Arambai Élite

The Arambai is a ranged cavalry that is stronger in groups. It throws darts that cause a lot of damage compared to other ranged units, though less than a Conquistador's shot. Their speed and Rate of Fire make them well-suited for hit-and-run tactics, but their accuracy and range are abysmal, it has the second worst accuracy in the game; only the Trebuchet when attacking units has worse accuracy. These characteristics make Arambai similar to mounted archers, but require different tactics. The Arambai is comparatively more robust than the Burmese Cavalry Archer. Though the Burmese lack two archer armor technologies, Arambai can withstand attacks with their innate 1 (2 for Elite) pierce armor, supplemented by Parthian Tactics. It's still best not to get hit, as it is not suited for soaking damage like most mounted archers. At the Blacksmith, it only benefits from Padded Archer Armor. It is also affected by Ballistics and Chemistry. Due to the accuracy and range of Arambai, or more correctly the lack thereof, hit-and-run tactics with a handful of troops are inappropriate for them. The lower the number of enemies, the worse it is. However, if their darts miss their original target and land on another enemy, it will cause , unlike the halved damage most other projectiles would do in this case. This makes massed Arambai strong against units that are clumped up together. Because of their high pierce attack, several archer-resistant units, most notably excluding rams, Armored Elephants, unpacked Trebuchets and Siege Towers, lose their advantage. Their high attack is not dampened much by mildly archer-resistant units like the Eagle Warrior, Ghulam, Champi Warrior, and Tarkan, and still does okay against the Huskarl, siege units, buildings, and ships. In normal combat situations, Arambai can provide ranged support with their high damage. In this case, cavalry, especially Battle Elephants, should escort Arambai to soak damage, while the strong Burmese infantry and Monks can assist the Arambai by killing or converting counter-units respectively. Arambai are heavily enhanced by micro. While they will do decent as a backline unit, with micro they can beat almost everything. They can kill groups of archers in seconds due to the archers' low hit points if the Arambai get close to reduce the detrimental effects of their low accuracy. All in all, Arambai are powerful units capable of dealing high amounts of damage, but are also lost fairly easily because lots of units counter them well. Therefore, they should always be used with caution as losses can prove quite costly.