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Malay

Tank Dive swarm density.

Spawn unit Starting age Kills to Castle Kills to Imp Razes to vill Cap Interval
Karambit Warrior (signature CBA choice for swarm) OR Elephant Archer Post-Imperial 35 400 1 120 6 s

⚡ Quick reference

  • Baseline: faster age-up, free infantry armor upgrades, cheap BE, efficient Fish Traps. UU Karambit Warrior (half pop, swarm). UT Forced Levy, Thalassocracy.
  • Requiem v294: starting age Castle; kills-to-Castle 35 (lowest); razes-to-vill 1. Castle spawns Karambits with interval 6 s (fastest), cap 120 (highest). BE cap 60. Need Imperial to build more BE.
  • CBA role: swarm density.
  • Opening: multi-angle surrounds; never funnel Karambits through an AoE lane.
  • Post-vill: Karambit flood + BE + ranged/siege.
  • Weak vs: Chakram, Urumi, Scorpion, Ballista, trample, any AoE — Karambits die to density counters.

📜 Deep playbook

🏛️ Standard DE profile

  • Civ bonuses:
  • Age advances +80% faster (huge in standard game; not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord effect in CBA post-Imperial start).
  • Fish Traps built +100% faster, unlimited food.
  • Battle Elephants -25% cost (Castle) / -30% (Imperial).
  • Docks provide +5 population.
  • Team bonus: Docks +100% line of sight.
  • Unique units: Karambit Warrior (Castle UU — cheap half-population infantry) and Elephant Archer (regional UU shared with Bengalis/Dravidians/Gurjaras).
  • Unique techs:
  • Castle Age: Thalassocracy — upgrades Docks to Harbors (tower with arrow fire).
  • Imperial Age: Forced Levy — Militia-line no longer costs gold.
  • Notable missing techs: no Plate Mail Armor, no Bracer, no Siege Onager, no Champion in some versions (check current DE — Malay do get Two-Handed Swordsman but no Champion historically; DE patched this — verify).
  • Walls: all three tiers.

🏰 CBA REQUIEM v294 profile

(v294 numbers: Fandom wiki, retrieved 2026-08-21)

  • Starting age: Post-Imperial.
  • Spawn unit: Karambit Warrior (signature CBA choice for swarm) OR Elephant Archer — v294 spawn: not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord, most likely Karambit for the swarm identity.
  • Spawn interval / unit cap: 6 s per Castle; cap 120 — Karambit typically has an unusually high cap given half-pop cost.
  • Kills to Castle / Imperial: 35 (Castle) / 400 (Imperial).
  • Razes to first villagers: 1.
  • Free starting tech: +4 melee attack; +3/+4 armor; Squires; Arson.
  • Silver-UT unlock: Forced Levy if Militia-line is relevant; not listed in the v294 wiki table — ask in the Requiem Discord otherwise.
  • Available buildings / disabled: Karambit swarm doesn't need much post-villager; Siege Onager NOT available.

CBA role & archetype

  • Primary role: swarm / anti-elephant. Karambit is cheap, fast, and overwhelms with numbers; bonus vs. cav-adjacent works vs. elephants.
  • Secondary role: raid — Karambit outruns most infantry.

🌅 Opening play

  • Minute 0–3: pick the enemy elephant civ's lane. Karambit swarms envelop.
  • Preferred fights: any elephant civ (Persians, Khmer, Malay-mirror, Bengalis).
  • Fights to refuse: Mangonel/Onager splash civs, cavalry that outruns Karambit.
  • Micro: envelope — Karambits do the most damage attacking from multiple sides. Never single-file.

⚔️ Kill accumulation strategy

  • Safest farms: Persians (War Elephant), Khmer (Ballista Elephant), Malay mirror, Bengalis, Dravidians — anywhere the enemy stacks meat.
  • Avoid: Aztecs (Jaguar anti-infantry), Franks (Throwing Axemen adjacent — wait, Franks don't have TA; but Frankish Paladin trample Karambit), Mongols (Mangonel + Cav Archer).
  • Anti-cage: Karambit is fast; break contact and re-envelope from a new angle.

🏚️ Raze allocation

  • Priority: low. Karambit is dirt cheap; the economy isn't the bottleneck.
  • Feed razes to: Persians, Turks, Mongols, Koreans.

👷 Post-villager composition

  • Wall order: standard back+front. Karambit doesn't need gate flow — they leak through.
  • Standard build: 2 Barracks (Two-Handed Swordsman fallback), 1 Siege Workshop (Ram — no Siege Onager). UU production and Castle research run from your pre-placed Castles.
  • Imperial composition: Elite Karambit + Two-Handed Swordsman + Halb + Ram.
  • Silver-UT priority: Forced Levy if Militia-line is added to the whitelist.

⚖️ Strong against / Weak against

  • Strong vs.: all elephant civs, Cataphract (bonus vs. cav), Paladin-heavy civs to a degree.
  • Weak vs.: Mangonel/Onager splash civs (Koreans, Ethiopians, Celts, Mongols), Aztec Jaguar, dedicated archer stacks with pierce armor.

🤝 Team synergies

  • Best pairs: Mongols (Mangonel cover for Karambit swarm), Koreans (Siege Onager cover), Franks (Paladin front-line).
  • Conflicts: another swarm/infantry civ (Goths) creates a Mangonel-food team.

🎮 Key micro rules

  1. Envelop — attack elephants from 3+ sides.
  2. Never single-file into Mangonels.
  3. Break contact, re-angle.
  4. Prioritize enemy elephants above all other targets.
  5. Keep Elite Karambit upgrade prioritized.

⚠️ Common mistakes

  • Treating Karambit like Champions and trading straight up (they die to splash).
  • Ignoring the anti-elephant role and diving cavalry instead.

🔒 Version-locked (Requiem v294)

  • Karambit vs. Elephant Archer as spawn is v294 specific — assume Karambit unless the table says otherwise.
  • Pop-count of Karambit (half-pop) may or may not be preserved in CBA depending on config.