For similar buildings in other games, see Gunsmith.
The Gunsmith is a type of industrial building in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
Soldiers will always need weapons. This building aids, and lowers the cost of, recruiting military units.
A gunsmith specialises in the design, building and repair of firearms. Gunsmiths are skilled craftsmen who need an expert knowledge of metallurgy and a fine eye for detail. Being able to arm soldiers is, of course, an important requirement for raising effective units. A gunsmith's factory, however, is not a pleasant place for the lowly artisans who do most of the actual work.
Owning a good pair of duelling pistols was a must for many gentlemen, even though duelling was largely frowned upon and even illegal in some countries. This didn't stop some of the most influential men of the time owning pistols. Napoleon owned a set personally designed for him by the influential French engineer, Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval. The most famous individual to fight a duel was probably the Duke of Wellington: in 1829 he fought a duel against the 9th Earl of Winchelsea. Both men fired into the air, as the point to satisfy honour, not kill each other.
General Information[]
Gunsmiths grant a slight reduction to local infantry recruitment costs. However, they are inferior to manufactories, which occupy the same building slots as gunsmiths. Even if a region with a gunsmith produces infantry continually, the taxed wealth generated from a manufactory far exceeds the savings granted by gunsmiths.
Gunsmiths reduce the training costs of all infantry, even those that don't use guns (such as Cemaat Janissaries).
Gunsmiths may be upgraded to musket manufactories, which increase regions' recruitment capacity as well as further reducing infantry recruitment costs.
The Peninsular Campaign[]
In The Peninsular Campaign, gunsmiths are even less viable: the extremely poor wealth of most regions means that building manufactory line buildings makes a big difference. All factions in the conflict have access to very cheap infantry regardless.