Strelet

Strelets are the russian meat-shield and anti-infantry unit.

the costs in brackets are for referring to the blockhouse's ability to train strelets in groups of 10. you can get the original cost if you train from another strelet-producing building such as the Fort or the Galleon

AAAAAAH MOTHERLAAAANNND (background info)
Streletsy (as strelets is the singular noun in russian) refers to an aelite group of soldiers in employ of the Tsar. Most were professional soldiers (as conscription duties tended to last a while) and there existed a exclusive group of strelets, that acted as personal retinue/bodyguards and messengers for the Tsar. Originally armed with bows (which is where they derived their name from), strelets were later armed with long, heavy musket and used their traditional great axe as a makeshift stand for the musket.

Tactics
The strelets are fantastically cheap, and although they are also the weakest units in the game by hitpoints and damage, they are classified as light infantry and thus get the skirmisher's 2x infantry bonus (and 3x with counter-infantry rifling - arsenal) to make them useful against something. Their muskets also have a small range bonus over the standard musket, allowing more strelets to fire into the musket lines from behind the safety of those at the front. Many people make the mistake of attacking strelets with infantry, not considering the ranged damage resistance of the strelets, the rifling bonuses and other upgrades (there are 2 cards alone that will give strelets an extra 25% hp and damage bonus) and realising too late that the russian units are returning fire greater than what they can lever to the strelets, and are losing much more expensive units to very cheap ones. Thus, the best counter to strelets is the same as skirmishers - guys with horses and swords. Cuirassiers are very effective at this, with splash damage allowing them to cut through large groups of your meat shields to get to the Juicy Units in the middle, or at the back.