does anyone think the mongolian keshik unit is op?

[Rizzza]

I was able to cripple two of my neighbors that I went to war with at the same time, and who both had larger army's than me, using only about 8 keshiks 2 pikemen and two archers on king difficulty. I only lost 1 archer and the keshiks were able to attack then run away so they were almost invincible.

[Twelvefield]

Like many things in the game, the keshik dominates sometimes and loses in others. It's designed for the Mongolian campaign, so I agree that it does not fit into the open-play game all that well. But the keshik is doomed to stay as cavalry, it won't upgrade into the modern age. You can wear them down with knights or with some other specialty units like the Siamese elephant. Of course, the keshik need horses, so if you're horse-poor, you're not going to get enough keshiks do do much.

The big keshik strategy is to make a posse of them and level them up as quickly as possible, then make your push for domination in the Middle Age. That's a strategy that demands a lot of resources and a singular military push in the Middle Age. Fail at any point and the Mongolians will be doing their raiding and pillaging up in the Statesville Prison, along with Lana, Sally Decker, Martin, Gunderson, and Thames the Butler.

So keshiks don't do well with peace, they can get hounded by knights, and they absolutely get clobbered by giant rocks falling from the sky. If you can limit where the keshiks can run away to, you can control where they could attack. I'm not saying that's easy, but if you can survive a keshik rush, you can probably get revenge through better living later on. At least pillage the horsey tiles to limit new keshiks from being created.

[Rizzza]

I think the only op thing about the keshik is how far they can move after firing. They should be limited to moving only 1 or 2 tiles after firing.

[Aaron90495]

No, they're not OP. Yes, they're incredibly strong, but remember the Mongols have zero non-militaristic advantages. To compensate for that, the keshik is very, very good. I've taken out two capitals on an Immortal game with four keshiks and a pikeman.

[Matthew]

No more so than artillery, bombers, battleships, etc. There is a short window where they are very powerful, but I suspect lancers are the supposed counter, being that they can chase after keshiks and have bonus damage.

I agree with twelvefield in that unless that advantage is pressed during that time, they don't amount to much. Later tech units will be able to take hits from Keshisks without much damage, and soon after that, cavalry, lancers, 3-ranged artillery hit the field. Highly upgraded keshiks may be able to still hold their own at that point, but not without taking heavy damage in return.