Horse Artillery

Horse Artillery
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
Type	Artillery
Civilization	See description
Age	Industrial Age
Training
Trained at	Artillery Foundry
Wood	100
Coin	500
Training time	45 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	200
Resists	75% vs. Ranged
Speed	6.0 (Limber) 2.40 (Bombard)
Line of Sight	30
Population	6
XP train bounty	60
XP bounty	60
Siege attack
Damage	125
Multipliers	x3.0 vs. Infantry x3.0 vs. Ship x2.0 vs. Building x0.5 vs. Arrow Knights
Range	26
Area of Effect	3
Rate of Fire	4.0

“	Quick moving artillery. Strong against infantry.	”
—In-game description

The Horse Artillery is an artillery unit in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs that can be trained at the Artillery Foundry once the Fortress Age is reached. It is similar to the Falconet but has slightly more attack and moves faster.

Horse Artillery is available to European civilizations except John Black's Mercenaries (Act II: Ice campaign) and Knights of St. John (Act I: Blood campaign).

Overview

The Horse Artillery is similar to the Falconet in that it has high damage, a medium-low rate of fire, low hit points, and a ranged resistance of 75%. It is designed to counter all infantry and naval units, and destroys buildings with relative ease. The Horse Artillery deals 25% more damage than the Falconet and is very fast for an artillery unit, moving faster than a Falconet or any normal Infantry, but still not quite as fast as a normal cavalry unit. It costs 100 coin and 1 population more than a Falconet, and cannot be built until the Industrial Age. In general, Horse Artillery is a better choice than a Falconet, as it is more cost and population effective and is faster. Trunion can aid the horse artillery well, as it makes them fast enough to flee from most cavalry units such as ranged cavalry and melee cavalry such as Hussars.

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Heavy Horse Guns	250 food, 250 wood	Upgrades Horse Artillery to Heavy Horse Guns (+25% hit points and attack)
	Imperial Horse Artillery	1,500 wood, 1,500 coin	Upgrades Heavy Horse Guns to Imperial Horse Guns (+50% hit points and attack); requires Heavy Horse Guns

Civilization differences

• Chinese and Indians can get Horse Artillery by allying with the French at the Consulate (requires a level 25 Home City) which provides the French Expeditionary Army that includes 2 Horse Artillery. Unlike their regular counterpart, these Horse Artillery are automatically upgraded in the Industrial Age and the Imperial Age (see here for the exact values).

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, ships, buildings
Weak vs.	Cavalry, Culverins, Arrow Knights
Improvements
Hit points	Professional Gunners (+10%)
Attack	Heated Shot (+1.5x multiplier vs. ships)
Sight	Town Watch (+2) Gunner's Quadrant (+6)
Speed	Trunion (+15%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Creation speed	Quechuan Diet (-10%)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)
Penalties	Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Horse Artillery

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Chinese Card Description Age HC level 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 -15%; Heavy Cannon, Rocket, Great Bombard, and Flying Crow train time -5%; Black Flag Army and Mongolian Army train time -15% 25 Recruit Wokou +5 Horse Artillery Ships a Wokou Junk with 5 Horse Artillery; costs 2,000 coin 10 Europeans Card Description Age HC level TEAM Artillery Hitpoints Artillery, Abus Guns, and Grenadiers get +15% hit points 10 2 Horse Artillery Ships 2 Horse Artillery (also +4 Uhlans for the Germans) 10 3 Horse Artillery Ships 3 Horse Artillery (also +4 Uhlans for the Germans) 40 Engineering School Artillery train time -30%; Heavy Cannon/Great Bombard train time -10% 25 The TEAM Artillery Hitpoints card is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (in the Fortress Age). The 2 Horse Artillery card is available to British, Germans, Ottomans, and Portuguese. The 3 Horse Artillery card is available to British, Germans, Portuguese, and Swedes. The Engineering School card is available to French, Ottomans, Portuguese, and Swedes. French Card Description Age HC level Gribeauval System Falconets, Culverins, and Horse Artillery get +25% attack; Heavy Cannons get +20% attack 40 Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Japanese Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades Unit upgrades cost -20% 1 Ottomans Card Description Age HC level Artillery Attack Artillery, Abus Guns, and Grenadiers get +15% attack 25 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10 Swedes Card Description Age Case Shot Leather Cannons, Falconets, Culverins, Horse Artillery and Heavy Cannons get the Case Shot attack (used against enemies within half of the normal range or closer, which deals 10% of the normal damage with 7 projectiles and +2 AOE, but with a multiplier of x0.5 against cavalry and shock infantry, and also a x2.0 multiplier against infantry for Culverins) TEAM Engineering School Artillery, Grenade Trooper, Abus Gun, Petard, Flamethrower, Black Flag Army, Mongolian Army, Ram, and Mantlet train time -15%; Heavy Cannon, Rocket, Great Bombard, and Flying Crow train time -5%

History

“

Sometime around the sixteenth century, military planners began to see the value of using horses to maneuver light artillery to the front lines of battle. European records show that some commanders integrated their horse artillery units with infantry units and even cavalry. The mobility of horse artillery units offered military leaders increased options in dealing with fluid and rapidly changing battlefield conditions.

”

Gallery

A Horse Artillery in Bombard mode

A Horse Artillery in Limber mode

A lifesize model of a Swedish 1850s horse artillery team towing a light artillery piece (Swedish Army Museum, Stockholm.)

A Heavy Horse Gun in Limber mode

A Heavy Horse Gun in Bombard mode