Minor Natives Guide

Back to list of minor natives

Basic overview

The Comanche produce Horse Archers, and you can train 10 of these for each Comanche trade post you hold. The Comanche also have access to a lot of good technologies; two of which improve cavalry-type units and the other which reduces the coin cost of all technologies. The Comanche appear on three standard maps; Great Plains, Ozarks and Texas.

The unit – Comanche Horse Archer

The Comanche Horse Archer is a ranged cavalry unit and therefore counters hand cavalry units. However, these units do have a rather awful reputation for being poor; let’s see why.

Comanche Horse Archer

Cost: 70 Food, 80 Wood (243 Villager seconds)

HP: 200

Speed: 7.3

Resistance: Hand 10%

Ranged attack: 13, ROF 1.5, Range 12 (Bonuses: Villager 0.5x, Heavy cavalry 2.25x, Artillery 2x, Coyote man 1.75x)

Hand attack: 7, ROF 1.5 (Bonuses: Heavy cavalry 4.5x, Artillery 2x, Coyote man 3.5x)

Siege attack: 15, ROF 3

Train time: 30

Dragoon

Cost: 90 Food, 90 coin (257 Villager seconds)

HP: 200

Speed: 7.3

Resistance: Ranged 30%

Ranged attack: 22, ROF 3, Range 12 (Bonuses: Villager 0.5x, Heavy cavalry 3x, Coyote man 2.75x, Artillery 2x)

Hand attack: 11, ROF 1.5 (Bonuses: Heavy cavalry 3x, Coyote man 2.75x, Artillery 2x)

Siege attack: 9, ROF 3

Train time: 38

Cavalry Archer

Cost: 100 Food, 60 coin (219 Villager seconds)

HP: 265

Speed: 6.8

Resistance: Hand 30%

Ranged attack: 13, ROF 1.5, Range 12 (Bonuses: Villager 0.5x, Heavy cavalry 3x, Coyote man 1.75x, Artillery 2x)

Hand attack: 6.5, ROF 1.5 (Bonuses: Heavy cavalry 4.5x, Coyote man 3.5x, Artillery 2x)

Siege attack: 8, ROF 3

Train time: 36

Analysis

As you can see above, the Comanche Horse Archer has unfortunately earned its reputation. Compared to the Cavalry Archer, the Comanche Horse Archer is more expensive, has less HP and a lower resistance, deals the same amount of ranged damage, and has a lower multiplier against heavy cavalry. The only benefit the Comanche unit gets is a slightly higher siege - but 15 is not much at all considering its cost. It is also faster than the Cavalry Archer, but those things certainly do not save the unit from being exceedingly poor at its job.

The Dragoon is better at anti-cavalry due to its ability to hit and run. The Cavalry Archer at least makes up for this shortcoming by its higher HP and high melee resistance, but there is no such saving grace for the Comanche Horse Archer. Only use this unit if you have invested cards into Cheyenne on Great Plains, or some other natives. Otherwise if you come across them on a non standard map, it is seriously not worth it.

Technology

Comanche Trade Language

Cost: 100 food, 100 coin

Effect: All technologies cost -10% coin

Comments: This technology can pay for itself fairly fast. Considering you save 100 coin off going to age 3 alone it seems to pay off very quickly, and it is one of those technologies that gets better as the game goes on and things become more expensive. The main setback with this technology is that it does take a rather long time to research, so take that into account when you consider researching it.

Comanche Horse Breeding

Cost: 150 food, 150 coin

Effect: Cavalry get 10%+ HP

Comments: Considering it costs you roughly 700 resources to get a 15% bonus to cavalry HP - and only to civilizations who actually get that card - this technology seems a very good deal, though you do need to build the trade post to actually get access to it.

Comanche Mustangs

Cost: 200 wood, 200 coin

Effect: Cavalry get 10%+ speed

Comments: This one can be more useful depending on your civilization; as faster cavalry is obviously a welcome boost, but it is particularly good when combined with the Cheyenne Fury technology on Great Plains. With this technology Cheyenne can catch and counter enemy cavalry, and be even more devastating against ranged cavalry.

Summary

The Comanche have terrible units. There is no flowering that up, but that’s not to say you should never pursue them, even on Texas where there aren’t any other natives to use. Their technology can help a great deal if you already have solid cavalry units and want to make them even stronger. Otherwise, unless it gets to the late game where the 10% off coin costs will pay off very fast, it would be better to leave them alone.