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	×3.0 vs. Infantry and Ship ×2.0 vs. Building ×0.5 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 the Mexicans and to European civilizations except 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	Upgrade Falconets to Field Guns (+25% hit points and attack)
	Imperial Field Guns	1,500 wood, 1,500 coin	Upgrade 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 in the Act III campaign can upgrade Falconets 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)

Revolution

• While the Portuguese cannot train Falconets normally, they will be able to do so upon revolting into the Barbary States.

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	Quechuan Diet (-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
• Purple: Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times

All

Card	Description	Age	HC level
2 Falconets	Ships 2 Falconets		1
2 Falconets	Ships 2 Falconets		10

• "2 Falconets" (Fortress Age) is available to French, Ottomans, Mexicans, Russians, Spanish, and Swedes.

Chinese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Engineering School	Artillery, Grenade Trooper, Petard, Ram, Mantlet, Flamethrower, Siege Elephant, Black Flag Army, and Mongolian Army train time -15%; Heavy Cannons, Rockets, Great Bombards, and Flying Crows train 10% faster		25

"TEAM Engineering School" is also available to the Swedes (in the Industrial Age).

Europeans

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Artillery Hitpoints	Artillery and Grenade Trooper get +15% hit points		10
1 Falconet	Ships 1 Falconet (also +3 Uhlans for the Germans)		1
3 Falconets	Ships 3 Falconets		25
Engineering School	Artillery, Grenade Trooper and Petard train time -30%; Heavy Cannons/Great Bombards train 20% faster		25

• "TEAM Artillery Hitpoints" card is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (in the Fortress Age).
• "1 Falconet" is not available to the Swedes.
• "3 Falconets" is available to French and Ottomans.
• "Engineering School" is available to French, Ottomans, and Swedes.

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

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
Los Colorados Battallion	Ships 9 Soldados and 2 Falconets
Plan of Veracruz	[Plan] Turns all Outposts into Falconets; Upgrades Falconets to Field Guns (if not already); Artillery get +7 LOS; Costs 250 food, 250 wood
1 Falconet	Ships 1 Falconet

Ottomans

Card	Description	Age	HC 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

Swedes

Card	Description	Age
2 Falconets + 2 Culverins	Ships 2 Falconets and 2 Culverins
1 Falconet + 1 Culverin	Ships 1 Falconet and 1 Culverin
Case Shot	Leather Cannons, Falconets, Culverins, Horse Artillery and Heavy Cannons get the Case Shot attack (used against enemies within half of the normal range or closer, which deals 10% of the normal damage with 7 projectiles and +2 AOE, but with a multiplier of ×0.5 against Cavalry and Shock Infantry, and also a ×2.0 multiplier against Infantry for Culverins)
Cronstedt Reforms	Leather Cannons, Falconets, and Heavy Cannons use -1 population

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.

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.

Falconet in the original game and in the Definitive Edition

See also

• Organ Gun – Portuguese replacement
• Gatling Gun – United States replacement