Burmese Manipur Cavalry Survey

Hi all! One of the most discussed changes on last patch was Manipur Cavalry changing from Cavalry and Arambai getting +6 vs buildings to only Cavalry getting +5 vs Archers. It’s obvious that this has been done to provide Burmese a tool against their weakness to ranged units, especially foot Archers and Cavalry Archers. But is it really that effective? I want to gather some thoughts (both mine and opinions from redditors) and ask you what you think about the change.

Burmese weakness

One of the redditors here (I’ve tried to find the name to give him credit but couldn’t) wrote that “Burmese weakness is not against ranged units. It is against ranged units protected by Halbs”. I’m 100% with this. Arbalesters in Imperial Age (this can be extended to any foot Archer except for Genoese Crossbowmen) are cost effectively countered by FU Burmese Hussars. But when the Archer player mixes in some Halbs, Hussars get eaten. Halbs’ best counters are Arbalesters (which Burmese lack), Elite Skirms (which misses two armors for Burmese) and Champions (who get eaten by Arbalesters). A good Arambai micro could deal with Halbs, but with 3 pierce armor when fully upgraded they take 7 damage from each Arbalester (8 damage from some UUs like Longbowmen or Rattan). Scorpions can be good against an Arb + Halb mass if protected properly, but get shredded by Onagers and BBCs, and you need Heavy Scorpion upgrade (1000F 1100W) and Siege Engineers (500F 600W) for them to perform the best.

Cavalry Archers also pose a threat to Burmese, who can only chase them with Hussars, seeing that their Elite Skirms, even having Bracer, are the weakest to arrows (only 5 pierce armor as opposed to generic FU 8 pierce armor). Not every civ with access to viable Cav Archers get also Halberdiers, but seeing the poor ranged support of Burmese, even a civ with only pikes (like Mongols) or missing infantry armors (like Tatars or Magyars) could hide their Cav Archers behind a mass of pointy boys.

Manipur Cavalry Tech

It costs 650F 400G, it is researched at the Castle and it is available from Imperial Age. It feels like the tech will be researched late, since the first resources you will usually want to spend are for Plate Barding Armor, Cavalier/Hussar/Arambai upgrades, creating Trebs or researching Chemistry for BBC. By that time, is it the best to spend all those resources on a bonus attack or would you create more units?

How did Manipur Cavalry influence Burmese playstyle when it affected Buildings?

Raids were much more effective. A group of Hussars/Cavaliers/Arambai could melt any quickwall and even destroy production buildings (including isolated TCs). Slow pushes were also more effective, with Elephants and Cavaliers acting nearly as Rams. Arambai could even destroy stone walls.

How does Manipur Cavalry influence Burmese playstyle now that it affects Archers?

Here you have in numbers what u/Sticky_Ice_Cream posted many days ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/qqm5in/new\_burmese\_manipur\_cavalry/

It feels like the ones who lose the edge are Cavalry Archer civs. The best meatshield for CAs has always been the Hussar, which is great for a controlled wood + food + gold consumption. But Burmese Hussars could ignore them and go for CAs. Now, with each FU Hussar dealing 11 damage per hit to a FU CA or Mangudai, it seems that CA civs would need to opt for a more stationary push, using Pikes/Halbs as a meatshield instead of Hussars, who get eaten by 13 attack Burmese Halberdiers. Burmese Halbs beat every other Halb, but don't forget that they're weak to the units we're trying to kill (ranged).

It’s also true that foot Archers (most of them now take 13 damage per hit from a FU Burmese Hussar) are far weaker against Hussars and Cavaliers (I’m not counting on Elephants because of their low speed), but the problem when the Archer player mixes in Halbs remains the same. Yes, it’s true that the combat if Hussars catch Arbalesters unguarded is quicker, giving Halbs less reaction time. But with a proper micro Burmese Cavalry still would have the same problems to get to the Arb mass.

Arambai have been nerfed with this change, since their building razing potential has been lowered. Someone wrote about them that they’re “anti-Cavalry Cavalry archers”, so for that purpose they wouldn’t be affected. Their performance against Siege, Monks and Infantry also remains unchanged.

After this summary, I’d like to know what you think about the change. Have you tried researching it? Did it prove to be successful? I’ll give you some options. Have a nice day!

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