Haudenosaunee

## Introduction

The Haudenosaunee are one of the most aggressive civilizations in the game. They can leverage their fast age-up politician and affordable food-heavy early units to gain a foothold on the hill around 3-4 minutes into the game. Mantlets, particularly with home city upgrades, can become incredibly resistant to ranged damage, making them extremely difficult to destroy without melee units or multiple cannons. This can give the Haudenosaunee remarkable staying power on the hill, even late in the game. If they are unable to win the game with early pushes, they can naturally transition into a variety of infantry-based compositions, supported by siege units like mantlets and light cannons. With strong early play and time on the hill, they can challenge for the win every game.

## Strengths and Weaknesses

### Strengths

* Mantlets are among the best units in the game for standing ground and holding the hill.
* They can capture the hill extremely fast, and aggressively contest it for the first 8-10 minutes of the game.
* A primarily food and wood based economy allows them to save coin for upgrades and siege units.

### Weaknesses

* Their economy, even with investment, can't keep up with most other civilizations. This requires the player to be much more careful with their mass of units and more strategic about their unit compositions.
* If they are unable to capture and hold the hill early in the game, their path to victory becomes far more challenging.
* An aggressive Agra Fort from India can make it very difficult to hold the hill early without assistance from other players.

## Strategic Insight

The most important goal for any Haudenosaunee player is getting on the hill as quickly as possible and building a large enough force to deter other players from significantly contesting. With strong early play, they can age up by 3.5 to 4 minutes and with a very food and wood heavy economy, produce 25-30 Tomahawks and Aenna over the next several minutes. This mass of army will generally require diplomacy among their opponents to unseat until around 7-8 minutes into the game.

After their early rush, their options open up. Generally speaking, they should retreat and focus on building up their economy, while keeping an eye on the strategies and compositions of their opponents as they fight over the hill.

*"If the game reaches the Industrial Age, be sure to leverage the strength of mantlets by investing in 10-15 of them. With up to 65% range resist and several hundred HP, they will be nearly impervious to ranged infantry and force your opponents to invest in shock infantry or melee cavalry. This unit can single-handedly affect your opponents' unit compositions and give you initiative." -* [KOTH Clan - Wo1olo]

## Basic Strategies

### Rush

As highlighted in the above "Strategic Insight" section, this is the quintessential Haudenosaunee strategy. It leverages their early-game strength and sets them up to be competitive later in the game. As mentioned in the main Strategy Guide, early time on the hill is extremely valuable and the Haudenosaunee are well-equipped to enforce their will early on.

While not mentioned to this point, cavalry (Kanya Horsemen) can also be quite effective early on, especially if the Haudenosaunee expect to see skirmishers or other light ranged infantry.

Recommended cards vary based on player preference. Editors are free to include their recommendations here.

### Infantry/Siege

One of the most popular and intuitive unit compositions for the Haudenosaunee involves balanced infantry (Tomahawks/Aenna or Tomahawks/Forest Prowler) backed up by Mantlets and/or Light Cannons. Tomahawks are easy to mass produce and they fend off cavalry quite well, while the Aenna or Forest Prowlers serve as primary damage dealers.

This composition absolutely requires light cannons in order to take out artillery that would otherwise neutralize the Haudenosaunee army later in the game. It doesn't hurt to have a handful of Kanya Horsemen during the Fortress Age to eliminate falconets.