Dromedary Jund

"While they knock down our villages, we are taking their cities."
	— Osama ibn Munqidh, 12th century Syrian chronicler

In game

Dromedary Jund — Vital statistics
	Ranged unique light cavalry unit which is slower but tougher, more resistant versus melee cavalry, and better armoured than Palace Gamekeepers. Strong versus melee infantry and melee cavalry Weak versus missile cavalry, missile infantry
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrade of
[2];	15s (225t)	120	9	17	2.3s (35t)	39
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 60; : 40	: 1; : 1	1		2	0–9	Can attack units while moving.

Overall strategy

Although being only lightly armoured and slower than the Palace Gamekeepers of other nations, a  Dromedary Jund will have several tricks up their sleeve. Firstly, unlike normal Palace Gamekeepers, they are available once you have access to Darul Islam, meaning that they come out one age earlier than their counterparts. Next, they also continue the tradition of having added hitpoints, meaning that if you use them for cross-border raiding, you will find that they are much more useful than normal javelin cavalry and horse archers — javelin cavalry have limited range, and horse archers have poor stamina if pursued. But this Saracen camel unit allows you to combine the range of horse archers with a sturdier albeit slower platform, which can be used to escort your fast infantry.

In fact, you will find your Dromedary Jund much faster than most "javelin" cavalry unit in existence, meaning that you can use them to easily eat up any fool who underestimates the true worth of your camelry. You could easily charge an enemy with Dromedaries in the midst of a fight during the Castle Age...and then suddenly upgrade them into faster and more terrifying units that run faster and strike even harder as well, too. All this comes together to form a single highly specialised cavalry archer unit which can be used to terrifying effect, since they can easily down Swordsmen in a fight. Equally, their defensive bonus versus enemy melee cavalry also means that they can survive most hits by light cavalry whilst making good their escape.

Note, however, that while strong against melee infantry and light cavalry, they will easily die when confronted by other cavalry archers, especially the Mongol khorchin cavalry — or missile infantry, with the exception of gunpowder units — despite its speed, a Dromedary Jund can be useful for knocking out arquebusiers. Equally, as with all cavalry archers they are terrible at destroying buildings, and thus these units can be used solely for skirmishing and nothing more.

Unit summary

• Winning The Technological Race — Dromedary Junds do not require the Imperial Era to be researched. Once Darul Islam is achieved, you can upgrade to them straight away.
• Insurance Policy — Although slower than most missile cavalry units, Dromedary Junds have a good deal of hitpoints and some armour to help them best other units, making them somewhat useful in raiding, as the extra hitpoints and armour can protect them when running away.
• No One Best Solution — For maximum results, team up your Dromedary Junds with your other units, as no one unit in the Saracen arsenal can really work on its own.

See also

• Ocak Cannon
• Mamluk Lancer
• Foot Asakir
• Bedouin Horse Retinue
• Arbalest Dromedaries
• Akıncılar
• African Skirmishers

History

Despite being slower and much less temperate in behaviour than horses, camels had their uses. The first was their durability — on the march, camels can store all the fat and moisture that they will ever need in the hump on their body. The second was that their scent often spooked horses, which was both a blessing and a curse for the military-minded. Arabs and Asians were not the only ones to recognise the tactical use of camels: a long list of empires, beginning with the Romans, often tried to create their own dromedary squads when venturing into the Middle East and Asia — with mixed results. While Napoleon found dromedary units useful in his Middle Eastern campaigns, attempts at creating dromedary units in America failed for the reason that they caused problems for more conventional cavalry, and camels imported into America for that purpose were released into the wild, ending experiments to create camel units for the US Army.