Mercenaries are specialist units in Age of Empires III, that can be shipped from the Home City, trained in the Saloon or trained from a Spanish Galleon (with a card shipment). Unlike standard unit shipments (such as military units and Villagers), mercenaries cost large amounts of Coin (usually ~100 Coin per unit), 1000C for Fortress Age shipments of a large squad, and 2000 for Industrial Age shipments of small armies of varied units. The mercenaries themselves are tougher versions of their normal counterparts.

Examples of mercenaries include Swiss Pikemen, which have greatly increased HP and 22 attack compared to the normal 8, and Hackapells, which do not have a significant survivability bonus compared to normal cavalry but the 121 attack (compared to the normal Hussar's 36 in the Fortress Age, when you can get them) tends to make up for this somewhat. Also, although not technically a mercenary, the shipments provided by the 'Church Upgrade' cards function similarly to mercenaries, such as Kalmucks (Dragoons) for the Russians and L'Armée D'Imperial (27 Grenadiers by the Industrial Age) shipments for the French, as you pay a load of resources and can only order them once, although this doesn't use up a shipment card. When a player constructs a Saloon, the mercenaries they train will vary depending on the map and are randomly available every game. For further information, visit the page Mercenary Maps.

NOTE: Mercenaries are not available in the demo version.

Available MercenariesEdit