Mangudai
Cavalry ArcherBase values, before Blacksmith upgrades. The Blacksmith raises attack and armour for infantry, cavalry and archers — Blast Furnace, for instance, gives "+2 Attack for infantry & cavalry". Late in a game, the real numbers are higher.
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Mangudai
Castle
Elite Mangudai
ImperialThe coach's briefing
The Mangudai is a cavalry archer with a critical mission: destroy enemy siege. With +3 bonus damage against siege weapons and the fastest firing rate of any cavalry archer, you can delete Mangonels and Scorpions before they fire. Your speed of 1.4 lets you raid anywhere. However, you're fragile with 0 pierce armor - never fight under Castle or TC fire. Always keep moving.
STRONG AGAINST
You win these trades cost-effectively.
WEAK AGAINST
Avoid these fights or bring support.
Just lost against this unit?
Your coach names the counters during the match — not once the game is over.
Strategic Analysis
Tactical Identity
The Mangudai is the **premier anti-siege cavalry archer**. While other cavalry archers struggle against siege, the Mangudai hunts them. Combined with Mongol faster firing bonus, they shred siege weapons in seconds.
Tactical Playbook
Siege Hunting
Your +3 bonus vs Siege means you 3-shot Mangonels. Circle around fights to snipe siege before it fires. This protects your own army.
Hit-and-Run Mastery
At 1.4 speed with Husbandry, nothing catches you. Raid woodlines, snipe villagers, then retreat before reinforcements arrive.
Mass Critical Threshold
20+ Mangudai become terrifying. Their combined DPS melts anything. Reach this mass and you control the game.
Critical Point
**Zero pierce armor** means Town Centers and Castles shred you instantly. Never engage under defensive fire. Skirmishers also counter you hard.
Understanding The Stats
The Mangudai trades raw stats for exceptional utility. Low armor but incredible speed and anti-siege capability make it a specialist unit.
Anti-Siege Specialist
This bonus lets you 3-shot Mangonels. No other cavalry archer can do this efficiently.
Supreme Mobility
Fastest cavalry archer. With Husbandry (+10%), nothing in the game catches you.
Glass Cannon
Extremely fragile. A group of Crossbowmen or a Castle will melt your Mangudai.
Mongol Firing Rate
Civilizaton bonus makes Mangudai fire 25% faster than normal cavalry archers.
Coach's Tip
Don't look at your 6 attack and feel weak. Your real power is the +3 vs Siege combined with Mongol's 25% faster attack. You fire faster than any other unit in the game.
Mechanics & Bonuses
Attack Bonuses
| Target | Bonus Dmg |
|---|---|
| Siege Weapon | +3 |
| Spearman | +1 |
Armor Classes
Cavalry Archer
Vulnerable to units with bonus damage vs this class.
Archer
Vulnerable to Skirmishers and Huskarls.
Cavalry
Takes heavy bonus damage from Pikemen/Halberdiers and Camels.
Unique Unit
Vulnerable to units with bonus damage vs this class.
Key Upgrades
Feudal Age
Civilizations
* 1 civilizations have access to this unit.
AoE Coach analysis
Context & meta
The Mangudai is the Mongol unique unit and one of the clearest mobility designs in the game: 60 HP, 6 attack — 8 as an Elite — and range 4, on a 1.4-speed mounted archer costing 55 wood and 65 gold. Its bonus against siege weapons, together with Drill, which moves Siege Workshop units 50% faster, is what turns the Mongol late game into a mobile siege army rather than a static one. The official card names Skirmishers, the Spearman-line and Camel Riders as the answers, and all three work the same way: by forcing the unit to stop moving.
History & balance
What the Mangudai really costs is attention. Its statistics describe an ordinary mounted archer; its value only appears when the player never lets it stand still, because a unit that fires while withdrawing is fighting at a distance no number on its card describes. That is a rare design — the gap between a badly played Mangudai and a well played one is wider than the gap between most units and their upgrades. It also explains why the answers to it are cheap: anything that pins the unit removes the entire advantage at once, and a player who has committed a Castle to producing them has no inexpensive way back.
In pro play
The Mangudai is a raiding and anti-siege unit before it is a damage unit: 6 attack with a bonus against siege, carried by a 1.4-speed body, means its value comes from where it shoots rather than how hard. Keep it moving — firing while retreating is the entire point — and send it at Mangonels, Trebuchets and villagers instead of into a Skirmisher block, which the official help names as its weakness alongside the Spearman-line and Camel Riders. At 55 wood and 65 gold a unit, wood is the real limit: a Mangudai army needs lumber camps as much as it needs a Castle.
How to counter it
Skirmishers are cost-effective on paper but Mongols' speed bonus makes them hard to catch. Genitours (Berbers, Saracens) are better — same role as Skirms but mounted. Camel Archers (Berbers) trade favorably. The strongest counter is Cataphracts with Logistica (Byzantines) — they trample-damage Mangudai mass. On chokepoint maps, Mangudai lose to focused Onager fire because they can't kite. The map-control counter: forward Castle on Mongol gold, force them off mass-Mangudai by depriving the resource.