Petition to buff grenadier unit attack

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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I propose that we buff grenadier base stats to make them more viable as a unit.
Grenadier (Age of Empires III) | Age of Empires Series Wiki | Fandom)%2C%20Russians%2C%20and%20Swedes.

Currently they have base attack of 16 siege damage, I propose that gets increased to 20 siege damage.

  • The goal of this change is to make grenadier scale a bit better in late game, by buffing their base stats, the upgrades that are applied to the unit will be more impactful.
  • This will also make grenadier more viable in the early game.
  • Alternative: give grenadiers a multiplier against infantry of 1.25

Currently they have 12 range, I propose that get increased by 1 for each upgrade tech researched
-13 range for veteran, 14 range for guard, 15 range for imperial
-which means that will have further increased range if Hand Mortars home city card is sent, maybe that should be adjusted it probably is too strong

  • The goal of this change is to lessen the reliance of a home city shipment to make the unit usable, instead grenadiers should be able to be useful even with out it.

Currently they have a cost of 120f and 60c, I propose that the cost get reduced to 110f 55c

  • The goal of this change is to make it easier to mass a functional number of grenadier.

Currently they have a train time of 42 seconds (which is only 3 seconds shorter than a falconet at 45 seconds), I propose that get changed to 38 seconds (which matches the train time of the Ottoman Humbaraci)

  • Same goal as above, make it easier to mass a function number of grenadiers

Another idea would be to rework the hand mortars card, in its current state it is not worth sending as it does not have enough impact as a fortress age shipment.

  • in addition / instead of to increasing range, grenadier rate of fire can be increased from 3.0 to 2.5
  • alternative: in addition to increasing range, 15% damage increase
  • alternative: in addition to increasing range, also ships a military wagon

Additionally I think that civs who only have the 4 grenadier shipment (Dutch), should be replaced with the 5 grenadier shipment
and the 7 grenadier shipment should be replaced with the 9 grenadier shipment (British, Dutch)

  • it is simply not economical to send 4 grenadier shipment in its current state (each grenadier is worth 180 multiply by 4 = 720) for a fortress age shipment (generally considered to be worth 1000 resources). Same logic for the 7 grenadier shipment (only worth 1260 resources for an industrial age shipment is a joke)
  • the math only gets worse if the unit cost is lowered as proposed above.

If all of these proposed changes were adapted to the game, grenadiers might become too strong, and we might have the fiasco that occurred in the beta of DE, so it is something to be careful for.
But with the large negative multiplier that grenadiers currently have to cavalry and artillery it seems unlikely to me.

I think grenadier could serve an important role in age of empires 3, to create a counter to the “deathball” type playstyles by providing alternatives other than cannons to Area Of Effect damage to European civilizations .

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I’d love to see them have a card shipment available to give them muskets and a health increase in the Industrial Age.

They should be able to transition from a purely grenade throwing novelty of the 17th century to the elite infantry that also (and later predominantly) used muskets. Musketeers should still be the staple heavy infantry, though Grenadiers should be the infantry you aspire to if you had the funds - the more expensive, more powerful guys (heck, give them a build limit if need be!).

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Id be happy if they just didint have such horrendous modifiers. Like, x0.5 vs cav is just too much. Add at least x1.5 vs light cav - with a total of x0 75. That way grens at least have a place in a composite army as a goon trade.

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