Musketeer

"Heavy ranged infantry. Armed with a bayonet to beat cavalry."

- In-game description

The Musketeer is a ranged heavy gunpowder infantry in Age of Empires III that can be trained at Barracks, Fort, and Galleon. It is armed with a smoothbore musket to fight other infantry at range and a bayonet to fight cavalry in melee combat.

Musketeers are available to European civilizations except Dutch, Germans, Ottomans (who have Janissaries instead), and Knights of St. John (Act I: Blood campaign).

Overview
Musketeers fire at a slower rate compared to archer units such as the Longbowman, and are vulnerable against massed artillery and light infantry.

In The WarChiefs, Spanish Musketeers becomes the most damaging, population-effective of all Musketeers thanks to the Unction effect.

Civilization differences

 * As seen above, British and Portuguese can upgrade Musketeers to Royal Guard and Imperial Guard levels.
 * While the Dutch cannot train Musketeers, they can ship 30 Guard Musketeers through Stadhouders.
 * The Russians train Musketeers in groups of five at the Blockhouse.
 * Asian civilizations can get Musketeers by allying with British, Dutch, and Portuguese at the Consulate, which provides armies and technologies that includes Musketeers (named Redcoat for the British, Stadhouder for the Dutch, Guerreiro for the Portuguese) listed below. These Musketeers start with +10% hit points and attack than their regular counterpart, and are automatically upgraded in every Age starting from the Fortress Age (see here for the exact values).
 * British (Chinese and Indians): British Expeditionary Company (6 Musketeers) and British Expeditionary Force (8 Musketeers)
 * Dutch (Japanese, requires a level 40 Home City): Dutch Expeditionary Company (6 Musketeers), Dutch Expeditionary Force (6 Musketeers), and Dutch Brigade (28 Musketeers)
 * Portuguese (Indians and Japanese): Portuguese Expeditionary Army (13 Musketeers)

Further statistics
As the Musketeer cannot be trained by Germans and Ottomans, only improvements available to other European civilizations (including the Dutch who can ship a limited number of Musketeers, the campaign-only John Black's Mercenaries and United States, and native improvements) are listed here.

Home City Cards
As the Musketeer is exclusive to European civilizations except Dutch, Germans, and Ottomans, only other civilizations' TEAM cards that affects them are listed here.

Since the Dutch can ship a limited number of Musketeers but cannot train them otherwise, Dutch cards that affects Musketeers are included as well. {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width: 100%;" ! sab="1148" | Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Musketeer
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150" |
 * Green : TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
 * Purple : Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times

Europeans

 * The 6 Musketeers, 8 Musketeers, 14 Musketeers, and 19 Musketeers cards are available to British and Portuguese.
 * The 16 Musketeers card is available to British, Portuguese, and Russians (at a level 1 Home City).

Spanish

 * }

Outlaw Musketeer
The Outlaw Musketeer is a treasure guardian variant of the Musketeer which is usually featured in abundant treasures, but rarely. It is one of the few Treasure Guardians with a damage multiplier against specific unit types. Overall, the Outlaw Musketeer is better than the normal Musketeers and should be considered for taming.

Trivia

 * The Musketeer has 4 visual upgrades in total, although the first one is unused in-game.
 * The Germans and Dutch can train Musketeers in the beta; German Musketeers' unused voice files still exist in the Scenario Editor and game files.
 * The Russians cannot train Musketeers in the beta.
 * John Black's Mercenaries, Spanish, and United States are the only civilizations with Musketeers that lacks Home City Cards which improves them (except Advanced Arsenal).
 * British Royal Guard and Consulate Musketeers are named after the Redcoat soldiers.
 * Portuguese Royal Guard and Consulate Musketeers' name, Guerreiro, means "Warrior" in Portuguese.

History
"Musketeers were infantry soldiers who stood in ranks two and three men deep, taking turns firing while other ranks reloaded. Musketeers were drilled and disciplined to stand as close as 80 yards away from an enemy firing at them. Musket balls ranged from about a half inch in diameter to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Until long guns with rifled barrels that could be fired more than once every two minutes were developed, muskets were the ranged weapon of choice for infantry. Muskets had a relatively short range and were wildly inaccurate. Musketeers fought a lot like longbowmen, firing volley after volley in the direction of the enemy with no specific target. The barrage of lead was bound to hit something. A competent musketeer could fire three shots in a minute - four times slower than a longbow and twice as fast as an early rifle."