The Mamluk is a unique heavy cavalry unit of the Arabian civilization in Civilization VI. It replaces the Knight.
In the Gathering Storm expansion, the Mamluk's 
Production cost is increased from 180 to 220, its 
Gold purchasing cost is increased from 720 to 880, its Gold maintenance cost is increased from 3 to 4, and it requires 10 
Iron to train.
- Common abilities:
- Ignores enemy zone of control.
- Special abilities:
- Heals at the end of every turn, even if it moves or attacks.
Strategy[]
The power of the Mamluk lies in the fact that it can heal at the end of every turn, and how easily this ability can be compounded to become totally broken. Normally, a unit can only heal at the end of the turn if that unit has all its 
Movement left, but that does not apply to the Mamluk, as it can heal at the end of every turn. However, how much they heal still depends on the territory they end their turn on: 20 HP inside City Centers, 15 HP on friendly territory, 10 HP on neutral territory and 5 HP on hostile territory. At a glance, this bonus does not seem too useful in conquest, since healing 5 HP at the end of a turn sounds trivial, and if you have to run away to heal then it defeats the purpose of having a unit that can heal after moving and attacking. What is so powerful about this is what you can add on top of this bonus to make your Mamluk borderline unkillable.
First, it is important to note that this ability can be combined with other healing bonuses, most notably 
Great Scientist Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi and a Chaplain-promoted Apostle. Both of these two function similarly to an early Medic, where all adjacent units will heal 20 HP more if ending their turn next to them. And since Mamluk can heal at the end of every turn even after moving to attacking, the trivial 5 HP heal inside enemy territory now suddenly becomes 45 HP, almost equal to a Farm pillage every turn. It is also worth noting that 
Great People and religious units can stack on top of each other and on top of a military unit, which facilitates this healing even more. However, since the radii of these abilities are both 1, it can be hard sometimes to allow all Mamluk to simultaneously benefit off both of them, especially in a siege, when enemy 
Districts exert zone of control against both Great People and religious units. The good thing is cavalry units ignore zone of control, so make sure you don't put Al-Zahrawi and the Apostle in a formation and switch positions of your Mamluk so that the wounded ones get the most healing benefits. To get this to the next level, try God of Healing pantheon. This is a largely useless pantheon and almost nobody ever picks it, but go for it if you want something new. Despite the tooltip, this pantheon grants an extra 30 HP when healing next to any Holy Site, not necessarily your own. That means when the Mamluk is fighting another religious civilization, it can heal 75 HP maximum if all of those conditions line up. In addition, any Mamluk that enters the Fountain of Youth also receives a special 
Promotion that allows them to heal 10 HP more every turn. Furthermore, Moksha's Laying On Of Hands can also combine incredibly well with this unit. This title allows all units on the city's territory to heal completely within a turn, so all you need to do is to establish Moksha inside the city nearest to the battlefield, preferably in a city you just captured. Moksha will keep its Loyalty high, just like every other 
Governors, but every Mamluk who ends its turn there will be fully heal, without even wasting a turn of fortifying. With this much healing, an army of Mamluks can actually survive quite well when sieging cities without siege units, since they can just heal up after slamming themselves into Walls.
Knights in general, and Mamluks especially, were an indomitable force of the medieval battlefield in Civilization VI at launch. A large series of direct and indirect nerfs have changed that:
- the tech requirements of Stirrups have changed making it harder to beeline;
- Knights are also more expensive;
- cavalry units used to be able to benefit from siege support;
- anti-cavalry units have been improved, notably including the creation of the Pike and Shot; and
- unique units used to require no strategic resources at all, now they merely receive a discount (usually 50%) in Gathering Storm.
Mamluks in general are still decent, as long as you get your hand on Al-Zahrawi and at least a Chaplain Apostle. After Feudalism (to trigger the 
Eureka of Stirrups), head straight for Divine Right to unlock Monarchy and Chivalry, and start taking advantage of the short window of relevance of Mamluks, before the construction of Medieval and Renaissance Walls everywhere.
Civilopedia entry[]
Although the term mamluk simply means “property” or “owned slave” in Arabic, most think of the military caste in medieval Islam as the only mamalik (the plural form) in history. They are certainly the most famous. Although there is disagreement among scholars, most agree that the mamluk slave-warriors arose during the reign of the Abbasid caliphs of Bagdad sometime around the 9th Century AD. These warriors were primarily of Kipchak, Circassian, Georgian, and Balkan tribes, captured or sold into slavery, and proved devoted converts to Islam, superb horsemen, and vicious adversaries. Over time the mamluks became a political power – as in Cairo where they established a sultanate – in many Muslim kingdoms, where they sometimes served as kingmakers (well, sultan-makers). So successful and influential was the mamluk caste that it survived 1000 years until wiped out by the Ottoman general Muhammad Ali Pasha in 1811.
Gallery[]
.png "Historic Moment Mamluk (Civ6).png (533 KB)")
Related achievements[]
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Arabian Knights
Conquer a city with a Mamluk
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See also[]
- Mamluk in other games
