Missionary (Age of Empires III)

The Missionary is a Spanish healer unit in Age of Empires III.

Overview
The Missionary serves as a basic healing unit for civilizations who acquire it by means of cards, though only the Spanish civilization can train them at the Church. The Unction card (added with The WarChiefs expansion) allows a level 40 Spanish Home City to give their Missionaries an aura boosting nearby units damage output.

Missionaries are the fastest healing units in the game even without Mission Fervor, and one of the fastest land units in the game with it. They are capable of healing 10 hit points per second.

Unction
With Unction, Missionaries will boost the attack of friendly units in a radius of 24 around them up to a total of 62%. This extra damage is added to the modified stats of the unit, not its base stats, making it exceptionally powerful. The aura will extend to naval vessels controlled by the player but will not affect buildings.
 * +5%
 * 1) +10%
 * 2) +16%
 * 3) +22%
 * 4) +28%
 * 5) +34%
 * 6) +41%
 * 7) +48%
 * 8) +55%
 * 9) +62%

The Unction aura will only affect units directly under the control of the Spanish player, not those of allies (human or AI) nor the missionaries themselves. Units sent to the player by means of team cards will still be boosted.

However, Unction doesn't boost hit points, which means the enemy may sometimes use hit-and-run tactics or units with large Area of Effect.


 * Missionaries' greatest defenses are the range of the unction aura, their speed with mission fervor, and their armies' line of sight using team inquisition and town watch.
 * Russian allies are especially useful due to the card TEAM Cheap Priests, which reduces the cost of missionaries by 50% (50 wood, 50 coin). This card also reduces their training time by 75% (they train in 10 seconds) allowing the Spanish player to effectively use unction in long-running skirmish games.
 * Monitors can be used on any map with a puddle of water big enough to hold a dock. Though this relegates them to the position of Fixed Gun, they will inflict good damage and be able to launch a long-range barrage at incoming armies or enemy buildings.
 * To get the most out of Monitors in naval maps, or one being used as a fixed gun, requires the use of TEAM Inquisition and Hot Air Balloons. This will boost your Monitors' long range LOS to 96 (100 with Town Watch) when the balloons are used as a spotter for the long-range attack.
 * Unction allows Heavy Cannons to inflict over 1,000 hit points of damage on infantry, 2,000+ damage versus ships (488 versus cavalry and Settlers) and overcome its x0.8 penalty versus artillery. The latter allows them to defeat other artillery quite easily, with exception to the Culverin. Culverins will overcome the heavy cannon's unction bonus in the Imperial Age (after that upgrade is purchased for them), however prior to this (Industrial Age) they are vulnerable to unction-boosted heavy cannons unless the Culverins exploit their range advantage effectively.

Trivia

 * Originally the Portuguese also had access to the Missionary.

History
"Spanish priests and monks established missions all over the New World. The selection of a site wasn't based simply on divine inspiriaton; it was a complicated process involving weeks, months, and even years of navigating bureaucracies and scouting out sites with sufficient water and good defensive qualities. It was very important that missions, forts, and towns had access to good water, because once established, they were largely on their own to look after their needs. Missionaries, like the Italian Jesuit Eusebio Kino, oversaw the establishment of several missions. Father Kino, who explored and traveled with the Spanish, established dozens of missions including the missions at Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, San Xavier del Bac, Guevavi, and Tumacacori. He was known for a policy of kindness towards Native Americans, and often established peaceful relationships with groups of Native Americans near his missions."