User:Wildoneshelper/Almanac

This is a complete guide and almanac of every trainable units in Age of Empires 3. The aim of this page is to provide a wide range of comparable data for analysis to find out the best combination of each civilization to defeat different civilizations.

Abbreviations
Unit type: Table description:
 * LI: Light infantry
 * HI: Heavy infantry
 * LC: Light cavalry
 * C: Cavalry
 * A: Artillery
 * V: Villagers
 * ERK: Eagle Runner Knight
 * CR: Coyote Runner
 * MD: Melee damage
 * RD: Ranged damage
 * MDPM: Melee damage per minute
 * RDPM: Ranged damage per minute

Thoughts
Infantry is usually used to kill cavalry or infantry. From the table, the best common unit to kill cavalry is halberdiers, with musketeers coming second. Pikemen do offer a cheap alternative to kill cavalry but they are only useful in early game as upgrades of musketeers and halberdiers will quickly overpower pikemen. Pikemen and musketeers have similar stats. Therefore, it is the best to train musketeers to deal with cavalry using melee attacks when both units could be chosen. Halberdiers should only be trained when the economy is capable of training an army of halberdiers, otherwise a single halberdier could be a great burden to the economy, with economic cost almost 3 times as much as pikemen.

The best type of common soldier to kill heavy infantry is skirmishers. Surprisingly, musketeers do more damage brawling than ranged. If crossbowmen and musketeers coexist in the game, musketeers should be prioritized in training and used to melee heavy infantry. Like halberdiers, they should only be trained when the economy is capable of training an army of skirmishers, otherwise a single skirmisher could pose a hefty economic burden, with economic cost about 2.5 times as crossbowmen. Skirmishers can only do damage only if they do not melee against heavy infantry.

The best type of common soldier to kill light infantry is halberdiers, with musketeers coming second. Pikemen provide a cheap alternative but only useful in early game. Basically, the same group of soldiers used to kill cavalry can be used to kill light infantry as well, but it has to be made sure that they do not get hit by ranged attacks. Same advice would apply to the advice given to kill cavalry.

Grenadiers do not have good stats and should be sparingly used. They occupy two population slots. It is not economical to train grenadiers given two crossbowmen could do double the damage of grenadiers without upgrades.