The Legion of the United States are skirmishers in Empire: Total War. They are available with the purchase of the Elite Units of the West DLC.
Description[]
The Legion is a composite force of infantry, able to fight in a battle line and as skirmishers.
These men are professional soldiers, the best that can be found in the United States. Each man is trained to fight with guts, independence and determination. All are schooled in the tactics of formal, European fighting, where giving fire from rigid lines is the norm, yet they are also capable of fighting in a flexible, loose skirmish fashion that is ideally suited to war against the natives. The Legion may not be numerous, but it makes up for that in fighting spirit!
The Founding Fathers were very suspicious of armies and believed that a citizen militia was quite sufficient for national defence. Events proved them wrong. Formed in 1791 to fight the natives, the Legion was America’s first standing army. Under the leadership of “Mad” Anthony Wayne – so called not because he was insane, but because he was “mad for it” and always up for a fight – US units were properly trained for the first time. After Wayne was killed in 1796, his Legion was reorganised into more conventional infantry regiments, which still exist as combat units in the US Army today.
General Information[]
Legions of the United States serve as over-size, superior versions of Light Infantry. They have better reloading skills, and their poorer accuracy is more than made up for by their superiority in numbers and hence volume of fire. They are most similar to the Prussian Frei-korps, with the only differences being that Frei-korps have much worse melee characteristics and slightly better morale. They are the only skirmishers in the game that can utilize bayonets, giving them a considerable edge in combat over light troops, and even allowing them to fare fairly well against heavier troops such as Line Infantry.