Like the Musketeer, Highlanders are solid ranged units that are effective against cavalry and decent against heavy infantry. Highlanders are more effective against infantry than their counterparts simply because they have such high damage, though they are still vulnerable to light infantry and artillery who outrange them. They are also relatively effective against buildings. With all hit point improvement upgrades (Cree or Navajo) and cards (Dutch, Indians, and Portuguese allies), the Spanish Scottish Highlander is the ranged infantry with the highest hit points, 700.
In some scenarios of the Act I: Blood campaign, a number of Highlanders, while they cannot be trained by Knights of St. John, accompany the knights, most likely because of the presence of Scottish knight hero Morgan Black. In Act III: India of The Asian Dynasties, the East India Company deploys Highlanders against the rebelling Indians.
The Hire Scottish Highlanders card is available to British, Russians, and Spanish.
The Hire Highland Mercenary Army card is not available to Ottomans and Portuguese, and ships 1 extra Highlander, Hackapell, and Swiss Pikeman for the Germans.
The Highlanders were clansmen warriors and soldiers from the highlands of Scotland. A group of Highlanders raised in 1745 under the banner of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, also known as Bonnie Prince Charles or the Young Pretender, fought against English royalist armies with the goal of restoring the Scottish line of kings (the Stuarts) to the throne of England. They were ultimately unsuccessful and many highlanders scattered to mainland Europe and America to escape the ruthless oppression of the Scottish Highlands. In their new homes, regiments of these Scotsmen fought as part of other armies.
Highlanders carried swords, daggers and rifles. They wore kilts, bonnets (a seamless and brimless woolen cap typically with a strip of tartan around the headband) and double-breasted coats.
Flint Lock (+10%)
Thin Red Line (+20%, British only)
Corselet (+25%, Spanish only)
Cree Tanning (+5%)
Navajo Weaving (+5%)
Socket Bayonet (+20% melee attack)
Paper Cartridge (+15%)
Customized Merc Weapons (+30%, John Black's Mercenaries only)
Iroquois Lacrosse (+10%, vanilla Age of Empires III only)
Yoga (+5%)
Smokeless Powder (+30% siege attack)
Clenched Fist (+30% melee attack)
Military Drummers (+10%)
Tilly's Discipline (+20% speed, Germans only)
Incan Road-building (+20%)
Apache Endurance (+5%)
Town Watch (+2)
Standing Army (-25%)
Incan Chasquis Messengers (-25%)
Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
The Black Watch (ships 8 Highlanders, British only)
Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only)
