Kipchaks

[Meat Machine]

What are they good for?

...what are they SUPPOSED to be good for?

[jonoliveira12]

Good for high damage at low range, and micromanagement.

[Jackbrick]

Kipchaks cost less gold than regular Cavalry Archers. And one arrow does melee damage, so they are a great counter against Rams. Most anti-archer units (such as Skirmishers) can survive archer fire due to their pierce armor. But due to the high number of arrows fired, the Kipchak (especially Elite) still deals a considerable amount of damage.

Elite upgrade costs no gold.

Horse archers however are more tanky and more wildly available since they don't need a castle.

[mickeyjim2]

Originally posted by Jackbrick:

Kipchaks cost less gold than regular Cavalry Archers. And one arrow does melee damage, so they are a great counter against Rams. Most anti-archer units (such as Skirmishers) can survive archer fire due to their pierce armor. But due to the high number of arrows fired, the Kipchak (especially Elite) still deals a considerable amount of damage.

Elite upgrade costs no gold.

Horse archers however are more tanky and more wildly available since they don't need a castle.

To elaborate on this: regular cavalry archers have higher HP and a higher base attack, but cost more gold and have a small delay before they fire. Kipchaks fire instantly and they fire multiple arrows whose damage isn't shown on their tech tree description. Because each arrow does its own damage, they all do at least +1 damage to a unit even if a unit has high pierce armour. So a Kipchak actually does more damage to high pierce armour targets than archers who have a higher base attack. Kipchaks are also the cheapest cavalry archers in the game and are quite fast because of the Cuman's speed bonus, so they are arguably the best hit and run unit in the game.

Think of Kipchaks as a more aggressive version of the cavalry archer which is cheaper and more effective at taking down high pierce armour targets, and who still does decent damage against regular units as well. Bear in mind Cumans get a unique tech to make their regular cavalry archers train 50% faster so both units are useful.