| “ | Mesoamerican cavalry unit. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition description | ||
The Xolotl Warrior is a heavy cavalry unit in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition that can be trained at Stables by American civilizations, and as such is considered a regional unit. It has the same statistics as the Knight and also appears in the fifth scenario of the Montezuma campaign, The Boiling Lake (replacing the Elite Tarkans present before the Definitive Edition).
The Xolotl Warrior is available to the Aztecs and Inca through converting enemy Stables with Redemption. As the Maya lack Redemption, they are unable to do so. All three can train the Xolotl Warrior from Stables placed in the Scenario Editor, starting Stables on certain MegaRandom generations, or in Stables captured in Battle Royale mode.
Tactics[]
Like the Knight, Xolotl Warriors are a somewhat powerful and versatile addition to almost any army composition. Their high attack and speed make them excellent for assaulting and flanking, along with high hit points and armor to provide a perfect meat shield for ranged units and siege on the frontline.
Also suffering from the same shortcomings as the Knight, Xolotl Warriors are hard-countered by Pikemen and Camel Riders and are susceptible to conversion by Monks.
However, unlike most other civilizations, Native Americans lack further upgrades like Cavalier, any defensive armor technology in the Blacksmith, Bloodlines, and Husbandry, making the unit very poor in the late Castle Age and Imperial Age.
However, the unit looks much better in games starting in Post-Imperial Age (notably Deathmatches and Battle Royales) since they start with +30 hit points, +2 attack, and +2/+2 armor, making them almost equal to Viking Cavaliers (with a 10 hit point advantage), though still behind a fully-upgraded generic Cavalier (-10 hit point, -1/-2 armor, and -0.14 movement speed). Aging up from the Dark, Feudal, or Castle Age to Imperial Age does not grant a bonus to the Xolotl Warrior. Only Post-Imperial Age start affects it.
Further statistics[]
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Infantry, siege weapons, light cavalry |
| Weak vs. | Other heavy cavalry, archers, Pikemen, Kamayuks, Berserks, Teutonic Knights, Mamelukes, Camel Riders, Monks |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Forging (+1) Iron Casting (+1) Blast Furnace (+2)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription* (+33%)
|
| Civilization bonues | |
|---|---|
| Resource cost |  Inca (-20%/-25% food in Castle/Imperial Age)
|
| Creation speed |  Aztecs (+15%)
|
| Team bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Conversion resistance |  Teutons (+3 min, +1 max)
|
| Creation speed |  Huns* (+20%)
|
- * The creation speed bonuses follow the standard phenomenon of conversion. See notes.
Team bonuses[]
Bulgarians: Researching melee attack technologies at the Blacksmith is 80% faster.- Lithuanians: Researching Heresy, Devotion, Faith, and Redemption is 20% faster.
- Portuguese: Researching technologies that benefit Xolotl Warriors is 25% faster.
Notes[]
In a normal game situation where the Stable has been brought by conversion, and not placed through Scenario Editor or in Mega Random games where the player may start with a Stable, the following depict some technologies which the player might think will affect this unit, but actually do not.
- Researching Conscription has no effect on Xolotl Warriors. However, if the opponent had Conscription researched, and then the Stable is converted, the Stable still works 33% faster, and consequently Xolotl Warriors are created 33% faster.
- A team containing Huns: Xolotl Warriors are not created 20% faster. However, if the converted Stable belonged to Huns or their ally, they are created 20% faster.
- If the converted Stable belonged to Franks who had Chivalry researched, Xolotl Warriors are created 40% faster.
In case the Stable is the player's own, that is available through the Scenario Editor or as a part of luck in Mega Random games, the following bonuses become significant:
- Researching Conscription makes Stables work 33% faster. So, Xolotl Warriors are created 33% faster.
- A team containing Huns: Stables work 20% faster. So Xolotl Warriors are created 20% faster.
In Battle Royale mode, the Stables belong to Post-Imperial Gaia (hence Conscription is researched), so Xolotl Warriors are also created 33% faster.
Despite the resemblance to Knights, Xolotl Warriors do not belong to the Knight line of cavalry and are allotted the same slot as the Scout Cavalry line in the Stable.
Xolotl Warriors are not treated like Knights more than any other cavalry. Therefore, in any game mode, they do not enjoy any team bonus benefiting the Knight line:
- A team containing Franks: Xolotl Warriors do not receive +2 Line of Sight.
- A team containing Persians: Xolotl Warriors do not receive +2 attack against archers.
Changelog[]
The Last Khans[]
- Aztecs: Originally, Xolotl Warriors were created in the same time as for other civilizations. In a patch, without explicitly mentioning it, the faster military creation bonus now also affects cavalry (and hence Xolotl Warriors).
- With update 42848, Xolotl Warriors are granted +30 HP, +2 attack, and +2/+2 armor in matches that begin in the Post-Imperial Age.
Dynasties of India[]
- Inca: With update 81058, Xolotl Warriors cost -25%/-30% food in the Castle/Imperial Age.
The Mountain Royals[]
- Inca: With update 99311, Xolotl Warriors cost -20%/-25% food in the Castle/Imperial Age.
Trivia[]
- The Xolotl Warrior is not present anywhere in the technology tree. The only other units that don't appear in the tech tree are alternate versions of normal units, like Dismounted Konniks and ranged Rathas.
- Enabling Scout Cavalry disables the Xolotl Warrior; as a result, Xolotl Warriors are not available in Full Tech Tree mode, but that is not a concern since the unit they're based on, the Knight, as well as its upgrades (Cavalier and Paladin) become available.
- Similar units that are effectively replacements of each other, like Armoured Elephant and Battering Ram, don't preclude each other's presence as they don't disable the other in Full Tech Tree mode.
- The Xolotl Warrior wears the jaguar skin, and macuahuitl of the Aztec unique unit, the Jaguar Warrior. The shield of the Xolotl Warrior is the civilization icon of the Aztecs, which was also the shield of the Jaguar Warrior before the Definitive Edition, and was changed to a new design in it.
- Xolotl is the Aztec dog god of lightning and death.
- The Xolotl Warrior is possibly inspired from the Dog Soldier in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs, specifically from the fact that the Lakota called horses as "holy / mystery / wonder dogs" (šuŋkawakaŋ).[1] Other Native Americans just borrowed the foreign word for "horseman", e.g. Nahuatl cauallero from Spanish caballero "horseman > knight > gentleman".[2]
- Many Native Americans learned to ride horses and used them to fight Europeans. The first recorded were the Incas commanded by Manco Inca Yupanqui, who performed a known feat of defeating a reinforcement army of 3,000 Spanish soldiers capturing weapons, artillery, prisoners, and horses.[3]
- The availability of this unit to the Aztecs and Mayans is ahistorical, as they have never rode horses before their collapse, and horses are one of the reasons why the Spanish defeated the Aztecs.
- The Tlaxcalans, who spoke Nahuatl like the Aztecs but sided with the Spanish during the Conquest, were allowed to own and ride horses, and later served the Spanish as cavalry in the northern Mexican frontier.[4]
- This unit is referred to as an "Aztec Raider" ("AZTRAIDER") in the data file and "u_cav_aztec_raider" in the game files.
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