War Wagon (Age of Empires III)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires III. For the unit in Age of Empires II, see War Wagon (Age of Empires II).

War Wagon
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III
Type	Cavalry Light ranged cavalry Ranged cavalry Gunpowder cavalry
Civilization(s)	Germans John Black's Mercenaries (Act II: Ice) South Africa
Age	Fortress Age Revolution (South Africa)
Required Home City Card	"Wagon Warfare" (South Africa)
Training
Trained at	Stable Fort Galleon Fluyt (South Africa) Steamer (Gran Colombia)
Cost	150 Food 150 Coin 3 Population
Train time	60 seconds seconds
Statistics
Hit points	500
Resistance	20% Hand
Speed	6.0
Line of Sight	22
XP train bounty	30
XP kill bounty	30
Ranged attack
Damage	42 Ranged
Range	16
Rate of Fire	3.0
Bonus damage	Same as melee
Siege attack
Damage	30 Siege
Range	6
Rate of Fire	3.0
Hand attack
Damage	21 Hand
Range	3
Rate of Fire	1.5
Bonus damage	×3.0 vs. Heavy cavalry ×2.25 vs. Hand shock infantry ×2.0 vs. Artillery ×0.5 vs. Villager

“	Hussite horse-drawn wagon outfitted with cannon.	”
—In-game description

The War Wagon is a ranged gunpowder cavalry unit in Age of Empires III that is unique to the Germans and can be trained at the Stable, Fort, and Galleon once the Fortress Age is reached. It is a horse-drawn wagon outfitted with two light cannons which functions similarly to Dragoons but are more powerful.

War Wagons are also available to John Black's Mercenaries in the Act II: Ice campaign.

Overview

The War Wagon functions as the German mounted counter-cavalry (light cavalry) unit. Just as expensive as the French Cuirassier, the War Wagon has strong single target ranged damage with medium range, longer than a Musketeer.

The War Wagon has a hand resistance multiplier instead of ranged multiplier. War Wagons enjoy the benefit of a 3x damage multiplier against cavalry, which allows them to shred cavalry intense armies with ease. Fully upgraded Imperial War Wagons can easily shred Imperial melee cavalry in 3-4 hits and take down Mamelukes and Imperial Gendarmes in 6-7 hits.

There are two unique traits that War Wagons have compared to other ranged cavalry. One is their unusually high health (an Imperial War Wagon has 900 hit points without any cards, while something like an Imperial Dragoon has half of that), which allows them to tank reasonably well against most sources of damage. Even though heavy infantry have bonus melee multipliers on them, the War Wagon's high health and 20% hand resistance can reduce the damage they deal onto them. The other unique trait is their extremely high ranged damage and higher range. An Imperial War Wagon deals 79 ranged damage without any cards, and with all cards (not including Native technology as it is not present in all maps), deals 88 damage instead. This allows War Wagons to function as ranged infantry just as well without suffering from the low health they usually have, as their damage is similar to that of Imperial Skirmishers, who are good against heavy infantry.

However, the War Wagon moves slowly and has a low turn rate when compared to most ranged units, as it shoots off light cannons and not from pistols. This can make it rather hard to perform hit-and-run attacks with them. War Wagons are also expensive, costing 150 food and coin, in addition to occupying 3 population slots. This will severely limit the variety in the player's armies if they train a large number of War Wagons for units to help defend them from enemy rushes. However, they are still good units to be shipped from the Home City to offset their high costs.

With all hit point improvement upgrades (Comanche) and cards (Indian and Russian allies), the Imperial War Wagon is the ranged cavalry with the second highest hit points, 1,175 which is next to Exalted Howdahs.

While the War Wagon is light cavalry, it does not benefit from the "TEAM House of Aviz" card, which reduces the train time of Commerce Age light cavalry and enables Fortress Age light cavalry to be trained in the Commerce Age.

Upgrades

The War Wagon starts at the Veteran level by default without increasing hit points and attack, they can be only upgraded to Guard and Imperial.

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Guard War Wagons	600 wood 600 coin	Upgrades War Wagons to Guard (+30% hit points and attack)
	Imperial War Wagons	1,500 wood 1,500 coin	Upgrades War Wagons to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Guard War Wagons

Civilization differences

• John Black's Mercenaries can only upgrade War Wagons to the Guard level.

Revolutionary

• (Definitive Edition) South Africa can train War Wagons upgraded to Imperial instead of Dragoons (if revolting from the British) or Ruyters (if revolting from the Dutch) if the "Wagon Warfare" Home City Card is sent. This card costs 1,000 wood and takes 60 seconds to arrive, instead of the usual 40 seconds.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Heavy cavalry, hand shock infantry, artillery
Weak vs.	Heavy infantry, light infantry
Improvements
Hit points	Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%)
Attack	Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+10%) Smokeless Powder (+10%) Yoga (+5%)
Resistance	Sudanese Quilted Armor (+10% hand resistance)
Range	Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+2)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+3) Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+2)
Speed	Apache Endurance (+5%) Comanche Mustangs (+5%)
Train time	Cheyenne Horse Trading (-40%) Mass Cavalry (-35%) Quechuan Diet (-15%) Immigrants (-10%)
Cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost) Golden Liberty (-5% coin cost)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the War Wagon

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

• Definitive Edition
• The Asian Dynasties

British

Card	Description	Age
Cavalry Damage	Cavalry get +15% attack
Cavalry Hitpoints	Cavalry get +15% hit points

Europeans

Card	Description	Age
Cavalry Combat	Cavalry get +15% hit points and attack
Riding School	Cavalry train time -40% (also +2 Uhlans for the Germans)
Wagon Warfare	Replaces Dragoons/Ruyters with War Wagons at Stables, Forts, and Galleons/Fluyts; upgrades War Wagons to Imperial; costs 1,000 wood
Wanderlust	Land units get +5% hit points; land villagers and wagons get +5% speed

• "Cavalry Combat" is available to the British and Dutch.
• "Wagon Warfare" and "Wanderlust" are available to the British and Dutch upon revolting to South Africa, and can be sent 3 times.

Germans

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Cavalry Attack	Heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry get +10% attack; Germans-only heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and shock infantry get +15% attack instead
Cavalry Hitpoints	Uhlans, War Wagons, Comancheros, and Prinz Chevaulegers get +15% hit points; +2 Uhlans
Cavalry Combat	Uhlans, War Wagons, Comancheros, Llaneros, and Prinz Chevaulegers get +15% hit points and attack; +3 Uhlans
3 War Wagons	Ships 3 War Wagons; +3 Uhlans
4 War Wagons	Ships 4 War Wagons; +4 Uhlans
Princely Bavarian Chevaulegers	Replaces War Wagons in the Stables and Home City with naturalized Wittelsbach Chevaulegers, called Prinz Chevaulegers, that can be trained and upgraded; +8 Prinz Chevaulegers; costs 500 food
Spanish Riding School	Cavalry get +10% speed; +4 Uhlans

• "TEAM Cavalry Attack" does not stack with the Italian "TEAM Cavalry Attack" card.

Indians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	All units get +5% hit points and attack

Italians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Cavalry Attack	Heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry get +10% attack; Italians-only heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and shock infantry get +15% attack instead

• "TEAM Cavalry Attack" does not stack with the German "TEAM Cavalry Attack" card.

Japanese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Sengoku	Unit upgrades cost -20%

Lakota

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Mustangs	Cavalry and shock infantry cost -10%

Maltese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Knights of the Round Table	Ships 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center owned by the player; all units get +2% hit points

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Mariachi	For the next 30 seconds, military buildings work 400% faster and units get +10% speed

Russians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Kamchatka Expeditions	Cavalry and shock infantry get +10% hit points and +4 Line of Sight

Spanish

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Spanish Inquisition	Ships 1 Inquisitor; all units get +10 Line of Sight

Germans

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Cavalry Attack	Heavy cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and shock infantry get +15% attack		10
Cavalry Hitpoints	Uhlans and War Wagons get +15% hit points; +2 Uhlans		10
Cavalry Combat	Uhlans and War Wagons get +15% hit points and attack; +3 Uhlans		10
3 War Wagons	Ships 3 War Wagons; +3 Uhlans		1
4 War Wagons	Ships 4 War Wagons; +4 Uhlans		1
Spanish Riding School	Cavalry get +10% speed; +4 Uhlans		25

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

Russians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Cavalry Scout	Cavalry and shock infantry get +10% hit points and +4 Line of Sight		1

Spanish

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

Trivia

• War Wagons, when changed to Melee mode, will possess a hand attack with 3 range. This makes them one of the rarest units in the game which deal hand damage at range, like Meteor Hammers and Haudenosaunee Tomahawks.
• The Bohemians in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Dawn of the Dukes have a historically related unit, the Hussite Wagon. However, the in-game German War Wagon has more in common with the War Wagon of the Koreans in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, as both are expensive ranged cavalry units with high hit points, attack, and similar appearance.

History

“

These fortified carts were used to great effect by the infantry armies of the Hussites, followers of the Czech religious reformer John Huss (Jan Hus), who was excommunicated and burned at the stake early in the fifteenth century. John Zizka lead the Hussite forces against the armies of Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund. His army was largely comprised of peasants, and Zizka developed new tactics to suit the farm-grown sensibilities of his untrained soldiers. They armored farm wagons, used flails and pitchforks, and a number of howitzer artillery pieces. The armored wagons moved in trains and would circle up, forming an overlapping impromptu fortress from which they would fire their artillery baiting opposing armies into a response. The wagons could also be used in offense, charging into ranks of soldiers and knights, loaded with men firing into the groups of knights and infantry. When Zizka died, his skin was made into a drum used to summon Hussites to battle. The Hussite revolution, however, was eventually put down.

”

Gallery

A War Wagon guarding a strategic location in New England.

In-game stats of a Veteran War Wagon

In-game stats of a Guard War Wagon

In-game stats of an Imperial War Wagon

A in-game (Veteran) War Wagon

A in-game Guard/Imperial War Wagon

The War Wagon's history portrait

War Wagon concept art from the Age of Empires III standard manual

In-game (Veteran) War Wagon in the Definitive Edition

In-game Guard/Imperial War Wagon in the Definitive Edition