“Expensive but powerful villager who gathers fast.”
—In-game description
The Coureur des Bois (plural Coureurs des Bois) is a civilian unit in Age of Empires III that is unique to the French and replaces the Settler; in standard random map games, the French starts with six Coureurs des Bois. It is stronger and gathers faster than Settlers, but is more expensive and has a lower train limit.
Coureurs des Bois cost 20% more food (120 instead of 100), train 16% slower than Settlers (29 seconds instead of 25), and has 19 less train limit (80 instead of 99), but gather resources 25% faster; 80 Coureurs gather at the speed of 100 Settlers, leaving more population for military units.
Despite of higher hit points and a greater attack, Coureurs 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. 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. However, due to the negative modifiers versus Villagers on early attack buildings (e.g. Outposts) and their high ranged resistance, they can continue gathering resources even if the enemy tries to lock down their resources with outposts (especially if the Great Coat improvement is purchased).
Like 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.
The French lack the Medicine card, which means they cannot lower the training time of the Coureurs by themselves. They require an ally with the TEAM Medicine card, or a map featuring a Jesuit Mission (with Christian Schools).
“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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Code Napoleon (+10%)
Klamath Work Ethos (+5%)
Fasting (+10%)
Punjabi New Year (+10% from Mills, Farms, Plantations and Rice Paddies)
Great Coat (+35%)
Nootka Bark Clothing (+50%)
Apache Cactus Use (+15%)
Blunderbuss (+3)
Town Watch (+2)
Christian Schools (-15%)
Sharia (+10% train limit)
TEAM Food Silos
TEAM Furrier
TEAM Medicine
TEAM Exotic Hardwoods
TEAM Silversmith
TEAM Rum Distillery
TEAM Spice Trade
TEAM Ironmonger
2 Coureurs
4 Coureurs
3 Coureurs
10 Coureurs
Northwest Passage
Wilderness Warfare
Pioneers
Stonemasons
TEAM Sawmills
Exotic Hardwoods
Silversmith
Royal Mint
Food Silos
Sustainable Agriculture
Refrigeration
Furrier
Spice Trade
Economic Theory
Rum Distillery
Cigar Roller
Textile Mill
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
TEAM Pioneers
TEAM Chonindo
TEAM Inquisition
Age of Empires III
Dutch
French
Germans
Ottomans
Spanish
The WarChiefs
Aztecs
Iroquois
Sioux
The Asian Dynasties
Chinese
Indians
Japanese