“ | Light infantry with low hitpoints, but a long-ranged attack. Good against infantry. | ” |
—In-game description |
The Wakina Rifle is a gunpowder ranged infantry in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs that is unique to the Lakota and can be trained at the War Hut once the Fortress Age is reached.
Overview[]
The Wakina Rifle is a Skirmisher with relatively few hit points and a poor hand attack. However, it has a powerful ranged attack, albeit at slightly shorter range than other skirmishers, but still has 24 Line of Sight. They maintain the regular multipliers against heavy infantry and light cavalry, making it a critical part of a Lakotan army. Wakina Rifles are especially vulnerable to cavalry and artillery due to their very low hit points.
Despite the unfavourable comparison to European Skirmishers, Wakinas are more able to hit and run very effectively. With the Lakota War Chief's aura and/or the "Wind Runner" Home City Card, they become much more mobile than most other infantry, further increasing their potential to avoid taking damage.
Wakina Rifles should be combined with the Lakota's powerful cavalry units to get the most out of them. For example, they supplement the more expensive Rifle Riders against heavy infantry and allow them to focus on taking out heavy cavalry and artillery instead. Axe Riders or Tokala Soldiers can take down enemy skirmishers (as well as artillery). Wakina Rifles can then focus down any ranged cavalry and provide long-range support.
Wakina Rifles also have the advantage of being cheaper than most other ranged infantry (notably, 40 coin compared to the 65 for a European Skirmisher), which is useful due to the high expense of cavalry units. Wakina Rifles can be massed in large numbers using shipments (especially in the Industrial Age), allowing a player to field a huge number of them quite quickly. Unlike the other units from the War Hut, Club Warrior and the Cetan Bowman, the Wakina Rifle costs food and coin.
Upgrades[]
The Wakina Rifle starts at the Elite level, giving them +25% hit points and attack.
If made available at the Commerce Age with the "TEAM House of Bonaparte" card, Wakina Rifles will be automatically upgraded to Elite when the player reaches the Fortress Age.
Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
Champion Wakina Rifles | 400 wood 200 coin |
Upgrades Wakina Rifles to Champion (+25% hit points and attack) | |
Legendary Wakina Rifles | 1,500 wood 1,500 coin |
Upgrades Wakina Rifles to Legendary (+50% hit points and attack, and +1 range) requires Champion Wakina Rifles |
Campaign appearances[]
In the original The WarChiefs, the Wakina Rifle appears in Act I: Fire as Seneca and Mohawk soldiers. They later appear in Act II: Shadow as Sioux soldiers, especially in the first part of the scenario Turning Point, where they keep harassing Holme's Settlers.
Further statistics[]
As Wakina Rifles are unique to the Lakota, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
---|---|
Strong vs. | Heavy infantry, light cavalry, ranged shock infantry |
Weak vs. | Heavy cavalry, hand shock infantry, artillery |
Improvements | |
Hit points | Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%) |
Attack | Gun Trade (+15%) Smokeless Powder (+10%) Armatoloi (+5%) Yoga (+5%) Clenched Fist (+25% hand attack) Somali Jile Daggers (-35% hand attack Rate of Fire) Counter Infantry Rifling (+1.0 multiplier vs. heavy infantry) Kalthoff Repeaters (+0.1 multiplier vs. light infantry) |
Resistance | Somali Oryx Hide Shields (+5% ranged resistance) Bonepipe Armor (+10% siege resistance) |
Range | Schützenfest (+1) |
Line of Sight | Schützenfest (+1) |
Speed | Quechuan Mountaineering (+10%) Akan Fontomfrom (+5%) Apache Endurance (+5%) |
Train time | War Drums (-25%) Akan Fontomfrom (-20%) Quechuan Diet (-15%) |
Cost | Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost) Golden Liberty (-5% coin cost) |
Other | Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost) |
Home City Cards[]
As Wakina Rifles are unique to the Lakota, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:
- Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Forest Prowler
Some cards are highlighted with: | |
Green | TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team |
Blue | Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds) |
All[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Senegalese Riflemen | Ranged infantry get +10% attack; French and Hausa-only ranged infantry get +15% attack instead |
- "TEAM Senegalese Riflemen" is available to the French and Hausa.
Chinese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Yongle Infrastructure | Ships 1 Mongol Scout; infantry, land villagers, healing units, Envoys, and Disciples get +5% speed |
- "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" does not stack with the Inca "TEAM Inca Bridges" card.
Dutch[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints | Infantry get +10% hit points; Dutch-only infantry get +15% hit points instead |
French[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM House of Bonaparte | Skirmishers, Cassadores, Forest Prowlers, Wakina Rifles, Sharpshooters, Neftenyas, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army can be trained in the Commerce Age; Bersaglieri can be trained in the Fortress Age; Strelet, Jaeger, Longbowman, Salteador, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, Yumi Archer, Jungle Bowman, Leather Cannon, and Desert Archer train time -20% |
Haudenosaunee[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Scout Infantry | Ships 1 Native Scout; infantry get +8 Line of Sight |
Inca[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Inca Bridges | Ships 1 Chasqui; infantry, land villagers, healing units, and Envoys get +5% speed |
- "TEAM Inca Bridges" does not stack with the Chinese "TEAM Yongle Infrastructure" card.
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics | All units get +5% hit points and attack |
Japanese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Sengoku | Unit upgrades cost -20% |
Lakota[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
9 Wakina Rifles | Ships 9 Wakina Rifles | |
16 Wakina Rifles | Ships 16 Wakina Rifles | |
18 Wakina Rifles | Ships 18 Wakina Rifles | |
Moccasins | Infantry get +10% speed | |
Seven Council Fires | Ships 4 Club Warriors and 3 Wakina Rifles; upgrades Cetan Bowmen, Club Warriors, and Wakina Rifles to Champion (if not already); costs 250 coin | |
Akichita | All Lakota warriors get +20% hit points, but get reduced multipliers against Villagers; Tashunke Prowlers get -0.75×; Cetan Bowmen, Club Warriors, Wakina Rifles, Axe Riders, and Tokala Soldiers get -0.33×; Bow Riders and Rifle Riders get -0.25× | |
Nomadic Expansion | Lakota infantry can now construct Teepees and Teepees now also boost military building work rate by 100% (effectively reducing train time by 50%) | |
Aggressive Policy | Cetan Bowmen, Club Warriors, and Wakina Rifles can build War Huts and Corrals | |
Winter Counts | Training units grants +40% XP and constructing buildings grants +20% XP | |
Hunkpapa Support | Ships 16 Wakina Rifles and 2 War Hut Travois; costs 1,000 coin | |
Two Kettle Support | Ships 14 Wakina Rifles; Wakina Rifles get +20% hit points; costs 1,000 coin |
Maltese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Knights of the Round Table | Ships 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center owned by the player; all units get +2% hit points |
Mexicans[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Mariachi | For the next 30 seconds, military buildings work 400% faster and units get +10% speed |
Portuguese[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints | Gunpowder infantry get +15% hit points |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age |
---|---|---|
TEAM Spanish Inquisition | Ships 1 Inquisitor; all units get +10 Line of Sight |
Dutch[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Infantry Hitpoints | Infantry get +15% hit points | 10 |
French[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Ranged Infantry Attack | Gunpowder infantry and archers get +15% attack | 10 | |
TEAM Early Skirmishers | Skirmishers, Cassadores, Forest Prowlers, Wakina Rifles, Imperial Army, and Territorial Army can be trained in the Colonial Age; Longbowman, Strelet, Otontin Slinger, Gurkha, and Yumi Archer train time -20% | 25 |
Indians[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics | All units get +5% hit points and attack | 25 |
Iroquois[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Scout Infantry | Infantry get +8 Line of Sight | 10 |
Japanese[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades | Unit upgrades cost -20% | 1 |
Portuguese[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints | Gunpowder infantry get +15% hit points | 10 |
Russians[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
Dueling School | Infantry (except Skull Knights), Old Han Army, and Territorial Army train time -25%; Black Flag Army, Standard Army, Ming Army, and Imperial Army train time -12% | 25 |
Sioux[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
9 Wakina Rifles | Ships 9 Wakina Rifles | 1 | |
16 Wakina Rifles | Ships 16 Wakina Rifles | 10 | |
18 Wakina Rifles | Ships 18 Wakina Rifles | 25 | |
Wind Runner | Infantry get +10% speed | 10 | |
Uprising | Ships 7 Cetan Bows, 7 War Clubs, and 7 Wakina Rifles | 40 | |
Aggressive Policy | Cetan Bowmen, War Clubs, and Wakina Rifles can build Teepees, War Huts and Corrals | 25 | |
Hunkpapa Support | Ships 16 Wakina Rifles and 2 War Hut Travois; costs 1,000 coin | 10 | |
Two Kettle Support | Ships 14 Wakina Rifles; Wakina Rifles get +20% hit points; costs 1,000 coin | 25 |
Spanish[]
Card | Description | Age | HC level |
---|---|---|---|
TEAM Inquisition | All units get +10 Line of Sight | 10 |
Changelog[]
The WarChiefs[]
- Wakina Rifles give 9 XP when trained or killed.
- Wakina Rifles have a ×0.75 melee multiplier vs. hand shock infantry.
The Asian Dynasties[]
- With patch 1.01, all Archers and Skirmisher-type units gets ×0.75 ranged multiplier against cavalry and Coyote Runners, and gets ×2.0 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and Eagle Runner Knights.
Definitive Edition[]
- Wakina Rifles can now build Teepees.
- Wakina Rifles give 10 XP when trained or killed.
- With update 23511, the Wakina Rifle is tagged as Rifle infantry.
Knights of the Mediterranean[]
- With update 13.9057, the Wakina Rifle is tagged as Light Infantry.
- With update 13.12327, Wakina Rifles have a ×1.5 siege multiplier against Walls and Shrines.
- With update 13.18214, Legendary Wakina Rifles grants +1 range.
- With update 13.58326, the Wakina Rifle gets ×0.6 ranged multiplier against cavalry, ×0.5 ranged multiplier against shock infantry, ×2.5 ranged multiplier against light cavalry and ranged shock infantry.
- With update 14.3853, Wakina Rifles have a ×0.75 melee multiplier vs. shock infantry.
Trivia[]
- Wakina means "Thunderbird" in Lakota. The term refers to the animal and not to the sound. [1]
History[]
“ | Sometimes the Lakota had to fight on foot. It is not always possible to run someone down with your horse. On these occasions, they fought tenaciously and well. In general, the Lakota were known for their keen accuracy with their rifles. | ” |
Gallery[]
In other languages[]
Spanish: Rifle Wakina