Pikeman (Age of Empires III)

"Archaic heavy infantry. Good against cavalry and buildings."

- In-game description

The Pikeman is a melee heavy infantry in Age of Empires III that can be trained at Barracks, Fort, and Galleon/Fluyt.

Pikemen are available to European civilizations except Ottomans and Russians.

Overview
An archaic unit, the Pikeman have low attack but high siege damage and large multipliers against cavalry. Despite having more speed than most infantry, they are not fast enough to pursue cavalry and are best used to defend against cavalry attacks. They can be countered by ranged infantry and artillery. In the Colonial Age they are useful for destroying buildings since most civilizations lack artillery at that stage.

Pikeman are useful as a front line defense for ranged units to position behind. Using them with Crossbowman is an effective combo early in the game as they can take out infantry at long range while the Pikemen defeat any cavalry that get too close. This tactic is, however, vulnerable to artillery and anti-infantry, and they should be escorted with cavalry. Settlers/Villagers can actually defeat unupgraded Pikemen in a duel, due to the fact that Pikemen are only effective against cavalry and buildings.

Spanish players have the option of being able to almost instantly (2.7 seconds) train Crossbowmen and Pikemen in the Colonial Age, due to the TEAM Archaic Soldier Training and Fencing School cards. If Standing Army from the Church is used, Pikemen and Crossbowmen can be created instantly.

Civilization differences

 * As seen above, the Spanish is the only civilization with access to Pikemen that can upgrade them to Royal Guard and Imperial Guard levels.
 * The Japanese can ally with the Spanish at the Consulate (requires a level 40 Home City) which provides Spanish Expeditionary Force and Spanish Expeditionary Company that includes 7 and 10 Pikemen named Tercio respectively. They are automatically upgraded in every Age starting in the Fortress Age, unlike their European counterpart (see here for the exact values).

Further statistics
As the Pikeman cannot be trained by Ottomans and Russians, only improvements available to other European civilizations (including the campaign-only Knights of St. John, John Black's Mercenaries and United States, and native improvements) are listed here.

Home City Cards
As the Pikeman is exclusive to European civilizations except Ottomans and Russians, 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 Home City Cards related to the Pikeman Green : TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150" |

Europeans

 * The 8 Pikemen card is available to Dutch and Spanish.
 * The 10 Pikemen card is not available to the Germans.
 * The 24 Pikemen card is available to French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Spanish

 * }

Trivia

 * Spanish Royal Guard Pikemen are named after the Tercio infantry organization system used by Spain during the Habsburg era.

History
"Pikemen fought in very tight formations that maximized the danger to enemies as they approached. The front rank would set their pikes against a cavalry charge, placing the butt of the staff against the ground, braced by the instep of their back foot, with the tip raised up at an angle. The rank standing just behind the first would hold their pikes straight out at about shoulder height to add still more stabbing spearheads. As firearms developed, they were integrated into units of pikemen. By the mid-seventeenth century an infantry regiment might be composed of two-thirds musketeers and a third pikemen. Eventually firearms with mounted bayonets came to replace pikes, which were little seen or used after the nineteenth century. A typical pike was a 10- to almost 20-foot spear-like wooden staff with a steel or iron spear point. Some pikemen also carried swords and axes to attack any enemies who survived the deadly bristling of pike formation. They wore helmets, and sometimes breastplates, to defend themselves against attacks."