Ordu

“Where the khan pitches his tent, there is the capital.”

Unique building of Mongolia — replaces the Barracks.

The Ordu is the great camp of the horde: a mobile palace of gers, paddocks, and remount herds that turns any city into a cavalry mustering ground. Where an Ordu stands, there are always horses — bred, broken, and ready to ride.

Stats

Effects

• New units start with +1 XP (as a Barracks).
• The city counts as having Horses for unit production. The supply is local to the city — it does not spread along roads to other cities.

The Ordu counts as a Barracks for all purposes; Mongolia cannot build an ordinary Barracks.

Strategy

Mongolia’s whole identity — +25% mounted attack, the Horse Archer — used to depend on the map dealing you a Horses tile. The Ordu removes the gamble: any city that builds one can produce Horsemen and Horse Archers regardless of terrain. On a map with no horses in reach, beeline Bronze Working and raise an Ordu in your best production city; the horde rides anyway. Remember the supply is local — each city that should build cavalry wants its own Ordu, which suits the +1 XP fine.

Historical Background

Ordu (or orda) is the Mongolic word for the khan’s great camp — the mobile court from which the empire was actually governed, and the root of the English word “horde”. A Mongol army travelled with three to five remounts per rider, so the ordu was as much a horse-breeding operation as a headquarters: a moving city of herds that let Genghis Khan’s armies cover distances no settled power believed possible.