Crossbowman (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For the unit in Age of Empires III, see Crossbowman (Age of Empires III).

Crossbowman
Unit information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Archer
Civilization	All except Bulgarians and Spanish
Age	Castle Age
Training
Trained at	Archery Range
Wood	25
Gold	45
Training time	27 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	35
Attack	5 pierce
Attack bonuses	+3 vs Spearman
Rate of Fire	2.0
Frame delay	5
Range	5
Accuracy	85%
Projectile speed	7
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor classes	Archer
Speed	0.96
Line of Sight	7
Unit evolution
Upgraded from	Archer
Upgrades to	Arbalester
Upgrade cost	350 food, 300 gold
Upgrade time	50 seconds

“	Stronger than Archer. Quick and light.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Crossbowman is an archer unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Archery Range once the Castle Age is reached. It is good against infantry and Villagers, but struggles against cavalry, Skirmishers, and siege weapons.

Crossbowmen are available to all civilizations except for the Bulgarians and Spanish.

Tactics

Upgrading to Crossbowman reduces the training time of Archers from 35 seconds to 27 seconds, making this a critical upgrade if the chosen strategy is/involves massing Archers. Archers get considerably stronger in larger numbers by getting the capability of killing enemy melee units before they can close the gap and attack. Creating Crossbowmen is a good choice as they are cheap to produce and provide good covering fire. They work especially well with infantry in this regard. On the offense, it is better to put Crossbowmen in a group of melee infantry as ranged attacks are weak against buildings. The Spearman line is an excellent deterrent for cavalry, while friendly cavalry can counter siege units and Skirmishers.

If the player already invested in a Feudal Age Archer rush, upgrading to Crossbowman should be a top priority. In the Castle Age, the main counters to archers become available: Knights and Mangonels. Knights have high pierce armor, high HP, and fast speed, allowing them to decimate archers if both are in small numbers. When the archers reach a crirical mass however (and preferably are entrenched in a tight space), they can kill Knights in one volley, evening the odds, or even overcoming them. Mixing in a few Spearmen, or their upgrade, the Pikeman, can also help fending off Knights, but this is taxing on the economy. Mangonels are an effective pair to crossbowmen. They have a high Area of Effect attack, allowing them to quickly and cost effectively mow down large groups of archers. A fight between archers and mangonels comes down to which player has better micromanagement. A good supplement to archers against Mangonels are Light Cavalry or Knights, but again, this is rather taxing on the economy.

Another counter to Crossbowmen are Elite Skirmishers, who cost no gold, but their drawback is that their only use is against archers, as they are woefully ineffective at fighting other units, and they are also poor raiding units.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, Villagers
Weak vs.	Skirmishers, Scorpions, Mangonels, Battering Rams, cavalry, Huskarls, Eagle Warriors, Rattan Archers
Upgrades
Attack	Fletching (+1)  Bodkin Arrow (+1)  Bracer (+1)  Chemistry (+1)  Obsidian Arrows (Mayans only, gives +6 attack against standard buildings and fortifications)
Range	Fletching (+1)  Bodkin Arrow (+1)  Bracer (+1)  Yeomen (+1, Britons only)
Firing rate	Thumb Ring (+18%)
Accuracy	Thumb Ring (increases accuracy to 100%)  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Armor	Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1)  Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1)  Ring Archer Armor (+1/+2)  Pavise (+1/+1, Italians only since The African Kingdoms)
Conversion defense	Faith  Heresy
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%)
Other	Kamandaran (changes the gold cost into wood cost, for total 60 wood, Persians only)
Upgrades	Arbalester

Civilization bonuses

• Aztecs: Crossbowmen are created 18% faster.
• Britons: Crossbowmen have +1/+2 range in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
• Celts: Crossbowmen can convert herdables even if enemy units are next to them.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Crossbowmen are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Ethiopians: Crossbowmen fire 18% faster.
• Mayans: Crossbowmen are 20%/30% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Portuguese: Crossbowmen cost 20% less gold.
• Tatars: Crossbowmen deal 50% bonus damage from a cliff or an elevation. Thumb Ring is free.
• Turks: Chemistry is free.
• Vietnamese: Crossbowmen have +20% hit points. Conscription is free.
• Koreans: Crossbowmen cost 20% less wood.
• Saracens: Crossbowmen deal +3 bonus damage against buildings

Team bonuses

• A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, researching Conscription is 25% faster.
• A team containing Britons: Crossbowmen are created and upgraded 20% faster. Researching Thumb Ring is 20% faster.
• A team containing Magyars: Crossbowmen have +2 LOS.
• A team containing Malians: Researching Chemistry and Ballistics is 80% faster.
• A team containing Saracens: Crossbowmen have +2 attack against buildings.
• A team containing Teutons: Crossbowmen are more resistant to conversion.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Heresy and Faith is 20% faster.
• A team containing Bulgarians: Researching archer armor and attack upgrades at the Blacksmith is 50% faster.

Changelog

The Conquerors

• Crossbowmen receive an attack bonus of +3 against Spearmen.
• Heresy introduced.
• Thumb Ring introduced.
• Britons: Yeomen introduced. It is only available in the Imperial Age.

The Forgotten

• Britons: Yeomen moved to the Castle Age.
• Mayans: Obsidian Arrows introduced. It gives Crossbowmen +4 attack against standard buildings.

The African Kingdoms

• Italians: Pavise now affects Crossbowmen.
• Mayans: Obsidian Arrows now gives Crossbowmen +6 attack against buildings. With patch 4.8, Crossbowmen also gain +6 attack against stone defense.

Rise of the Rajas

• Vietnamese: Initially, Crossbowmen had +15%/+20% HP in the Castle/Imperial Age. With patch 5.8, they now have +20% HP.

Definitive Edition

• Persians: Kamandaran technology introduced in replacement for Boiling Oil.
• Koreans: Initially Crossbowmen cost 15% less wood. With update 39284, they cost 20% less wood.
• Saracens: Crossbowmen deal +3 bonus damage against buildings.

Trivia

• "Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of the trigger." - Sun Tzu's The Art of War. 
• The Crossbowman is called Fantassin à arc in French, although he wields a crossbow (arbalète) and not a bow (arc) like the Archer. The term Arbalétrier (crossbowman) is already used for Arbalesters, though.
• In terms of wood, the units from the Archer line are the cheapest archers in the game.
• The Archer line units are the only common archer units that don't have any base melee armor nor pierce armor.
• Together with the Bulgarians, the Spanish are the only civilization not to have access to the Crossbowman upgrade.
• The Crossbowman's absence is made for gameplay consideration; historically, the Castilian and Aragonese armies did deploy crossbowmen.
• Inconsistently, the Age of Empires III equivalent of this unit is available to the Spanish.
• In pre-release versions of Age of Empires II, Archers and Crossbowmen were two separate lines. Archers were trash units that were cheap, fast firing, inaccurate, and weak, and consisted of the Archer itself, and the Composite Archer. Crossbowmen were expensive, costed wood and gold, slower firing, more accurate, and gave a high damage output.
  • In real life, an archer's training consumes more time and resources than crossbowman's.

History

“

The crossbow was a missile weapon consisting of a bow on its side attached to the end of a wood stock. The stock was held against the shoulder like a modern rifle and a trigger fired the weapon. The crossbow had been invented in ancient China but was not used widely in Europe until the Middle Ages. It fired short quarrels, stones, or metal balls rather than arrows. It was a powerful weapon but limited to a shorter range than the best bows. It was simple to use, relatively cheap to make, and deadly. A peasant with only a few hours of crossbow practice could easily kill an elite knight encased in armor worth a fortune who had trained for war throughout his life. The knights in Europe at one point attempted to get the Church to ban the weapon. Richard the Lionhearted, King of England, died from a crossbow quarrel wound received during a siege.

”

Gallery

The Archer line, with the Crossbowman in the middle.

The Archer line, with the Crossbowman in the middle, in the Definitive Edition.

A group of Crossbowmen

A model of a real-life Crossbowman

Crossbowmen in the Definitive Edition

Crossbowmen at the Martyrdom of St Sebastian, 1475.

Pictures of XIII century crossbowmen

An archer & a crossbowman from a medieval English manuscript

A render of the Crossbowman model

Add a photo to this gallery