How to beat
Maliansas Delhi Sultanate
Matchup tips
If you're contained to your base in early Castle Age against Malians with their cow economy, there's no hope later on.
You have to put pressure on the Malians and lead the match up through map control with the sacred sites, using Ghazi raiders to exceed the Sofa mass initially. It can get very tricky later on.
When facing Donso, pivot to archers quickly to deal with them.
Against Malians, the play should be Archers and Ghazi Raiders. Javelins counter that, but unless you see a mining camp, they won't have enough gold to scale javelins.
Sofas aren't that tanky in feudal; imported armors is a castle tech. Archers will still be able to do half their damage into those heavy cav.
Key for Delhi is to find the right timing into infantry and then try to lock the map around the sacred sites, because if Malians are doing food builds without pro scouts, Delhi will eventually get all the deer for free.
When facing Donso, you need to look at that cooldown to ensure you can snipe out what tries to run away. It's only 15 seconds, and if they're close enough that you get a charge off, you'll stay in range.
Around 7 minutes, Delhi can move out with eight Ghazi Raiders to capture sacred sites while Malians lack enough Donso to contest.
Delhi gets a quick return from sacred sites, while Malians' cattle is a long-term investment. Delhi doesn't need to hold sites long, but if they do, it crashes Malians.
The real big thing is being able to start denying those pit mines, burning down the houses, burning down that gold income that Malians need so crucially.
Usually, it's an early stables drop and Ghazi Raiders start pumping out early to take map control and pressure the Malians.
Recently in the Malian meta, players are opting in Feudal Age to stray away from the classic Donso-Javelin army composition and more into the Archer-Sofa composition.
In Castle Age, archers scale much better against javelin throws. Archers deal up to 9 damage, while javelin throws have at most 6 ranged armor.
If you go for something like Ghazi Raiders, you can just hit the one pit mine at the front. If your opponent goes for the other pit mine in the back, you can just run around.
Ghazi raiders perform well against warrior scouts in the Feudal Age.
Spearmen are an excellent front-line choice against Malians: cheaper than Ghazi Raiders, don't take bonus damage from Javelin Throwers, and act as a very good front line.
You don't want to let the game drag out against Malians because of their passive income.
It's very tough for Horsemen to deny deer against Warrior Scouts but Ghazi Raiders can do that.
Against mass Javelin Throwers, Delhi should consider going to Castle age rather than taking engagements with scholars.
Tower Elephants don't work against Javelin Throwers; War Elephants get countered by Donzos.
Sofas get countered by War Elephants; the elephants two-shot them.
Poison Javelins can kite War Elephants indefinitely but take a very long time to kill.
Against Malians, Tower of Victory is strong because it enables a composition of Archers and Spears, whereas Dome of the Faith leads to pure Ghazi which get countered.
When Delhi goes Castle Age with heavily armored units, Javelin Throwers with poison can take them down quickly.
Malians Unique Units
Malians Landmarks
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