Flying Crow

Flying Crow
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Artillery
Civilization	Chinese
Age	Commerce Age
Training
Trained at	Confucian Academy
Wood	100
Coin	500
Training time	240 seconds (automatically)
Statistics
Hit points	225
Resists	75% vs. Ranged
Speed	3.0 (Limber) 1.2 (Bombard)
Line of Sight	32
Population	7
XP bounty	60
Siege attack
Damage	190
Multipliers	x2.0 vs. Ship x2.0 vs. Building x0.5 vs. Arrow Knight x0.5 vs. Cavalry
Range	18
Area of Effect	3
Rate of Fire	5.0

“	Heavy artillery that fires a rocket and is good against infantry or buildings.	”
—In-game description

The Flying Crow is an artillery in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Chinese and are trained automatically by the Confucian Academy wonder or can be shipped from the Home City. Similar to the Rocket, it sends a gunpowder-powered missile effective against units and buildings.

Overview

Flying Crows can be fielded very early in the game if the Confucian Academy is built to advance into the Commerce Age, though it takes four minutes for the wonder to produce one, which is about twice the training time of a Heavy Cannon.

The Flying Crow works similarly to the British Rocket; therefore, the usage of both is in many ways the same. It is best used against buildings and large masses of infantry as it deals damage in an area of 3, increased by 1 in the Fortress Age and another 1 in the Industrial Age for a total of 5, equal to a Great Bombard. It starts out with a poor range of only 18 which is the same as an Abus Gun, but increases by 5 in the Fortress Age and another 5 in the Industrial Age, for a total of 28. It is best used to soften an enemy advance at this range, especially against Skirmishers, because of their low hit points, and heavy infantry, as the Chinese Arquebusier is not as effective as the European Skirmisher.

The Flying Crow, like any other artillery unit, is susceptible to cavalry assaults and other artillery, such as the Culverin. They themselves though are quite effective against weaker artillery units such as Horse Artillery or Morutaru and combined with Keshiks or Steppe Riders, they can be quite effective.

Upgrades

The Flying Crow is automatically upgraded at every Age up starting in the Fortress Age.

+25% hit points and attack, +5 range, +1 AOE

+25% hit points and attack, +5 range, +1 AOE

+50% hit points and attack

Further statistics

As Flying Crows are unique to the Chinese, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, ships, buildings
Weak vs.	Artillery especially Culverins, Arrow Knights, cavalry
Improvements
Speed	Apache Endurance (+5%)
Creation speed	Quechuan Diet (-10%)

Home City Cards

As Flying Crows 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 Flying Crow

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Purple: Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times Chinese Card Description Age HC level Western Reforms All units get +8% hit points and attack 40 Ever Victorious Army Ships 8 Iron Flails and 3 Flying Crows; costs 2,000 food 40 1 Flying Crow Ships 1 Flying Crow N/A 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 attack; Flamethrowers get +20% hit points and attack 25 2 Flying Crows Ships 2 Flying Crows 40 Acupuncture Unit train time -20% 10 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 -30%; 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 The TEAM Artillery Hitpoints card is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (in the Fortress Age). Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10

Trivia

• Before the Definitive Edition, the Flying Crow was the only artillery that was available in the Commerce Age. With the release of the Definitive Edition, however, this exclusivity was shared with the Leather Cannon.
• When destroyed, the Flying Crow explodes in a fireworks display, although the explosion causes no damage and is purely aesthetic.

History

“

The first recorded uses of such a rocket-propelled weapon occurred in 969 CE. The flying crow was an evolution of this early rocket technology, and was utilized as both a physical and psychological weapon. Its two wings allowed for natural lift and stabilization and also acted as carriage for the four rockets (two under each wing) that propelled the weapon through the air. At a certain stage of flight, the rockets would flare up and ignite the gunpowder within. The flying crow was said to fly to heights above 1,000 feet and eventually crash into the ground. Detonating near an enemy encampment, it sent a rain of fire down upon its targets. The flying crow was constructed of bamboo laths, much like a basket, and then covered with paper to strengthen its shape. Two variations on this avian theme have been recorded in the history of Chinese siege warfare, the “flying crow with magic fire,” a larger model with four-rocket propulsion, and the “spiritual flying duck,” a smaller model using only two rockets.

”

Gallery

A Flying Crow in Bombard mode

A Flying Crow in Limber mode

The Flying Crow's history portrait

A Flying Crow in-game

Flying Crows can become a serious threat to infantry.

The "Flying Crow with Magic Fire" (shen huo fei ya), an aerodynamic winged rocket bomb from Huolongjing, ca. 1350.

Model of the winged rocket-bomb (flying crow of Huolongjing) to showing the rocket underneath.

Reconstruction of the rocket-containing flying bomb to show the structure of the wings. It is called "free-flying enemy-pounding thundercrash bomb" (feikhung chi tsei chen-thien-lei phao).