Royal Marines

Royal Marines
Appears in	Fall of the Samurai
Belongs to	Most factions
Type	Elite Infantry
Ammunition	15
Soldiers per unit	50/100/150/200
Attack skill	12
Charge bonus	20
Anti-cavalry skill	7
Armour	2
Defense skill	7
Range	125
Precision	70
Loading speed	65
Morale	12
Produced from	British Trading District
Special abilities	Kneel Fire Suppression Fire
Cost	1370 SP/1380 MP
Upkeep	180
Turns to train	1
Unit cap	3

Royal Marines are a type of elite infantry in Fall of the Samurai.

Description

Manning guns aboard ship or carrying a rifle ashore, Royal Marines always rise to a challenge.

These are well-trained and disciplined infantrymen carrying the latest breech-loading rifles available. They are capable of delivering accurate, withering and rapid fire on enemy units and, when they close, can give a very good account of themselves in melee. Given the traditions of the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy they also have excellent morale, making them superior quality line infantry.

Royal Marines were the British Admiralty’s private land-going army. Although they might look like soldiers and fight like soldiers, they were not part of the British Army. They traced their origins back to 1664, but they formally became marines in 1755. This gave them a long tradition of sea-service and, given the controlled aggression of the Royal Navy over the centuries, plenty of practice in fighting. The example of Admiral Byng’s execution for not attacking the enemy made sure that Royal Navy ships would almost always attack, and that no officer would pass up an opportunity to harm an enemy.

Marines were usually distributed across the whole fleet, and operated guns in sea battles, often with great skill and bravery. Ashore, they were the backbone of most expeditionary forces, and were expected to give a good account of themselves in any situation from a set-piece battle to a cutting-out raid. One peculiar quirk of the Royal Marines (and this in a navy which specialises in quirky behaviour) was the rank of Colonel of Marines. Despite the name, this was given to RN captains who did distinguished service: a nice way of boosting their pay and honouring them.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Very good accuracy and reload rate.
• Good in melee.
• Very good morale.

General Information

Royal Marines are superior guard infantry. Their capabilities lie in between Infanterie de marine and United States Marines, with better melee skills but worse reload skill and accuracy than the former, and better reload skill and accuracy but worse melee skills than the latter. This makes them superior in almost every way to standard guard infantry, making them well-suited to most roles in combat. Like other foreign elite infantry, royal marines can be obtained much earlier than Shogunate/Imperial/Republican Guard Infantry thanks to their only needing a trading district port rather than the end-game Army War College, despite their stronger overall stats. This makes them a valuable addition to mid-game armies all the way through to the end game.

Royal Marines are trained in provinces with a British Trading District, and can only be trained by factions with diplomatic missions with the British, making them directly available only to Imperial factions. While only three regiments may be recruited, additional regiments can be obtained through random mission events. In rare cases, they can also be bribed from other factions, though this is a very costly and chancy undertaking.

As with most line infantry, royal marines benefit from open sight lines and elevated positions, where they can inflict maximum damage. They don't fare as well on rough terrain or in forests, but they hold up much better than other line infantry in melee combat.

Royal marines are best countered with artillery, sharpshooter fire, and superior melee infantry.