Falconet

Falconet
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III
Type	Artillery
Civilization	See description
Age	Fortress Age
Training
Trained at	Artillery Foundry
Wood	100
Coin	400
Training time	45 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	200
Resists	75% vs. Ranged
Speed	4.0 (Limber) 1.6 (Bombard)
Line of Sight	30
Population	5
XP train bounty	50
XP bounty	50
Siege attack
Damage	100
Multipliers	x3.0 vs. Infantry x3.0 vs. Ship x2.0 vs. Building x0.5 vs. Arrow Knights
Range	26
Area of Effect	3
Rate of Fire	4.0

“	Light artillery. Better against infantry than buildings.	”
—In-game description

The Falconet is an artillery in Age of Empires III that can be trained at the Artillery Foundry once the Fortress Age is reached. It is a simple yet capable artillery piece useful to counter infantry.

Falconets are available to European civilizations except the Knights of St. John (Act I: Blood campaign) and Portuguese (who have Organ Guns instead).

Overview

The Falconet is a simple yet surprisingly useful and capable artillery piece, which is important because of their early accessibility and impact on early battles, due to its bonus against infantry that combines well with its area damage and versatility. Sent early into the Fortress Age, they can allow friendly infantry to quickly turn the tide of battle as long as they have the needed protection of a nearby force. They are usually used in small groups, such as the early 2 Falconets Home City Card.

Each shot deals 300 damage to nearby infantry, which are usually packed very densely. Limbered, the unit is also quite fast for artillery, keeping pace with infantry, and can reposition along with an army between battles. Falconets can be easily countered with the Culverin, which is effective against other pieces of artillery. They are also weak against cavalry and should be protected by nearby heavy infantry or ranged cavalry, or placed behind obstacles like walls.

Despite their anti-infantry properties, they are not really designed for heavier tasks such as destroying enemy buildings, although they can do so quite well to some degree. For example compared to the Mortar razing a town, the equivalent-era upgrade to Field Gun will do half their damage, for more than the same cost. If the battle drags on, Heavy Cannons or unique equivalents (such as Rockets or Great Bombards) may prove more useful. However, in the early game, Falconets on their own are sufficient against buildings if needed and can outrange Town Centers, Outposts, and some base defenses.

They are surprisingly powerful against ships, performing nearly as well as Culverins. A small group can easily sink stray Galleons and Caravels thanks to the damage multiplier, provided ships somehow come into their firing range. However, Mortars and Culverins can pick ships off more safely from deeper inland with their longer range but slower rate of fire.

Together with Culverins, Falconets are the second lightest and second cheapest cannon in the game that is available to the European civilizations (the first is the Organ Gun) as well as being the most versatile and value-for-money of all artillery. Note that all cannons deal siege damage for resistance purposes, which is distinct from the ranged damage of gunfire.

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Field Guns	250 food, 250 wood	Upgrades Falconets to Field Guns (+25% hit points and attack)
	Imperial Field Guns	1,500 wood, 1,500 coin	Upgrades Field Guns to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Field Guns

Civilization differences

• The Knights of St. John can ship several Falconets from the Home City.
• John Black's Mercenaries can only upgrade Falconets to Field Guns.
• The United States can upgrade Falconets up to Imperial Field Guns.
• Asian civilizations can get Falconets by allying with British and Spanish at the Consulate, which provides armies and technologies that includes Falconets listed below. Unlike their regular counterpart, these Falconets are automatically upgraded in the Industrial Age and the Imperial Age (see here for the exact values).
  • British (Chinese and Indians): British Expeditionary Force (1 Falconet), British Expeditionary Army (3 Falconets), and British Brigade (5 Falconets)
  • Spanish (Japanese, requires a level 40 Home City): Spanish Expeditionary Force (1 Falconet) and Spanish Expeditionary Army (3 Falconets)

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, ships, buildings
Weak vs.	Cavalry, Culverins, Arrow Knights
Improvements
Hit points	Professional Gunners (+10%)
Attack	Heated Shot (+1.5x multiplier vs. ships)
Sight	Town Watch (+2) Gunner's Quadrant (+6)
Speed	Trunion (+15%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Creation speed	Incan Chasquis Messengers (-10%)
Train cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)
Penalties	Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only) High Crusade (-5% hit points, Knights of St. John only)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Falconet

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Chinese Card Description Age HC level TEAM Engineering School Abus Gun, Grenadier, Falconet/Organ Gun, Culverin, Mortar, Horse Artillery, Petard, Ram, Mantlet, Light Cannon, Flamethrower, Hand Mortar, Siege Elephant, Flaming Arrow, and Morutaru train time -15%; Heavy Cannon, Rocket, Great Bombard, and Flying Crow train time -5%; Black Flag Army and Mongolian Army train time -15% 25 Europeans Card Description Age HC level TEAM Artillery Hitpoints Artillery, Abus Guns, and Grenadiers get +15% hit points 10 Advanced Artillery Upgrades Falconets to Field Guns and Mortars to Howitzers (if not already, also +4 Uhlans for the Germans) 1 1 Falconet Ships 1 Falconet (also +3 Uhlans for the Germans) 1 2 Falconets Ships 2 Falconets (also +4 Uhlans for the Germans) 1 2 Falconets Ships 2 Falconets 10 3 Falconets Ships 3 Falconets 25 Engineering School Artillery train time -30%; Heavy Cannon/Great Bombard train time -10% 25 The TEAM Artillery Hitpoints card is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (at the Fortress Age). The Fortress Age 2 Falconets card is available to French, Ottomans, Russians, and Spanish. The 3 Falconets and Engineering School cards are available to French and Ottomans. French Card Description Age HC level Gribeauval System Falconets, Culverins, and Horse Artillery get +25% attack; Heavy Cannons get +20% attack 40 Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Japanese Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades Unit upgrades cost -20% 1 Ottomans Card Description Age Home City level Artillery Attack Artillery, Abus Guns, and Grenadiers get +15% attack 25 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10

Trivia

• Although the Portuguese do not have access to Falconet, there are unused voice files for Portuguese Falconet in the game files and in the Scenario Editor.
• Falconets become available for the Portuguese when revolting to the Barbary States.

History

“

Falconets were among the smallest artillery. They weighed about 280 pounds, had a six-foot barrel and used about a pound of powder to fire a one pound shot. Still, the small quantity of powder (relative to larger artillery pieces) was enough to make a properly braced Falconet fly back up to 10 yards when fired.

”

Gallery

A Falconet in Bombard mode

A Falconet in Limber mode

A(n) (Imperial) Field Gun in Limber mode

A Field Gun in Bombard mode

A real-life falconet

A 16th century falconet in the Bauernkriegsmuseum, Muhlhausen, Germany.

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