The Mongols are an offensive civilization that focuses on its ranged units and emphasizes guerilla tactics. They have many bonuses that allow them to move fast and hit very hard when used effectively.
Strengths
Mangudai cavalry archers can make a short work on enemy siege weapons.
The Mongols are a strong early game civilization due to their hunting bonus, and their team bonus makes Dark Age scouting far more effective for everyone on their team.
Their Cavalry Archers have a faster attack speed, making them excel at raiding enemy towns or picking off enemy units from a distance. The Mongols have access to all archer upgrades and technologies apart from Ring Archer Armor, giving their ranged units an advantage over many other civilizations. Their light cavalry have extra hitpoints and line of sight, making them very effective as scouts and raiders early in the game, and compensating somewhat for their lack of Plate Barding Armor later. Their unique unit, the Mangudai, is a cavalry archer with a bonus against siege weapons. Their speed and fast fire rate make them very versatile compared to other unique units. Mangudai are difficult to hit due to their speed, so can quickly eliminate dangerous siege weapons that can pose a threat to buildings or fragile units. They have access to all siege weapons except for the Bombard Cannon, giving them a strong offensive edge. Their unique technology improves the speed of their siege weapons greatly, allowing them to participate in raids effectively. A Battering Ram filled with infantry will be able to move at the same speed as cavalry, allowing them to demolish buildings and flee before the opponent can muster a counter-attack. They also have access to all cavalry units and technologies except for the Paladin.
Weaknesses
One of the main weakness of the Mongols is their mediocre defense. They don't have much defensive abilities to hold off an attack since they cannot upgrade their towers beyond the Guard Tower upgrade and cannot build Bombard Towers to take control of captured territory effectively. Thus, Mongol players must constantly attack the enemy to make sure they are unable to build up a strong enough force to attack. If forced on the defense Mangudai are an effective way of destroying enemy siege weapons, allowing time to hide behind a wall and build up a counter-attack. Also the Mongols have no gunpowder units except Cannon Galleons, and being unable to research Redemption would mean that they cannot even convert enemy Bombard Cannons for themselves. Their lack of Ring Archer Armor and Plate Barding Armor causes their Hussars and Mangudai to be more vulnerable than they might otherwise be; this combined with their lack of Paladins means that their late game heavy cavalry is very much below par. Despite having access to all the infantry upgrades at the Blacksmith, the Mongols have no Halberdiers, which deprives them of a useful late game counter to cavalry and means their infantry isn't as strong as it could be, although their ability to create Camels offset this weakness.
Strategy
One of the most common tactics used by Mongol players in early game is the Scout cavalry Feudal rush. Mongols have quite good scout cavalry since those units will have more hit points than normal when they are upgraded to light cavalry ( further retaining its value) and a better line of sight. Early economy for the Mongols are also quite good since they can take faster their huntable animals, so luring the boars early and precisely is very important for a Mongol Scout Flush. When flushing a Mongol player must age up with 22 population and then create one or two stables ( one will work if the wood is tight), this flush will be mostly a standard scout rush with the only difference that the player will have more line of sight for those units allowing to prevent ranged attacks from archers as they can spot them at a longer distance. Mongols are also able to perform a Fast castle just in order to have access to their cavalry archers. The extra line of sight of their scout cavalry also allows for the Mongols and their allies to find their herdables, and explore, faster.
Mongols are at their strongest moment in the Castle age. If a Mongol player choose to perform a fast castle he or she must try to raid enemy towns with light cavalry and cavalry archers as soon as possible and perform a light cavalry or a cavalry archer castle age rush, for performing this tactics the player must upgrade their scout cavalry to light cavalry as soon as possible, create some archery ranges for their cavalry archers and research all the required blacksmith and university tecnologies for improve those units, mixing the light cavalry with the cavalry archers seems also to work greatly. Once the player builds up a castle he or she should start to switch to the mangudai as their preferred cavalry archer. Mangudais are a bit more expensive than normal cavalry archers, but also perform a lot better than cavalry archers as they have more hitpoints, attack, firing rate, movement speed and an attack bonus against siege units., Mangudais become in handy very well when the opponent is trying to attack with siege weapons. Mongols also have access to all siege weapons except bombard cannons and can fully upgrade their champions, when Mongols reach the imperial age they must start to combine their cavalry archers, mangudais and hussars with siege weapons and some infantry, the Drill technology allows to their siege to move a lot faster than normal, so their siege weapons have a chance to retreat or attack sooner than espected.
Mongols navy only lacks Dry Dock so in water maps they are well prepared, but otherwise there is no need to take the waters as they doesn´t have any buffs, and is preferibly that they must stay dry.
Strategy changes in The Forgotten
Mongols' new unique tech Nomads is very helpful when an opponent destroys a Mongol town, as it allows their houses to support population even if they are destroyed, reducing wood spent to replenish losses. On closed maps like Black Forest houses can sometimes work as a makeshift defense, as nothing is lost if they get destroyed.
Also, the Mangudai is somewhat less powerful than in the previous versions, as their attack bonus against siege now only applies to Rams, though they still keep a minimal bonus of 1 against all siege. Non-elite Mangudai are now way better than ordinary Cavalry Archers, as their delay time (the time between the start of the shooting animation and the actual shoot of the arrow) has been reduced from 10 to 5, making them stronger at hit-and-run tactics. The loss of Elite Cannon Galleons also hurts their navy a bit.
Strategy changes in The African Kingdoms
The introduction of the Siege Tower in the game improves significantly the siege capabilities of all civilizations but in the particular case of the Mongols this unit also benefits from the Drill technology making this unit more effective in its use as it's purpose is to transport foot soldiers to the other side of an enemy wall. Additionally, the Mangudai's attack bonus is reverted to its pre-The Forgotten version, restoring their usefulness against siege units.
Alliances
The Mongol scout cavalry line of sight bonus helps everyone except for the American civilizations in the early game. Players can scout a much larger area of the map in the same time and may thus get an edge over the other team in terms of resource locations, map layout and position ofenemy bases. The bonus can also help with a scout cavalry rush, since it help detect defending troops faster, but it is almost useless in the later game. This team bonuse makes a good synergy with the Portuguese team Bonus, since the Portuguese provide Cartography from the beginning of the game for the entire team, allowing the team to explore the map faster.
Mongols benefit from the Huns' faster stables bonus, which are helpful for massing light cavalry. The Huns also complement the Mongol army with their heavy cavalry and cheaper horse archers. The Celts' and Koreans' team bonuses make Mongol siege units even more effective, while the Khmer also grants range boost to Drill-enhanced Mongol Scorpions. The Berbers' Genitour is a great asset for the Mongol army, because it can keep up with the fast Mongol units (unlike the slower Skirmisher) and it fires 20% faster. The Britons team bonus is also helpful as it aids in spamming faster the Cavalry Archers
Template:Strategies (Age of Empires II)