Longbowman (Age of Empires III)

''This article is about the Longbowman in Age of Empires III. For the Age of Empires II article, please see here.'' The Longbowmen are unique to the British so is only available to that civilization. The Longbowmen have a powerful long range and a fast rate of fire, but this makes these skilled archers more expensive. The Longbowmen are effective against enemy infantry units such as the Musketeers, but they lose to cavalry and artillery units. As they are archaic unit like Crossbowmen and Pikemen they cannot be upgraded beyond Veteran level unless a specific Home City card is sent. The card 'Yeomen' unlocks the Guard and Imperial levels for this unit.

Real Info
The Longbowmen were medieval archers equipped with very tall longbows and 3 ft long arrows. In the Middle Ages the Welsh and the English became famous for their very heavy, long-ranged English longbows, used to great effect in the civil wars of the period and against the Franks in the Hundred Years' War (with notable success at the battles of Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt). They were also famous for making sharpened wooden stakes used for defending against cavalry, used very effectively during Agincourt. The use of longbows declined in the 1500s because of the lifetime training needed to use it properly and a somewhat long time of three to four years to make such a bow.