Ghulam Élite

The Ghulam is a peculiar infantry unit. Most infantry are weak against archers, due to their low movement speed and low pierce armor. Ghulams have high pierce armor, fast movement speed, an attack bonus vs archers, and its attack deals damage to the unit behind its target. Ghulams excel at taking down armies of archers, especially if the archers are in clumped groups. In its anti-archer infantry role, Ghulams can be compared in some ways with Eagle Warriors and Goths' Huskarls. Huskarls have slower movement, but higher attack bonus vs archers and buildings, and better pierce armor. Compared to Eagle Warriors, both units have fast movement speed (Elite Eagle Warriors still move faster than Elite Ghulams), good pierce armor (Ghulam base pierce armor is better than the base pierce armor of the Eagle Warrior), but in this case, Eagle Warriors lack any anti-archer bonus attack, and take bonus damage from Militia-line infantry. The thrusting attack of the Ghulam can be compared in a way with the ranged attack of a Kamayuk. However, the Ghulam attack effect only applies if two enemy units are aligned in a row, since they don't have range. Their fast speed also enhances their ability to kite siege weapons, which does not help Hindustanis much, since they already have good units for that role anyways. This advantage is still viable during the Castle Age, as the Hindustanis lack Knights that could be trained from the Stable to counter them. The Ghluams have only one less attack than Knights and are slightly slower, but cheaper in price and upgrades, have smaller collision size and train faster, and can largely compensate for this disadvantage. As the Hindustanis have decent economy advantages, building a Castle to mass Ghulams is not a big problem for them. Ghulams fill an important role in Hindustani armies, covering a natural weakness Hand Cannoneers and Camel Riders have against archers, since these two units are specialized in countering infantry and cavalry, respectively. Since Ghulams are highly vulnerable against melee attacks, they should be paired with either Camel Riders or Hand Cannoneers. An advantage that is easily neglected for Ghulams is their fast fully-upgraded process. Unlike Eagle Warriors, which need both Plate Mail and the Elite upgrade, the Hindustanis only need their Elite upgrades to have fully upgraded armor, saving time that could allow them to catch up to an enemy's archer rush, while the Elite Ghulam upgrade costs less than the combination of Plate Mail Armor and Elite Eagle Warrior. For Huskarls, Ghulams still cost much less food with only a little more gold, and the former are not as smooth as Ghulams when facing archers.