German Infantry Musketeer

German Infantry Musketeer
Culture	Polish Commonwealth
Wages	9 thaler
Acquire From	Prisoners or Commander
Upgrades To...	German Infantry Musketeer (veteran)
Exp For Kill	67 XP
Ransom Value	67 thalers

German Infantry Musketeers are elite native infantry of the Polish Commonwealth. Strangely enough, they also work as Mercenaries for Muscovite Tsardom.

Hence their name, they are Catholic German mercenaries that the Polish Commonwealth acquired from the Holy Roman Empire, as they wear the distinguishable yellow vest and blue pants. Carrying sturdy head and body armor for protection and equipped with a Wheellock Musket and Good Sword, the German Infantry Musketeer is a highly improved and westernized version of the Polish Zolnier musketeer unit. Its Veteran version is equipped with the more accurate Miquelet Musket with better stats.

They become available for hire at Polish/Muscovite fortifications after a Commander and Infantry/Mercenary Commander have been hired. These mercenaries are different from the mercenaries available at Mercenary Camps as they are only available at Polish and Muscovite fortifications and can therefore only be recruited by Polish and Muscovite faction members.

Tactics

The German Infantry Musketeer is the best musketeer unit that the Polish Commonwealth and Muscovite Tsardom can muster. Its stats and equipment far surpasses its weaker Polish and Muscovite counterparts, making it more efficient in the battlefield and during sieges. Both their regular and veteran counterparts are deadly in a musket firing line, and Are equally matched to the Swedish Lifeguard in terms of stats and melee equipment. While the Swedish and Cossack elite musketeer is equipped with the better Miquelet Musket for ranged combat, the German musketeer carries a morion, which is highly protective against upper-cut head attacks. Though the German Infantry Musketeer can defeat light infantry and cavalry easily with their sword, like all musketeer units, they are vulnerable to medium and heavy cavalry. They will use the butt of their musket once they are in melee, which makes it a poor melee weapon if they don't have enough time to pull out their better sword. Therefore, protecting them with pikemen (German Infantry Pikemen are more useful than the alternatives) improves their effectiveness so that they can fire several rounds into charging enemies without fear of being overwhelmed.

To use the German Infantry Musketeers effectively in battle, position them in 2 or 3 rows on the top of hill to give covering fire for your charging cavalry. If you have pikemen, be sure to place them in front of the musketeers, but not too close or else they will cover their line of fire and not too far or else the cavalry or infantry will pass the pikemen, reach toward the top of the hill and slaughter your musketeers. While defending a siege, it is best to stockpile German Musketeers to garrison the fort. Once the battle has started, position your Musketeers in 2 rows in the courtyard to give suppressing fire to the enemy, while your infantry, pikemen, and dismounted melee cavalry block the staircase by charging into the masses of enemies.

Stats and equipment

Note: Troops have a set of default stats; at the beginning of a new game, these stats are randomly adjusted for each type of troop. The following is the default set for this troop as seen within the game code and may not reflect the specific stats you will see during actual gameplay. For more information, see Troop stats.

German Infantry Musketeer - Default Stats and Equipment

Attributes Stat Points Level 12 Strength 10 Agility 8 Intelligence 0 Charisma 0 Health 49 Armor Helmets Morion, Cabasset Body Armor German Musketeer Line Uniform Boots Shoes with Stockings Gloves None Skills Skill Points Ironflesh 2 Power Strike 2 Grenade Throwing 0 Power Draw 0 Weapon Master 3 Shield 0 Athletics 1 Riding 1 Shooting from Horseback 0 Looting 0 Trainer 0 Tracking 0 Tactics 0 Path-finding 0 Spotting 0 Inventory Management 2 Wound Treatment 0 Surgery 0 First Aid 0 Engineer 0 Persuasion 0 Prisoner Management 1 Leadership 1 Trade 1 Proficiencies Weapon Type Points One Handed Weapons 90 Two Handed Weapons 70 Polearms 80 Archery 0 Firearms 130 Throwing 0 Weapons Melee Weapons Good Sword Ranged Weapons Wheellock Musket, Bullets Shields None Mount None

Trivia

German Infantry Musketeers are Imperial mercenaries (Holy Roman Empire). The Polish Commonwealth had recruited 8,000 German mercenaries against the Cossacks in the Cossack-Polish War (1648–57). Some German Musketeers were veteran marksmen from the Imperial Army who survived the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Since they were well disciplined and were both expert marksmen and fencers, they were difficult opponents for the Cossacks, whom a large portion knew little how to fight.

The Swedish-Polish war that occurred later saw many of them face rematches against their old Swedish and Scottish adversaries from the Thirty Years' War. They fared less well against the professional soldiers that had defeated them before and accordingly suffered heavy losses, but they played a key role in helping the Commonwealth endure the invasion.