Wakina Rifle

Wakina Rifle
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
Type	Infantry Light infantry* Ranged infantry Gunpowder trooper Rifle infantry*
Civilization(s)	Lakota
Age	Fortress Age
Training
Trained at	War Hut Fort American Citadel
Cost	60 Food 40 Coin 1 Population
Train time	29 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	85
Resistance	30% Ranged
Speed	4.0
Line of Sight	24
Ability	Builds Teepees (with the "Nomadic Expansion" card) Builds War Huts and Corrals (with the "Aggressive Policy" card)
Train XP	10
Kill XP	10
Ranged attack
Damage	16 Ranged
Range	2-18
Rate of Fire	3.0
Bonus damage	2.5x vs. Light ranged cavalry 2.5x vs. Ranged shock infantry 2.0x vs. Heavy infantry 0.6x vs. Cavalry 0.6x vs. Shock infantry*
Siege attack
Damage	12 Siege
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0
Bonus damage	1.5x vs. Resource enclosure 1.5x vs. Wall
Hand attack
Damage	7 Hand
Rate of Fire	1.5
Bonus damage	2.0x vs. Light ranged cavalry 2.0x vs. Ranged shock infantry 2.0x vs. Heavy infantry 0.75x vs. Cavalry 0.75x vs. Shock infantry*

“	Light infantry with low hitpoints, but a long-ranged attack. Good against infantry.	”
—In-game description

The Wakina Rifle is a gunpowder ranged infantry in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs that is unique to the Lakota and can be trained at the War Hut once the Fortress Age is reached.

Overview

The Wakina Rifle is a Skirmisher with relatively few hit points and poor hand damage. However, it has a slightly more powerful ranged attack (+1 base attack), albeit at slightly shorter range (-2), but still has 24 Line of Sight. They maintain the regular multipliers against heavy infantry and light cavalry, making it a critical part of a Lakotan army. Wakina Rifles are especially vulnerable to cavalry and artillery due to their very low hit points.

Despite the unfavourable comparison to European Skirmishers, especially with no access to Counter Infantry Rifling (except after the New Ways Home City Card is sent), Wakinas are more able to hit and run very effectively. With the Lakota War Chief's aura and/or the "Wind Runner" Home City Card, they become much more mobile than most other infantry, further increasing their potential to avoid taking damage. They can also deal with the Lakota's weakness to light cavalry.

Wakina Rifles should be combined with the Lakota's powerful cavalry units to get the most out of them. For example, they supplement the more expensive Rifle Riders against heavy infantry and allow them to focus on taking out heavy cavalry and artillery instead. Axe Riders or Tokala Soldiers can take down enemy skirmishers (as well as artillery). Wakina Rifles can then focus down any ranged cavalry and provide long-range support.

Wakina Rifles also have the advantage of being cheaper than most other ranged infantry (notably, 40 coin compared to the 65 for a European Skirmisher), which is useful due to the high expense of cavalry units. Wakina Rifles can be massed in large numbers using shipments (especially in the Industrial Age), allowing a player to field a huge number of them quite quickly. Unlike the other units from the War Hut, Club Warrior and the Cetan Bowman, the Wakina Rifle costs food and coin.

Upgrades

The Wakina Rifle can be trained in the Commerce Age with the "TEAM House of Bonaparte" card. It will be automatically upgraded to Elite when the player reaches the Fortress Age.

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Elite Wakina Rifles	Automatically	Upgrades Wakina Rifles to Elite (+25% hit points and damage)
	Champion Wakina Rifles	400 wood 200 coin	Upgrades Wakina Rifles to Champion (+25% hit points and damage)
Imperial Age	Legendary Wakina Rifles	1,500 wood 1,500 coin	Upgrades Wakina Rifles to Legendary (+50% hit points and damage, +1 ranged attack range) requires Champion Wakina Rifles

Campaign appearances

In the original The WarChiefs, the Wakina Rifle appears in Act I: Fire as Seneca and Mohawk soldiers. They later appear in Act II: Shadow as Sioux soldiers, especially in the first part of the scenario Turning Point, where they keep harassing Holme's Settlers.

Further statistics

As Wakina Rifles are unique to the Lakota, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Heavy infantry, light ranged cavalry, ranged shock infantry
Weak vs.	Heavy cavalry, hand shock infantry, artillery
Improvements
Hit points	Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%)
Attack	Gun Trade (+15%) Smokeless Powder (+10%) Armatoloi (+5%) Yoga (+5%) Clenched Fist (+25% hand damage) Somali Jile Daggers (-35% hand attack Rate of Fire) Counter Infantry Rifling (+1.0 multiplier vs. heavy infantry) Kalthoff Repeaters (+0.1 multiplier vs. light infantry)
Resistance	Somali Oryx Hide Shields (+5% ranged resistance) Bonepipe Armor (+10% siege resistance)
Speed	Quechuan Mountaineering (+10%) Akan Fontomfrom (+5%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Line of Sight	Schützenfest (+1)
Range	Schützenfest (+1)
Cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost) Golden Liberty (-5% coin cost)
Train time	War Drums (-25%) Akan Fontomfrom (-20%) Quechuan Diet (-15%)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)

Home City Cards

As Wakina Rifles are unique to the Lakota, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Forest Prowler

Some cards are highlighted with:
Green	TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
Blue	Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds)

• Definitive Edition
• The Asian Dynasties

All

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Senegalese Riflemen	Ranged infantry damage +10%; French and Hausa-only ranged infantry damage +15% instead

• "TEAM Senegalese Riflemen" is available to the French and Hausa.

Chinese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Yongle Infrastructure	Delivers 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villager, healing unit, Envoy, and Disciple speed +5%

• "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" does not stack with the Inca "TEAM Inca Bridges" card.

Dutch

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints	Infantry hit points +10%; Dutch-only infantry hit points +15% instead

Ethiopians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Coffee Consumption	Ranged infantry speed +5%

French

Card	Description	Age
TEAM House of Bonaparte	Enables Skirmisher, Cassador, Forest Prowler, Wakina Rifle, Sharpshooter, Neftenya, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army to be trained from the Commerce Age; Bersagliere from the Fortress Age; Strelet, Jaeger, Longbowman, Salteador, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, Yumi Archer, Jungle Bowman, and Desert Archer train time -20%; Leather Cannon train time -40%

Haudenosaunee

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Scout Infantry	Delivers 1 Native Scout; infantry Line of Sight +8

Inca

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Inca Bridges	Delivers 1 Chasqui; infantry, land villager, healing unit, and Envoy speed +5%

• "TEAM Inca Bridges" does not stack with the Chinese "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" card.

Indians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	Unit hit points and damage +5%

Japanese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Sengoku	Unit upgrades cost -20%

Lakota

Card	Description	Age
9 Wakina Rifles	Delivers 9 Wakina Rifles
16 Wakina Rifles	Delivers 16 Wakina Rifles
18 Wakina Rifles	Delivers 18 Wakina Rifles
Moccasins	Infantry speed +10%
Seven Council Fires	Delivers 4 Club Warriors and 3 Wakina Rifles; grants Elite and Champion Cetan Bowmen, Club Warriors, and Wakina Rifles; costs 250 coin
Akichita	Lakota warrior hit points +20%, but reduces their bonus damage against villager: Tashunke Prowler -0.75; Cetan Bowman, Club Warrior, Wakina Rifle, Axe Rider, and Tokala Soldier -0.33; Bow Rider and Rifle Rider -0.25
Nomadic Expansion	Enables Cetan Bowman, Club Warrior, and Wakina Rifle to build Teepees; Teepees now boost military building work rate by 100% (effectively reducing train time by 50%)
Aggressive Policy	Enables Cetan Bowman, Club Warrior, and Wakina Rifle to build War Huts and Corrals
Winter Counts	Unit train bounty +40%; building build bounty +20%
Lakota Support	Delivers 16 Wakina Rifles and 2 War Hut Travois; costs 1,000 coin
Two Kettle Support	Delivers 14 Wakina Rifles; Wakina Rifle hit points +20%; costs 1,000 coin

Maltese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Knights of the Round Table	Delivers 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center and Command Post present on the map; unit hit points +2%

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Mariachi	For the next 30 seconds, military building training and research work rate +400%, unit speed +10%

Portuguese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints	Gunpowder trooper hit points +15%

Spanish

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Spanish Inquisition	Delivers 1 Inquisitor; military and economic unit Line of Sight +10

Dutch

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints	Infantry get +15% hit points		10

French

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Ranged Infantry Attack	Gunpowder trooper and archers get +15% attack		10
TEAM Early Skirmishers	Skirmishers, Cassadores, Forest Prowlers, Wakina Rifles, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army can be trained in the Colonial Age; Longbowman, Strelet, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, and Yumi Archer train time -20%		25

Indians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	All units get +5% hit points and damage		25

Iroquois

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Scout Infantry	Infantry get +8 Line of Sight		10

Japanese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades	Unit upgrades cost -20%		1

Portuguese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints	Gunpowder trooper get +15% hit points		10

Russians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Dueling School	Infantry (except Skull Knights), Old Han Army, and Territorial Army train time -25%; Black Flag Army, Standard Army, Ming Army, and Imperial Army train time -12%		25

Sioux

Card	Description	Age	HC level
9 Wakina Rifles	Ships 9 Wakina Rifles		1
16 Wakina Rifles	Ships 16 Wakina Rifles		10
18 Wakina Rifles	Ships 18 Wakina Rifles		25
Wind Runner	Infantry get +10% speed		10
Uprising	Ships 7 Cetan Bows, 7 War Clubs, and 7 Wakina Rifles		40
Aggressive Policy	Cetan Bowmen, War Clubs, and Wakina Rifles can build Teepees, War Huts and Corrals		25
Hunkpapa Support	Ships 16 Wakina Rifles and 2 War Hut Travois; costs 1,000 coin		10
Two Kettle Support	Ships 14 Wakina Rifles; Wakina Rifles get +20% hit points; costs 1,000 coin		25

Spanish

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Inquisition	All units get +10 Line of Sight		10

Changelog

The WarChiefs

• Wakina Rifles give 9 XP when trained or killed.
• Wakina Rifles have a ×0.75 melee multiplier vs. hand shock infantry.

The Asian Dynasties

• With patch 1.01, all Archers and Skirmisher-type units gets ×0.75 ranged multiplier against cavalry and Coyote Runners, and gets ×2.0 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and Eagle Runner Knights.

Definitive Edition

• Wakina Rifles can now build Teepees.
• Wakina Rifles give 10 XP when trained or killed.
• With update 23511, the Wakina Rifle is tagged as Rifle infantry.

Knights of the Mediterranean

• With update 13.9057, the Wakina Rifle is tagged as Light Infantry.
• With update 13.12327, Wakina Rifles have a ×1.5 siege multiplier against Walls and Shrines.
• With update 13.18214, Legendary Wakina Rifles grants +1 range.
• With update 13.58326, the Wakina Rifle gets ×0.6 ranged multiplier against cavalry, ×0.5 ranged multiplier against shock infantry, ×2.5 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and ranged shock infantry.
• With update 14.3853, Wakina Rifles have a ×0.75 melee multiplier vs. shock infantry.

Trivia

• Wakina means "Thunderbird" in Lakota. The term refers to the animal and not to the sound.

History

“

Sometimes the Lakota had to fight on foot. It is not always possible to run someone down with your horse. On these occasions, they fought tenaciously and well. In general, the Lakota were known for their keen accuracy with their rifles.

”

Gallery

An in-game (Elite) Wakina Rifle.

An in-game Champion/Legendary Wakina Rifle.

The Wakina Rifle from the in-game history section.

An in-game (Elite) Wakina Rifle in the Definitive Edition

An in-game Champion/Legendary Wakina Rifle in the Definitive Edition

Wakina Rifle image from the Compendium section

In other languages

Spanish: Rifle Wakina