The Delhi Sultanate are a 3 Stars difficulty civilization with the following traits: Military, Research, and Defense. This is the civilization that has the iconic War Elephants on their side.
Although the Dheli Sultanate are not as complicated to learn as it is to learn how to play as the Mongols, they have unique aspects that make them hard to master. For instance, they have specific ways to maximize efficiency when gathering food and an infantry that can help with the construction of specific defensive structures.
The most noticeable characteristic of the Delhi Sultanate is the way they handle technology and their dependency on the scholar unit to research certain technologies.
Although this civilization has the resources and means to get ahead of others when it comes to technology, it’s also to lose track of what you have to do.
The Delhi Sultanate’s weaknesses are quite noticeable — such as slower research — but you can overcome that with excellent micromanagement of the civilization’s progress. That is why they are not easy to play.
If you’re interested in playing as the Delhi Sultanate, either because you like going for technology early or because you want to run over your adversaries with war Elephants, this is the guide for you.
Unique Aspects of the Delhi Sultanate
Like any other civilization, the Delhi Sultanate have unique characteristics that make them different from the others.
Scholarly Culture
The Delhi Sultanate do not have to spend any resource to research technology. In fact, all technology that you develop is entirely free. However, they do take longer than usual to have a technology researched when you play as this civilization.
So note that although researching technology might not cost you any resources, it can slow down your overall production significantly.
Frontier Fortifications
The Delhi infantry can help protect your buildings and villagers by constructing Palisades as if they were Villagers. That is advantageous because you don’t have to pull your Villagers out of resource gathering to build up some wooden walls that will help you keep your units safe.
In addition to that, Keeps gain access to a free weapon emplacement once constructed.
Garden Bounty
You can make Berry Bushes better by building Mills near them. Once you do that, Berry Bushes will become Orchards, having a much higher amount of food.
Going for the berries is not so bad when you’re playing as the Delhi Sultanate.
Influence
The Delhi Sultanate have a structure called Mosque where you can garrison your Scholars. All buildings within its area of influence gain a bonus that makes their research speed faster.
Please note that the level of influence and the effectiveness of certain bonuses will depend on the number of Scholars garrisoned inside the Mosque.
Unique Units
Although the Delhi Sultanate only have two unique units, they are both memorable. Especially their unique military unit, which is remarkable in many ways.
- Scholar: When garrisoned inside of a Mosque, scholars speed up technology research time.
- War Elephant: High health and damage unit with a strong siege attack.
Civilization Bonuses
We know that the Delhi Sultanate civilization has two unique units and an infantry that builds walls, but besides that and their Scholars in a Mosque, what do they have that is different from other civilizations?
Here’s a summary of all the bonuses and penalties that the Delhi Sultanate have:
- You gather Food from Berry Bushes 25% faster but cannot gather from Boar.
- The unique unit, Scholar, is available in the Dark Age — the first age.
- All technology is free but completes at a much slower rate.
- Scholars can accelerate the research speed of technology.
- Infantry units are able to construct some defensive structures.
- Fishing Ships are equipped with Archers, being able to defend themselves.
Delhi Sultanate Landmarks
Choosing a Landmark when playing as the Delhi is a very important moment in a match. You must sometimes choose between overcoming weaknesses of the civilization or going for a different advantage.
Also, going for technology instead of Stone Walls, for instance, might dramatically change how your game will be played.
Feudal Age
- Tower of Victory: You gain a bonus of 15% to attack speed to all melee and ranged units that move close to this Landmark.
- Dome of the Faith: This structure produces Scholars, but it costs half to do so from here.
Castle Age
- Compound of the Defence: Your infantry can do much more than build wood walls with this Landmark. They gain access to structures of stone. In addition, the cost of stone buildings becomes 25% cheaper.
- House of Learning: This is a structure that comes with several unique technologies to be researched that are only available once you build it.
Imperial Age
- Hisar Academy: This one works interestingly. The more technologies you have researched, the more food it generates. Helping you depend less on food gathering and rewarding you for doing what the Delhi Sultanate should always be doing, researching technology.
- Palace of the Sultan: This structure Automatically produces tower war elephants.
Final Thoughts
You might not have a powerful, early aggression build such as the Roman Man-at-Arms rush, but this civilization can evolve dangerously fast if left alone, reaching a powerful mid-game much earlier than others due to their advancing technology.
The Delhi Sultanate civilization, in many ways, works just like traditional civilizations. Yet, they have this different way of researching technology that doesn’t cost anything. Unfortunately, it can slow down your production of units significantly if you don’t know how to deal with it.
This weakness is balanced by the addition of their Scholar unique unit that can help speed up the process, especially if you have many in a Mosque. Make sure you’re always researching technology when you are not using a building to produce a unit. A good way to do it without having to worry about the production of new units is to construct a Blacksmith as soon as you can.
Another interesting thing about Mosques and Scholars is the fact that if you have two Mosques near one another, the bonuses they provide to the buildings actually stack.
Note that the Mosque can be built since the first age, but make sure that the Mosque Influence area will be making contact with as many buildings as possible so you can make sure they will benefit from the bonus that the Garrisoned Scholars provide.
