Age of Empires 4 Mongols guide

Mongols are the nomads of Age of Empires 4, able to move their buildings at will and offering unique strategic possibilities. Let's take a look at all of their special features in our overview of Mongols in Age of Empires 4.

Difficulty estimated by the developers : ★ ★ ★

In Age of Empires 4, the Mongol civilisation spans from 1000 to 1500 AD. Historically, the Mongols are credited with connecting East and West Asia.

Cultural Note - An Ovoo is a pile of stone (sometimes wood) that is sacred in Mongolian culture. In Age of Empires 4, the Ovoo automatically extracts stones.

The Mongolian Bonus

• All buildings can be dismantled and moved to another location,
• No need for houses and unlocking the 200 population limit at the start of the game,
• Transport ships have an additional 50% health and 15% speed,
• Primitive cavalrymen are available from age I and primitive cavalry lancers from age III,
• If you set fire to opposing buildings, you will loot an additional 50 units of gold and food,
• Double the production of units or develop advanced technologies with stones in the Ovoo's area of influence,
• If you have more merchants on the trade routes, you get 10% of extra food, wood, gold and stones.

Specific units and their characteristics of the Mongols

The Mongols have 2 unique units, which unlock in order:

From the start of the game - The Khan (Category: Light cavalry). This is a horse support. With the ability "Whistling Arrows", the Khan grants a bonus to nearby troops. He also has a bow to defend himself; if he dies, he reappears after a while.

From age II - The mangudai (Category: Light cavalry at a distance). This archer has a short range, but can shoot on the move, with a very high rate of speed.

The Mongols' strategic bases

To talk about strategy, it is important to understand what the Yam is. The civilisation benefits from the "Yam", a bonus linked to "Outposts". The latter offers a bonus of +15% of speed to merchants and cavalry units close to an outpost; this bonus is retained for 20s when the unit leaves the aura of the outpost. With the 'Yam Network' technology, you can increase the effect of the 'Yam' so that all your units benefit from this speed gain, even siege engines. You will get it at the first age change via the 'Stag Stones'.

The Mongols are particularly aggressive and rely heavily on mobility and raids into the opponent's camp. By building outposts at various strategic locations, you can maximise the speed of your rushes.

Stones cannot be obtained by villagers, or even at the market, and will only be available via the Ovoo which automatically extracts them from an outcrop. You should therefore focus your gameplay around the stone outcrops, at least initially. Indeed, when moving to age IV, favour the "White Stupa", a second Ovoo that does not require an outcrop to function.

At the intermediate age change from II to III, you will have to turn to the 'Steppe Redoubt' to create a gold boom.

Overall, you will need to produce rush units and raid, placing outposts everywhere, while building up your economy. For food, you can develop a troop of professional scouts via upgrading, to go hunting.

This civilisation is powerful

Benefits

• Mobility of civilisation
• Unlocking the maximum limit of villagers from the start
• Interesting mobile army
• Duplication of units near the Ovoo
• Easy to handle when you understand how it works
• No villagers deployed on stone harvesting, so used elsewhere
• Possibility of early rush due to available riders at age I
• Yam's network enhances unit mobility and efficiency
• Continued sheep production through "Grazing".

Disadvantages

• No farm. Requires an alternative food source
• Mobility of civilisation
• Dependence on stone
• Layout of buildings constrained to proximity to the Ovoo to obtain bonuses
• Impossible to build walls

Despite an estimated difficulty of 3/3, this civilization can be interesting even if you are just starting out. However, you will need to get to grips with it and understand how it works to avoid being overtaken by your opponent.

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