The Coureur des Bois or Coureur is an economic unit unique to the French in Age of Empires III, an improved version of the Settler. Allying with the Cree also allows for the creation of a limited amount of Coureurs.
The Coureur des Bois are a special Villager type that replace Settlers for the French. The Coureurs cost 20% more food (120 instead of 100) and train 16% slower than normal settlers (29 seconds versus 25), but gather resources 25% faster.
Note: The French lack the Medicine or Acupuncture cards, meaning they cannot lower the training time of the Coureur by themselves. They require an ally with the TEAM Medicine card, or a map featuring a Jesuit Mission.
Note: 80 Coureurs gather at the speed of 100 normal villagers and leave more population for military units.
Despite higher hit points and a greater attack, Coureur des Bois do not make effective fighters. Their fighting skills can be improved by Home City cards that can make them effective in exploring the map and fighting off treasure guardians.
Note: They have ranged resistance (instead of melee resistance), which make early Ranged Infantry rushes less effective (unless using Carib Garifuna Drums), but increases the danger of melee attacks from Hussars and Rodeleros.
Note: Like all Settlers, Coureurs cannot use ranged attacks if the enemy is too close to them. Because they lack any melee resistance and multipliers on their melee attacks this can make gathering treasures guarded by melee units very inefficient.
This is a list of shipments that benefit Coureur des Bois in anyway.
4 Coureurs requires 2 Coureurs to be unlocked. Afterwards 3 Coureurs can be unlocked while Home City is at level 10.
Coureur Shipments
Icon
Name
Effect
Home City Level
Age
2 Coureurs
Ships 2 Coureurs
0
4 Coureurs
Ships 4 Coureurs
0
3 Coureurs
Ships 3 Coureurs
10
French Home City Improvements, and TEAM cards (incomplete) that benefit Coureurs
Icon
Name
Effect
Home City Level
Age
Pioneers
Greatly increases Settler hitpoints
0
Stone Masons
Settlers build much faster
10
TEAM Sawmills
Settlers gather wood faster
-French have TEAM
10
Exotic Hardwood
Settlers gather wood faster
25
Silversmith
Settlers gather coin from mines faster.
10
Royal Mint
Settlers gather coin from all sources faster.
25
Food Silos
Settlers gather food from mills faster.
-Germans have TEAM
0
Sustainable Agriculture
Settlers gather food from mills faster.
10
Refrigeration
Settlers gather food from all sources faster.
25
Furrier
Settlers gather food from wild animals and berries faster.
-Russians have TEAM
0
Spice Trade
Settlers gather food from wild animals and berries faster.
"Coureur des Bois is French for "runner in the woods," the name given to a group of French fur traders. They came from all walks of French and colonial French life to hunt and trap animals for their pelts in North America. One of the first native-born Canadian explorers was Louis Joliet, who at a young age determined that he would become a Coureur des Bois. He and a handful of other Coureurs des Bois paddled down the Mississippi river in canoes, determining that it would empty into the Gulf of Mexico, but feared to travel as far as the mouth into the hands of the Spanish. They noted rivers to the west as they went, hoping that one would flow into the seas of China or Japan. He became well-established in the fur trade and had several land holdings that he traveled between. It was on a trip to one of these that he died in 1700."
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