines · Celts · Chinese · Franks · Goths · Japanese · Mongols · Persians · Saracens · Teutons · Turks · Vikings
The Conquerors	Aztecs · Huns · Koreans · Mayans · Spanish
The Forgotten	Incas · Indians (removed) · Italians · Magyars · Slavs
The African Kingdoms	Berbers · Ethiopians · Malians · Portuguese
Rise of the Rajas	Burmese · Khmer · Malay · Vietnamese
The Last Khans	Bulgarians · Cumans · Lithuanians · Tatars
Lords of the West	Burgundians · Sicilians
Dawn of the Dukes	Bohemians · Poles
Dynasties of India	Bengalis · Dravidians · Gurjaras · Hindustanis
Return of Rome	Romans
The Mountain Royals	Armenians · Georgians

[ref-1] 1.0 ^1.1 https://www.forgottenempires.net/age-of-empires-ii-definitive-edition/civilizations/tatars

[1]