CIVILIZATION OVERVIEW
Civilization Bonuses:
-
Can build one additional Town Centre in Feudal Age
-
Siege Workshops and Battering Rams are available in Feudal Age, Capped Rams are available in Castle Age
-
Cavalry move 5%, 10% and 15% faster in the Feudal, Castle and Imperial Ages respectively
Team Bonus:​
-
Palisade Walls have 50% extra HP
Unique Unit:​
-
Kipchak – Cavalry Archer – fires multiple arrows
Unique Technologies:​
-
Steppe Husbandry – Scout Cavalry line, Steppe Lancers and Cavalry Archers are trained 100% faster.
-
Cuman Mercenaries – team members can create 10 free Elite Kipchaks at the Castle
Key Features:​
-
Only missing Supplies from the Infantry technology tree
-
Missing Arbalester and Hand Cannoneers
-
Missing Heavy Camel Rider
-
Missing Heavy Scorpion, Bombard Cannons and Siege Engineers from Siege units
-
Missing Heavy Demolition Ships, Cannon Galleons, Dry Dock and Shipwright
-
Missing Redemption, Illumination, Theocracy and Block Printing
-
Missing Bracer
-
No Guard Tower, no Stone Walls, no Arrowslits, no Architecture
-
Only missing Stone Shaft Mining from economy upgrades
DARK AGE
The Cumans have a standard Dark Age start with 3 Villagers and a Scout. They are lacking any economy bonus in the Dark Age so the player can focus this time on setting up for their main composition later in the game.
All of the Cumans’ bonuses kick in in the Feudal Age so the Dark Age is about setting up for the approach they wish to play. This is likely to be a fast Scouts or Archers build order or going for the second Town Centre at the start of Feudal Age. With the extra Town Centre approach, it is not uncommon to see players advance to Feudal Age with a population of 19 in order to get this constructed as soon as possible. An alternative may be to delay this by an extra Villager in order to add walls around your base for protection. With an extra 50% HP on walls, the Cumans may be able to delay their opponent from breaking in until they have managed to secure their economy.
FEUDAL AGE
The Cumans’ only economy bonus is their ability to build an extra Town Centre in the Feudal Age. Having an extra Town Centre allows the Cumans to increase their number of Villagers faster than their enemies during Feudal Age, as well as continuing to produce while one Town Centre researchers the Castle Age. There are two major trade-offs for doing this. The first is that this second Town Centre take much longer to build than normal so you will often use around eight Villagers to build it (rather than the four which is common for extra Town Centres in Castle Age). While these Villagers are building, they are not collecting resources and as a percentage of your total economy, this is fairly substantial at this time. Secondly, in order to produce Villagers from two Town Centres, you need 12 Villagers on food. This means that if the Cuman player has taken this approach, they cannot afford military production alongside this. All of the wood income is required to be invested into farms in order to ramp up food income to reach Castle Age.
The Cumans now have cheaper Stables and Archery Ranges, costing just 100 wood each. This means that the Cumans are able to go into these units quickly, possibly even off the back of a second Town Centre. The Cumans could go for Scouts in the Feudal Age. With the bonus to movement speed, Cumans are able to harass their opponent a little easier than most civilisations and can dictate when and where fights happen – disengaging and moving away at will. If the Cuman player opts for Archers, it is possible to do some very fast double Range openings that allow them to snowball their Archer numbers.
In some cases, the Cumans may wish to use their other bonus, adding a Siege Workshop in the Feudal Age. From this they are only able to build Battering Rams but this can still be effective if part of a push involving some other military units or potentially even with Towers. Battering Rams can destroy buildings quickly and take little damage from arrows but are vulnerable to melee, with Villagers able to destroy the Rams with little difficulty. A military presence of some sort is therefore needed to kill any Villagers that attempt to destroy the Rams. Scouts are a reasonable option but Archers are probably better suited to this for their efficiency in killing Villagers from range (a group of Archers can better target individual Villagers therefore killing them faster than a Scout, whilst staying away from threats such as Town Centre fire).
On water or hybrid maps, Cumans are able to compete in the early game with all Feudal and Castle Age units and technologies available. Moving into Imperial Age and suddenly the Cumans lack a lot of upgrades and research options. They do still have access to Fast Fire Ships and Galleons, meaning they could have a role to play if necessary but the lack of Shipwright can be a big disadvantage in the late game due to the reduced wood cost and faster production time this gives to the civilizations that have access to it.
CASTLE AGE
In Castle Age, the Cumans still maintain a lot of flexibility over strategy. If the Cuman player has focused on Cavalry in the early game, they are able to progress now to Knights (with Paladin available in Imperial Age) and benefit from an additional boost to speed – allowing them to continue to dictate the location and timing of fights. The Cumans are also able to add in Camel Riders to trade more cost effectively versus other Cavalry players but this should not be viewed as a long-term composition with the Cumans lacking the Heavy Camel Rider upgrade in Imperial Age.
The Cumans have fully upgraded Crossbowmen in Castle Age so starting with an Archer-focused build in Feudal Age can allow this power spike at the start of Castle Age. But without Arbalester or Bracer in Imperial Age, this should not be a sustained focus, instead looking to transition to other options. Cavalry Archers would be a suitable option for this as they do have access to Thumb Ring and Parthian Tactics. Again, lacking Bracer significantly hinders their damage output and range in Imperial Age but the faster movement speed for the Cumans means that they can hit-and-run more effectively or even close the gap to their opponents easier.
If the Cuman player has added a second Town Centre in Feudal Age, they will often reach Castle Age a little behind their opponent but with a better developed economy. It is not uncommon for the Cumans to add that second Town Centre in Feudal Age next to stone in preparation for building a Castle. The Cumans’ unique unit – the Kipchak – is a form of Cavalry Archer that fires multiple arrows (similar in mechanics to the Chu Ko Nu of the Chinese). As a result, Kipchaks can still do an efficient job of dealing with units with high pierce armour (such as Rams, Eagle Warriors and Huskarls). Kipchaks have high damage output but are quite weak in terms of HP. They have 10 less HP than a regular Cavalry Archer (15 less for the Elite as to the Heavy Cavalry Archer) so they are still susceptible to counters or to ranged fire – they are likely to be out-ranged by most missile units they face.
Monks should not be considered a major strategy for the Cumans as they are missing a large number of crucial upgrades. The option of building the Siege Workshop in Feudal Age does give them the option of adding this on the way up to Castle Age and push then with Mangonels or even with Capped Rams (that they gain access to an age earlier). With a Mangonel push, it would be sensible for the Cumans to add Pikemen to this push to help protect against enemy Cavalry but a mass of Crossbowmen could still be effective – just be wary of a Mangonel defence.
If the Cuman player is defending against a Mangonel push from their opponent, they are limited in their options by their lack of Guard Tower. Instead, Cumans will need to rely upon their own Mangonels or they may even be able to use a defensive Castle if they have gone for the two Town Centre approach into Kipchaks – Mangonel pushes are a common response to this approach as the Cuman player cannot afford much military until they are in Castle Age.
IMPERIAL AGE
In Imperial Age, the Cumans have some of the fastest Cavalry units in the game. Their Hussars and Paladins are exceptional at raiding due to their speed and ability to evade common counters (such as Halberdiers). Raiding with Paladin is an expensive option due to the high gold cost but they are better able to withstand arrow fire from Town Centres. An alternative could be to mass these as part of your main army composition where you are still able to avoid disadvantageous fights. Hussars are therefore more likely to form a major part of their raiding army and the Cumans player should remember to research Steppe Husbandry to drastically increase their creation speed from Stables. With a well-established farming economy, the Cumans can effectively spam a continuous flow of Hussar into their opponent’s economy. It is important to note that while the Cumans have access to Camel Riders in the Castle Age, they do not get the upgrade in the Imperial Age.
The Cumans have access to fully upgraded Halberdiers, which will likely be a vital part of their late game army composition. Depending on the enemy’s main units, the Cumans may well be ideally suited to combine Halberdiers with Siege Ram – especially effective against ranged unit dependent civilizations like the Britons and Berbers – the Siege Rams can absorb the arrow fire while the Halberdiers protect them from Cavalry. In this scenario, the Cumans would be likely to incorporate a ranged unit of their own but these would be vulnerable to enemy missile units due to missing Bracer (reducing their maximum range and damage output).
The Cumans are another civilization that misses the Supplies technology meaning that their Champions are not affected by a discount to the food cost. These can still be an effective way to deal with Eagle Warriors or Huskarls but it may not be as cost effective to do so.
Cumans are not a powerhouse late game civilisation however they can be tricky to deal with if their mobility is used to good effect. Kipchaks, while weak, can be particularly effective for hit-and-run style attacks and their Hussars should be used to whittle down the enemy’s economy. Taking straight engagements with this combination is not advised.
SUGGESTED BUILD ORDERS
-
2 Town Centre Feudal Boom
-
19 Population Straight Archers
-
Feudal Rams Push