“ | Nepalese skirmisher that is accurate to a long range. Good against infantry. | ” |
—In-game description |
The Gurkha is a ranged gunpowder infantry in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Indians and can be trained at Barracks and Galleon, as well as the Agra Fort wonder. It is the Indian equivalent of a Skirmisher.
Gurkhas can also be rescued from certain Treasures on South Asian maps such as Borneo, Deccan, and Indochina.
Overview[]
Gurkhas are expensive but have a strong attack and long range, that increases with every upgrade for them at the barracks, going up to 21 range. They are strong against infantry but are weak against cavalry. They are stronger than an ordinary Skirmisher and are also available in Commerce Age, meaning that the Indians can have a very powerful anti-infantry support even in the Commerce Age. As such they should be combined with Sepoys or Zamburaks to defeat any cavalry units that get too close while the Gurkhas snipe infantry that pose a threat.
Gurkhas, when combined with the Howdah can host a formidable all-rounder attack force as they provide multipliers against many categories of units in the game.
Mansabdar Gurkha[]
“ | Inspires all nearby Gurkha. Indian skirmisher that is accurate to a long range. Good against infantry. | ” |
—In-game description |
The Mansabdar Gurkha is a stronger version of the Gurkha that can be trained from the Charminar Gate wonder. As a Mansabdar unit, the Mansabdar Gurkha has twice the hit points of a Gurkha and Imperial Service that increases the hit points and attack of nearby Gurkhas, but are two times more expensive.
Special ability[]
- Imperial Service (passive): The Mansabdar Gurkha increases the hit points and attack of Gurkhas in a radius of 24 around him by 10%.
Upgrades[]
Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
Disciplined Gurkha | 200 wood 100 coin |
Upgrades Gurkhas and Mansabdar Gurkha to Disciplined (+20% hit points and attack, +1 Line of Sight and range) | |
Honored Gurkha | 600 wood 600 coin |
Upgrades Gurkhas and Mansabdar Gurkha to Honored (+30% hit points and attack, +1 Line of Sight and range); requires Disciplined Gurkha | |
Exalted Gurkha | 1,500 wood 1,500 coin |
Upgrades Gurkhas and Mansabdar Gurkha to Exalted (+50% hit points and attack, +1 Line of Sight and range); requires Honored Gurkha |
Further statistics[]
As (Mansabdar) Gurkhas are unique to the Indians, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
---|---|
Strong vs. | Heavy infantry, light cavalry, ranged shock infantry |
Weak vs. | Heavy cavalry, hand shock infantry, counter-skirmishers, artillery |
Improvements | |
Hit points | Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%) |
Attack | Smokeless Powder (+10%) Armatoloi (+5%) Yoga (+5%) Clenched Fist (+25% hand attack) Somali Jile Daggers (-35% hand attack Rate of Fire) Kalthoff Repeaters (+0.1 multiplier vs. light infantry) |
Resistance | Somali Oryx Hide Shields (+5% ranged resistance) |
Range | Schützenfest (+1) |
Line of Sight | Schützenfest (+1) |
Speed | Quechuan Mountaineering (+10%) Akan Fontomfrom (+5%) Apache Endurance (+5%) |
Train time | Akan Fontomfrom (-20%) Quechuan Diet (-15%) Immigrants (-10%) |
Cost | Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost) Golden Liberty (-5% coin cost) |
Other | Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost) |
Home City Cards[]
As (Mansabdar) Gurkhas are unique to the Indians, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:
- Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Gurkha
Some cards are highlighted with: | |
Green | TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team |
Blue | Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds) |
All[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Senegalese Riflemen | Ranged infantry get +10% attack; French and Hausa-only ranged infantry get +15% attack instead |
- "TEAM Senegalese Riflemen" is available to the French and Hausa.
Chinese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Yongle Infrastructure | Ships 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villagers, healing units, Envoys, and Disciples get +5% speed |
- "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" does not stack with the Inca "TEAM Inca Bridges" card.
Dutch[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints | Infantry get +10% hit points; Dutch-only infantry get +15% hit points instead |
Ethiopians[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Coffee Consumption | Ranged infantry get +5% speed |
French[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM House of Bonaparte | Skirmishers, Cassadores, Forest Prowlers, Wakina Rifles, Sharpshooters, Neftenyas, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army can be trained in the Commerce Age; Bersaglieri can be trained in the Fortress Age; Strelet, Jaeger, Longbowman, Salteador, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, Yumi Archer, Jungle Bowman, Leather Cannon, and Desert Archer train time -20% |
Haudenosaunee[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Scout Infantry | Ships 1 Native Scout; infantry get +8 Line of Sight |
Inca[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Inca Bridges | Ships 1 Chasqui; infantry, land villagers, healing units, and Envoys get +5% speed |
- "TEAM Inca Bridges" does not stack with the Chinese "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" card.
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
Dravidian Martial Arts | All units get +15% hand attack; Rajputs get +20% hand attack instead; +1 Hindu Villager | |
7 Gurkhas | Ships 7 Gurkhas; +1 Hindu Villager | |
12 Gurkhas | Ships 12 Gurkhas; +1 Hindu Villager | |
8 Gurkhas | Ships 8 Gurkhas; +1 Hindu Villager | |
14 Gurkhas | Ships 14 Gurkhas; +1 Hindu Villager | |
Royal Green Jackets | Ships 3 Gurkhas with each Consulate technology researched; Gurkhas and the Mansabdar Gurkha get +1.0 attack multiplier against heavy infantry | |
British East India Company | Sepoys, Gurkhas, and Sowars get +10% hit points and attack; +1 Hindu Villager | |
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics | All units get +5% hit points and attack | |
Fencing School | Infantry and shock infantry train time -40%; +1 Hindu Villager | |
Zamindars | Infantry train time -20%; ships 2 Sepoys instead of 1 Hindu Villager with every Home City shipment; +2 Sepoys | |
Foreign Trading Companies | Gives a trickle of 0.75 export/sec.; banner army cost -15% export; Indian units cost +2.5% (Hindu Villagers, Fishing Boats, and Sacred Cows cost +5% instead); +1 Hindu Villager |
Japanese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Sengoku | Unit upgrades cost -20% |
Maltese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Knights of the Round Table | Ships 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center owned by the player; all units get +2% hit points |
Mexicans[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Mariachi | For the next 30 seconds, military buildings work 400% faster and units get +10% speed |
Portuguese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints | Gunpowder infantry get +15% hit points |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Spanish Inquisition | Ships 1 Inquisitor; all units get +10 Line of Sight |
Dutch[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints | Infantry get +15% hit points | 10 |
French[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Ranged Infantry Attack | Gunpowder infantry and archers get +15% attack | 10 | |
TEAM Early Skirmishers | Skirmishers, Cassadores, Forest Prowlers, Wakina Rifles, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army can be trained in the Commerce Age; Longbowman, Strelet, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, and Yumi Archer train time -20% | 25 |
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
Dravidian Martial Arts | All units get +15% hand attack; +1 Villager | 40 | |
7 Gurkhas | Ships 7 Gurkhas; +1 Villager | 1 | |
12 Gurkhas | Ships 12 Gurkhas; +1 Villager | 1 | |
8 Gurkhas | Ships 8 Gurkhas; +1 Villager | 10 | |
14 Gurkhas | Ships 14 Gurkhas; +1 Villager | 25 | |
Royal Green Jackets | Ships 3 Gurkhas with each Consulate technology researched; Gurkhas and the Mansabdar Gurkha get +1.0 attack multiplier against heavy infantry | 10 | |
British East India Company | Sepoys, Gurkhas, and Sowars get +10% hit points and attack; +1 Villager | 25 | |
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics | All units get +5% hit points and attack | 25 | |
Fencing School | Infantry train time -40%; +1 Villager | 10 |
Iroquois[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Scout Infantry | Infantry get +8 Line of Sight | 10 |
Japanese[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades | Unit upgrades cost -20% | 1 |
Portuguese[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints | Gunpowder infantry get +15% hit points | 10 |
Russians[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
Dueling School | Infantry (except Skull Knights), Old Han Army, and Territorial Army train time -25%; Black Flag Army, Standard Army, Ming Army, and Imperial Army train time -12% | 25 |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Inquisition | All units get +10 Line of Sight | 10 |
Changelog[]
The Asian Dynasties[]
- Gurkhas and Mansabdar Gurkhas regenerate hit points.
- The Gurkha's hotkey name is incorrectly labeled as Urumi in the game options.
- Mansabdar Gurkhas cost 2 population, have 6 hand damage and a ×2.0 melee multiplier against heavy infantry.
- With patch 1.01, Gurkhas have a ×2.0 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and Eagle Runner Knights, and ×0.75 against cavalry and Coyote Runners.
Definitive Edition[]
- Gurkhas and Mansabdar Gurkhas cannot regenerate hit points.
- The Gurkha's hotkey name now is correctly labeled as Gurkha in the game options.
- Gurkhas have a ×2.0 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and ranged shock infantry, and ×0.75 against cavalry and hand shock infantry.
- With update 20322, Mansabdar Gurkhas cost 1 population.
The African Royals[]
- With update 43871, Gurkhas and Mansabdar Gurkhas are tagged as Rifle infantry.
Knights of the Mediterranean[]
- With update 13.9057, Gurkhas and Mansabdar Gurkhas are tagged as Light Infantry.
- With update 13.58326, Gurkhas have a ×2.5 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and ranged shock infantry, ×0.6 vs. cavalry and ×0.5 vs. shock infantry.
- With update 14.43676, Gurkhas have 8 hand damage, a ×0.6 vs. ranged multiplier against shock infantry, a ×2.5 melee multiplier against heavy infantry, and use the kukri short sword in hand attacks.
Trivia[]
- Although the Gurkha was cited in the UI changes of the update 23511 that it is now tagged as Rifle infantry, in reality it was only tagged as Rifle infantry in the game files (along with its Mansabdar version) with update 43871.
History[]
“ | The Gurkhas are a Nepalese ethnic group who originally claimed to be descendents of the northern India Rajputs, but who took their famous name from the small state of Gurkha in Nepal, which they conquered in the early sixteenth century. For 200 years, the Gurkhas expanded eastward, seeking to conquer all of Nepal. They succeeded, and by the mid-eighteenth century, the entire country was theirs and Hinduism was named the state religion. The Gurkhas attempted to invade Tibet but ultimately failed, and as war with the British broke out in India, they found their control waning. They did, however, discover a surprisingly fruitful partnership with the British occupational forces in India. Known for their short, curved sword called a kukri, the Gurkhas served in the armies of India and Great Britain, where more than 200,000 soldiers fought alongside the British in World War I, and in forty battalions in World War II. | ” |