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Sabotage half size version In the Extended Edition, this unit/building is affected by a damage bug.

Crossbowmen are the standard Foot Archers of the Medieval Age Medieval Age for nations with the Arab, Asian, East Indian and European unit styles, available to upgrade from Archers and trained at the Barracks.

Overview[]

After Archers become Crossbowmen, they gain +10 hit points and +2 attack strength. Besides this, the change from bows to crossbows makes their projectiles much faster, and even though their rate of fire is unchanged, this represents an advantage that makes their attack much more devastating compared to previous ages (see below). Like all Foot Archers, Crossbowmen make excellent garrisons, increasing a building's Garrison Power garrison power more than other unit types.

Crossbowmen are the last standard Foot Archers; they will still be available for recruitment in the Gunpowder Age Gunpowder Age without any upgrades, except for the nations with their unique variants, all of which will improve significantly. When the Enlightenment Age Enlightenment Age is reached, all Foot Archers merge into Gunpowder Infantry and become Musketeers (or their unique unit equivalent).

Projectile and Animation Advantage[]

Even though the firing rate of Crossbowmen is the same as all other Foot Archers, their projectiles fly twice as fast. Since their projectiles reach their targets sooner and are more difficult to dodge, this allows Crossbowmen to kill all units faster.

In addition to having faster projectiles, Crossbowmen release their projectiles much sooner in their attack animations than other Archers. This compounds the advantage of their faster projectiles, allowing them to sometimes land attacks on enemies who are still animating their attacks (but have not yet released a projectile / dealt damage). It can also allow Crossbowmen to kite more easily, either staying out of range of charging attackers for longer, or being able to spend more time attacking fleeing enemies.

  • Crossbowmen release their single projectile an average of 378ms into their animation.
  • Heavy Archers release their single projectile an average of 855ms into their animation.
  • King's Longbowmen and Royal Hwarang release their first projectile an average of 510.67ms into their animation, and their second projectile an average of 1577.33ms.
  • Royal Kushite Archers release their single projectile an average of 1033ms into their animation.

Because of these subtle advantages, Crossbowmen will soundly beat a force of Heavy Archers of the same size, despite otherwise having the exact same base stats. They will even do the same to Royal Hwarang and King's Longbowmen in a head to head fight despite Crossbowmen having both lower damage and lower durability than either of the other two units. In the Medieval Age, only Royal Kushite Archers, specifically designed to counter other Foot Archers, will be able to beat Crossbowmen with any consistency.

The matchups change in an army-vs-army fight where both sides are able to benefit from the bonus armor added by a Patriot or General, as the higher stats of the unique units can lead to a more even overall result. This is because as the durability of both sides increases, prolonging the fight and reducing the effect of what is essentially higher burst damage on the part of Crossbowmen. Only in the Gunpowder age, where all the unique Foot Archers of the age will receive a further stat improvement, will the now-outdated Crossbowmen consistently lose against its unique counterparts regardless of external factors such as armor bonuses.

Parallel unit[]

Uniquely, Crossbowmen are the only standard unit in the game that is not available to all nations, sharing this status with their counterpart Heavy Archers, exclusive to Native American nations (i.e. those with the American and Iroquois unit styles).

Unique units[]

Gallery[]

See also[]

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