Grenadier

"Light artillery that throws grenades to defeat infantry or buildings."

- In-game description

The Grenadier is a ranged heavy siege infantry in Age of Empires III that can be trained trained at Artillery Foundry, Fort, and Galleon/Fluyt.

Grenadiers are available to British, Dutch, John Black's Mercenaries (Act II: Ice campaign), Ottomans, and Russians.

Overview
Grenadiers are a fairly expensive light artillery which acts as a very weak artillery piece though they are not considered true artillery for purposes of damage multipliers on units like for example Culverins. The Grenadier is effective at destroying buildings early since they have fairly high hitpoints and a high siege attack. They are also effective against groups of heavy infantry like Halberdiers and Pikemen due to their area of effect attack of three (four with Incendiary Grenades). Due to their heavy infantry classification they are easily dispatched by units with high melee attack and multipliers versus heavy infantry or infantry, such as anti-infantry cannons or Abus Guns (siege damage, multipliers against heavy infantry).

Civilization differences

 * While the French cannot train Grenadiers, they can ship up to 27 Grenadiers through Garde Imperial 1, Garde Imperial 2, and Garde Imperial 3.
 * Asian civilizations who can ally with the French at the Consulate can get Grenadiers through French Expeditionary Company and French Expeditionary Force, which includes 4 and 3 Grenadiers respectively named Young Guard (Middle Guard in the Fortress Age, Old Guard in Industrial and Imperial Age). They are automatically upgraded in each Age starting from the Fortress Age, unlike their European counterpart (see here for the exact values).

Further statistics
As the Grenadier can only be trained by British, Dutch, Ottomans and Russians, only improvements available to them (including the campaign-only John Black's Mercenaries, the French who can ship a limited number of Grenadiers, and native improvements) are listed here.

Home City Cards
As the Grenadier is exclusive to British, Dutch, Ottomans and Russians, only other civilizations' TEAM cards that affect them are listed here.

Since the French can ship a limited number of Grenadiers but cannot train them otherwise, French cards that affects Grenadiers are included as well. {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width: 100%;" ! sab="1148" | Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Grenadier
 * - 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 5 Grenadiers card is available to British and Russians.
 * The 6 Grenadiers card is available to British and Ottomans.
 * The Fencing School card is not available to the Ottomans.

Spanish

 * }

Trivia

 * Ottoman Royal Guard Grenadiers' name is possibly a misspelling of the Turkish word barutçu, which literally means "gunpowder-man" (in this regard, someone who handles gunpowder-based weaponry).
 * Russian Royal Guard Grenadiers may be named after the Pavlov Grenadier Regiment.

History
"Grenadiers began as a unit of siege infantry that hurled grenades - iron spheres filled with gunpowder -- at their targets. Grenadiers needed to be tall, strong men so they could lob the grenades to their targets, or at least far enough away so that the explosion didn't damage their own troops. Over time, tactics and technology changed, and Grenadiers evolved into elite, highly trained and storied infantry regiments. Grenadiers wore long-tailed coats festooned with buttons, braid, and brass. The classic Grenadier wears a tall, cylindrical hat trimmed in or covered with bearskin. The hat originally had no brim, or a very little one at most, so it would not interfere with throwing, even though later Grenadiers fought as traditional infantry."