Black Rider (Age of Empires III)

The Black Rider is a Mercenary light cavalry unit which can be recruited for gold from the Home City or trained from the Saloon. The Black Rider fights on horseback, wearing black armor, and wielding powerful handguns. It is a swift unit with a reasonable long range attack which can also take a lot of hits due to their substantial armor. Like its basic version, the Dragoon, the Black Rider is a type of ranged counter-cavalry unit. It is also good for killing enemy Artillery.

Shipments & Upgrades

 * Many nations have German Black Riders card, available in Fortress Age for 1000 coin. It ships 7 Black Riders.
 * Cavalry Combat card improves Black Riders in combat, giving them +15% of both HP and attack
 * Riding School card reduces amount of time taken for training Black Riders by 40% (only for the Saloon, not shipments)
 * Mercenary Loyalty card reduces the price of German Black Riders card to 750 coin (-25%)
 * Comanche Trade Language upgrade reduces the price of German Black Riders card to 900 coin (-10%)
 * Comanche Mustangs upgrade increases Black Riders speed to 7.98

Shipments
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; margin-bottom:0px; margin-top:1px;" ! sab="1148"| Click for a list of Black Rider related home city cards
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150"|

Germans

 * }

In-game dialogue language
The Black Riders speak German in the game and shares several quotes with the German standard units, though with a noticeably different accent.
 * Auftrag? (order?)
 * Bereit (ready)
 * Angriff (attack)
 * Vorwärts! (forward!)
 * Verstanden (understood)
 * Wird gemacht (it will be done)
 * Jawohl! (Yes, sir!)

History
"Black Riders were also known as "devil riders" because of the blackened armor they wore. They first appeared in Germany in the sixteenth century. The Riders developed a special tactic known as "caracole," which allowed them to effectively bombard infantry units with constant weapons fire. In caracole, cavalry units created a tight formation. The units in front fired their weapons, and then quickly charged to the back to reload. The units that were just behind them fired immediately after the first row charged backwards to reload."