"Heavy ranged infantry. Armed with a bayonet to beat cavalry."
—In-game description
The Musketeer is a ranged heavy gunpowder infantry in Age of Empires III that can be trained at Barracks, Fort, and Galleon. It is armed with a smoothbore musket to fight other infantry at range and a bayonet to fight cavalry in melee combat.
Musketeers are available to European civilizations except Dutch, Germans, Ottomans (who have Janissaries instead), and Knights of St. John (Act I: Blood campaign).
Overview 
Edit
Musketeers fire at a slower rate compared to archer units such as the Longbowman, and are vulnerable against massed artillery and light infantry.
In The WarChiefs, Spanish Musketeers becomes the most damaging, population-effective of all Musketeers thanks to the Unction effect.
Upgrades Edit
| Age | Improvement | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  | 200 wood, 200 coin | Upgrades Musketeers to Veteran (+20% hit points and attack) |
 |  | 600 wood, 600 coin | Upgrades Musketeers to Guard (+30% hit points and attack); requires Veteran Musketeers |
 |  | 1,500 wood, 1,500 coin | Upgrades Musketeers to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Guard Musketeers |
British Edit
| Age | Improvement | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| | 1,000 wood, 1,000 coin | Upgrades Musketeers to Redcoat Musketeers (Guard Musketeers with +10% hit points and attack); requires Veteran Musketeer |
| | 1,500 wood, 1,500 coin | Upgrades Redcoat Musketeers to Imperial Redcoats (+50% hit points and attack); requires Redcoats |
Portuguese Edit
| Age | Improvement | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| | 1,000 wood, 1,000 coin | Upgrades Musketeers to Guerreiro Musketeers (Guard Musketeers with +10% hit points and attack); requires Veteran Musketeer |
| | 1,500 wood, 1,500 coin | Upgrades Guerreiro Musketeers to Imperial Guerreiros (+50% hit points and attack); requires Guerreiros |
Civilization differences Edit
- As seen above, British and Portuguese can upgrade Musketeers to Royal Guard and Imperial Guard levels.
- While the Dutch cannot train Musketeers, they can ship 30 Guard Musketeers through Stadhouders.
- The Russians train Musketeers in groups of five at the Blockhouse.
- Asian civilizations can get Musketeers by allying with British, Dutch, and Portuguese at the Consulate, which provides armies and technologies that includes Musketeers (named Redcoat for the British, Stadhouder for the Dutch, Guerreiro for the Portuguese) listed below. These Musketeers start with +10% hit points and attack than their regular counterpart, and are automatically upgraded in every Age starting from the Fortress Age (see here for the exact values).
- British (Chinese and Indians): British Expeditionary Company (6 Musketeers) and British Expeditionary Force (8 Musketeers)
- Dutch (Japanese, requires a level 40 Home City): Dutch Expeditionary Company (6 Musketeers), Dutch Expeditionary Force (6 Musketeers), and Dutch Brigade (28 Musketeers)
- Portuguese (Indians and Japanese): Portuguese Expeditionary Army (13 Musketeers)
Further statistics Edit
As the Musketeer cannot be trained by Germans and Ottomans, only improvements available to other European civilizations (including the Dutch who can ship a limited number of Musketeers, the campaign-only John Black's Mercenaries and United States, and native improvements) are listed here.
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Cavalry, light infantry, heavy infantry |
| Weak vs. | Skirmishers, archers, artillery |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Flint Lock (+10%) Thin Red Line (+20%, British only) Corselet (+25%, Spanish only) Grand Encampment (+25%, United States only) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
|
| Attack |  Socket Bayonet (+20% melee attack) Paper Cartridge (+15%) Iroquois Lacrosse (+10%, vanilla Age of Empires III only) Yoga (+5%) Smokeless Powder (+30% siege attack) Clenched Fist (+30% melee attack)
|
| Speed |  Military Drummers (+10%) Incan Road-building (+20%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
|
| Sight |  Town Watch (+2)
|
| Creation speed |  Standing Army (-25%) Incan Chasquis Messengers (-25%)
|
| Train cost |  Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
|
| Other |  Stadhouders (ships 30 Guard Musketeers, Dutch only) Westernization (grants Veteran upgrade, Russians only) Petrine Reforms (grants Guard upgrade, Russians only) Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)
|
| Penalties | Thin Red Line (-25% speed, British only) Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only) Corselet (-15% speed, Spanish only) Grand Encampment (-25% speed, United States only)
|
Home City Cards Edit
As the Musketeer is exclusive to European civilizations except Dutch, Germans, and Ottomans, only other civilizations' TEAM cards that affects them are listed here.
Since the Dutch can ship a limited number of Musketeers but cannot train them otherwise, Dutch cards that affects Musketeers are included as well.
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Musketeer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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British
|
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Musketeers and Grenadiers get +15% attack |  | 10 |
 | Musketeers, Grenadiers, Sepoys, and Ashigaru Musketeers get +15% hit points | | 10 |
 | Musketeers and Grenadiers get +15% hit points and attack |  | 25 |
Dutch Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Infantry gets +15% hit points | | 10 |
Europeans Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Ships 6 Musketeers | | 1 |
 | Ships 8 Musketeers | | 1 |
 | Ships 14 Musketeers |  | 10 |
 | Ships 9 Musketeers | | 10 |
 | Ships 16 Musketeers | | 25 |
 | Infantry train time -40% | | 10 |
- The 6 Musketeers, 8 Musketeers, 14 Musketeers, and 19 Musketeers cards are available to British and Portuguese.
- The 16 Musketeers card is available to British, Portuguese, and Russians (at a level 1 Home City).
French Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Ranged infantry gets +15% attack | | 10 |
Indians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | All units get +5% hit points and attack | | 25 |
Iroquois Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Infantry gets +8 LOS | | 10 |
Japanese Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Unit upgrades cost -20% | | 1 |
Portuguese Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Ships 10 Musketeers | | 10 |
 | Gunpowder infantry gets +15% hit points | | 10 |
 | Musketeers and Cassadores get +15% attack | | 10 |
 | Musketeers and Cassadores get +15% hit points and attack | | 25 |
Russians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Infantry gets +50% siege attack | | 25 |
 | Ships 11 Musketeers | | 1 |
 | Infantry train time -25%; Skull Knights spawn 25% faster; banner army train time -12% | | 25 |
 | Musketeers can build Forts and Fort build limit +1 | | 40 |
Spanish Edit
| Card | Description | Age | Home City level |
|---|---|---|---|
 | All units get +10 LOS |  | 10 |
Outlaw Musketeer Edit
The Outlaw Musketeer is a treasure guardian variant of the Musketeer which is usually featured in abundant treasures, but rarely. It is one of the few Treasure Guardians with a damage multiplier against specific unit types. Overall, the Outlaw Musketeer is better than the normal Musketeers and should be considered for taming.
Trivia Edit
- The Musketeer has 4 visual upgrades in total, although the first one is unused in-game.
- The Germans and Dutch can train Musketeers in the beta; German Musketeers' unused voice files still exist in the Scenario Editor and game files.
- The Russians cannot train Musketeers in the beta.
- John Black's Mercenaries, Spanish, and United States are the only civilizations with Musketeers that lacks Home City Cards which improves them (except Advanced Arsenal).
- British Royal Guard and Consulate Musketeers are named after the Redcoat soldiers.
- Portuguese Royal Guard and Consulate Musketeers' name, Guerreiro, means "Warrior" in Portuguese.
History Edit
"Musketeers were infantry soldiers who stood in ranks two and three men deep, taking turns firing while other ranks reloaded. Musketeers were drilled and disciplined to stand as close as 80 yards away from an enemy firing at them. Musket balls ranged from about a half inch in diameter to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Until long guns with rifled barrels that could be fired more than once every two minutes were developed, muskets were the ranged weapon of choice for infantry.
Muskets had a relatively short range and were wildly inaccurate. Musketeers fought a lot like longbowmen, firing volley after volley in the direction of the enemy with no specific target. The barrage of lead was bound to hit something. A competent musketeer could fire three shots in a minute - four times slower than a longbow and twice as fast as an early rifle."
Gallery Edit
