Forest Prowler

Forest Prowler
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
Type	Infantry Light infantry* Ranged infantry Gunpowder trooper Rifle infantry*
Civilization(s)	Haudenosaunee
Age	Fortress Age
Training
Trained at	War Hut Fort American Citadel
Cost	50 Food 65 Coin 1 Population
Train time	36 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	108
Resistance	30% Ranged
Speed	4.0
Line of Sight	24
Ability	Stealth mode
Train XP	12
Kill XP	12
Ranged attack
Damage	15.2 Ranged
Range	2-20
Rate of Fire	3.0
Bonus damage	2.5x vs. Light ranged cavalry 2.5x vs. Ranged shock infantry 2.0x vs. Heavy infantry 0.6x vs. Cavalry 0.6x vs. Shock infantry*
Siege attack
Damage	12 Siege
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0
Hand attack
Damage	7 Hand
Rate of Fire	1.5
Bonus damage	2.0x vs. Light ranged cavalry 2.0x vs. Ranged shock infantry 2.0x vs. Heavy infantry 0.75x vs. Cavalry 0.75x vs. Shock infantry

“	Stealthy ranged infantry. Good against infantry and in an ambush.	”
—In-game description

The Forest Prowler is a gunpowder ranged infantry unit in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs that is unique to the Haudenosaunee and can be trained at the War Hut once the Fortress Age is reached.

Overview

The Forest Prowler has a long range and the stealth ability. It's good against heavy infantry and light cavalry at a range, while it's at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand fighting versus most units.

An excellent unit to use as an ambush warrior by switching to stealth and placed at a strategic point, such as a mountain pass on the map Himalayas-Upper, or Painted Desert. By combining them with Light Cannon they can take on any unit except rushing heavy cavalry such as Hussars, Sipahis, and Cuirassiers, thus it is wise to protect these expensive (when compared to Aennas) warriors with a screen of Tomahawks or a flanking force of Musket Riders.

The quality of Forest Prowlers are unparallelled when fighting units such as Doppelsoldners, Samurai, Musketeers, Ashigaru, Landsknechts, to name a few. They are more effective against light cavalry than most other rifle-armed units, and can take down Hussars with relative ease, if not forced into hand combat. Forest Prowlers are at perhaps their most effective in Turtles, as they can be within the protection of walls, using their superior range to slaughter enemy units endeavoring to siege the walls. When walls possess Bastion, the power of this strategy is compounded.

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Elite Forest Prowlers	Automatically	Upgrades Forest Prowlers to Elite (+25% hit points and damage)
	Champion Forest Prowlers	400 wood 200 coin	Upgrades Forest Prowlers to Champion (+25% hit points and damage)
Imperial Age	Legendary Forest Prowlers	1,500 wood 1,500 coin	Upgrades Forest Prowlers to Legendary (+50% hit points and damage); requires Champion Forest Prowlers

Further statistics

As Forest Prowlers are unique to the Haudenosaunee, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Heavy infantry, light ranged cavalry, ranged shock infantry
Weak vs.	Heavy cavalry, hand shock infantry, counter-skirmishers, artillery
Improvements
Hit points	Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%)
Attack	Smokeless Powder (+10%) Armatoloi (+5%) Yoga (+5%) Clenched Fist (+25% hand damage) Somali Jile Daggers (-35% hand attack Rate of Fire) Counter Infantry Rifling (+1.0 multiplier vs. heavy infantry) Kalthoff Repeaters (+0.1 multiplier vs. light infantry)
Resistance	Somali Oryx Hide Shields (+5% ranged resistance)
Speed	Quechuan Mountaineering (+10%) Akan Fontomfrom (+5%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Line of Sight	Lacrosse (+2) Schützenfest (+1)
Range	Lacrosse (+2) Schützenfest (+1)
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 Forest Prowlers are unique to the Haudenosaunee, 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 Forest Prowler

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%

• "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%

French

Card	Description	Age
TEAM House of Bonaparte	Enables Skirmisher, Cassador, Forest Prowler, Wakina Rifle, Sharpshooter, Neftenya, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army to be trained from the Commerce Age; Bersagliere from the Fortress Age; Strelet, Jaeger, Longbowman, Salteador, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, Yumi Archer, Jungle Bowman, and Desert Archer train time -20%; Leather Cannon train time -40%

Haudenosaunee

Card	Description	Age
6 Forest Prowlers	Delivers 6 Forest Prowlers
8 Forest Prowlers	Delivers 8 Forest Prowlers
13 Forest Prowlers	Delivers 13 Forest Prowlers
Warhut Warrior Attack	Aenna, Tomahawk, and Forest Prowler damage +15%
Warhut Warrior Hitpoints	Aenna, Tomahawk, and Forest Prowler hit points +15%
Warhut Warrior Combat	Aenna, Tomahawk, and Forest Prowler hit points and damage +15%
TEAM Scout Infantry	Delivers 1 Native Scout; infantry Line of Sight +8
Conservative Tactics	Infantry hit points and damage +10%
Advanced War Huts	War Hut build limit +6, hit points +25%; Aenna, Tomahawk, and Forest Prowler train time -40%
Battlefield Construction	Enables Aennas, Tomahawks, and Forest Prowlers to build War Huts, Corrals, and Siege Workshops
Wampum	Unit train bounty +35%, train time -20%, siege unit and artillery train time -5% instead; building build bounty +35%
Seneca Support	Delivers 10 Forest Prowlers and 2 Travois; costs 1,000 coin
National Unity	Cayuga Support, Onondaga Support, Seneca Support, Tuscarora Support, Oneida Support, and Mohawk Support shipment cost -25%

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%

Portuguese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints	Gunpowder trooper hit points +15%

Spanish

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

Dutch

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

French

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Ranged Infantry Attack	Gunpowder trooper and archers get +15% attack		10
TEAM Early Skirmishers	Skirmishers, Cassadores, Forest Prowlers, Wakina Rifles, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army can be trained in the Commerce Age; Longbowman, Strelet, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, and Yumi Archer train time -20%		25

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
6 Forest Prowlers	Ships 6 Forest Prowlers		1
8 Forest Prowlers	Ships 8 Forest Prowlers		10
9 Forest Prowlers	Ships 9 Forest Prowlers		10
Infantry Attack	Infantry get +15% attack		10
Infantry Hitpoints	Infantry get +15% hit points		10
Infantry Combat	Infantry get +15% hit points and damage		25
TEAM Scout Infantry	Infantry get +8 Line of Sight		10
Battlefield Construction	Aennas, Tomahawks, and Forest Prowlers can build War Huts, Corrals, and Siege Workshops		25
Seneca Support	Ships 10 Forest Prowlers and 2 Travois; costs 1,000 coin		1
National Unity	Cayuga Support, Onondaga Support, Seneca Support, Tuscarora Support, Oneida Support, and Mohawk Support shipments cost -25%		40

Japanese

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

Portuguese

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

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 WarChiefs

• Forest Prowlers train in 33 seconds, have 110 hit points and and 16 ranged damage.

The Asian Dynasties

• With patch 1.01, Forest Prowlers have a ×2.0 ranged multiplier against light ranged cavalry and Eagle Runner Knights, and ×0.75 against cavalry and Coyote Runners.

Definitive Edition

• Forest Prowlers have a ×2.0 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and ranged shock infantry, and ×0.75 against cavalry and hand shock infantry.
• With update 23511, the Forest Prowler is tagged as rifle infantry.

Knights of the Mediterranean

• With update 13.9057, the Forest Prowler is tagged as light infantry.
• With update 13.58326, Forest Prowlers 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 15.30007, Forest Prowlers have 108 hit points and 15.2 ranged damage.
• With update 15.59076, Forest Prowlers train in 36 seconds.

History

“

The classic stereotype of the Iroquois, even today, is the stealthy warrior slinking cat-like through the woods, senses keen, and armed with a loaded musket. Iroquois ambushes could be devastating, as unseen enemies opened fire on European troop columns from bushes and trees. The usual response for a defeated enemy was to retreat to a town or fort, which is when of course the Iroquois would unleash their feared siege techniques. The Iroquois preferred this kind of shadowy warfare. Its effectiveness was proven by the fact that the Americans adopted these techniques in their revolution against the British in 1776. The Americans had been taught how to use the forests by the Iroquois themselves, in their periodic conflicts.

”

Trivia

• Despite being introduced in The WarChiefs, the unit's concept art appears on the original Age of Empires III cover art.
• The Forest Prowler had many alternate names during development. It was called the Musket Warrior, Musket Runner, Forest Runner, and finally Forest Prowler. It is unknown if any of those names coincided with different unit stats or roles. The Forest Prowler's internal file name is still xpMusketWarrior and its icon and portrait is iro_forrest_runner.

Gallery

An in game (Elite) Forest Prowler.

An in game Champion/Legendary Forest Prowler.

Forest Prowler concept art. Notice that it appears on the cover art of the original Age of Empires III.

Another Forest Prowler concept art

An in-game (Elite) Forest Prowler in the Definitive Edition

An in-game Champion/Legendary Forest Prowler in the Definitive Edition

Forest Prowler image from the Compendium section