Winning as Mongols without cheese

It seems very hard? I am a noob but has anyone got any tips? A lot of it will be that I use no build order I expect.

1st tip, the Mongols are not cav civ!
2nd tip always move your barracks close to your enemy and somewhere hard to be spotted.
3rd tip focus on wood and food until the castle age.
4th Build your TC near stone and immediately build ovoo. You can produce 2 villagers using your stone and it can improve your overall economy at the start of the game.
5th always build outposts almost everywhere. (especially near gold and the routes where you units go) as it increases speed when you build Feudal age Deer Stone or upgrade the Yam network.

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Why do you say they’re not a cav civ? Because French beat them? Putting TC next to ovoo at start is good idea ty :slight_smile: I feel with the Mongols due to lack of walls you really need to win early or you’re doomed to lose if the game draws out. Unless the opposing player turtles and has bad economy.

It is not a cav civ bcse the Mangudai are easily countered by archers or outposts if built in a very clever way. And the early cav and castle age lancers are too expensive and doesn’t have anything special.

Horse archers don’t have much damage to building which makes them completely useless, since the Mongols gain resources when they burn buildings. And the infantries have highest building damage and cheap, you can easily train a lot of them.

But infantry man, oh boi, they have the fastest infantry in the game due to Yam Network. It increases 15% movement speed. And the barracks are really fast when packed if you upgrade the “superior mobility” from the ovoo. This is why you don’t need cav. The barracks are the cav and you send it near enemy base so no need for running all the way to the enemy base xD. And when you build Kurultai close to enemy and always keep it near Khan it will increase damage by 25%. You will have the highest dmg infantry in the game. Which is sick!

Moreover, you can build rams using infantry after upgrading siege from the blacksmith.
This is why you don’t need cav. Building stables and archery range is just a waste of resources xD

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The devs totally failed with the mongols. Manguai need passive healing, and a damage redirect to normal cav, and they need to use torches vs buildings.

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I would say the Mangudai need more range and bonus damage against cavalry. just like AOE2

Ive been playing Mongols since release and so far, this is what Ive done:

Make sure to have your TC next to your Ovoo. Many players say this is bad, but its actually the best thing you can do since you can pump out 2 villagers starting in Dark Age. This gives you the option to get a lot of resources earlier and maintain it.

Use the Pastures. Pastures are actually really good to have. Make sure to get your Eco upgrades ASAP and get those berries as well. If you spawn close to a hunt, ALWAYS go for the hunt and build a Pasture close to your Ovoo. Sheep + Hunt is a great way to open with food.

I usually go cav, even though its a bit rough. But recently I started to incorporate archers and spearmen with my cav.

Mongol Cav Late game (late castle into imperial) is actually pretty good. Biggest thing to focus on is Macro. If you have a mass of Mangudai with Infantry, its a hard thing to beat. More stuff beats less stuff.

Always make sure to get your upgrades. All your units, both Inf. and Cav. will not survive without getting every single upgrade you can.

Depending on the match, your selection of Silver Tree or Deer Stones will be crucial. If you find a Market that is close by and safer than usual, go Silver Tree. If not, ALWAYS go Deer Stones. Yam Speed Network is an amazing tech, and having that early with your villagers is fantastic.

Make sure to ALWAYS put Outposts everywhere on the map that is possible. These are your Eyes, but also give the Yam Speed buff to your units. The more Outposts you have, the faster you can zoom across the map.

Make sure you keep your Khan alive as long as possible. When it comes to the arrows, the Armor arrow is by far the best. Use the Reload speed arrow if your raiding with Mangudai or Archers, and use the Speed boost arrow to either escape, or push (only if you know you can win though)

Make sure to make Siege. Mangonels, in Castle and Cannons in Imperial.

You cant really beat walls early. So if you see walls, your opponent may try to turtle. Just Macro up, gat as many units as possible, and get a couple of trebs (if your in castle) or cannons (if your in imperial)

If they do not wall, Lucky Day! Be careful of aggression from their side, and as long as you control the map, you can raid them with your Khan and Mangudai. Aim for villagers. However, do not have so many units raiding, that you have nothing to defend yourself with.

If you have units that can easily burn down buildings, ALWAYS go for the eco buildings. If you cant get a villager, destroy the lumber camps, farms, mining camps. etc. Remember, you get a raid bonus every time you do.

When you are in Castle Age, make sure to GET YOUR UPGRADS from the Ovoo. Extra Torches is a MUST. This will make your units burn stuff down faster. Always get this upgrade.

When it comes to Matchups, Be careful for French Royal Knight rush. You don’t have a lot to counter it with. But if you see them age up with the School of Cavalry (I think that’s what its called?) then make spearmen. If they do not attack you, you still have those spearmen, so get the Siege Engineering upgrade and build Rams.

If your against English, DO NOT RUSH. They are a defensive civ. Their TC also has extra range compared to other civs. Dont waste your units, and expect for a more prolonged game. They will have armored units the majority of the time, so make sure to build crossbowmen, archers, and spearmen. Make sure to get Mangonels as well, since these will crush through armored units. Also, make sure to build rams since by default, structures will target them. Use Rams to your advantage.

Against other civs, I have not played against many of them since it seems many are really going for English and France. However, here are some things to look out for against a few of the other civs:

Against Delhi, watch out for Elephants. These will SLICE through your Cav like a knife does to butter. You need to have Spearman and Crossbows against them.

Against Abbasid, watch out for Camels since they reduce the damage of your Cavalry. However, even though this is the case, with proper Micro, you can still win with Mangudai. Make sure to have Spearman, and Archers. Since Camels are Light Cav, Archers will absolutely destroy them.

Other than that, I still have stuff to learn myself, but this is what I have learned so far. Play safe, don’t Cheese since if your opponent is better than you (ALWAYS assume they are) then you will lose because you have no eco. If your in trouble, remember, YOU CAN PACK UP AND LEAVE! Tower rushes do not work against Mongols for this exact reason. However, if you are not careful, you can still lose to it.

My recommendations to improve, make sure you do the Mongol Mastery stuff. It teaches pretty important stuff on how to play the civ.

I usually give my 2 cents, but ill give you 75 since I really like playing this Civ. I hope some buffs come in the future, but we will see.

Best of luck!

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Kurultai heals units when Khan is nearby it doesn’t give damage bonus? But the Khan can I guess with his faster attack command.

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It’s hard because your rating is artificially high from cheesing, without actually being good with mongols. Just lose 5-10 games in a row and it should become easier

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Wow! What a guide! Thanks very much.

I just did a game against a Rus guys as Mongols. I did put my TC against ovoo but didn’t end up using the 2x villager very much. Probably because I also put stables next to it and was using the stone up for 2x cav. I can see from all the stats I seem to have beat him in kills, every resource, villager and military count by MILES. However he still won because he had map control and he managed to snipe all my landmarks. It’s very hard to defend your landmarks as Mongols when your only defensive building is the outpost and you can’t pack the landmarks up to escape when you’re at pop cap.


I am blue here. His streltsy caused my knights a lot of trouble. I got all blacksmith upgrades. Later I started to also make crossbows and archers but it was too late. He had those big cannons and I had some mangonels and trebuchets.

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Yea, Another thing I forgot to mention:

Never hit Pop cap XD

Also, The White Stuppa is the best Mongol Imp Age landmark. Gives you stone without Ovoo and has influence for building x2 units.

For Villagers, you really want to use the x2 Villis early game (Dark Age and Early Fuedal Age). From there, just make sure to keep building villigers in 2’s. Never let your TC have only 1 villager queued.

Map control is key to Mongols. As long as you have map control, and you make the appropriate units, you will be successful.

When floating that many Resources, ALWAYS go macro! Build another 4-6 Stables, Archery Ranges, Barracks, whatever you need to counter you opponent! :smiley:

Keep it up!

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If he has Cannons, go for Springalds and Cannons. Cannons are seriously strong in this game, even better then trebs Id say.

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Yeah it will be great when they fix the moving buildings at pop cap thing! I guess I’ll try to save the stone for 2x vill at least until I’m in feudal. Ty for all help!

One reason I was floating that many resources is I made silver tree and had like 60 traders using yam network of the towers…

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Totally forgot about that! Kurultai is Best if you want to be agressive. If you want to Eco Boom, go for the Steppe Redoubt

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It heals and gives 25% bonus damage when there is Khan close. If not it won’t give bonus damage. That is why Khan must be near it.

Kurultai is basically the Khan’s palace.

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