How to beat
Delhi Sultanateas Malians
Matchup tips
When you are playing Malians, when your pit mines start getting shut down and you don't have those javelin numbers because you want to get as many cows as possible, your gold trickle is not enough to keep production going to outdo 35 archers. You cannot have enough javelins to handle that.
Malians often get to sit back and relax if you're not up against a civ that can do dark age aggression. Delhi can't do any dark age aggression.
When Delhi hits castle, they can send out many scholars to quickly pick up all the relics. So Malians need to have map presence to deny those relics, because the passive income adds up quickly.
If you want to raid with Sofas, be aware of where the Ghazi raiders are, because one Sofa caught out can get surrounded and killed. Losing Sofas piecemeal will leave you behind in military count.
As Malians, you have to survive until you have those cows necessary to really exceed the opponent's income by a significant margin.
Don't give Delhi breathing room to just capture all the sacred sites and get further ahead.
Javelins are definitely not the answer against War Elephants. Use Donso (spearmen) instead.
As Malians, you need to constantly produce military, otherwise Delhi will overwhelm you because they aren't investing in cows like you are.
Tower Elephants have additional ranged armor, making them very hard to kill with archer-heavy compositions.
Crossbows are the best answer to elephants, but you can't build those as Malians. The snowball factor comes in castle because you don't have the good counter to elephants when they're small in count. Melee answers suck due to surface area. So Malians have to be the more aggressive party against Delhi.
As Malians, you don't need to prioritize defending every Sacred Site because you have cows for food, so giving up some Sacred Site gold is acceptable.
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 far pit mine is a high-risk high-reward pick for Malians. Being so far out means it's way more exposed, and it's a prime target for an aggressive civilization like Delhi in the early feudal age.
Usually, it's an early stables drop and Ghazi Raiders start pumping out early to take map control and pressure the Malians.
In Imperial Age, Delhi with Compound of the Defender can have keeps that act as town centers, making raiding very difficult.
When you're Malians, you kind of have to go Donzos, right? You expect the Ghazi Raiders and then the archers kind of follow, and then you most likely will be going javelin throwers after that after you see the archers.
With Malians, warrior scouts are one of the best ways to counter pro scouts.
Ghazi Raiders are a specialized Horseman, so you probably don't want to go for the bonus Javelin Throwers and Freeborn against them; the best case would be the Mansa Musofadi.
Tower Elephants don't work against Javelin Throwers; War Elephants get countered by Donzos.
Poison Javelins can kite War Elephants indefinitely but take a very long time to kill.
Sofas get countered by War Elephants; the elephants two-shot them.
The cool thing about Pro Scouts against Deli: Deli can't really rush it. You end up getting Pro Scouts about two to three times faster bare minimum than the timing they're capable of. Trade-off being that Deli will have more military units.
There is a possibility for Javelin in some comps but against Ghazi it feels like a death sentence.
If Delhi only builds Ghazi Raiders, Malians can react with Freeborn Warriors, which contest well thanks to high HP and stats.
Building Sofa in Feudal Age to mirror Delhi's Ghazi Raiders scales well into Castle Age.
Delhi Sultanate Unique Units
Delhi Sultanate Landmarks
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