Crossbowman (Age of Empires III)

The Crossbowman is an archaic ranged unit available to most European civilizations in Age of Empires III.

Overview
Crossbowmen are light infantry units that use crossbows in battle. They are counter infantry units that are useful for attacking heavy infantry such as Musketeers, but are easily defeated by melee cavalry and Artillery. They are similar in many ways to Skirmishers. Although the Crossbowmen might be out-ranged by their Skirmisher counterparts, they are cheaper and are trainable earlier in the game. The exceptions to this rule reside in the Dutch, who can train Skirmishers in the Colonial Age and the French through the use of TEAM Early Skirmishers (allowing them and allies to train skirmishers in the Colonial Age).

The Portuguese can ship Guard-esque Crossbowmen (Veteran Crossbowmen with +30% hit points and attack) from their Church with the Treaty of Tordesillas card.

The British have Longbowmen instead of Crossbowmen.

The Dutch, the Ottomans and the Russians do not have any kind of archaic ranged units.

Home City cards
As the Crossbowman is exclusive to certain European civilizations, only other civilizations' TEAM cards that affects them are listed here. {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%;" ! sab="1148" | Click for a list of related Home City cards
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150" |

Spanish

 * }

History
"Handheld crossbows began to appear in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Crossbowmen were attractive to military leaders because they took much less time to train than archers using bows. Firearms eclipsed Crossbows by the end of the sixteenth century. Europeans, chiefly the Spanish, included crossbows amongst the muskets and cannon they brought to the New World. Cortes arrived with more than two dozen crossbows and less than ten muskets. Columbus' crew had crossbows when they landed in the West Indies. When the original stockpile of munitions ran out it was difficult or impossible to make or trade for more. Explorers had to be very careful with their limited supply."

Trivia

 * Although the Dutch do not have the Crossbowman, there are unused voice files for Dutch Crossbowmen in the game files.
 * Portuguese Guard Crossbowmen's name actually means "Crossbowman" in Portuguese, somewhat making the name redundant.