How good are the Mahout Lancers and Howdahs?

[_H2O]

6 sowar card is okay. 2 mahout is an okay card. Just consider 6 * 160 is 960 res of cav in a shipment. Also u can't consider the cost of vet. You will get this tech either way as it takes more than 6 sowar to make a difference in fort.

[_DB_]

I don't know why KingOwnage_2nd loves to use Mahouts even if they suck.

I asked him on stream, he said Mahouts are better. According to him they don't suck because where ever you aim the mahouts, they rekt infantry ball which consists of Ranged Infantry + Heavy Inf cuz of area damage.

He's a treaty player and in treaty you don't hit and run hard.
But think about it, what's better between 2 mahouts and 9 uhlans? Or between a mahout and a mam? And mahouts are even more expansive.

6 sowar needs 200w200g

Actually it is 200w 100g only.

[fei123456]

Show hidden quotes

I don't know why KingOwnage_2nd loves to use Mahouts even if they suck.

I asked him on stream, he said Mahouts are better. According to him they don't suck because where ever you aim the mahouts, they rekt infantry ball which consists of Ranged Infantry + Heavy Inf cuz of area damage.

He's a treaty player and in treaty you don't hit and run hard.
But think about it, what's better between 2 mahouts and 9 uhlans? Or between a mahout and a mam? And mahouts are even more expansive.

6 sowar needs 200w200g

Actually it is 200w 100g only.

only native civ have 200w 100g vet upgrades.

[Goodspeed]

Thing with sowar is they don't tank, and mahouts do, and it just so happens that a couple of tanks are a great addition to India's fortress army. They work nicely with urumi as a threatening meatshield while your damage dealers are in the back (sepoy/gurkha).

That said, you shouldn't have more than the 2 or 3 from the card. I wouldn't train mahouts.

[_DB_]

Show hidden quotes

I don't know why KingOwnage_2nd loves to use Mahouts even if they suck.

I asked him on stream, he said Mahouts are better. According to him they don't suck because where ever you aim the mahouts, they rekt infantry ball which consists of Ranged Infantry + Heavy Inf cuz of area damage.

He's a treaty player and in treaty you don't hit and run hard.
But think about it, what's better between 2 mahouts and 9 uhlans? Or between a mahout and a mam? And mahouts are even more expansive.

6 sowar needs 200w200g

Actually it is 200w 100g only.

only native civ have 200w 100g vet upgrades.

India and japan too.

[TNT333]

Mix 2 or 3 mahouts with ur army for tanking and wiping out infantry. 4 howdahs with zamburaks if ur enemy r using mass cavalry

[Gendarme]

That's crazy!

[gh0st]

Mix 2 or 3 mahouts with ur army for tanking and wiping out infantry. 4 howdahs with zamburaks if ur enemy r using mass cavalry

where were you this whole time? people were using only sepoys as anticav, noobs haha.

[TNT333]

Mix 2 or 3 mahouts with ur army for tanking and wiping out infantry. 4 howdahs with zamburaks if ur enemy r using mass cavalry

where were you this whole time? people were using only sepoys as anticav, noobs haha.

Ok then use howdahs to snipe enenmy artillery

[Ashvin]

Mix 2 or 3 mahouts with ur army for tanking and wiping out infantry. 4 howdahs with zamburaks if ur enemy r using mass cavalry

where were you this whole time? people were using only sepoys as anticav, noobs haha.

poor somppu, he thinks the only units india has are sepoy and urumi

[Gendarme]

Somali IQ smh

[zoom]

Mahouts are relatively shit (they make Sowars attractive, let's just put it that way). Howdah seem quite good, though I've never done the math on them. "3 Mahout" is a better shipment than "2 Mahouts", but has the drawback of requiring a greater food investment.

[Hazza54321]

Mahouts are only good at tanking for the sepoy or gurkha/zamb z move in the back

[duckzilla]

I think it is nearly always worth it to have 2-3 Mahouts around. If the opponent masses skirm units, it is a no brainer. If the opponent does not mass skirms, Mahouts can do a good job as tanks, since they have 30% range resistance + high hp.

Sowars, in comparison, are useful if the opponent masses skirm units. If the opponent does not build skirms, they are utter crap and cannot even fulfill a role as tanks.

[Kaiserklein]

Problem is that mahouts don't actually tank. They just get sniped down

[fei123456]

mahout has actually 20% resist. but if the opponent's not massing dragoons they can still tank a lot.

[yemshi]

20 goons surely oneshot a mahout (?). People also use 30 goons to snipe one huss at a time, so why waste a mahout? Only use them together with urumi.

[Gendarme]

People also use 30 goons to snipe one huss at a time

???

[Sargsyan]

People also use 30 goons to snipe one huss at a time

???

Overkill u sandbrain

[Gendarme]

Nobody does that you IQ-deprived Deccan-brain.

[Sargsyan]

People with your iq do it constantly

[deleted_user0]

mahout has actually 20% resist. but if the opponent's not massing dragoons they can still tank a lot.

watch iamturk vs pistolero33, mahout killing goons ez pz

[Lukas_L99]

mahout has actually 20% resist. but if the opponent's not massing dragoons they can still tank a lot.

They do have 30% RR

[jgals]

my opinion such as it is :

it should be obvious how cost ineffective elephants are in anything but treaty, and tbh even in treaty most of the time. Any time an Indian goes heavy in elephants I pretty much outboom him because i can win so cost effectively against them. He wastes so much money he cant even age usually. But of course situational. Howdah seem to have no purpose at all for how expensive they are, I guess maybe against late game cur spam but are they even fast enough? Zam better? Mahouts are definitely the more useful of the two IMO but even then if your opponent has any anticav they are a waste

[duckzilla]

I don't have such a bad opinion about Howdahs. Let's compare base stats (without disciplined/veteran upgrades):

Howdah (250 Food/350 Gold/6 pop): 667 hp, 20% rr, 60 dmg, 16 range, 5.5 speed
Dragoon (90 Food/90 Gold/2 pop): 200 hp, 30% rr, 22 dmg, 12 range, 7.25 speed

These stats are in favor of Dragoons. A Howdah without any upgrade shipments is 3.5 times as costly as a Dragoon. But his base hp is only 3.2 times as high, resistance is weaker, dmg output is only 2.7 times as high. The only advantage visible in the base stats is the higher range of Howdahs which is weakened by its low speed. The Howdah is also not more pop efficient, given that some stats are higher, some are lower than 3x Dragoon stat.

This changes with two cards sent from homecity, which make elephants 10% cheaper and cost 1 pop less. In that case, you would have Howdahs costing roughly 3.2 times as much as Dragoons, but with taking 5 pop, they become more pop efficient than goons. They now take 2.5 times as much pop space, but yield 2.7 times as much dmg, have 3.2 times higher hp and a higher range.

Conclusion: now I also have a bad opinion about Howdahs. It is pretty much what jgals already said: Howdahs are better in static and lategame warfare because of 1) their lower speed but higher range than goons and 2) their comparably high cost in food/gold but relative pop efficiency when you were able to sent cards.