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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Three Kingdoms. For other uses, see Grenadier. |
| “ | Jurchen unique Gunpowder Unit with ranged blast attack, but cannot attack at close range. Strong vs. Infantry and tight groups of units. Weak vs. Ranged Soldiers and units at close range. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Grenadier is the second unique unit of the Jurchens in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Three Kingdoms. It is a gunpowder unit that can be trained at the Archery Range once the Castle Age is reached. It throws explosive iron balls at its target, doing Area of Effect damage. It has no Elite upgrade. It can be described as an organic Mangonel with low accuracy and no attack ground ability. Like the Mangonel, Grenadiers have minimum range and their attacks cause friendly fire.
Tactics[]
The Grenadier serves as a Castle Age alternative to the Hand Cannoneer, having a significant bonus against infantry, but is far more gold-intensive than the aforementioned units. Combined with its low hit points, Grenadiers need to be protected or they will easily suffer costly losses. They also do not do well in small numbers and require being massed to be effective due to their extremely low accuracy and slow attack speed.
Compared to the aforementioned units, the blast radius on the Grenadier's attack makes it far more effective at destroying groups of infantry, but it does less single-target damage output. Condotierri and Huskarls are still a threat, as they can negate the Grenadier's damage and deal bonus damage against them, but Grenadiers in large numbers can still win that fight with micromanagement, especially with Thunderclap Bombs.
Crossbowmen and Elite Skirmishers will outrange them, making for a generally bad matchup for Grenadiers in practice, especially with the Skirmishers' anti-archer bonus and high pierce armor. Rattan Archers are incredibly effective against Grenadiers, and Genitours will also trade very cost-effectively against them.
Against cavalry, Grenadiers are terrible due to their high cost, low durability, and minimum range, so enemy cavalry should be avoided as much as possible.
Against siege units, Grenadiers are generally a poor choice, though they have some bonus damage against rams. Mangonels can kill them with one shot and outrange them, and Scorpions are also very dangerous, so should be avoided if possible.
Thunderclap Bombs is an incredibly important upgrade for Grenadiers due to their lack of an Elite upgrade, giving them a drastic (if somewhat unpredictable) improvement in damage output. It makes them much more effective against various unit types and makes attacking them in melee range riskier since they will explode on death, potentially taking their attackers with them.
The splash damage of Grenadiers can harm allied units, but this is somewhat mitigated by the Jurchens' bonus which reduces friendly fire damage by half. This does not extend to the Jurchens' teammates, however, so they will take full damage from allied Grenadiers (unless they are also Jurchens).
If faced with enemy Grenadiers, putting units in staggered formation is highly advised to minimize their splash damage.
Further statistics[]
As Grenadiers are unique to the Jurchens, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Infantry, rams, buildings, units in dense formation |
| Weak vs. | Cavalry, Elite Skirmishers, Genitours, Rattan Archers, siege weapons |
| Conditional matchups | Archers (assuming Grenadiers can close the range), Monks |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Siege Engineers (+20% against buildings)
|
 Range
|
Siege Engineers (+1)
|
| Accuracy |  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
|
| Additional projectiles |  Thunderclap Bombs (Projectiles detonate some time after landing; Grenadiers detonate when defeated)
|
| Armor |  Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1) Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1) Ring Archer Armor (+1/+2)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription (+33%)
|
Trivia[]
- The Grenadier is the only gunpowder unit which benefits from Ballistics.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
