Mongol Mangudai Rush

Dark Age:

  • Build an Ovoo, Drop your TC at a wood line.

  • Initially, task your villagers to a straggler tree to keep them busy. As soon as the TC is down, switch them all to food.

  • Make a single scout out of your TC, then queue villagers.

  • Set your starting Ger to a gold mine.

  • Villager Distribution set to: 2 on Gold and the rest on Food. This allows for an easy Deer Stones transition in a timely fashion.

  • Set 4 villagers to Deer Stones when you have the resources.

Transition:

  • Villager Distribution set to: 4 on Food, ~4 on Gold and the rest on Wood. You'll be gathering 350w.

  • Research Wheelbarrow.

  • Once you have 300w in the bank (with Wheelbarrow researched), distribute villagers as follows:

  • Villager Distribution set to: ~2 on Wood, ~4 on Gold and the rest on Food.

Feudal Age:

  • Build 2 Archery Ranges immediately.

  • Queue up x2 Mangudai and dump your stone into those units.

  • Raid and harass anything you can with your Mangudai. Avoid fighting Archers, kite Spearmen and Horsemen.

  • Raiding villagers consists of running Mangudai close to villagers without even clicking on them.

  • Utilizing the Speed Arrow on the Khan allows you to escape Horsemen.

  • Villager Distribution set to: ~5-10 on Wood, ~4 on Gold and the rest on Food.

Transition:

  • Round out your unit composition to counter the enemy army. Your aggression allows you to keep close tabs on what units the opponent is producing. You won't want to stick to only Mangudai. Chop wood as needed for new production buildings.

  • If you get a good engagement or raid off, consider furthering your lead by going to Castle Age. Get unit upgrades. Doing these steps will help deepen your lead.

  • Attempting to close out the game in Feudal, even if you have just won a decisive fight, is a riskier option than going Castle.

Castle Age:

  • You can keep making Mangudai. If you want to close out the game, transition into MAA/Spearmen and siege.

  • Get a blacksmith and upgrade your units.


Overview:

This is a basic, beginner friendly build, with the goal of utilizing the Mangudai to raid and take good, easy engagements.

This is not a strategy that will work at the Conqueror level. I feel it would be too easy to make the correct counter composition, play defensively and boom. Nonetheless, for lower level play (anything below Platinum), I think there are many holes in the play of opponent's that can be exploited with this build. The build is fairly simple and has straightforward macro. This allows the Mongol player to focus on running around the map with Mangudai.

Eventually, you'll want to round out your unit composition. Having a three unit composition is key to having a complete army which can fight in almost any circumstance. In this case, Mangudai/Spearmen/Horsemen should be able to take on most armies, minus the obvious weakness to MAA in a straight up fight. You can kite those with Mangudai however, buying time to age up and get Crossbows.

Utilizing the Mangudai to scout the enemy army consistently helps a lot here. You can focus production on the counter unit thanks having constant pressure on the opponent. For instance, if the enemy player is massing a fair amount of Archers, transitioning unit production into Horsemen can be very strong.

If you've forced your opponent to make a lot of Archers, consider a transition to Castle Age for MAA. Don't stick it out in Feudal. Use your Mangudai to buy time and obtain map control in order to freely age. The threat of a counter attack or raid is quite high which should allow you the necessary time to do this.

- iNcog


Maps:

Good on: Open maps

Not Good on: Hill and Dale, walls prevent you from getting the harass in.

Match ups:

Does not fare well against English with their Longbows. In fact investing in Mangudai against Longbow/Pike is not cost efficient. Opening with Mangudai may work, but you're better off with a transition to Castle or massing Archers.