Persians¶
Tank Raze trap pick — devastating if protected, target-of-focus otherwise. Also excellent spawn-blocker.
| Spawn unit | Starting age | Kills to Castle | Kills to Imp | Razes to vill | Cap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| War Elephant (signature Castle UU) | Post-Imperial | 300 | 650 | 4 | 60 | 13 s |
⚡ Quick reference¶
- Baseline: +50 food/wood start, TC/Dock +HP + work speed by age, early Parthian Tactics, Kamandaran (Archer-line free gold). UU War Elephant (very durable, very slow). UTs Boiling Oil, Mahouts.
- Requiem v294: starting age Feudal; kills-to-Castle 300; razes-to-vill 4.
- CBA role: trap pick — devastating if protected, target-of-focus otherwise. Also excellent spawn-blocker.
- Post-vill: heavy cav/camel + cheap Archer-line + siege.
- Weak vs: Halbs, camels, Monks, mobility. Team must protect Persians early.
📜 Deep playbook¶
🏛️ Standard DE profile
- Civ bonuses:
- Start with +50 food, +50 wood.
- Town Center and Dock have +10% HP (Dark) / +15% (Feudal) / +20% (Castle) / +25% (Imperial) HP and +10%/+15%/+20%/+25% work rate.
- Knight-line +2 attack vs. Archers (all tiers).
- Team bonus: Knights +2 line of sight.
- Unique unit: War Elephant (Castle UU, massive HP tank).
- Unique techs:
- Castle Age: Kamandaran — Archer-line trained without gold (wood cost).
- Imperial Age: Mahouts — War Elephants +30% movement speed.
- Notable missing techs: no Halberdier, no Heavy Scorpion, no Herbal Medicine, no Bracer.
- Walls: all three tiers.
🏰 CBA REQUIEM v294 profile
(v294 numbers: Fandom wiki, retrieved 2026-08-21)
- Starting age: Post-Imperial.
- Spawn unit: War Elephant (signature Castle UU).
- Spawn interval / unit cap: 13 s per Castle; cap 60 — traditionally the longest interval / smallest cap in CBA due to raw HP.
- Kills to Castle / Imperial: 300 (Castle) / 650 (Imperial) — historically higher than average (elephants are strong per unit).
- Razes to first villagers: usually last in the raze queue (Persians are the classic "no eco needed" civ in CBA culture — but v294 exact ordering 4).
- Free starting tech: Husbandry.
- Silver-UT unlock: Mahouts — condition not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord.
- Available buildings / disabled: post-villager access to Paladin, Cavalier; Halb NOT available; BBC not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord.
CBA role & archetype
- Primary role: tank / raze. War Elephants have the highest HP-per-unit in the game and are the premier building-killers.
- Secondary role: attrition front-line — soak damage for team DPS.
🌅 Opening play
- Minute 0–3: pick a lane, walk forward. War Elephants don't kite; they roll.
- Preferred fights: any building, any melee stack that can't dodge, static defensive lines.
- Fights to refuse: Camel civs (Saracens, Berbers, Gurjaras, Hindustanis, Malians-Camels), Malay Karambit swarm, monk civs (conversion).
- Micro: stagger — never clump elephants (Mangonel splash death). Walk at half-speed if needed to preserve formation.
⚔️ Kill accumulation strategy
- Safest farms: Britons, Mayans, Chinese, Franks (Paladin doesn't outdamage War Elephant HP), Teutons (slow), Byzantines.
- Avoid: Saracens (Mameluke), Berbers (Camel Archer), Malay (Karambit), Malians (Gbeto sniping + Farimba cav), Aztecs (Jaguar bonus vs. cav).
- Anti-cage: War Elephants are slow but tanky — walk out through the weakest side, don't fight surrounded.
🏚️ Raze allocation
- Priority: last (traditional CBA convention). Persians are the classic "no eco needed, they raze on their own" civ.
- Feed razes to: everyone else first — the team should let Persians self-fund via razes.
👷 Post-villager composition
- Wall order: front + gate patch. Persians can walk out and re-siege easily.
- Standard build: 2 Stables (Paladin backup), 1 Siege Workshop (Ram — no Siege Onager? Actually Persians DO have Siege Onager; verify — Persians have Siege Onager in DE). UU production and Castle research run from your pre-placed Castles.
- Imperial composition: Elite War Elephant (Mahouts) + Paladin + Pikeman (no Halb) + Siege Onager / Ram.
- Silver-UT priority: Mahouts — +30% speed transforms elephants from slow-roll to actual threat.
⚖️ Strong against / Weak against
- Strong vs.: all archer civs, all pure-melee civs without anti-cav bonuses, building-heavy setups.
- Weak vs.: Camel civs, monk civs, Malay Karambit, Malians Gbeto, Aztec Jaguar, Halb-heavy stacks.
🤝 Team synergies
- Best pairs: Koreans (Siege Onager back-line while War Elephants tank), Japanese (Samurai dive to UUs while Elephants soak), Franks (double heavy-front).
- Conflicts: another slow civ (Turks BBC, Khmer Ballista) — team has zero mobility.
🎮 Key micro rules
- Stagger elephants — never clump (Mangonel splash = instant death).
- Get Mahouts the moment it unlocks — +30% speed is transformative.
- Refuse Camel fights; walk around.
- Prioritize razing enemy castles once villagers arrive (Persians should self-fund).
- Preserve Elite War Elephants — replacement rate is the slowest in CBA.
⚠️ Common mistakes
- Clumping elephants → Mangonel wipes.
- Walking into Camel lanes.
- Expecting Halberdier (Persians don't get it).
🔒 Version-locked (Requiem v294)
- War Elephant as spawn is v294 standard.
- "Last in raze queue" is community convention, not a hard v294 rule — check with your team's raze protocol.
- Mahouts gating (free vs. silver-UT) is v294 specific.
End of Group 3. Continue to Appendix D (Portuguese → Vikings) for the remainder of the roster.