“ | Early automatic-fire weapon. Better against infantry than buildings. | ” |
—In-game description |
The Gatling Gun is an artillery unit introduced in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs that is unique to revolting European civilizations and can be trained at the Artillery Foundry. A precursor to modern-day machine guns, the Gatling Gun fires at a rapid rate, which tears apart infantry at a brisk pace.
In the Definitive Edition, Gatling Guns are only available to the United States and their revolutionary version. The former can train Gatling Guns at the Artillery Foundry once the Fortress Age is reached and can upgrade them, while the latter can also train Gatling Guns at the Fort and they have 25% more hit points but cannot be upgraded.
Overview[]
The Gatling Gun is unusual compared to the other artillery pieces in the game, with the exception of the Organ Gun. While devastating against infantry they are less effective against cavalry and buildings, doing reduced damage against them. However, due to their high rate of fire they can still do good damage against them if in groups.
Upgrades[]
The Gatling Gun upgrades are only available to the United States.
Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
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250 food, 250 wood |
Upgrades Gatling Guns to Heavy Gatling Guns (+25% hit points and attack) | |
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1,500 wood, 1,500 coin |
Upgrades Gatling Guns to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Heavy Gatling Guns |
Further statistics[]
As Gatling Guns are unique to United States and their revolutionary counterpart, only technologies that they/their base civilizations have access to are shown in the following table:
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
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Strong vs. | Infantry |
Weak vs. | Cavalry, artillery especially Culverins, Shock Infantry, Arrow Knights, ships |
Improvements | |
Hit points | ![]() |
Attack | ![]() |
Sight | ![]() ![]() |
Speed | ![]() ![]() |
Creation speed | ![]() |
Train cost | ![]() |
Penalties | ![]() |
Home City Cards[]
As Gatling Guns are unique to the United States and their revolutionary counterpart, only their (base civilizations') cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables (for the revolutionary US player themselves, non-TEAM cards will only be applied if they are sent before revolting):
- Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Gatling Gun
- Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
- Purple: Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times
Europeans[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
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Artillery, Abus Guns, and Grenadiers get +15% hit points | 10 | |
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Artillery train time -40%; Heavy Cannon/Great Bombard train time -10% | 25 |
- The TEAM Artillery Hitpoints card is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (in the Fortress Age).
- The Engineering School card is available to French, Ottomans (at a level 10 Home City), and Portuguese.
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
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All units get +5% hit points and attack | 25 |
Ottomans[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
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Artillery, Abus Guns, and Grenadiers get +15% attack | 25 |
Revolutionary[]
Card | Description |
---|---|
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Ships 4 Gatling Guns |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
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All units get +10 LOS | 10 |
United States[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
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Ships 2 Gatling Guns for the entire team | |
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Gatling Guns fire continuously instead of in bursts | |
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Ships 3 → 2 → 1 Gatling Gun(s); Resets after every three uses (4th, 7th, 10th, etc.) |
Changelog[]
The WarChiefs[]
- Gatling Guns are avaliable to all revolutionary civilizations.
- They cost 100 wood, 300 coin, give 40 XP when trained or killed, and train in 45 seconds.
Definitive Edition[]
- Gatling Guns are only available to the revolutionary United States.
- With the introduction of the United States, they can also train Gatling Guns.
- With update 23511, Gatling Guns cost 100 wood, 250 coin, give 35 XP when trained or killed, and train in 38 seconds.
Knights of the Mediterranean[]
- With update 13.9057, Steamers can train Gatling Guns for the United States.
Trivia[]
- Originally, the Gatling Gun shared the same portrait as the Organ Gun in-game, even though it had its own portrait in the game files (as seen above) which was used by the 4 Gatling Guns Home City Card in the Revolution Deck. That was fixed in the Definitive Edition.
- The Gatling Gun has the second fastest rate-of-fire after the Flamethrower, together with the Organ Gun, if every shot from a volley is counted separately.
- The Gatling Gun were originally planned to be trained in the Industrial Age instead of by revolting first.
- The Gatling Gun unit model visually resembles a Colt 1874 Gatling gun. This is slightly anachronistic considering the time period the game and its expansions were set in (between the 1500s and the year 1850).
- The in-game history section mentions the Gatling Gun's invention taking place in 1861. In reality, the Gatling gun's final designs were completed in 1862 and the weapon was first fielded for service in 1863 during the American Civil War.
- If the player is playing with the Portuguese and researches the Rabaulds upgrade at the Artillery Foundry and then revolts, they will get a Gatling Gun with a unique model. However, this will not affect the unit's statistics. This feature was removed in the Definitive Edition.
- This model of the Gatling Gun uses a Broadwell Drum, developed in 1870 by Lewis W. Broadwell.
- With the release of the United States civilization, the Gatling Gun received visual upgrades, which change as U.S. Army uniforms evolve over the years:
- The unupgraded Gatling Gun crew wear uniforms of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), but the Gatling Gun was first fielded for service in 1863 during the American Civil War. This may be a reference to soldiers wearing American Revolutionary Uniforms in the American Civil War.[1] This visual is also used by the Gatling Guns of the revolutionary civilizations since update 23511.
- The Heavy Gatling Gun crew wear uniforms similar to those used by the U.S. Army during the War of 1812.
- The Imperial Gatling Gun crew wear uniforms similar to those worn during the American Civil War, and the Gatling Gun model uses the Accles Drum, developed in 1883 by James George Accles. This visual was used by the Gatling Guns of the revolutionary civilizations before update 23511, but the Gatling Gun model used the conventional vertical magazine.
History[]
“ | The Gatling gun was invented by Richard Gatling in 1861. Although not precisely a machine gun, it nonetheless offered devastating firepower for its time. The operator of the gun would turn a hand crank, which rotated six gun barrels around a central shaft. Cartridges were continuously fed into the barrels as they made their rotation. The Gatling gun saw its first limited action on the battlefields of the U.S. Civil War, where its rapid fire of up to 600 rounds a minute proved extremely deadly. The gun was also used in multiple conflicts worldwide during the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, until it eventually was replaced by the modern machine gun, with its automatic action. | ” |