Monaspa Élite

The Monaspa is a peculiar case of heavy cavalry - it has higher attack, armor, and speed, with the former increasing in groups, but lower hit points. In essence, it is a "glass cannon" unit, functioning similar to the Leitis. Both units can have up to 22 attack - the Elite Leitis by having 4+ Relics collected, and the Elite Monaspa in a group of 29+, though the Elite Leitis also has its armor ignoring ability. Another similarity both units share is their cheap gold cost compared to other heavy cavalry, which helps players to train more of them in 1vs1. The Monaspa is one of the fastest creating cavalry unit, equal to lighter cavalry such as the Tarkan and Magyar Huszar, at fourteen seconds only, compared to the thirty seconds of both Scout Cavalry and Knight lines. Hence, one Castle Monaspa production is slightly better than two Stable Knight production. This aid is important since the Monaspa needs to be massed to be more effective due to its ability. However, going for Knights first and then mixing in Monaspa is also viable since the Knight also boosts the Monaspa (but does not get boosted itself or from the latter). The Monaspa is designed to fulfill a different role than the Knight line, which has more hit points but has lower melee armor and is slightly slower. While the former's extra melee armor will not help against units with large attack bonuses, like those of Pikeman, Camel Rider, Mameluke, and Genoese Crossbowman (with the latter two being more effective due to their ranged attacks), the Monaspa crushes every unit with its higher attack which can be as high as +6 (+2 base, upto +4 with their ability) over the Knight line. Even when bonus damage is not involved, the Monaspa struggles against archers because it cannot tank enough damage compared to the Knight. Hence, the Monaspa is specialized at dealing damage (melee combat), while the Knight line is better at tanking damage, especially against archers. However, the Knights and Monaspas should not be taken at face value for the Georgians since they have multiple bonuses going on for them. Firstly, they regenerate 10 or 15 hit points per minute, which makes both units better at retaining value, since as fast units, they can abandon a fight to somewhere safe easily. Next, Georgian units take less damage at higher elevations, which makes them defending from a hill easier. Next, with Aznauri Cavalry researched, they take -20% population. The latter helps negate the units' hit points disadvantage (Monaspas have naturally lower hit points, while the Georgian Knights lack the Paladin upgrade). The Elite upgrade provides +10 hit points, +2 melee armor, +2 attack, and +1 Line of Sight. It does not provide any boost to its ability, nor does it increase the range of the aura. Monaspas still struggle against brute force melee units like the Teutonic Knight, Boyar (though Monaspas can beat Boyars in equal resources), War Elephant, Leitis, and Dravidian infantry with Wootz Steel. The unit struggles against archer units due to its lower hit points, but has decent pierce armor nonetheless (unlike the Leitis), and when being fully massed at 29+ units, fully upgraded Elite Monaspas can kill Arbalesters that lack Ring Archer Armor in two hits. While they last shorter against ranged attacks, they can overwhelm them in larger numbers due to their cheaper cost and do more damage when reaching their targets. Monaspas do worse against counter-units than other cavalry units. For instance, Halberdiers can slay them in 3 hits.