Uhlan

The Uhlan is the German melee cavalry unit in Age of Empires III.

Game info
The Uhlan is the German's answer to the hussar. Whereas the Hussar has hitpoints and the Cossack has cost on their side, the Uhlan fits in by being similar in cost to the cossack, whilst having a much higher attack. The Germans can build them at the Stable, or can get them from most (non-Uhlan) home shipment cards according to the formula:


 * a*uhlans/a=1
 * where a = the age the card is from.

put simply, from when you can get them, you can ship Uhlans with your shipment according to the card it comes from. So if you ship a colonial age card, you get 2 Uhlans, if you ship a Fortress Age card, you get 3 Uhlans, and so on. You can't get uhlans with Discovery Age shipments (to prevent having Uhlans rocking up at your base 3 min in), and neither with Mercenary shipments (why would you want uhlans when you can get extra Landsknecht instead?).

the Uhlan is effective, mostly in the Colonial Age when people usually don't have the money to field a capable cavalry force, and suddenly find their Musketeers being cut to pieces (or at least being distracted) by a few guys on horses riding up behind them. Still gotta watch out for Pikes though, as with less hp your precious Uhlans tend to become Das Kabobs very quickly, and whilst they didn't cost you anything (if they're the ones you had shipped in), they are a pain to replace early on. Thankfully late-game you should have the economy to send hundreds of them into battle. You are a booming civilisation, after all.