Cuirassier

The  Cuirassier is a unique French heavy cavalry unit featured in Age of Empires III. They can be upgraded to Royal Guard status.

Overview
The Cuirassier is one of the strongest cavalry units. They can only attack in melee combat, but deal splash damage which makes them extremely effective against large armies but are still vulnerable to heavy infantry, ranged cavalry and unction boosted Spanish Heavy Cannons/Monitors (only a real threat in Treaty and Deathmatch game modes). If combined with voltigeurs, they form a deadly combo which is often used by French players and very hard to counter if properly managed. They are also very efficient at defeating enemy artillery.

Compared to the hussar, the mainline cavalry of most other civilizations, the cuirassier has more hitpoints but less attack. However cuirassiers deal area of effect damage making them more effective than hussars against massed infantry and artillery.

Having enough Coureur des Bois in Mills and Plantations compensates for their high cost in Food and Coin. They are also often used in game modes with a high amount of resources.

Gendarme Cuirassier
Gendarme Cuirassier is an upgrade of the Cuirassier in the Industrial Age. The overall stats in the infobox remains the same, with a few improvements in its stats.
 * Hit Points: 700
 * Melee Attack: 42
 * Siege Attack: 42
 * Guardian Attack: 42
 * Cost: 1000 Wood, 1000 Coin

Imperial Gendarme
Imperial Gendarme is an upgrade of the Gendarme Cuirassier in the Imperial Age. The overall stats in the infobox remains the same, with a few improvements in its stats.
 * Hit Points: 1000
 * Melee Attack: 57
 * Siege Attack: 57
 * Guardian Attack: 57
 * Cost: 1500 Wood, 1500 Coin

Counters
The best way to counter them would be to use heavy infantry with high damage multiplers against cavalry, especially the Pikeman at x5. The Doppelsoldner is also an effective choice. Musketeers can be somewhat effective if placed in groups but cuirassiers will defeat them if they get in too close. Halberdier may only have a x2 cavalry multiplier, but their high damage counteracts this, allowing them to have higher damage against cavalry. This, coupled with the availability of guard and imperial upgrades, allows them to be highly effective against cavalry. The Curiasser used in conjunction with Skirmishers is an effective strategy. Ranged cavalry units are also effective against them.

Spanish Heavy Cannons being bolstered by unction are also an effective counter, as three cannons acquired by means of The General and 2 Heavy Cannons card focus firing (or overlapping the edges of their AoE to better spread it over a large area) can drop clusters of cuirassiers every six seconds (the time it takes for the cannons to fire again) when protected by blocks of Spanish pikemen or Musketeers (similarly being augmented by the unction aura). Highlanders are a more costly option, but due to their 40% melee resistance, they ignore almost half of a cuirassiers damage making them an expensive, but effective meat shield. A pair of Spanish Monitors augmented by unction can drop their long-range shots on an army of cuirassiers and kill them outright every time the ability cools down (1488 damage), while the third ship (Admiralty) can wipe out large skirmisher armies in a single long-range barrage.

History
The Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured Knights. The term is derived from cuirass, the breastplate armour which they wore.

Cuirassiers played a prominent role in the armies of Austria, Frederick the Great of Prussia and of Napoleon I of France. The latter increased the number of French Cuirassier regiments to fourteen by the end of his reign. The actual utility of this armour is questionable. Prussian cuirassiers abandoned the cuirass before the Napoleonic Wars as did the British.

A few present-day mounted cavalry units continue to use cuirasses as part of their parade equipment on formal occasions. Most however have not retained the actual title of "cuirassiers", if indeed they bore it in the first place. These are the Life Guards and Blues and Royals of the British Household Cavalry; the Coraceros de la Guardia Real of the Spanish Royal Guard (created in 1875); and the Italian Corazzieri.