Privateer

The Privateer is a naval mercenary unit that can be shipped from the home city in Age of Empires III.

Overview
The Privateer is the strongest mercenary naval unit in the game, and in the base game, the strongest ship available in the Colonial Age. They would only lose to the frigate in a one on one fight. With the release of the The WarChiefs, the Spanish Galleon bested the privateer as the strongest early age ship, putting the privateer in second place, but only in terms of durability in a one to one fight. A single Galleon cannot defeat two privateers simultaneously unless it attacks while the ships are distracted (for instance by Treasure Guardians), and the cost of a galleon exceeds the shipping cost of two privateers by. The acquisition of a second galleon would require the 1 Galleon Home City Card in conjunction with the original damage and hit point booster card. For those reasons the privateers are usually the best option for naval shipments in the Colonial Age, unless specifically using a strategy involving Caravel, Fune, Galley and War Junk fishing or the Galleon and Fluyt ability to train troops without the need of a barracks or the ability to resist building fire.

Shipments
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; margin-bottom:0px; margin-top:1px;" ! sab="1148"| List of Privateer related home city cards (standard ship cards excluded)
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150"|

Russians / Spanish

 * }