Flamethrower (Age of Empires III)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties. For the unit in Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten, see Flamethrower (Age of Empires II). For other similar units, see Fire Siphon and Cheirosiphon.

Flamethrower
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Infantry Siege trooper Ranged infantry
Civilization(s)	Chinese
Age	Commerce Age
Training
Banner army	Black Flag Army (before the Definitive Edition)
Trained at	Castle Blockhouse Fort Fuchuan American Citadel
Cost	170 Wood 170 Coin 3 Population
Train time	40 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	210
Resistance	65% Ranged
Speed	4.25
Line of Sight	14
Train XP	34
Kill XP	34
Flame attack
Damage	5 Siege
Area of Effect	1
Range	10
Rate of Fire	0.5
Bonus damage	6.0x vs. Infantry 6.0x vs. Ship 4.0x vs. Building 2.0x vs. Artillery 0.8x vs. Cavalry 0.6x vs. Shock infantry 0.5x Fixed Gun

“	Chinese siege weapon that shoots fire at a short range. Better against infantry than buildings.	”
—In-game description

The Flamethrower is a ranged siege infantry unit in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Chinese and can be trained at the Castle once the Commerce Age is reached or (prior to the Definitive Edition) as part of the Black Flag Army.

Overview

The Flamethrower attack has a high Rate of Fire (the highest of all units) and deals splash damage with strong multipliers against infantry, buildings, and ships. However, it is countered easily by cavalry and other artillery as an infantry unit. Unlike true artillery units such as the Mortar, the Flamethrower can take some time to destroy buildings, especially with its short siege range. The Flamethrower is best used as a support unit for infantry against massed enemy infantry.

Though the Flamethrower has damage multipliers against ships, its attack range is too short to attack them.

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Disciplined Flamethrower	200 food 200 wood	Upgrades Flamethrowers to Disciplined (+20% hit points and damage)
	Honored Flamethrower	250 food 250 wood	Upgrades Flamethrowers to Honored (+30% hit points and damage); requires Disciplined Flamethrower
Imperial Age	Exalted Flamethrower	1,000 wood 1,000 coin	Upgrades Flamethrowers to Exalted (+50% hit points and damage); requires Honored Flamethrower

Further statistics

As Flamethrowers are unique to the Chinese, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following tables:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, ships, buildings
Weak vs.	Cavalry, shock infantry, artillery
Improvements
Hit points	Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%)
Attack	Armatoloi (+5%) Yoga (+5%) Somali Ajuran Engineers (+20% multiplier vs. Frontier fortification)
Resistance	Somali Oryx Hide Shields (+5% ranged resistance)
Speed	Quechuan Mountaineering (+10%) Akan Fontomfrom (+5%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost) Golden Liberty (-5% coin cost)
Train time	Akan Fontomfrom (-20%) Quechuan Diet (-15%) Immigrants (-10%)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)

Home City Cards

As Flamethrowers are unique to the Chinese, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:

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

Some cards are highlighted with:
Green	TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
Blue	Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds)

• Definitive Edition
• The Asian Dynasties

Shared

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Senegalese Riflemen	Ranged infantry damage +10%; French and Hausa-only ranged infantry damage +15% instead

• "TEAM Senegalese Riflemen" is available to the French and Hausa.

Chinese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Yongle Infrastructure	Delivers 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villager, healing unit, Envoy, and Disciple speed +5%
Mandarin Duck Squad	Delivers 8 Chu Ko Nus and 1 Flamethrower; costs 500 food
1 Flamethrower + 1 Castle Rickshaw	Delivers 1 Flamethrower and 1 Castle Rickshaw
2 Flamethrowers + 1 Castle Rickshaw	Delivers 2 Flamethrowers and 1 Castle Rickshaw
Year of the Dragon	Delivers 1 Flamethrower for each Town Center and 1 Kermond the Pet Monitor Lizard for each Village present on the map
4 Flamethrowers + 1 Castle Rickshaw	Delivers 4 Flamethrowers and 1 Castle Rickshaw
Iron Cap Princes' Army	Delivers 12 Changdao Swordsmen and 2 Flamethrowers; costs 800 food
Siege Hitpoints	Artillery and Flamethrower hit points +15%; grenade trooper hit points +20%
Siege Attack	Artillery and Flamethrower damage +15%; grenade trooper damage +20%
Siege Combat	Artillery hit points and damage +15%; Flamethrower and grenade trooper hit points and damage +20%
Fire Dragon Manual	Delivers 2 Flamethrowers and 1 Flying Crow; grants Disciplined and Honored Flamethrower; Flamethrower and Flying Crow attack Rate of Fire -20%
Western Reforms	Unit hit points and damage +8%
Acupuncture	Unit (except monk) train time -20%; Summer Palace banner army, Flying Crow, and Heavy Cannon spawn time -5%
Banner School	Banner army train time -30%; Summer Palace banner army spawn time -7%
TEAM Engineering School	Artillery, Fixed Gun, Siege Elephant, Flamethrower, Ram, Mantlet, and Haudenosaunee Mantlet train time -15%; Heavy Cannon, Great Bombard, Rocket, Flying Crow, and Gatling Camel train time -5% instead

• "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" does not stack with the Inca "TEAM Inca Bridges" card.

Dutch

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints	Infantry hit points +10%; Dutch-only infantry hit points +15% instead

Ethiopians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Coffee Consumption	Ranged infantry speed +5%

Haudenosaunee

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Scout Infantry	Delivers 1 Native Scout; infantry Line of Sight +8

Inca

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Inca Bridges	Delivers 1 Chasqui; infantry, land villager, healing unit, and Envoy speed +5%

• "TEAM Inca Bridges" does not stack with the Chinese "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" card.

Indians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	Unit hit points and damage +5%

Japanese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Sengoku	Unit upgrades cost -20%

Maltese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Knights of the Round Table	Delivers 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center and Command Post present on the map; unit hit points +2%

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Mariachi	For the next 30 seconds, military building training and research work rate +400%, unit speed +10%

Spanish

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Spanish Inquisition	Delivers 1 Inquisitor; military and economic unit Line of Sight +10

Chinese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Mandarin Duck Squad	Ships 8 Chu Ko Nus and 1 Flamethrower; costs 500 food		25
1 Flamethrower	Ships 1 Flamethrower		1
2 Flamethrowers	Ships 2 Flamethrowers		1
Iron Cap Princes' Army	Ships 12 Changdao Swordsmen and 2 Flamethrowers; costs 1,000 food		10
Siege Hitpoints	Artillery get +15% hit points; Flamethrowers get +20% hit points		10
Siege Attack	Artillery get +15% attack; Flamethrowers get +20% attack		10
Siege Combat	Artillery get +15% hit points and damage; Flamethrowers get +20% hit points and damage		25
Western Reforms	All units get +8% hit points and damage		40
Acupuncture	All units' (except Shaolin Masters, Heavy Cannons, Flying Crows, and Summer Palace banner armies) train time -20%		10
Banner School	Banner army train time -30%; Summer Palace banner army spawn time -7%		10
TEAM Engineering School	Abus Gun, Grenadier, Culverin, Falconet, Mortar, Organ Gun, Mantlet, Ram, Light Cannon, Petard, Horse Artillery, Siege Elephant, Morutaru, Flaming Arrow, Hand Mortar, and Flamethrower train time -30%; Heavy Cannon, Great Bombard, Rocket, and Flying Crow train time -5%		25

Dutch

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints	Infantry get +15% hit points		10

Indians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	All units get +5% hit points and damage		25

Iroquois

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Scout Infantry	Infantry get +8 Line of Sight		10

Japanese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades	Unit upgrades cost -20%		1

Russians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Dueling School	Infantry (except Skull Knights), Old Han Army, and Territorial Army train time -25%; Black Flag Army, Standard Army, Ming Army, and Imperial Army train time -12%		25

Spanish

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Inquisition	All units get +10 Line of Sight		10

Changelog

The Asian Dynasties

• Flamethrowers take 4 population.
• The Flamethrower is trained as part of the Black Flag Army.
• The Disciplined, Honored and Exalted upgrade for Flamethrowers grants 30%, 35% and 60% extra hit points and damage respectively.

Definitive Edition

• The Flamethrower is no longer trained as part of the Black Flag Army.
• The Disciplined, Honored and Exalted upgrade for Flamethrowers grants 20%, 30% and 50% extra hit points and damage respectively.

Knights of the Mediterranean

• With update 14.43676, Flamethrowers take 3 population.

Trivia

• When destroyed, the Flamethrower will explode, although the explosion causes no damage and is purely aesthetic.

History

“

The flamethrower was the first use of gunpowder in warfare, before it was imbued with enough saltpeter to explode. The Chinese flamethrower design, the Pen Huo Qi, was based on a seventh-century Byzantine model, which featured an inconsistent spurting action. The Chinese desired a more continuous flame, and achieved it by developing a dual bellows system. Two bellows allowed for the creation of an unbroken stream of the chemical fuel naptha, which could then be ignited. The Chinese flamethrower was used both as a defensive weapon and a siege unit. It was often fixed on a wall, positioned to fire down on incoming soldiers and siege weapons. However, the most common depiction of the flamethrower portrays it as mounted on a four-wheeled pushcart. This mobility most likely allowed the flamethrower to be used on the battlefield, to deter enemy attacks, as well as to project a shield of flame for advancing soldiers.

”

Gallery

An in-game Flamethrower

The Flamethrower's history portrait

The icon from the website

In-game Flamethrower in the Definitive Edition

In-game Disciplined Flamethrower in the Definitive Edition

In-game Honored/Exalted Flamethrower in the Definitive Edition

Flamethrower in The Asian Dynasties and the Definitive Edition

Flamethrower image from the Compendium section