Crossbowman (Age of Empires III)

Crossbowmen are a light infantry unit that uses a crossbow in battle. Crossbowmen are featured in Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III.

Age of Empires III
Crossbowmen are counter infantry units that are useful for attacking heavy infantry such as Musketeers, but are easily defeated by Cavalry and Artillery. They are similar in many ways to Skirmishers. Although the Crossbowmen might be out-ranged by their skirmisher counterparts, they are cheaper and are trainable earlier in the game. The exception to this rule resides in the Dutch, who can train Skirmishers in the Colonial Age. The Portugese can upgrade their crossbowmen to Bestiero when the Royal Decree shipment has arrived.

Real Info
Crossbowmen were used from the second half of the 4th century BC and further on in time by ancient Asians. Crossbowmen were also used by the Greeks in limited numbers in the 5th century BC. Crossbowmen were commonly used in the Middle Ages because even though the Longbowmen had a longer range and a faster rate of fire the Crossbowmen could be trained in about a week and the Crossbow's power was stronger.

Crossbowmen were eventually replaced in warfare by musketeers and riflemen, although early guns had slower rates of fire and much worse accuracy than contemporary crossbows. Later, similar competing tactics would feature harquebusiers or musketeers in formation with pikemen, pitted against cavalry firing pistols or carbines.