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Saracens

Kite Dive anti-cavalry ranged mounted; hard counter to Persian eles.

Spawn unit Starting age Kills to Castle Kills to Imp Razes to vill Cap Interval
Mameluke Feudal 300 650 2 60 11 s

⚡ Quick reference

  • Baseline: efficient Market, Camel +25% HP, better naval atk rate. UU Mameluke (ranged mounted vs cavalry). UTs Zealotry, Madrasah, Counterweights.
  • Requiem v294: starting age Feudal; kills-to-Castle 300; razes-to-vill 2.
  • CBA role: anti-cavalry ranged mounted; hard counter to Persian eles.
  • Post-vill: Mameluke + Camel + ranged support + siege.
  • Weak vs: spears, Genoese, Teutons.

📜 Deep playbook

🏛️ Standard DE profile

  • Civ bonuses:
  • Market trade cost 5%.
  • Transport ships 2x HP and 2x carry.
  • Galleys +30% attack vs. buildings.
  • Cavalry Archers +4 attack vs. buildings.
  • Archers +3 attack vs. buildings.
  • Skirmishers fire faster (verify current patch).
  • Team bonus: Foot Archers +2 attack vs. buildings.
  • Unique units:
  • Castle UU: Mameluke (mounted anti-cavalry with a ranged melee attack; blob of camels that throw scimitars at short range).
  • Unique techs:
  • Castle Age: Madrasah — Killed monks return 33% of their cost.
  • Imperial Age: Zealotry — Camels and Mamelukes +30 HP.
  • Notable missing techs: no Paladin (Cavalier only), no Bracer, no Siege Onager, no Heavy Scorpion (verify), no Halberdier (has Halb — verify current DE state; Saracens have Halb).
  • Wall availability: Palisade, Stone, Fortified.

🏰 CBA REQUIEM v294 profile

(v294 numbers: Fandom wiki, retrieved 2026-08-21)

  • Starting age: Feudal (Requiem v294 start table).
  • Spawn unit: Mameluke.
  • Spawn interval: 11 s per Castle.
  • Unit cap: 60.
  • Kills to Castle: 300.
  • Kills to Imperial: 650.
  • Razes to first villagers: 2 — Mameluke is a strong raze unit (mounted, ranged-melee), so Saracens are often in the delayed-raze pool.
  • Subsequent raze payoff: not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord.
  • Free starting tech: none listed in the v294 wiki table.
  • Elite trigger: silver-UT threshold flips Mameluke to Elite Mameluke and applies Zealotry HP.
  • Silver-UT unlock: not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord.
  • Available buildings / disabled units after villagers: standard whitelist. No elephants. BBC availability not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord — Saracens have Bombard Cannon in DE.

CBA role & archetype

  • Primary role: Anti-cavalry dive / mounted raze. Mameluke deletes any cavalry stack and razes buildings quickly.
  • Secondary role: post-villager Cavalry Archer + BBC line.

🌅 Opening play (pre-villager)

  • Minute 0–3: set spawn short; Mameluke is fast. Patrol into cavalry-heavy flanks.
  • Preferred fights: any cavalry UU (Cataphract, Paladin/Frank, Winged Hussar, War Elephant — yes, Mameluke shreds ele), Boyar, Tarkan.
  • Fights to refuse: pure infantry balls with pikes (Halberdier, Pikeman, Kamayuk) — Mameluke is anti-cav, not anti-infantry.

⚔️ Kill accumulation strategy

  • Safest kill farm: Persians (War Elephant), Franks (Paladin), Byzantines (Cataphract), Slavs (Boyar), Poles (Winged Hussar), Tatars (Keshik), Cumans (Kipchak — regional context).
  • Avoid feeding: Goths (Huskarl), Aztecs (Jaguar), Incas (Kamayuk), Vietnamese (Rattan).

🏚️ Raze allocation

  • Saracens are often delayed-raze because Mameluke is a top-tier razer. They can self-raze effectively.
  • Feed razes to: teammates who need gold badly (Turks, Spanish).

👷 Post-villager composition

  • Wall order: gate patches primary; Saracens raid out constantly.
  • Standard build: 1 Barracks, 2 Archery Ranges, 2 Stables, 1 Siege Workshop.
  • Imperial composition: Mameluke + Cavalry Archer + Ram + BBC. Elite Mameluke with Zealotry is a wall-of-camels; CA line covers the anti-infantry weakness.
  • Silver-UT priority: Zealotry immediately.

⚖️ Strong against / Weak against

  • Strong vs.: all cavalry, elephants, buildings.
  • Weak vs.: heavy infantry with pikes, Onager stacks (Mameluke clumps).

🤝 Team synergies

  • Best pairs: Ethiopians (Shotel dive + Mameluke anti-cav), Britons (Longbow + Mameluke tank), Chinese (CKN behind Mameluke screen).
  • Conflicts: another anti-cav civ on same flank wastes overlap.

🎮 Key micro rules

  1. Always dive cavalry stacks first.
  2. Don't melee-brawl pikes.
  3. Raze aggressively — bonus vs. buildings across all Saracen units.
  4. Research Zealotry immediately post-villager.
  5. Spread vs. Onagers.

⚠️ Common mistakes

  • Using Mameluke as generic melee — waste vs. infantry.
  • Ignoring the CA + BBC transition.

🔒 Version-locked (Requiem v294)

  • Mameluke stats have been tuned in recent DE patches; v294 may pin an older value.