Grenadier

The Grenadier in Age of Empires III is a heavy infantry unit with light artillery attributes. It is trained at the Artillery Foundry from the Colonial Age.

Overview
The Grenadiers are a type of 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).

The French cannot train Grenadiers but can ship them through the following unique Church improvements (requires the Edict of Nantes card): The Germans, the Portuguese and the Spanish do not have Grenadiers at all.
 * Garde Imperial I: Ships 4 Grenadiers
 * Garde Imperial II: Ships 8 Grenadiers and upgrades them to Veteran, also grants Incendiary Grenades
 * Garde Imperial III: Ships 15 Grenadiers, upgrades them to Guard and gives them +10% hit points and attack

Home City cards
As the Grenadier is exclusive to certain European civilizations, 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 related Home City cards
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150" |

Russians

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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."

Trivia

 * The Russian Royal Guard Grenadiers may be named after the Pavlov Grenadier Regiment.
 * The French Grenadiers are named after the three experience-based sections in the Garde Impériale.