Why are Grenadiers Available in Age 2?

It breaks the game because they kill Musks and xbows in a 3-unit radius. A heavy infantry that can kill early Skrims just doesn’t work. On top of that, they kill buildings very fast. Units in age 2 do not have enough HP or damage to fight against these units.

Most civs do not have access to this unit in Age 2 which makes sense but China can get them from the consulate and Otto can make them from their artillery foundry. China and Otto are already strong in age 2 I don’t see why they need Grenadiers.

Edit:
I did some testing…

(British Grenadiers have 200HP and 16 damage, 3 area)
10 musk to kill 5 British Gernediers
14 Xbows to kill 5 British Grenadiers

(Chinese Grenadiers are like British Grenadiers but with 10% extra HP and Damage.)
12 musks to kill 5 Chinese Grenediers
15 Xbow to kill 5 Chinese Grenadiers

Otto Grenadiers perform worse than British Grenadiers since they only have 2 area damage (even though they have more damage and HP)

For reference:
12 Xbows to kill 10 musk

Disclaimer: No micro was done and test results vary by +1 or -1.

Conclusion:
Xbows are especially bad at taking area damage (same for pikes), and Musks trade equally unless they face the Chinese Grenediars. Grenediars cost roughly 200f equivalent, while Xbox cost 100f equivalent and musks cost 110f equivalent.

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Grenadiers suck in general and cavalry absolutely destroy them in age 2,

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Grenadiers also have a really slow firing animation which makes them susceptible to to hit and run tactics from other ranged infantry. Grenadiers only become good in Age 3 after the Grenade Launcher HC card has been sent but by that time its too late as you and your opponent can now train cannons which are better all round units.

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That said Otto’s new Humbaraci Grenadiers are insane as they have a sizable anti-artillery multiplier that makes them like easier to use culverins. In addition to that they fair reasonably well again most other infantry units in mass because of there area of effect and longer range. AND their great against building. Now that is an OP unit.

I’d like to see standard grenadiers get a rework similar to this.

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this may be the first time ever that someone has called age 2 chinese grens op, ngl

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Because they are civs where gunpowder came first… the commerce age would be like the 1500-1600…in the European civs Grenadiers became more popular during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries…

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Tbh i did chinese FF grenadiers last year when I still played the game, and reached 1400 elo (broke my personal record).

I did comsulate grens and intervention, that is 9 grenadiers at vetaran level, with extra 10%. Huge power spike in early fortress vs age 2 armies. They kill buildings so fast and easily catch opponent off guard no one was expecting it. They kill buildings so fast opponent gets forever housed or lose production buildings. And when tney almost die, use the healing button and you get fresh new grenadiers again. Very good strat vs musk spammer

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I used to do that against dutch to rush down banks right at the start of age 3 + changdaos.

Never found it that useful against another civ since most dont have such easy targets for high value buildings.

Just keep killing houses, enough to win game. Opponent is surprised by the grens and then forever getting housed, they can’t make amy army. The grens kill house in 3 hits

Pikes are better sieging

Humbaraci are better in later stages than standard grens, but early on they actually a bit worse. 5 grens will beat 10 musk, but 5 humbaraci will lose to 5 musks. They beat normal grens head on, but so do jans and you really struggle to justify them at some point.

The need of a meat wall and the high cost makes them kinda hard to actually get value with early on. Best place for them I’ve seen is as a counter for FF/FI strats that ship alot of cannons

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Early game you’re totally right - Humbaraci are not amazing - but that’s because there’s no artillery early game (the unit they are designed to counter).

When Humbaraci are massed during a treaty game I’ve seen them wipeout “musk/falconet” combos with ease as a mono composition army. (Obviously the grenade launcher card is still a must for this to work).

The problem I find that normal grenadiers have, is that they don’t really have a proper unit they counter. They trade pretty well against musks but skirms trade better. They also have no positive multipliers against any units. So after you’ve used them as an early-game form of siege, they become pretty obsolete after cannons come into play: (Where pikeman would probably be a more economical form of early-game siege, anyway)

So I feel that for grenadiers to be used more in games, they are going to need to be given well defined counters which are easy to use.