How good are Mangudai? (AoE2)

Go to www.squarespace.com/spiritofth... to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Analysis and discussion about the Mongol's legendary unique unit: the Mangudai.
0:32 Cavalry archer vs Mangudai
3:13 Mangudai castle age tests
8:05 Imperial age upgrades
9:25 Mangudai's DPS and value
10:25 Mangudai imperial age tests
12:40 Mongol tech tree
13:40 Sponsor
___________________________________________________________
Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com
Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

[@LemonJamulus]

A Mangudai walks into a bar, but there was no counter.

[@rodrigotolosa590]

There is, though. Skirmishers.

[@arkbuble]

Can you counter them with Elite Mangudais?

[@chaosmike89th]

Best AoE2 joke Aside from the Saracen team bonus, of course

[@mrosario082]

​@@chaosmike89th what is the joke?

[@xavierklassen7849]

This is gold! 🤣

[@Marcara081]

I want to know the Top 10 LEAST Cost-Effective match-ups. In other words, I want to know the Top 10 worst fights you can take in AoE 2.

[@Klepske]

Rams Vs Villagers comes to mind

[@paradigmagabriel7500]

Well, basically Huskarl vs almost every ranged units and Teutonic Knight vs almost every melee except Leitis and Urumi Swordsman

[@robertlewis6915]

Castle v bombard cannon.

[@Kawabongahlive]

@@robertlewis6915 the trebuchet is 50 res cheaper so castle vs treb is worse cost-effective wise!

[@robertlewis6915]

@@Kawabongahlive good point

[@cappantwan2978]

At Spirit of the Cha-Cha, you’ll kite around your partner faster than an Eagle Warrior!

[@starjadiancloneinvestigato1772]

your partner: why cant you just dance like a normal person?? me: babe you dont understand im maximizing my dps (dances per second)

[@chrisvanschothorst8075]

you'll be passed down quicker than the story of Cuauthemoc!

[@brainwasher9876]

5:20 boar on the top right shaking his head at the bad matchup of mangudai vs skirms

[@andrewphethean7250]

It's like watching tennis

[@tyranitararmaldo]

Mangudai fact: They are named after a specific Mongolian tribe, that Chinggis Khan incorporated into his army.

[@MP-oh9lt]

Mangudai killed the Karakitai! 😅

[@jomolhari]

Yes, they then became their own class of army, which is the case for a lot of UU in the game too, as kipchaks, mamelukes, keshiks

[@pikilic4481]

@@jomolhari yes, interestingly all these units are on horseback and throw something

[@crownofglory1264]

@@pikilic4481 keshiks don't throw anything..but get thrown gold at them for every kill :D

[@tyranitararmaldo]

@@crownofglory1264 Keshiks actually have bows. It's on the model, but they don't use them.

[@martytu20]

The unit that necessitate giving the Mongols a useless second unique tech since it didn’t really need another one.

[@nshs1234]

I wish mongols had drill in castle age

[@haroonahmed1077]

actually i ran in a case where lack of houses caused me trouble because enemy destroyed my houses. it think it is not too much useless.

[@Vampa93]

How good are Mangudai? Yes

[@PawSmalls]

Just played a 1v1 against a Mongol player as Bohemians on Gold Rush. And yes, Hussite wagons don't give a f about the Mangudai bonus. Seeing my mass of Wagons shred his mass of Mangudai won me the game. It is such a bait of a bonus sometimes. (Edit: accidentally called hussite wagons war wagons, which they technically are, since they are used in a war)

[@gletscherminze9372]

No wonder you won, after cheating Korean units into the game.

[@PawSmalls]

@@gletscherminze9372 whoops, you guys know what i mean...

[@pikilic4481]

in Aoe3 Hussite war wagons are German units and called War Wagons :)

[@kartiksaraf4676]

You're lucky he didn't go siege onagers. Drill onagers will rekt any bohemian composition

[@tranducquang5912]

@@kartiksaraf4676 yeah gold rush should have more than enough gold for a full onager(even siege at some point though getting that much gold takes abit of time) + mangudai + hussar. Pretty much over for the bohemians especially since they are one of the few civs that can dodge bombard cannons with their onagers

[@samarthnagar3856]

Mongols review INCOMING

[@TheSpiritedFendron]

No shit Sherlock

[@samarthnagar3856]

@@TheSpiritedFendron no shit wattson no shit

[@MagicOmelet]

Always waiting for what catchy website SOTL designed this time for his sponsor

[@JakobusMaximus]

The kiting is good, but don't forget the attention deficit. If they a-move pikemen at you and you are spending all your apm to counter, they may be losing some resources, but they are gaining a minute or two of time where they can macro up or micro on a different front.

[@tranducquang5912]

you shouldn't be able to a move the Mangudai with Halbs vs mongels though. They have very good hussar to meat shield infront for them and they have siege to just shreads them to pieces. Thats why if you let the Mongels with gold access and reached their full late game potential, you are just 90% screwed

[@hansoskar1911]

for Mangudai thats usually pretty easy since there is always a castle you can go and hide. much bigger problem for regular CA.

[@MarthaGiu]

i would even say that Mangudais were which made AOE2 become so popular, they were so nice to micro-management during 20 years, and also the Genghis Khan campaing captive lot of people, me included. And i know mostly would agree on this cuz Mongols felt so good to play, even it if weren't the best civ, and i cant imagine how would be the age of empires 2 without the Mangudai

[@a.nonimus6705]

"I would say that mangudais were *what* made AoE2 so popular" - "Which" is used when referring to a specific thing within a known set of variables. "What" is used when referring to the entirety of something. Since there is no known set of variables here, the correct word is "what" "They were so nice to micro- *manage*" - Management is a noun, and manage is a verb. You're using the word as a verb, so it's manage "And I know *most* would agree" - Mostly is an adjective, most is a pronoun. You're using the word as a pronoun here, so it's most "Even if it *wasn't* the best civ" - Were is plural, was is singular. You're referring to a singular thing here so it's was "I can't imagine how Age of Empires 2 *would be* without Mangudai" - This one's a little harder to explain without giving a full on English lecture, so I'm going to just simply say that "would be" always comes after "Age of Empires 2" in this sentence lol wish I could help more with this one, but English has a lot of really complicated nuances that are very difficult to explain and this is one of them lol Hopefully this helps with future English writing

[@chillithegerman870]

I like how the japanese cav archer with its +2 bonus damage won first and at highest percentage of hp remaining. I would really like a video comparing cav archer bonuses

[@TheRealGovika]

I've been waiting for the Mongols review redux!!

[@Dabeyoun]

How good is the Mangudai? Yes.

[@frankiemouse992]

Revisited Mongol overview incoming! Can we get a Turks one? I think it is one of the oldest and also a 2 parter.

[@nelsonmejiaslozada9362]

i have like 5 years wating this 11

[@MrSafeTCam]

Not sure if you've had this one, but for a new Squarespace business: Grass Mowing: Spirit of the Lawn

[@Aqua-pl8qw]

Nice

[@SethBennion]

8:34 The heavy cav archer starts with +4 against spears, so they actually end up with +6. It's insane how powerful they can be in the late game, especially with a good civ bonus.

[@fedemedina3129]

Remember when mangudai fired the arrow before actually firing the arrow? I miss the days mongols had 100% accurate mounted janissaries

[@quaintserpent]

Mangudai is the best. The end. Credits: Directed by Robert B. Weide …

[@victoriencharnot555]

Directed by : Gengis Khan Executive producer : Gengis Khan Special thanks : Ornlu

[@sluggie1018]

@@victoriencharnot555 hahahaha ornlu

[@balazsfenyes3880]

Who dares battle the Saracens?

[@rcb_iv]

Opens KZbin, sees a new SOTL video. Need I say more...

[@rubengalvan1031]

Awesome video. Makes the final of Mistislav's scenario scarier

[@dominusblandus]

it is so weird and strange how relaxing it is to watch your videos! cheers!

[@DeMause]

Asking a question already answered by the unit's name. Man, good aye.

[@HazmanFTW]

I remember when Mangudai had no frame delay. Those were the days

[@Rika101OfficialYT]

ah yes... MONGOLS, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

[@thomashygum5310]

you have the best sponsorship transitions on youtube.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

"How good are mangudai ?" Yes.

[@maledikt]

One has to factor in the Mangudai's fashion stats. Then it beats (Elite) Cavalry Archers and most other (unique) units! ;)

[@noahsaxon]

I need to see SOTL go to Mongolia to test his micro out against the wild animals there with some modern Mangudai

[@henrylangston4944]

You, SOTL, are the “Mangudai” of KZbin. Amazing unit deserved this amazing vid! 👊

[@BenjaminSalvucci]

Could you do a video on Shotel Warriors? Love your content so much! You're the main the reason I have something of a build order and don't still build my houses up against the side of the TC XD

[@orionl7406]

I thought Siege Ram blocked 2 of the bonus damage with their +2 ram armour meaning Elite Mangudai would do 3 damage?

[@light_david7]

Interesting. Following for answer.

[@a.nonimus6705]

How much *ram* bonus damage do mangudai do? Only bonus damage I see is *siege weapon* and siege rams have +0 *siege weapon* armor

[@devangnivatkar2649]

Ram - Siege is the same difference as Elephant - Cavalry Elephants take bonus as both cavalry and elephants Rams take bonus as both rams and siege The Mangudai's bonus specifically targets siege armour

[@michaelandreipalon359]

I never wanted to lose at least one of them in the first Attila the Hun misson, for one reason of them being a good unit.

[@The_Room_2_Doggys_Revenge]

I hope you'll bring back the "KHAAAAAAAN" shout in the updated overview

[@ns-islandsroblox]

@spirit-of-the-law in the upcoming Mongols overview, please do the Khan academy intro like last time

[@quickheavenseta]

My favourite unit since I started playing AoE2 from 2000’s 😊

[@maxmustsleep]

Congrats on the sponsorship!

[@user-wq2dp6en1f]

Attempt no. 11 of asking Spirit of the Law to make a civilisation overview like he did with Romans, but for other Romae ad Bellum civilizations, making it a series. Thanks for good work :D

[@machoodin5172]

Spirit of the cha cha 🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥

[@AungAung-yl2ph]

Short answer: Very good

[@ChocolateMilkCultLeader]

Hoping to see them vs Camel Archers

[@cannedbeans29]

Spirit of the law, can you please tell us whats the name of the music you use at the beginning of your video?

[@ShadyHitchhiker]

I think its something generic from a music library because I've heard it in other videos and gotten Spirit of the Mental Whiplash

[@hm09235nd]

darude - sandstorm

[@sceurpien3593]

It is his own song, search for SONG in his channel and you can find it. The code for it: Edyj-qxOaqc

[@MegadriveManiacX]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5Xcm2CnrbSUp8U

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

TENGRI BLESS THE MANGUDAI!

[@Turbo_Gainer]

I didnt watch video yet But I know they are the best

[@redcastlefan]

really good.

[@VGR711]

nice video!

[@JoeKnaggs]

Mangudai and Plumes were and still are my favourite units in AOE and I hope that never changes

[@nutellabrah6718]

Video request/idea: how about a rundown of the mini map, its features and functions and esspecially what the various colors mean or don’t mean and what is included in their color groups. I never really mastered everything about the mini map. I know relics are white, that’s about it. Could be interesting.

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

Mangudai used to be faster. They were relatively recently hit with a nerf of -0.05 speed to bring them in line with Cavalry Archers 🏇🏹. Which is an underrated nerf and made the Mongol late game noticeably worse. Especially with Mongols being so reliant on the Mangudai to make up for the their late game weaknesses.

[@mightybeko]

Mongols overview COMING!!!!

[@ElendilAOE]

Video ideas for you rank the hardest units to counter .

[@Helloandhaveaniceday]

The damage comparison shows the conq constantly missing which is surprising at that range.

[@paulh462]

Mongol civ update coming to KZbin shortly.

[@lincolnvolk7609]

Spirit of the la hire!!

[@Predator20357]

With how people talk about the Mangudai, I was expecting some crazy bonuses. What I saw was Mongol Horse Archers with Siege Bonus and halved frame delay. Definitely not flashy but I guess it’ll get the job done.

[@AnimeCritical]

They got nerfed after conquerors.

[@micahbonewell5994]

They used to have 0 frame delay, and back in conquerors Camels were much weaker, there were far fewer good cav archer civs (only huns were considered viable). Magyars didn't exist, Tatars didn't exist, Sipahi didn't exist for turks, Berbers didn't exist, Mamluks were much worse. Elite Skirm was a much more expensive tech, cav archers were more expensive I think Japanese were the only civ that got FU cav archers. In that environment, you can see why Mangudai were seen as the best. (They also had the best campaign, besides maybe Joan of Arc)

[@Predator20357]

@@micahbonewell5994 Alright, everything makes much more sense now, thank you.

[@AnimeCritical]

@@micahbonewell5994 Yeah totally agree. Apart from the campaign part. Best campaign in conquerors was Montezuma where you got a superman Jaguar warrior and in terms of story it was El cid. In AoK it was Barbarosa cause teutonic knights were epic.

[@nlb137]

The secret sauce is that siege is incredible and Manguadai beat the enemy siege, letting Mongol's good siege run rampant. If the mongols snipe your onagers and keep their own intact, you're gonna have a bad day.

[@mythology2467]

The Mongol overview better have another Khan academy or equivalent intro joke!

[@Boethion]

At 5:10 in the bottom right I literally thought I had a big fly on my screen and spend 10 minutes trying to find where it went only to realize it was a fucking boar poking its pixilated body into frame xwx

[@olorinistar9903]

The Mongols' greatest weapon is this Man'sgoodeye

[@nicholasdalby5178]

Easily the best inherent bonus of any archer unit in the game--Mangudai vs siege 1:56

[@Minaramenkemi7443]

Funny, I never trained cavalry archers when playing as Mongols

[@Glaciatio]

It has to be strong because historically they were feared. The no frame delay originally was a reference to the fact they good ride on horseback and fire arrows backwards whilst at full gallop. They are a great unit and should not be nerfed again.

[@JamalMI]

What about the briton longbows with their ridiculous range, could they serve as a counter?

[@thomaseder1072]

good video, but you forgot, that the Mangudai has the highest upgrade costs at all with the highest amount of benefitting upgrades! It is one of the best units, but you have to pay a lot and it took a lot of time to be fully upgraded.

[@gebhard128]

my answer: yes

[@Tocaraca]

9:30 this test does the Elite Conquistador dirty as hell. I have no idea why it's missing so many shots from 2 tiles away from the samurai, but it seems like a fluke (some sort of glitch), since its accuracy stat is 70%. In a real game they do not miss that much and have way more than 56 damage per minute

[@paulguerillot7538]

spirit of the cha cha 11

[@hansoskar1911]

Mangudai were actually faster than regular Cavalry Archers until 2(?) years ago. they were 1.45 base speed aka the same speed as Camels. So you can find that information in a lotta places.

[@anthonybrandao4264]

Hello, what is the first song played in the background ? Thank you.

[@Altair1139]

Spirit of the law is a true entrepreneur

[@catalinmarius3985]

Do the Teutons next please.

[@Giraffemini]

Mongols struggle against Elefants though.. missing helbadier really hurts there

[@Bounasieaux]

I'm just here for the squarespace bits 🤷‍♀️

[@dummy5036]

Please explain the ingame time compared to real time ❤

[@lucas67898]

The internal game time moves at 1.5x faster than real world time. So every 1 minute in the real world is 1 minute 30 seconds in the game

[@gletscherminze9372]

​@@lucas67898Its 1.5 for casual speed, 1.7 for normal speed and 2.0 for fast speed.

[@raigarmullerson4838]

Love the content. Cheers from Estonia

[@remiss6355]

When someone asks me how are the Mangudai, I say: "Man, good! Aye!"

[@niklasw.1297]

Im telling you, SOTL has a hidden bonus for puns

[@a.nonimus6705]

It's not a hidden bonus. It's one of his unique techs

[@WankBeans]

Anyone else notice the conq missing every single shot starting at 9:24?

[@Mike-oz4cv]

Question: If I’m a total noob and don’t know about all the counters, what’s the most effective unit I can spam which will do okay in almost all encounters?

[@doppelstarker5915]

Isn't the shooting animation of the mangudai strange when you compare it to the heavy cavalry one?

[@ViciousSatsuma]

Re mangudai vs paladins, it needs to be emphasized that (i) large masses of mangudai still beat paladins and (ii) they are way better than heavy CA against paladins - the +1 attack makes a bigger difference here than vs samurai (5 vs 4 dmg, 25%, rather than 7 vs 6 dmg, 17%).

[@Jsneebs42]

To all single player campaign players please check out "The Qin Dynasty" custom campaign. 5 scenarios chronicling the events that led to Chinas first Emperor. I'm also the author of "The Legend of William Wallace", "Dawn of the Maya - The Sons of Chak" and "A Khaleesi's Journey" for the GOT fans.

[@tiestofalljays]

It might be easier to also include your “uploader name/account you used to upload the mod” - you know how you can just search for someone like “Zetnus” and all his stuff will come up? Basically that, but with your name. Would save people needing to try to remember each of the campaign names :D I screenshotted this so I can download them later today though!

[@ImTreyhan]

Thanks for all the content. It really is what makes AoE2 so fantastic.

[@Jsneebs42]

Sneebly42 is the Author name

[@Jsneebs42]

@@tiestofalljays Sneebly42

[@balazsfenyes3880]

Weren't mangudai the unit that shoots at the start of the animation not at the end?

[@Gui101do]

👍🏻

[@Vennotius]

I was not emotionally prepared to be introduced to spirit of the Cha-Cha.

[@meinebosma]

Is that 56 in damage per minute, 9:30 , correct?

[@An1llusion]

I haven't done the math, but I assume it's an average from that distance. Conquistadors have poor accuracy, so in the clip you can notice several shots missing. If Conquistadors hit all shots, the DPS would be much higher. With RNG involved (and increased distance), the DPS thus plummets.

[@SpiritOfTheLaw]

Before looking, I knew you'd be talking about the conquistador. The number was calculated correctly (I double checked), but watching it back now it seems like it had an incredibly unlucky streak of missed shots during the 3 minute test I did. It's supposed to be 70% accurate, so we'd expect ~188 damage/min, not 56. I've noticed that sometimes the game glitches out and a unit will just keep missing a bunch of shots in a row for no reason. In the video you see him miss 17 shots in a row, which should have a 0.00000013% chance of happening in any given 17 shot streak if it wasn't bugged, so there's definitely something weird going on, and it's not the first time I've seen it happen. The conquistador should have ended up with 1.45 as their DPM/cost, so it's not great and the point about Mangudai I was making doesn't change, but you're right the Conquistador isn't as bad as it looks here, and should have been about average in that test.

[@meinebosma]

@@SpiritOfTheLaw so just bad luck is it. I thought I remembered it being higher in the Conquistador video. And that checks out, maybe better luck for the next showing for Conquistadors.

[@PirateMacDougall]

@@meinebosma 0.00000013% is so statistically unlikely it's not "just bad luck" and it definitely needs properly investigating. It's also highly unlikely to only be effecting this test scenario so it might matter for real matches.

[@meinebosma]

@@PirateMacDougall Having a bug in a test like that is still bad luck.

[@furretthefuzzynoodle3896]

I counter your logic with SHINY CAPES!

[@animangovideo7375]

8:34 doesnt the ehavy cavalry archer get +6 against spears? +4 base and another +2 from parthian tactics.

[@MP-oh9lt]

They are Man Good Ay!

[@PauxloE]

So if you go with Cav-Archer in Castle age first, can you just mix e.g. 10 Mangudai and 20 Cav-Archers in one army, or does this make the micro awkward?

[@Progeusz-]

It makes micro very awkward considering there's big difference between initial attack delay of both units which is why nobody sane goes mongol cav archers. It simply doesn't make sense to ever make mongol CA when Mangudai are way better in every single aspect. You're better off starting castle age with normal cavalry like steppe lancers or knights as you build castles and transition to Mangudai. Cav archers are the type of unit which only works well when massed but you will never reach big mass of CA when Mangudai is available which means you should never go mongol CA (unless you have no access to stone).

[@jomolhari]

Mangudai horses fire arrows with their heads. It's not a bonus or anything but it gives them a fear factor.

[@amauriherrera6022]

Mangudai can turn a loosing fight into a win-thats how good.

[@DT-im1dp]

Mangudais were nerfed to the ground and are still the best UU. Back then they were unstoppable. It was just a joy to micro them back then. I remember the 4v4 team games among Tyrants, SY, VNS, Souomi, depend on how many mangudais each team can make.

[@LuxMasakrator]

Too good.

[@mark_of_patmos]

Before "Spirit of the Cha-Cha" I thought his side businesses were real.

[@mikeofbosnia]

Do bloodlines affect cav archers in AoE?

[@TweedleDeeAoe]

At 8:58, shouldn’t Japanese CA show that it has attack bonus vs archers?

[@MrBloodomer]

‏‪0:46‬‏ Wait this bouns don't effect the Unique Unit?

[@olala-fe9rp]

this is pretty good content lol

[@brandonciciotti4944]

I’ll be disappointed if the upcoming, updated civ overview doesn’t include multiple clips of Kirk angrily shouting “KHAAAAAAAAN!!!”