Before the Definitive Edition, the Spanish can train Pirates (as Buccaneers) from Galleons and the Saloon regardless of map with the Spanish GoldHome City Card.
The Pirate is a Shock Infantry outlaw for hire. It is essentially an outlaw version of the Coyote Runner. Before it was reworked into a shock infantry, it fulfilled the role of an outlaw Rodelero; fast anti-cavalry heavy infantry.
While the Pirate is cheap in terms of coin, It costs 4 population (2 with the Theaters Home City Card). The player can utilize Pirates when the coin is plenty, but food is too low to train heavy cavalry.
Haiti can upgrade the Pirate with the "Letter of Marque" Home City card to use a ranged weapon, as well as loot treasures and the enemy's resource crates to increase its usefulness.
Upgrades the Tavern to the Theater which can train Ronin; outlaws take -2 population
Brether of the Coast
Ships 1 Battleship with 10 Pirates in it; Battleships can train outlaws and Pet Monkeys; costs 1,000 coin
Letter of Marque
Upgrades Pirates to Buccaneers, which get +12 Line of Sight, a Ranged attack, and can gather crates; Privateers generate 0.5 coin/sec.; Buccaneers and Privateers get +3.0 attack multiplier against treasure guardians and can collect treasures with doubled resource and XP yield
Junín Hussars
Hand cavalry and hand shock infantry get +5% speed and -30% train time (get -20% train time only if stacked with "Liberation March")
Wanderlust
Land units get +5% hit points; villagers and wagons get +5% speed
"Theaters" is not available to the Germans.
"Brether of the Coast" and "Letter of Marque" are available to the British and French upon revolting to Haiti.
"Junín Hussars" is available to the Portuguese and Spanish upon revolting to Peru.
"Wanderlust" is available to the British and Dutch upon revolting to South Africa, and can be sent 3 times.
Daimyo and Shogun Tokugawa get +5% speed, +10 Line of Sight and train units 15% faster; land military unit train time -20%, artillery and banner army train time -10% instead
In the Act I: Blood campaign, Pirates (as Buccaneers) can be trained from Lizzie's Flagship during The Fountain of Youth and Spanish Treasure Fleet scenarios. They are slightly more expensive and lack the heavy hand resistance of their outlaw counterparts, yet they have more hit points, speed, and use fewer population.
During the Spanish Treasure Fleet scenario, a lot of them can be trained very quickly due to the captured Spanish Galleons' coin production. They are an adequate replacement for the Inca that are freed in the beginning as they have better hit points. They are essentially fodder units used to keep the Spanish and Boneguard units from attacking more valuable targets such as the Scottish Highlanders, Falconets and Mortars.
The Treasure guardian variant of the Pirate has unusually high hit points. It is recommended to tame these units due to the long time it takes for an Explorer, War Chief, or Monk to defeat it.
“
A pirate in the New World.
”
—In-game description
The Buccaneer is a variant of the Treasure guardian Pirate, exclusive to Unknown maps.
With update 14.43676, Haitian Pirates take 2 population. Treasure guardian Pirate hit points changed from 400 to 360. The Pirate's portrait was updated.
With update 15.30007, ranged attack Rate of Fire improved to 2.5 from 3.
Although the history section of the game and its icon shows the Pirate with a pistol, it uses a sword in-game instead.
Pirates are the only outlaw or Treasure guardian unit characterized by five different appearances: Caucasian with a solid-color shirt and a whole body, Caucasian with a solid-color shirt and a hook for one hand, Caucasian with a striped shirt and a whole body, Caucasian with a striped shirt and a peg leg, and African with a vest and an eye patch. This last appearance resembles the Pirate's unit portrait.
The term "buccaneer," while nowadays a synonym for "pirate," originally referred to primarily French pirates operating off of the island of Hispaniola (now home to the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were named after the "boucans," smokehouses originally designed by the indigenous Caribbean peoples that the buccaneers used to make jerky that they would sell to other pirates. Later, the buccaneers were hired by the French, Dutch, and British to prey on Spanish shipping, which makes their appearance as a Spanish unique unit prior to the Definitive Edition rather ironic.
History[]
“
Pirates, or buccaneers, are sailors who prowl sea lanes, killing sailors, capturing ships, and looting cargo. The centuries following the Spanish plunder of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya was the golden age of piracy. Spanish galleons, wallowing low in the water from all the treasure taken onboard, were returning from the Carribean to Spain, where the gold would fund wars against the French, the Ottomans, and the Dutch. The treasure galleons were slow, fat targets, very well-defended and wholly irresistible to pirates. In 1628, five years after he had arrived in the West Indies, Piet Hien, a Dutch trader for the West India Company, could not resist taking on the treasure fleet. He managed to corner part of the fleet in the Bay of Matanzas and captured millions upon millions of guilders in gold, silver, and trade goods.
Some pirate bands were highly democratic, electing their captains and making important decisions by vote. Food, drink, and wealth were split between all crew members, with larger shares going to officers. Pirates disabled while crewing a ship were given a large lump sum as compensation. There were very harsh punishments for stealing from or striking crew members, and gambling was generally restricted.
”
Gallery[]
Buccaneer stats
From left to right: Buccaneer, Pirate, Repentant Pirate
Pirate stats
Treasure guardian Pirate stats
In-game the five different appearances of the Pirate
The Pirate's history portrait
Pirate Concept Art
In-game the five different appearances of the Pirate in the Definitive Edition
+30% hit points and attack
Compunction (+20%; Asians only)
Folk Heroes (+20%; Europeans only)
Wild West (+20%; Americans only)
Maya Cotton Armor (+20%)
Flint Lock (+10%; if the "Letter of Marque" is sent)
Infantry Breastplate (+10%)
Cree Tanning (+5%)
Navajo Weaving (+5%)
Tar Kilns (+5%)
Customized Merc Weapons (+30%; John Black's Mercenaries only)
Zapotec Cult of the Dead (+20%)
Paper Cartridge (+15% ranged attack)
Carib Kasiri Beer (+10%)
Master Lessons (+10%)
Yoga (+5%)
Mapuche Tactics (+50% siege attack)
Pillage (+25% siege attack multiplier vs. buildings)
Sudanese Quilted Armor (+10% hand resistance)
Pancerni (+10% ranged resistance)
Town Watch (+3)
Apache Endurance (+5%)
Cheyenne Horse Trading (-40%)
Quechuan Diet (-15%)
Immigrants (-10%)
Philhellenism (-10%)
Shaman Drums (-10%)
Somali Oryx Hide Shields (-10%)
Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
Golden Liberty (-5% coin cost)
High Crusade (-5% hit points; Knights of St. John only)
Liberation March
Fencing School
Outlaw Band
Bandit Gang
Outlaw Combat
Atonement
Western Reforms
Acupuncture
Theaters
Brether of the Coast
Letter of Marque
Junín Hussars
Wanderlust
TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack
Royal Fencing School
TEAM Cavalry Attack
Witch Hammer
Dravidian Martial Arts
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
Bakufu
TEAM Mustangs
TEAM Knights of the Round Table
Squires
TEAM Mariachi
Colegio de San Nicolás
Matrakci School
TEAM Kamchatka Expeditions
TEAM Hand Infantry Attack
Archaic Infantry Hitpoints
Archaic Infantry Combat
TEAM Spanish Inquisition
Hand Infantry/Hand Cavalry Attack
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints
Dance Hall
TEAM Scout Infantry
Onin War
Ransack
Dueling School
Spanish Gold
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