"Quick and cheap to create." - Excerpt from Militia Definition
The most basic of all units in the series, the Infantry class consists of foot soldiers, primarily melee based, who specialize in weapons such as swords, spears, and axes. They hold a natural predominance against buildings and gain an attack bonus against them, and along with their quick creation speed, they are efficient building destroyers in early ages. However, aside from Unique Units and fully upgraded Infantry, such as Champions and Halberdiers, they are vastly inferior to Archers, Cavalry, and Siege Weapons.
Age of Empires Infantry Units
Tactics
Hoplites (and its later improvements) are not quite as good for this as they are slow and expensive, although they have a large amount of hitpoints so they can suck up most of the damage that would most likely kill their faster (but weaker) Swordsmen comrades.
Age of Empires II Infantry Units
Standard units:
- Militia, Man-at-Arms, Long Swordsman, Two-Handed Swordsman, Champion
- Spearman, Pikeman, Halberdier
- Eagle Scout, Eagle Warrior, Elite Eagle Warrior (Mesoamerican civilizations only: Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas)
- Woad Raider (Celts)
- Throwing Axeman (Franks)
- Huskarl (Goths)
- Samurai (Japanese)
- Teutonic Knight (Teutons)
- Berserker (Vikings)
- Jaguar Warrior (Aztecs)
- Kamayuk (Incas)
- Condottiero (Italians)
Tactics
Depending on the civilization, the Infantry could form the primary unit in an army or a liability. For rushing civilizations, such as the Goths and Huns, using Men-At-Arms and Spearmen could disrupt the enemy economy long enough to advance far enough into the Castle Age. However, by this time, it is recommended to switch to stronger units, such as Crossbowmen, Knights, and Scorpions. However, Long Swordsmen could be a useful unit to implement should there not be enough resources or time to train units such as these. Pikemen, and their later versions Halberdiers, retain their usefulness against heavy cavalry and, in conjunction with other archers, can decimate most enemy formations. The Unique Units are no pushovers, either. The Woad Raider is the equivalent of the Hun Tarkan, easily rushing and destroying enemy structures or villagers. Units, such as the Huskarl, Samurai, Teutonic Knight, Berserk, and Jaguar Warrior, make for stronger than usual units and could easily augment an army, and the Throwing Axeman could easily substitute other French archers. However, to cavalry based civilizations such as the Persians and Mongols, attention is best served to stronger classes.
Age of Empires III Infantry Units
- Cassador: Portuguese unique unit
- Crossbowman
- Doppelsoldner: German unique unit
- Halberdier
- Janissary: Ottoman unique unit
- Longbowman: British unique unit
- Musketeer
- Pikeman
- Rodelero: Spanish unique unit
- Skirmisher
- Strelet: Russian unique unit
Despite the seemingly great variety, all infantry are basically either light or heavy. Light Infantry (archers, skirmishers) are good against heavy infantry, while heavy infantry (musketeers, pikemen, halberdiers, swordsmen) are good against cavalry.
Infantry are easily demolished by artillery, especially Falconet and Heavy Cannon types. Light Infantry are also countered well with melee cavalry.
