You're not too stray from the truth to be honest. The devs most likely Google searched their materials and most likely found a depiction of a soldier wearing his fatigue cap/bonnet, i.e. this very same hat, used by most european armies in the 18th and early 19th century. But it was almost never worn in battle, most of the times it was used on camp duties or at the barracks, and that's it. In battle, German jägern should have a plain black felt "tricorn" cocked hat, with a plume and a cockade most of time.
Fusiliers are much more powerful than you give them credit for, especially with mercenary swedes. While they are still weak to their counters, their sheer damage output allows them to be quite effective even in that situation, especially if you can get them into melee with their counter unit. They do fall short against artillery, but at 6.05 movement speed when properly buffed with arsenal techs, these guys can even chase down most cavalry and will mop the floor with them even in bad matchups like elimeti. This is ignoring the fact that germans can buff them even more, and that swedes can use their 3 fusiliers card to unlock training them from the barracks, which is a option available to very few mercenary types. At the very least, they belong in A tier for their sheer damage output and fairly reliable accessibility.
Fusiliers are the best infantry in the game. I once got lucky and got them with Russian. I had like 50 Fusiliers, 10 Cossacks and only 10 Strelets and that was the end of the match. They were so dominant with their 6.05 speed and their instant training. I just built a tavern in my enemy's base and kept mashing till I had those 50 lol. Drongo must have never faced these super Fusiliers
Zuave are incredible. They have like 400 HP at base with 50 PERCENT range resist and like 45 base damage with no negative multiplies and a x2 vs heavy infantry
@@bluenicholasbf2142 first, the wiki is incredibly inaccurate. Secondly, they gain this multiplier after counterv infantry rifling. Check it out yourself(
@@bisongaming729 Is there any home city card that ships in Zouave? (Note that you spelled it wrongly too, unless you're also saying that the wiki is wrong and they're spelled zuave). Or any specific map that you can guarantee training them on? Otherwise you can't expect me, or anyone else to keep rerolling maps till I get randomly get the unit in the tavern just to see if you're right.
@@bluenicholasbf2142 USA can ship them in age 5 with new York One of the African civs (I forget which one) can train them at the palace after a certain age-up (not they they can get counter infantry rifling)
>says skirms are essential and core of an army >says Zuave is useless Sir, it has high base damage and fills a flat damage skirm role, that's at least c or b
This is mostly a tier list for unit types, not mercenaries. You just placed the units on the list based on the tier of their unit type instead of based on how well they compare to regular units of their type.
Great video as always, learnt a lot about some of these mercs, nice to see swiss pikes up there, everybody underrates them. Nice to know the napoleon guns beat 2 falcs might use it now.
@Kody Stutzman They have indeed a x0.8 against infantry on their melee, but also a x1.25 against heavy infantry. So the melee against heavy infantry is just the value in the tooltip (before resistance). Caroleans also have a higher melee resist and 27% to nearly 50% higher base melee damage, so they do kill other muskets easily in melee. I don't fully agree on your statement that lower damge/shot with same dps is bad. It can be, but it can also be good. It depends on the amount of overkill the last shot has. With a low value of overkill the higher base damage is better, with a high amount of overkill the higher rate offire is better. With overkill I mean the damage excess damage of that shot. After 6 shots of a normal musket a musket/carolean has 12 hp left so the overkill for a musket on a carolean woul be 23-12 = 11. Although caroleans don't have a multiplier against cav in melee. They still trade well against hussar. A hussar needs 8 hits to kill 1 carolean in the same time 2 caroleans (roughly same cost) in melee do 304 damage. Leaving the Hussar on 16hp, being a 1 hit for the other. And that is without shooting first. For further clarification I don't like the Carolean, but they aren't as bad as you made them look like.
@Kody Stutzman The worst is the tomahawk in my opinion, since it has the same role as a musket (even more than a carolean). But when you compare it to a carolean, than it has less melee resist, melee damage, rate of fire (damage per shot is the same), movement speed and it has a higher melee damage against cav, but also a slightly higher cost.
I think you should give the Fusiliers a chance. I don't think they aren't that bad against skirmishers because they have ridiculously high ranged attack, they are fast, good HP pool and have 1.5x against light infantry. OFC it's no cost effective to build Fusiliers to counter skirms but I don't think it's a hard counter. The Dutch don't have musketeers so I like to build Fusiliers to guard artillery agaisnt cavalry, especially ranged cavalry that's too fast for halberdiers.
I think your right. I played an mercenary only tactic with the dutch not so long ago. And is send the fusilier age up and the age up wich increased the stronger mercenaries and i got fusilier with like I thought 500 health and 100 attack I just charge them into skirms and artillery they just delete everything
@@francoabad4911 Ruyter deals very little damage to ranged cavalry so they can just focus the artillery and kill it before you deal with them. I feel like the Ruyter is better for aggression when you can kite the enemy around, not so good for holding the line and protecting artillery.
Yojimbo in melee mode is insane and French fussiliers are a nice addition when massing skirms with the dutch I think. Jaegers are still the best and even more with Anti-infantry rifles
with german using the merc upgrade card 20 percent increase on hit points and age V another upgrade available deadly with most merc units... keep up the great work aussie drongo
Zuave is by far misplaced. They are probably the strongest infantry mercenary unit in terms of being as universal (like you say they have no multipliers, but also no negative multipliers). They have so high HP and beat almost everything.
Hey Drongo, I love your content. It would be nice if you stated clearly in the beginning how you would rate. Obviously you rate them in a 1v1 situation where one shipment of mercenaries can really swing a game. However in team games some of the mercs become much stronger and would sit in a different tier. For example Landsknecht are really strong halbediers and the Swedes have lots of cards for them. But in a 1v1 they are weak as halbedier shipments are in general not strong. Simmilary The Hatamoto Samurai is a verry strong late game version of the Ronin and has its place in certain situations.
Stradiot is nearly the same as imperial hussar from Peru from classic AoE 3. You have to remember one thing about Ronin: Ronin =/= Hatamoto Samurais - Hatamoto Samurais are way stronger than Ronins, since they are gaining every age up bonuses of upgrades for free in compare with Ronins. Hatamoto Samurais in Imperial Age deals 126 meele damage and 252 siege damage in compare with ronins fully upgraded in Germany dealing only 98 meele damage and 192 siege damage (in Japan you cannot upgrade them that way, so they are even weaker). On top of that Ronins have ~1k health, while Hatamotos have ~1.5k hp. Hatamoto Samurai is resident sleeper, he is weak in complex 1v1 matchup because its hella expensive unit, but rewarding in treaty or allied late games where they are basically unstoppable and even Imperial Falconets aren't able to one shot them.
I've always wished that the game allowed the civs to have permanent access to one of their associated mercs in the tavern (like Ottos with Mamelukes, British with Highlanders, Germans with Landsnechts, Spanish with Stradiots or Elmeti, Ports with Black Riders, etc.) instead of just as home city shipments. It would allow for some more thought out strategies built around the tavern building, which right now is too much of a wild card in the game for my taste.
I think Napoleon guns are B tier, nothing special but useful nonetheless. The thing is you don't really need them and you are probably already winning if you are able to use a shipment for them.
Ninjas are very useful. Anything with stealth gives a big advantage and ninja's siege is very good. Ninjas can also ambush skirmishers. They can wreck cavs and they are very fast. They are also good at raiding. Aside from the overbuffed mamaluke I think the ninja is perhaps the best. In a way they are like fast jaguar prowl knights. It is a pity persons do not recognize their power. He thinks swiss pikes are better than ninjas... smh. You are very biased.
This tier list doesn't stand for German players though, in any 1v1 if you ship the upgraded mercenaries card with a FF as Germany, and if fusiliers or highlanders are recruitable at the saloon, it's GG from there. you 2 shot any unit they can throw at you, and snowball from there. I have a soft spot for Ronins too, as I once carried a whole 2v2 thanks to these, with German upgraded mercenaries, I managed to pop 5 of them out of a saloon (yeah in that regard in was pure luck) and surprised our opponents with them, they more or less cleaned up both their armies in a most ridiculous way and they simply hadn't the time to react to them right after, we managed to snowball them from there. Upgraded German Ronins are no joke!
Age 5 upgraded Ronin with the Mercenary upgrade with Germans are basically Hatamoto Samurai. If you manage to pop out 10 of them and have both speed upgrades from the Arsenal and Church it's GG for the enemy, same goes for Highlanders with the same upgrades but larger numbers, it's unstoppable.
Ronin at C tier? They area an S tier unit atleast an A tier.They kill anything they touch. They can wipe out entire armies when they connect and they are pretty hard to kill. I feel like Aussies criteria of placing these units is if a skirm/LI counters them than its not that good. Wierd
I won a treaty game with fully uppd ronin spam against mexico. Couldn't do anything vs mexico killed my vils for pop space and started cranking out ronin gg
The biggest problem with this is the Europeans have access to the 50% HP increase and 50% damage increase, while the Asian dynasties do not. That's bullshit. Why would I ever use a un-upgraded Jaeger as the Chinese? An imperial Arquebusier with Repelling Volley does so much more damage against everything, that the base Jaeger is a waste of space and money. I honestly think that upgrade needs to be given to all civs or no civs, and I cite the Ottoman Mameluke and it's 2,200HP and 50ish attack. I have won matches solely by making 20-30 Mamelukes and just running units over. Either everyone should get it or no one should. Especially the Swedes. A 700+ HP Black Rider, that's nonsense. The Black Rider should only have a movement speed of like 6, like the Elmeti, cuz he's wearing full armor. There's no way he's faster than a hussar. Even the fully upgraded Manchu (who the Chinese don't get despite the Chinese being the Qing dynasty, ruled by Manchus) has like 660HP and a ranged attack of 40. They make Jinetes look like jokes. Though the Ronin with its 1,100HP and a melee attack of like 100, is bananas. That's so stupid. But then you have units that are super trash, like the Jat Lancer. That unit does not need to cost 4 population spots. Default Jat has like melee of 40, siege of like 50 and only 600HP. An imperial hussar pushes like 700HP, 60 attack, 2 population spots. The upgrade to the Jat gives it like 1,000HP and 60-70 attack. For a 4 spot population unit, with high siege and damage multipliers against infantry, that's good. The unit is now usable. Also the Zouve, which I love, is useless to all the Asian civs, since Counter Infantry Rifling effects the Zouve and turns them into Nizams. They have like 40 base attack times 2 against all infantry. That's amazing, but the Chinese don't get that, Repelling Volley only effects the Chu ko nu and the Arquebusier. NEGLECT of the Asian Civs. The devs give Japan top tier units while India gets trash and China gets great units but unbalanced artillery options. Oh but the Swedes can have Jaegers and Black Riders at their normal buildings, that's fair. The Chinese should have Manchus and Iron Troops natively and when they reach the final age, they should automatically get the mercenary upgrade, regardless of what wonder they build. Sorry, mercenaries are the least balanced thing and I just had to voice that. And Fusilier is S-tier, specifically any civ that randomly gets them at the tavern, or the Dutch one. A fully leveled up Dutch Fusilier has like 450HP, ranged attack of 110, melee of like 70, siege of like 100, they can destroy heavy cannons even without resorting to melee. No building stands a chance against them, and they are able to very quickly race up to skirmishers, get into melee, and 2-3 hit them. With the advanced Arsenal, you get the Fusilier's power with the Rolero's speed. Hussars do not threaten them, heavy cannon doesn't because of their speed (if you're good at mircomanaging them), skirmishers are the only good counter and you will have to sacrifice maybe half of your skirmishers to do this. Dragoons don't threaten them, unless SEVERELY outnumbering them, and even the almighty Cuirassier and Sipahi have to respect the melee bonus damage of the Fusilier, who's ranged attack is like a Carolean, and deals like 1.5 damage to cavalry at ranged. That's like 170 damage per shot, when the Sipahi is doing like 70. When I'm the Dutch, 40 Fusiliers, 20 Ruyters, no need for artillery. Also, to say the Stradiot doesn't have the highest HP, someone clearly has never played as the French and gotten them fully leveled. They get like...at least 980HP and 90 attack. For 3 population, 10 of them and 10 Gendarmes, that's it. No infantry or artillery threatens them. They're OP but again, ONLY with that final age upgrade that only the Europeans get! They're a balanced unit without them. The Mameluke's 2,200+, the Highlander can get over 700HP, 660HP Manchu, but the pitiful Jaeger gets like 400HP and 40 damage with that final upgrade.
I am lil newbie in mercenary. How do they scale in Europe countries? Arsenal upgrade and ..? When you are in imperial age in European civilizations,they get secret upgrade or not?
@@s2jackson Hey sorry, just now saw this. Sorry. Mercenaries, if you're playing as a European civ (Ottomans, French, Russians, so forth) are effected entirely by the arsenals. Since most Asian countries and Natives do not have arsenals, they are not. Further more, all European civs have a final age up option that gives them "greatly improves mercenary hitpoints and attack." You can choose one that gives you 2,000 coin, one that gives you 2 cannons, 1 that gives you both peerage and knighthood for free (which to research those is like 3,000 food I think) or one that increases mercenary abilities. This is ALWAYS what I take when I play the Ottomans because it gives you access to a mamluk with 2,200 hitpoints. The Ottomans, Swedes, British, Dutch, and Portuguese have a bonus when they age up to Fortress age that they automatically gain access to 2 specific mercenaries. You have to choose that option when you age up, it's one of the four. The Ottomans get Barbary corsairs and mamluks, the Portuguese get Japanese ronin and Italian lil bombards, the Dutch get fusiliers and elmeti. Spain, Russia, France, they don't get those guaranteed mercenaries because they're already very powerful. Like the Dutch get fusiliers (which are the best musketeer in the game without question) because they do not have musketeers at all. The Ottomans get Barbary corsairs who are good against cavalry, because they have no pikemen. The British get Jaegers I think, because they don't have skirmishers.
Sorry but i disagree with the fusilier position and logic. They have better stats than the highlander, both have melee resistance and the fusilier also has multipliers like a crossbow and the 6.05 speed. They both cost 2 pop but they outperform the highlanders in every aspect EXCEPT gold cost, which is the only reason i would say that maybe they're not that viable, because they're easy to kill with counters and there it goes your 300 coin (each) investment.
The Dutch don't get Stradiots cards and Harquebusiers still have a ranged resistance of 20%. They're still a good option for the Dutch and can beef up groups of Ruyters with their much higher base DPS and slight area attack, though their range is half of theirs.
@@JamesBond-lb3yr that is true, but even though the Religious Freedom card that makes them avaliable is in Age II the Waardgelders/Stradiots are only avaliable in Age III
I am very beginner to the AOE3 never played before. All of the videos on TH-cam about the game are too heavy for me to learn the game. I feel like I don't even know basic things. Please make beginner focus videos more.
doppelsoldner was the double pay guys, so hed just be a normal landskenecht which seems weird given hes using a greatsword which was a double pay postion, requiring passing an examination of skill.
@@josephdedrick9337 Yeah, AoE 3 kinda took a weird steps by making them like a two distinctive units, but I think it's because of balance purpose, imagine an age 2 doppelsoldner with landsknecht stats but still had the multiplier. That just too much. Also, I found it's interesting that doppelsolder were less flamboyant than the landsknecht considering that they're more YOLO. Other than that, landsknecht not always a doppelsoldner because they could also use a firearms which kinda defeat the purpose to be a vanguard that break the enemy pike lines with their zweihandler.
A stupid question when do you train The Jaeger, what is it strong against, weak against? When should I make it for Sweden? I like that Jaeger are not that pop heavy, the only issue is coin cost
I think you often conflate range resist with speed for unit viability. The ronin, landschnecht etc are shit because they are slow melee infantry. No RR hurts, but if I could have a ronin with 5.5 speed or RR, I would definitely choose the speedy version. That’s why Swiss pike are good (though they are obviously also quite cost effective). The high speed lets them actually run down and melee skirts if they have to, which can’t be said of ronin and the like.
Okay... Can anyone explain to me what "piro" means? I can't find any reference to that phrase in any AOE 3 lingo list or figure it out on my own. Portuguese Iroquois? I have no idea.
Im not as good than you Drongo but honestly Ronin are S-tier for multiple reasons 1st with the card saloon you can train them, in 1v1 its not playable in all matchup but if the game should be longer than 20min again some civ its OP and particulary in 2v2 its a card that can make the difference, 3 ronins one shoot all non mercenaries cav! And for protect artillery again cav its 👌
Dude ur reasoning is like , cav archer are bad so better version of them Manchu or black roders too . Musketeers are bad so highlenders too , janissaries are bad , so does fuselliars . Every unit has its own role , we should rate them how good are they in compare to their equivalents. Jegears vs skirshers , highlenders vs musketeers , fuselliars vs janissaries , Manchu vs cav archer etc when u compare them in stats . Fuselliars are good becoz germans don't get access to musketeers , u should compare them with German dopplesolder in usefulness . None gonna use heavy inf vs skirshers , so putting some unit down just becoz it's heavy infantry is too harsh .
The fact that all your list is based on the fact that core of armies are based of skirms is a fallacy. Different play styles, different builds possible. Skirms are some of the units I've used the least in 16 years of playing (1st lieut in asian dinasty). Note that I haven't played def edition yet. Maybe skirms are more meta in DE.
Higlander musk better than fusilier? Nope. Arcabusier is an ulhan. With one CAV upgrade and imperial upgrade they does 210 damage in melé. They should be S tier. I always play elmeti with dutch in NR 20-40 cause dutch have 140 military pop and with the politician "mercenary contractor" Im always able to train them. Just mix with ryter mass and its always GG.
Yeah but they cost 40f and 40w not 200g that's a big difference. Also you get them in age 2 when only 4 civs get access to them, with the majority of them only getting archers and crossbowmen. It's a different playing field
Why would fuisilier lower tierd than highlander? Unit wise fusi is way stronger, is it because of the means to get those units out? Build order? Wot m8?
I think drongo forgot about it's 5.5 base speed. Which means this skirm kiting problem he's talking about isn't actually a big deal cuz they only move at 4.
Highlanders beat Jaegers in every single category, including against other infantry. There is absolutely no reason to build Jaegers over Highlanders. Test them out in the editor if you don't believe me.
Jaeger = 20 range , Highlander = 12. You pick 40 highlanders, i pick 20 Jaegers, in an open area i'll destroy you and you will not even kill one of my jaegers
In a straight shoot-out a musket will beat a crossbow (both not upgraded), but with micro the crossbow will beat the musket. Same can be said about skirmish type units vs highlanders. Just a question: when you tried them in the editor. Did you give the Jaeger the arsenal upgrade to get x3 against heavy infantry?
Jaeger honestly looks likes hes ready for bed with that hat and you just called him up to fight and hes like "smd, im tried."
XD
HAHAHAHAHA
He's so confident in his OP nature, he doesn't even bother to fully change out of his 'yammies' to fight you, lol!
You're not too stray from the truth to be honest. The devs most likely Google searched their materials and most likely found a depiction of a soldier wearing his fatigue cap/bonnet, i.e. this very same hat, used by most european armies in the 18th and early 19th century. But it was almost never worn in battle, most of the times it was used on camp duties or at the barracks, and that's it. In battle, German jägern should have a plain black felt "tricorn" cocked hat, with a plume and a cockade most of time.
That's why I never called them Jaeger , buy " Dude who are ready to sleep" 😂😂
Finally! Mercenaries are my favourite units in the game and I was waiting for this tier list. Thank you!
Correction : Manchu has melee resist like Black Riders
German fusiliers, if you get lucky at the saloon, with both speed upgrades (church/arsenal cards) and merc combat. 7.3 speed musketeers seem alright.
also a good exploit to made the cannon move faster during the march
@@moch.farisdzulfiqar6123 didn't kaiser do that?
wait 7.3 speed infantry? lmao i want to see that
@@davidpereira5969 On top of that speed. They do 50% more damage against all cav with their ranged attack. So they can chase down cav.
@@davidpereira5969 Actually it's 7.15, my math was a bit off. Still insane speed- hussar is 6.75
Fusiliers are much more powerful than you give them credit for, especially with mercenary swedes. While they are still weak to their counters, their sheer damage output allows them to be quite effective even in that situation, especially if you can get them into melee with their counter unit. They do fall short against artillery, but at 6.05 movement speed when properly buffed with arsenal techs, these guys can even chase down most cavalry and will mop the floor with them even in bad matchups like elimeti. This is ignoring the fact that germans can buff them even more, and that swedes can use their 3 fusiliers card to unlock training them from the barracks, which is a option available to very few mercenary types. At the very least, they belong in A tier for their sheer damage output and fairly reliable accessibility.
Indeed. Ofc you don't use fusilier against skims in first place. I like this unit a lot, well said
Exactly, you said it, they can output 100 damage per shot when they have the advanced arsenal tech, put them against most things and watch them slay
Fusiliers are the best infantry in the game. I once got lucky and got them with Russian. I had like 50 Fusiliers, 10 Cossacks and only 10 Strelets and that was the end of the match. They were so dominant with their 6.05 speed and their instant training. I just built a tavern in my enemy's base and kept mashing till I had those 50 lol. Drongo must have never faced these super Fusiliers
Fusiliers are merc corolean
Fusiliers kill all goons, Lakota cav, bow cav
Zuave are incredible. They have like 400 HP at base with 50 PERCENT range resist and like 45 base damage with no negative multiplies and a x2 vs heavy infantry
I just checked the wiki, they do not have a x2 multiplier vs heavy infantry.
@@bluenicholasbf2142 first, the wiki is incredibly inaccurate. Secondly, they gain this multiplier after counterv infantry rifling. Check it out yourself(
@@bisongaming729 Is there any home city card that ships in Zouave? (Note that you spelled it wrongly too, unless you're also saying that the wiki is wrong and they're spelled zuave). Or any specific map that you can guarantee training them on? Otherwise you can't expect me, or anyone else to keep rerolling maps till I get randomly get the unit in the tavern just to see if you're right.
@@bluenicholasbf2142 USA can ship them in age 5 with new York
One of the African civs (I forget which one) can train them at the palace after a certain age-up (not they they can get counter infantry rifling)
@@bisongaming729 I see alright thanks
Drongo, you've apologised about mispronounciations so much by now it would've legit been more lazy to google the answers.
>says skirms are essential and core of an army
>says Zuave is useless
Sir, it has high base damage and fills a flat damage skirm role, that's at least c or b
oh geez, the video had to start out with THAT message of mine in Drongo's Twitch chat lmao
I won't kink shame
bumbler you like aoe 3? didn't expect you here
@@kR-qj7rw AOE3 was the first game I ever played, and a significant part of my childhood. :)
@@Bumbler man you are so cool bumblr
Gotta love the daily Drongo content
aiz referencing his ronin/ninja ff in the chat, ayy lmao
This is mostly a tier list for unit types, not mercenaries.
You just placed the units on the list based on the tier of their unit type instead of based on how well they compare to regular units of their type.
Great video as always, learnt a lot about some of these mercs, nice to see swiss pikes up there, everybody underrates them. Nice to know the napoleon guns beat 2 falcs might use it now.
Corsairs are aesthetically cool but they're definitely dumpster fire tier
Agree, they're fast but their damage output and siege are so low that it's not even worth it
I like how Drongo says that the Carolean is a useless unit, because of enemy skirm mass.
@Kody Stutzman They have indeed a x0.8 against infantry on their melee, but also a x1.25 against heavy infantry. So the melee against heavy infantry is just the value in the tooltip (before resistance). Caroleans also have a higher melee resist and 27% to nearly 50% higher base melee damage, so they do kill other muskets easily in melee.
I don't fully agree on your statement that lower damge/shot with same dps is bad. It can be, but it can also be good. It depends on the amount of overkill the last shot has. With a low value of overkill the higher base damage is better, with a high amount of overkill the higher rate offire is better. With overkill I mean the damage excess damage of that shot. After 6 shots of a normal musket a musket/carolean has 12 hp left so the overkill for a musket on a carolean woul be 23-12 = 11.
Although caroleans don't have a multiplier against cav in melee. They still trade well against hussar. A hussar needs 8 hits to kill 1 carolean in the same time 2 caroleans (roughly same cost) in melee do 304 damage. Leaving the Hussar on 16hp, being a 1 hit for the other. And that is without shooting first.
For further clarification I don't like the Carolean, but they aren't as bad as you made them look like.
@Kody Stutzman The worst is the tomahawk in my opinion, since it has the same role as a musket (even more than a carolean). But when you compare it to a carolean, than it has less melee resist, melee damage, rate of fire (damage per shot is the same), movement speed and it has a higher melee damage against cav, but also a slightly higher cost.
I think you should give the Fusiliers a chance. I don't think they aren't that bad against skirmishers because they have ridiculously high ranged attack, they are fast, good HP pool and have 1.5x against light infantry. OFC it's no cost effective to build Fusiliers to counter skirms but I don't think it's a hard counter. The Dutch don't have musketeers so I like to build Fusiliers to guard artillery agaisnt cavalry, especially ranged cavalry that's too fast for halberdiers.
I think your right. I played an mercenary only tactic with the dutch not so long ago. And is send the fusilier age up and the age up wich increased the stronger mercenaries and i got fusilier with like I thought 500 health and 100 attack I just charge them into skirms and artillery they just delete everything
But Dutch hace a Nice combination of army with Skirm and Ruyter, the Ruyter can protect your artillery
@@francoabad4911 Ruyter deals very little damage to ranged cavalry so they can just focus the artillery and kill it before you deal with them. I feel like the Ruyter is better for aggression when you can kite the enemy around, not so good for holding the line and protecting artillery.
I agree! The probably got the highest range attack. (80)
Yojimbo in melee mode is insane and French fussiliers are a nice addition when massing skirms with the dutch I think. Jaegers are still the best and even more with Anti-infantry rifles
with german using the merc upgrade card 20 percent increase on hit points and age V another upgrade available deadly with most merc units... keep up the great work aussie drongo
ports also have an upgrade at age V i believe
Zuave is by far misplaced. They are probably the strongest infantry mercenary unit in terms of being as universal (like you say they have no multipliers, but also no negative multipliers). They have so high HP and beat almost everything.
The hackapel also appears in the last mission of the Indians campaign
Best mercenary? Swiss pikeman. Epic helmet
lookis like a Kettle Sallet helmet or simple a Sallet without the bevor
Oh Shit, this is what we have been waiting for!
Hey Drongo, I love your content. It would be nice if you stated clearly in the beginning how you would rate. Obviously you rate them in a 1v1 situation where one shipment of mercenaries can really swing a game. However in team games some of the mercs become much stronger and would sit in a different tier. For example Landsknecht are really strong halbediers and the Swedes have lots of cards for them. But in a 1v1 they are weak as halbedier shipments are in general not strong. Simmilary The Hatamoto Samurai is a verry strong late game version of the Ronin and has its place in certain situations.
A group of Landschneckts destroy Gendarms. Late game for sweden when they are upgraded with their church card they are S tier. Otherwise they are D.
Totaly agree with you!
Swedes Highlander build is super stronk. They can take on artillery and skirms haha. Also great with raiding
Fusilier having a multiplier against range cav makes it insane in some situations. If someone goes full goon GG
Please keep including the timestamps, they are really helpfull! :)
Only problem about iron troop are china already has amazing 3rd age cards so its pretty difficult to place them in deck.
Highlanders, they murdered my falconets and skirms at Fort Duquesne ;(
True hooligans, strong hooligans
Swedish Highlanders with the upgrade card in Age4 are annihilating everything.
Drongo, you're wrong ninjas are the best mercs
Stradiot is nearly the same as imperial hussar from Peru from classic AoE 3.
You have to remember one thing about Ronin:
Ronin =/= Hatamoto Samurais - Hatamoto Samurais are way stronger than Ronins, since they are gaining every age up bonuses of upgrades for free in compare with Ronins. Hatamoto Samurais in Imperial Age deals 126 meele damage and 252 siege damage in compare with ronins fully upgraded in Germany dealing only 98 meele damage and 192 siege damage (in Japan you cannot upgrade them that way, so they are even weaker). On top of that Ronins have ~1k health, while Hatamotos have ~1.5k hp.
Hatamoto Samurai is resident sleeper, he is weak in complex 1v1 matchup because its hella expensive unit, but rewarding in treaty or allied late games where they are basically unstoppable and even Imperial Falconets aren't able to one shot them.
I've always wished that the game allowed the civs to have permanent access to one of their associated mercs in the tavern (like Ottos with Mamelukes, British with Highlanders, Germans with Landsnechts, Spanish with Stradiots or Elmeti, Ports with Black Riders, etc.) instead of just as home city shipments. It would allow for some more thought out strategies built around the tavern building, which right now is too much of a wild card in the game for my taste.
especially because how samey the vanilla civ tech trees are
Ronin below A tier is so savage
I think Napoleon guns are B tier, nothing special but useful nonetheless. The thing is you don't really need them and you are probably already winning if you are able to use a shipment for them.
So you rate them higher than drongo?
@@idkdamn978 yes, not much higher, but a little bit.
Ninjas are very useful. Anything with stealth gives a big advantage and ninja's siege is very good. Ninjas can also ambush skirmishers. They can wreck cavs and they are very fast. They are also good at raiding. Aside from the overbuffed mamaluke I think the ninja is perhaps the best. In a way they are like fast jaguar prowl knights. It is a pity persons do not recognize their power.
He thinks swiss pikes are better than ninjas... smh.
You are very biased.
This tier list doesn't stand for German players though, in any 1v1 if you ship the upgraded mercenaries card with a FF as Germany, and if fusiliers or highlanders are recruitable at the saloon, it's GG from there. you 2 shot any unit they can throw at you, and snowball from there.
I have a soft spot for Ronins too, as I once carried a whole 2v2 thanks to these, with German upgraded mercenaries, I managed to pop 5 of them out of a saloon (yeah in that regard in was pure luck) and surprised our opponents with them, they more or less cleaned up both their armies in a most ridiculous way and they simply hadn't the time to react to them right after, we managed to snowball them from there. Upgraded German Ronins are no joke!
Age 5 upgraded Ronin with the Mercenary upgrade with Germans are basically Hatamoto Samurai. If you manage to pop out 10 of them and have both speed upgrades from the Arsenal and Church it's GG for the enemy, same goes for Highlanders with the same upgrades but larger numbers, it's unstoppable.
"Landsknecht" was fine this time around m8
Ronin at C tier? They area an S tier unit atleast an A tier.They kill anything they touch. They can wipe out entire armies when they connect and they are pretty hard to kill. I feel like Aussies criteria of placing these units is if a skirm/LI counters them than its not that good. Wierd
I won a treaty game with fully uppd ronin spam against mexico. Couldn't do anything vs mexico killed my vils for pop space and started cranking out ronin gg
The biggest problem with this is the Europeans have access to the 50% HP increase and 50% damage increase, while the Asian dynasties do not. That's bullshit. Why would I ever use a un-upgraded Jaeger as the Chinese? An imperial Arquebusier with Repelling Volley does so much more damage against everything, that the base Jaeger is a waste of space and money. I honestly think that upgrade needs to be given to all civs or no civs, and I cite the Ottoman Mameluke and it's 2,200HP and 50ish attack. I have won matches solely by making 20-30 Mamelukes and just running units over. Either everyone should get it or no one should. Especially the Swedes. A 700+ HP Black Rider, that's nonsense. The Black Rider should only have a movement speed of like 6, like the Elmeti, cuz he's wearing full armor. There's no way he's faster than a hussar. Even the fully upgraded Manchu (who the Chinese don't get despite the Chinese being the Qing dynasty, ruled by Manchus) has like 660HP and a ranged attack of 40. They make Jinetes look like jokes.
Though the Ronin with its 1,100HP and a melee attack of like 100, is bananas. That's so stupid. But then you have units that are super trash, like the Jat Lancer. That unit does not need to cost 4 population spots. Default Jat has like melee of 40, siege of like 50 and only 600HP. An imperial hussar pushes like 700HP, 60 attack, 2 population spots. The upgrade to the Jat gives it like 1,000HP and 60-70 attack. For a 4 spot population unit, with high siege and damage multipliers against infantry, that's good. The unit is now usable.
Also the Zouve, which I love, is useless to all the Asian civs, since Counter Infantry Rifling effects the Zouve and turns them into Nizams. They have like 40 base attack times 2 against all infantry. That's amazing, but the Chinese don't get that, Repelling Volley only effects the Chu ko nu and the Arquebusier. NEGLECT of the Asian Civs. The devs give Japan top tier units while India gets trash and China gets great units but unbalanced artillery options. Oh but the Swedes can have Jaegers and Black Riders at their normal buildings, that's fair. The Chinese should have Manchus and Iron Troops natively and when they reach the final age, they should automatically get the mercenary upgrade, regardless of what wonder they build.
Sorry, mercenaries are the least balanced thing and I just had to voice that.
And Fusilier is S-tier, specifically any civ that randomly gets them at the tavern, or the Dutch one. A fully leveled up Dutch Fusilier has like 450HP, ranged attack of 110, melee of like 70, siege of like 100, they can destroy heavy cannons even without resorting to melee. No building stands a chance against them, and they are able to very quickly race up to skirmishers, get into melee, and 2-3 hit them. With the advanced Arsenal, you get the Fusilier's power with the Rolero's speed. Hussars do not threaten them, heavy cannon doesn't because of their speed (if you're good at mircomanaging them), skirmishers are the only good counter and you will have to sacrifice maybe half of your skirmishers to do this. Dragoons don't threaten them, unless SEVERELY outnumbering them, and even the almighty Cuirassier and Sipahi have to respect the melee bonus damage of the Fusilier, who's ranged attack is like a Carolean, and deals like 1.5 damage to cavalry at ranged. That's like 170 damage per shot, when the Sipahi is doing like 70. When I'm the Dutch, 40 Fusiliers, 20 Ruyters, no need for artillery.
Also, to say the Stradiot doesn't have the highest HP, someone clearly has never played as the French and gotten them fully leveled. They get like...at least 980HP and 90 attack. For 3 population, 10 of them and 10 Gendarmes, that's it. No infantry or artillery threatens them. They're OP but again, ONLY with that final age upgrade that only the Europeans get! They're a balanced unit without them. The Mameluke's 2,200+, the Highlander can get over 700HP, 660HP Manchu, but the pitiful Jaeger gets like 400HP and 40 damage with that final upgrade.
I am lil newbie in mercenary. How do they scale in Europe countries? Arsenal upgrade and ..? When you are in imperial age in European civilizations,they get secret upgrade or not?
@@s2jackson Hey sorry, just now saw this. Sorry. Mercenaries, if you're playing as a European civ (Ottomans, French, Russians, so forth) are effected entirely by the arsenals. Since most Asian countries and Natives do not have arsenals, they are not. Further more, all European civs have a final age up option that gives them "greatly improves mercenary hitpoints and attack." You can choose one that gives you 2,000 coin, one that gives you 2 cannons, 1 that gives you both peerage and knighthood for free (which to research those is like 3,000 food I think) or one that increases mercenary abilities.
This is ALWAYS what I take when I play the Ottomans because it gives you access to a mamluk with 2,200 hitpoints. The Ottomans, Swedes, British, Dutch, and Portuguese have a bonus when they age up to Fortress age that they automatically gain access to 2 specific mercenaries. You have to choose that option when you age up, it's one of the four. The Ottomans get Barbary corsairs and mamluks, the Portuguese get Japanese ronin and Italian lil bombards, the Dutch get fusiliers and elmeti.
Spain, Russia, France, they don't get those guaranteed mercenaries because they're already very powerful. Like the Dutch get fusiliers (which are the best musketeer in the game without question) because they do not have musketeers at all. The Ottomans get Barbary corsairs who are good against cavalry, because they have no pikemen. The British get Jaegers I think, because they don't have skirmishers.
Landsknecht( "the Lands-kne-cht" ) just don't make a break between k and n.
He did quite well for a non-german speaker.
Sorry but i disagree with the fusilier position and logic. They have better stats than the highlander, both have melee resistance and the fusilier also has multipliers like a crossbow and the 6.05 speed. They both cost 2 pop but they outperform the highlanders in every aspect EXCEPT gold cost, which is the only reason i would say that maybe they're not that viable, because they're easy to kill with counters and there it goes your 300 coin (each) investment.
Make another one, so many new mercs now! :)
The Dutch don't get Stradiots cards and Harquebusiers still have a ranged resistance of 20%. They're still a good option for the Dutch and can beef up groups of Ruyters with their much higher base DPS and slight area attack, though their range is half of theirs.
Wrong. Dutch get Stradiots with the church card.
@@JamesBond-lb3yr that is true, but even though the Religious Freedom card that makes them avaliable is in Age II the Waardgelders/Stradiots are only avaliable in Age III
@@josephhansen7797 Well yes just like 80% of mercs.
I am very beginner to the AOE3 never played before. All of the videos on TH-cam about the game are too heavy for me to learn the game. I feel like I don't even know basic things. Please make beginner focus videos more.
pretty sure there's alot AoE3 videos for beginner
I think there are quite a few videos for beginners, i’m returning after 10 years so they’re pretty helpful.
Landsknecht = Doppelsoldner with regular wage, so yeah that's why they're slower
doppelsoldner was the double pay guys, so hed just be a normal landskenecht which seems weird given hes using a greatsword which was a double pay postion, requiring passing an examination of skill.
@@josephdedrick9337 Yeah, AoE 3 kinda took a weird steps by making them like a two distinctive units, but I think it's because of balance purpose, imagine an age 2 doppelsoldner with landsknecht stats but still had the multiplier. That just too much. Also, I found it's interesting that doppelsolder were less flamboyant than the landsknecht considering that they're more YOLO. Other than that, landsknecht not always a doppelsoldner because they could also use a firearms which kinda defeat the purpose to be a vanguard that break the enemy pike lines with their zweihandler.
@@moch.farisdzulfiqar6123 well normal landskencht were hre mercs that were pikeman or gun users like you state the special ones were greatsword users.
@@josephdedrick9337 indeed, I like some of depiction that they were accompanied with a maiden/a wife.
@@moch.farisdzulfiqar6123 you need a camp follower on campaign for a reason
A stupid question when do you train The Jaeger, what is it strong against, weak against? When should I make it for Sweden? I like that Jaeger are not that pop heavy, the only issue is coin cost
It's a skirm type. Strong vs heavy inf and range cav, countered by hand cav and arty
I think you often conflate range resist with speed for unit viability. The ronin, landschnecht etc are shit because they are slow melee infantry. No RR hurts, but if I could have a ronin with 5.5 speed or RR, I would definitely choose the speedy version. That’s why Swiss pike are good (though they are obviously also quite cost effective). The high speed lets them actually run down and melee skirts if they have to, which can’t be said of ronin and the like.
ronin are shit cos 4 pop (plus easy to counter at range) - if they had 2 pop, they'd be beasts in treaty
manchu don't have ranged resist
also swedish Landsknecht are OP in treaty
Yes, indeed. I was like, how could this be D tier. Landsknecht in treaty is definetely A tier
Make a setup tour next
Don't want to be the head shaking German, but Landsknecht is Dutch
I like ninjas. Yeah
Okay... Can anyone explain to me what "piro" means? I can't find any reference to that phrase in any AOE 3 lingo list or figure it out on my own.
Portuguese Iroquois? I have no idea.
The iron troop are cool but their range resist isn't as good when you consider china's weak anti-cavalry. Your skirm bias doesn't work in this case
Jet-lancer and Elmeti are practically the same. How comes one is S and the other D??
Is the Irish brigadier any good? I don’t see it in the list and I’m wondering if it was added recently.
It was added recently
I do not agree with the pikemen being so high. Bias.
Are you looking at them in bulk or as individual units?
Probably only as the shipment card
How can you pronounce Landsknecht like Lehnschg'näggt???
no privateer 😔 no wokou junk 😔
In treaty, highlanders are S tier, and the two tanky cavs are B.
This is all based around supremacy, the pros don’t really play treaty.
Im not as good than you Drongo but honestly Ronin are S-tier for multiple reasons
1st with the card saloon you can train them, in 1v1 its not playable in all matchup but if the game should be longer than 20min again some civ its OP and particulary in 2v2 its a card that can make the difference,
3 ronins one shoot all non mercenaries cav! And for protect artillery again cav its 👌
are Jat lancers so weak? on paper they have 600 hp and 40 range resist.
I respect your opinion but ninjas are literally good against every mercenary except the li'l bombard from range.
Dude ur reasoning is like , cav archer are bad so better version of them Manchu or black roders too . Musketeers are bad so highlenders too , janissaries are bad , so does fuselliars . Every unit has its own role , we should rate them how good are they in compare to their equivalents. Jegears vs skirshers , highlenders vs musketeers , fuselliars vs janissaries , Manchu vs cav archer etc when u compare them in stats . Fuselliars are good becoz germans don't get access to musketeers , u should compare them with German dopplesolder in usefulness . None gonna use heavy inf vs skirshers , so putting some unit down just becoz it's heavy infantry is too harsh .
No love for water mercenaries?
Do mercs get bonuses from arsenal and card upgrades?
I want to know too.
Yeah sure, they get better
I use fusilier Imot
The fact that all your list is based on the fact that core of armies are based of skirms is a fallacy. Different play styles, different builds possible. Skirms are some of the units I've used the least in 16 years of playing (1st lieut in asian dinasty). Note that I haven't played def edition yet. Maybe skirms are more meta in DE.
What does meta mean ?
@@the_j_machine2254 Basically it's the most common way a game will be played out.
@@the_j_machine2254 Most Effective Tools Available.
Just getting into AOE3: so is this game just skirmishers/ dragoons and nothing else? That’s really lame if so
Higlander musk better than fusilier? Nope.
Arcabusier is an ulhan. With one CAV upgrade and imperial upgrade they does 210 damage in melé.
They should be S tier.
I always play elmeti with dutch in NR 20-40 cause dutch have 140 military pop and with the politician "mercenary contractor" Im always able to train them.
Just mix with ryter mass and its always GG.
Yes Highlanders are better than fusilier. Fusilier has better dmg per shots but is far less durable. Overall Highlanders survives more encounters.
Skirmishers also wreck pikemen so your analysis is biased.
Yeah but they cost 40f and 40w not 200g that's a big difference.
Also you get them in age 2 when only 4 civs get access to them, with the majority of them only getting archers and crossbowmen.
It's a different playing field
@@caracatoacacepe he meant swiss pikemen
Also isnt urumi a merc too
Nah. Urumi is a unique unit just like the Spahi.
Why would fuisilier lower tierd than highlander? Unit wise fusi is way stronger, is it because of the means to get those units out? Build order? Wot m8?
I think drongo forgot about it's 5.5 base speed. Which means this skirm kiting problem he's talking about isn't actually a big deal cuz they only move at 4.
Highlanders beat Jaegers in every single category, including against other infantry. There is absolutely no reason to build Jaegers over Highlanders. Test them out in the editor if you don't believe me.
Jaeger = 20 range , Highlander = 12. You pick 40 highlanders, i pick 20 Jaegers, in an open area i'll destroy you and you will not even kill one of my jaegers
In a straight shoot-out a musket will beat a crossbow (both not upgraded), but with micro the crossbow will beat the musket. Same can be said about skirmish type units vs highlanders. Just a question: when you tried them in the editor. Did you give the Jaeger the arsenal upgrade to get x3 against heavy infantry?
You forgot SPAHIS????!!!
They aren’t merc
Spahis are not mercs. Unique units.
fusilier is s tier imo
İt's obviously better then Swiss pikeman at all cases
They suck against the units they are supposed to counter in small numbers and it is very hard to mass them.
@@thegoodlord6518 Bro it's your fault if you use them against their counters in small numbers every unit suck in that scenario
@@thegoodlord6518 1v1 only abus gun or jeager can take it down and they are expensive too
@@osmanberathamurcu I meant, against the units they are supposed to counter, my bad.
Mamaluke should be nerfed.
Mamaluke in colloseum sadly sucks
Most of the list is Bad.