German Grenadiers are a type of grenadier infantry in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
Grenadiers are large, strong men, armed with muskets and a fearsome reputation.
Grenadiers see themselves as elite soldiers, and occupy the place of honour at the right of the line on parade. They have good reason: only large, brave men become grenadiers, this size and strength makes them an impressive sight in a charge. It also gives them an advantage in melee combat. Grenadiers are a proud group and this pride makes for dedicated soldiers who will follow orders to the letter. Like other infantry, they must exercise caution when facing heavy cavalry, but they are also vulnerable to attack from skirmishers.
Historically, grenadier regiments and battalions began as ad-hoc assault groups. All line infantry regiments had grenadier companies; collecting these sub-units gave commanders a useful group of heavily armed, aggressive and skilful soldiers. Grenadier companies remained in line infantry regiments after the creation of grenadier regiments, but they largely abandoned using grenades: instead, each grenadier company became a “heavy mob” of the biggest and strongest soldiers in a regiment!
General Information[]
German Grenadiers are the standard grenadier type for Austria. They are superior in most ways to their line infantry counterparts, possessing better ranged capabilities and much better melee abilities. They possess the ability to throw grenades, powerful short-ranged explosives. However, their regiments are some 25% smaller than standard line regiments, making German Grenadiers poor choices for absorbing enemy fire.
German Grenadiers compare unfavorably in most ways to their counterparts in other factions. French Grenadiers of the Line have greatly superior reloading skill and charging bonuses, and are only extremely marginally weaker defensively; yet they do not cost more to train and maintain. Prussian Grenadiers have much better reloading and accuracy, only slightly worse defense, and only cost slightly more to train. Russian grenadiers have somewhat worse accuracy, but more than make up for this with their phenomenal charging bonus. In the Austrian unit roster, German Grenadiers are inferior to Hungarian Grenadiers, which have better melee, defence, and charging statistics. However, Hungarian grenadiers are more expensive, can only be trained in Hungary, and have a unit cap of 10 regiments.