Crossbowmen are ranged infantry units that use crossbows in battle. They are counter infantry units that are useful for attacking heavy infantry such as Musketeers, but are easily defeated by melee cavalry and artillery. They are similar in many ways to Skirmishers. Although the Crossbowmen might be out-ranged by their Skirmisher counterparts, they are cheaper and are trainable earlier in the game. The exceptions to this rule reside in the Dutch who can train Skirmishers in the Commerce Age and the French through the use of the "TEAM Early Skirmishers" Home City Card which allows them and their allies to train Skirmishers in the Commerce Age.
Spanish players have the option of being able to train Crossbowmen and Pikemen very quickly (6.75 seconds) in the Commerce Age, due to the "TEAM Archaic Soldier Training" and "Liberation March" cards, and can train instantly if the cards are also used with the Standing Army improvement.
The Portuguese can train Crossbowmen and Pikemen more quickly (5.4 seconds) in the Commerce Age, due to the Ordenança technology from the Church, sent by the "Treaty of Tordesillas" card, and the "Fencing School" card.
Upgrades Crossbowmen to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Guard Crossbowmen and The Papal Guard
Imperial Order Besteiros
Upgrades Order Besteiros to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Order Besteiros
Imperial Arbalesters
Upgrades Arbalesters to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Arbalesters
Civilization differences[]
Age of Empires III[]
Before the Definitive Edition, the Portuguese have Besteiros, which upgrades their Crossbowmen to Veteran (if not already) and gives them +30% hit points and attack, and renames them to Besteiro.
Definitive Edition[]
Choosing The Papal Guard to advance into the Industrial Age reduces the cost of the Crossbowman Guard (Royal Guard for the Portuguese) upgrades and allows them to be upgraded to Imperial. However, the Swedes are the only civilization with access to Crossbowman who cannot upgrade them beyond Veteran, even with The Papal Guard.
The Ethiopians can ship 10 Order Besteiros with Portuguese Crusaders, which also allows them to be trained at War Camps. These Order Besteiros do not receive the starting +10% hit points and attack bonus, unlike their regular counterparts.
Daimyo and Shogun Tokugawa get +5% speed, +10 Line of Sight and train units 15% faster; land military unit train time -20%, artillery and banner army train time -10% instead
Guard and Imperial upgrades are available to the French, Germans and Spanish through The Papal Guard, while the Portuguese can now upgrade Crossbowmen into Royal Guard and Imperial through the same politician.
With update 13.27885, the Portuguese no longer need The Papal Guard to upgrade Crossbowmen into Royal Guard and Imperial.
With update 13.58326, Crossbowmen have a ×2.5 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and ranged shock infantry, ×0.6 vs. cavalry and ×0.5 vs. shock infantry.
With update 14.43676, Crossbowmen have a ×0.6 ranged multiplier against shock infantry. Ordinance Besteiro and Arbalester upgrades received new models.
Originally, Arbalester costs 1,000 wood, 1,000 coin, researches in 30 seconds, and upgrades Crossbowmen to Arbalesters, which are Guard Crossbowmen with +10% hit points and attack. With update 14.43676, Ordinance Besteiro and Arbalester cost 750 wood, 750 coin, Arbalester researches in 20 seconds, and upgrades Crossbowmen to Arbalesters, which are Guard Crossbowmen with +5% hit points and attack.
With update 15.30007, Ordinance Besteiro and Imperial Ordinance Besteiros are renamed to Order Besteiros and Imperial Order Besteiros, respectively, and the Order Besteiros upgrade received a new model.
Trivia[]
The Crossbowman has three visual upgrades in total in the files, although the Discovery Age model is unused. This is because the game at one point was going to allow combat in the first Age, like in other Age of Empires games.
These Discovery Age model textures were updated for the Definitive Edition and now are used by the unupgraded Crossbowman (and consequently, the previous unupgraded Crossbowman textures were updated and now used by the Veteran Crossbowman, and the previous Veteran Crossbowman textures were updated and now used by the Guard Crossbowman).
Before update 15.30007, they are named after the Ordenanças.
Before the Definitive Edition, Consulate Crossbowmen are simply named "Besteiro", which means "crossbowman" in Portuguese.
The Dutch originally had access to training the Crossbowman, and there are unused voice files for Dutch Crossbowmen in the game files and in the Scenario Editor.
In the Definitive Edition, the Swedish Crossbowman uses the Swedish dialogue originally spoken by the Fusilier, while the Fusilier is a French mercenary unit and uses the French Grenadier's dialogue files.
History[]
“
Handheld crossbows began to appear in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Crossbowmen were attractive to military leaders because they took much less time to train than archers using bows. Firearms eclipsed Crossbows by the end of the sixteenth century.
Europeans, chiefly the Spanish, included crossbows amongst the muskets and cannon they brought to the New World. Cortes arrived with more than two dozen crossbows and less than ten muskets. Columbus' crew had crossbows when they landed in the West Indies. When the original stockpile of munitions ran out it was difficult or impossible to make or trade for more. Explorers had to be very careful with their limited supply.
”
Gallery[]
An in-game Crossbowman
An in-game Veteran Crossbowman
The Crossbowman's history portrait
The in-game stats of a Crossbowman
The in-game stats of a fully upgraded Veteran Crossbowman
An in-game Consulate Besteiro
Crossbowman detailed model for cutscenes
Guard Crossbowman in the Definitive Edition
Crossbowman in the Definitive Edition
Veteran Crossbowman in the Definitive Edition
Guard Crossbowman in the Definitive Edition
Imperial Crossbowman in the Definitive Edition
An in-game Consulate Ordinance Besteiro Crossbowman in the Definitive Edition