England Faction Guide

A guide to the nation of England covering their bonuses, unique units, and overall playstyle with a bit of history on the side!

Introduction

The first Union Jack, also known as the King’s Colours. First created in 1606 upon the union of England and Scotland, the design fuses the flags of both kingdoms. Initially just used at sea, it was adopted more generally in 1707 as the national flag of the United Kingdom.

Availability: Base game
Focus: Balanced, Naval, Cavalry
Playstyle: European

England (or more properly Britain, as the faction represents a united England and Scotland) is among the few nations in the game with a strong focus on water maps. With several major naval discounts, including the ability to unlock Battleships before other countries, England stands proudly as one of the kings of naval combat in Cossacks, rivaling Portugal and the Islamic factions for seafaring dominance.

On land maps, England is a more balanced country set apart mainly by its plethora of cavalry discounts, allowing them to achieve an early tech advantage over their rivals. Their two unique units are a bit of a mixed bag, but they have their situational uses and England can always fall back on its strong generic units to carry the day.

If you like water maps, have a thing for beefy Musketeers in kilts, or just want to play a well-rounded European country with cheaper cavalry, England is a great nation for you.

EDIT 4/23/24: Rewrote the Highlander's profile to include new test results and be more readable.
EDIT 8/16/25: Rewrote Highlander section again, added new pics, fixed the cost of England's 18th century upgrade, and added more to the English Hussar, Gameplay, Map Preferences, and Closing Remarks sections.


National flag of England, featuring a classic red-and-white St. George’s Cross. The design’s origin dates back to the Middle Ages, when English soldiers often used red crosses as identifiers to tell themselves from their enemies. These days, though, it’s mostly just used at sports matches.

Features

+ Stables build faster and cost no stone but a third more gold
+ Armored 17c. Pikeman
+ 18c. Musketeer
+ Balloon to reveal the map
+ Tech cost discounts:

• Reiter defense upgrades (Stables)
  
• 17c. Dragoon attack upgrades (Stables)
  
• 18c. Dragoon upgrades (Stables)
  
• Cavalry recruit speed (Blacksmith)
  
• Fishing Boat efficiency (Academy)
  
• Ship movement speed (Academy)
  
• Unlock Battleships (Academy)
  
• Repair all vessels (Shipyard)

~ Highlander–slow-training Musketeer with high HP and attack but short range
~ English Hussar–upgrades are cheaper but ends up with 1 less melee defense
- 18th century upgrade costs 5,000 less food but 2,500 more iron and coal
- Tech cost penalties:

• Cuirassier attack upgrades (Stables)
  
• +5 cavalry attack (Blacksmith)

As already mentioned, England is one of the only countries that has serious bonuses towards water maps. Between improving their Fishing Boats faster and being able to repair vessels and unlock Battleships more cheaply, England build a strong fishing economy and unleash their most powerful naval units earlier than other countries, giving them a decided advantage.

On land maps, England’s a far more balanced nation whose stand-out feature is its slew of cavalry-related bonuses and discounts. In fact, England has so many cheaper techs that I’ve excluded a few that aren’t worth talking about (for example, England saves a whopping 100 gold on its Reiter attack upgrades. Yay?), but just know that pretty much every mounted unit benefits apart from Cuirassiers, whose upgrades actually cost more and are easily England’s worst cavalry option.* There’s also their Stable bonus, which helps you get the first few up quickly and cheaply at the cost of paying more for later ones.


Every English cavalry unit that benefits from their faction's bonuses. Reiters, Hussars, and both 17c. and 18c. Dragoons are all cheaper to upgrade. The lone exception is the Cuirassier, who is sadly down for the count.

There are a few hiccups, though. More notably, England’s 18th century upgrade and the +5 cavalry attack tech both cost more, which is annoying as you’ll usually need both eventually (unless you’re making Dragoons, of course). Finally, there’s England’s two unique units, who are both double-edged swords to varying degrees.

All of this might make England sound hard to play, but they really aren’t. They’re still a standard European-type nation at heart, and most players probably don’t even think about these discounts as they unconsciously pocket the savings. But if you’re attentive and good with math, you could use England’s bonuses to give their cavalry an edge by achieving a production and tech advantage in the early-to-mid game.

*The classic Basic Nation Differences guide mentions that England has great Cuirassiers, but this seems to have changed and English Cuirassiers today are the same as everyone else’s but with pricier upgrades, making them some of the worst in the game.

Highlander (18th century)

Base stats:

Full upgrades:

Cost: 90 food, 25 gold, 10 iron max: 90 food, 12 gold, 5 iron min.
Training time: 6.5 seconds
Range: 15.94
Reload speed: 5 seconds max: 2.45 seconds min.

+ High HP and melee/arrow armor
+ High damage
+ Powerful when massed
~ Barracks upgrades are for ranged attack, not melee
- Very slow training time
- No melee attack
- Short range for an 18th century unit
- Subpar reload speed
- Performs poorly when training time is a factor
- Takes longer to train than other musketeers of similar strength

England’s unique musketeer is sadly disappointing. The Highlander, in addition to being proof that the faction represents all of Great Britain rather than just England, is a short-range, tanky, slow-training alternative to the standard 18c. Musketeer. I used to be very hard on these guys and while my opinion has softened over time, I still think they’re underpowered for the kind of unit they are. It’s not because of their underlying design or even their current stats in and of themselves: Rather, it’s the mismatch between their abilities and training time that makes them so much worse than equivalent units in other nations.

It’s a real shame because the Highlander is conceptually one of the most interesting musketeers of the 18th century. Rather than try and outrange the enemy like so many other elite shooters out there, Highlanders are all about getting up in the foe’s face and slowly grinding them down with powerful attacks while absorbing return fire with their very impressive 130 HP. Whereas normal 18c. Musketeers die to only 4 25-damage shots, Highlanders require 6, meaning they can survive significantly longer in most engagements than other ranged infantry would:

Shots to kill (full upgrades)

Damage:	16	20	22	25	30	35	40	46	51	56
Merc. Roundshier	10	7	6	5	4	3	3	2	2	2
17c. Pikeman	12	8	7	6	5	4	3	3	3	2
Highlander	9	7	6	6	5	4	4	3	3	3
Reiter	50	30	25	20	15	12	10	9	8	7
Cuirassier	150	50	38	28	19	15	12	10	9	8

Additionally, their 35-damage shots really hurt (even if their 2.45-second reload speed is slightly subpar) while their sky-high 15 max melee and arrow armor make them much more resistant to non-gunpowder attacks than other musketeers and even grenadiers once fully upgraded (though this is somewhat undermined by their lack of a close quarters attack, meaning you’ll still need melee troops to drive off attacking Hussars and the like). Their main downside in battle is their short 15.94 range, meaning every other late-game musketeer apart from Portuguese Volunteers will get the first volley off in an engagement.


Into the fray: Highlanders engage the enemy while the melee infantry move forward to shield them from bullets. Even with the Highlanders' extra HP, proper battle tactics are still essential to victory.

In game, the Highlander is clearly intended to fill a similar role to Austrian Pandurs, French Chasseurs, and other slow-training alternatives to 18c. Musketeers, requiring more time to build up and be effective but resulting in a more powerful army if you get a critical mass of them. Their short range means they need to be screened by blocking troops (even moreso than other musketeers) so they can close with the enemy without being shot to pieces, but with proper micro, a large force of Highlanders can perform quite well.

Unfortunately, Highlanders have one glaring flaw that holds them back from greatness; their training time. At 6.5 seconds, Highlanders should be bringing a level of power-per-soldier roughly equivalent to other 18th century shooters with similar production times like Hungarian Szekely and Prussian Musketeers. Instead, they only perform about as well as Pandurs and Bavarian Musketeers–good troops, to be sure, but ones that train in only 5.5 seconds or even less.


Saint Andrew weeps: 74 fully-upgraded English Highlanders vs 108 18c. Musketeers, reflecting the difference in training time. Adding blocking troops to both sides led to similarly one-sided results.

The mismatch between their power and training time is why Highlanders do so poorly in situations where production speed matters. In repeated tests, they got stomped by every other 18th century musketeer save for Swiss Jaegers–a unit intended to have a terrible power-to-training-time ratio in return for being extremely strong (far more so than the Highlander) if you get a critical mass of them. Even compared to other slow-training elites, that’s a very bad showing, especially considering what you get if you do manage to mass them up.

In low-peacetime games, opting for Highlanders is risky as it will leave you vulnerable to attack in the mid game. The discrepancy between their power and production rate means that practically any other European country will be able to build a strong 18th century army faster than you and hit you before you’re ready. At least Highlanders aren’t quite as vulnerable to Hussar raids as other bayonet-less musketeers due to their toughness, but that’s small consolation if you can’t overcome the enemy’s large edge in firepower. In these situations, it’s better to opt for 18c. Musketeers who don’t require nearly as much time to be effective.


Meeting Engagement: Highlanders and other English infantry bump into enemy troops while clearing a town.

The best times to make Highlanders are A) when you’re sure that you won’t be attacked before you can amass a large force of them and B) on water maps where the limited space to build leaves you with a lower population cap, requiring you to squeeze as much combat power out of each soldier as possible. In the latter case their added tankiness makes Highlanders rather good for naval landings if you require them, though you shouldn’t prioritize this over winning water control with your strong navy.

In conclusion, the Highlander is a good unit cursed with the training time of a great unit. I’ve actually grown rather fond of them over the course of reworking this guide since they function so differently from other musketeers and are a cool nod to classic regiments from British history like the Black Watch. If their production speed were just one or even half a second faster, they’d be a lot better and I hope that one day they get the treatment they deserve. As is, at least they’re an option you can break out as needed while falling back on your still-strong 18c. Musketeers in other situations.


Redcoats: English 18c. Musketeers drive the Russians from the Crimea.

English Hussar (18th century)

Base stats:

Full upgrades:

Cost: 70 food, 20 gold, 2 iron
Training time: 15 seconds max: 10 seconds min.

+ Cheaper to upgrade than other Hussars
+ Fast cavalry
+ Long line of sight
+ Great raider, flanker, and bullet sponge
~ Deals sword damage
- Gains 1 less melee/arrow armor from the last defense upgrade
- Defense upgrades are still expensive
- Can’t make formations

Despite having the same cost, base stats, and even unit model as everyone else’s Hussars, English ones are subtly different. They’re cheaper to upgrade which lets you buff their stats easier and potentially achieve a tech advantage, but their max defenses are 1 point weaker, making them slightly worse than other nations’ Hussars once both sides are fully upgraded. Otherwise they're exactly the same late-game fast cavalry unit you love, great for raiding enemy supply lines, flanking opposing gunlines, dancing in front of their side’s infantry to tank bullets for the Musketeers, and so on.

The big selling point of English Hussars is their lower cost to upgrade. To show how much you save, here’s a comparison of total upgrade costs between normal and English Hussars, as well as how much England saves in resources:

Normal Hussar attack: 121,400 food, 5,600 gold, 17,500 iron
English Hussar attack: 115,400 food, 5,000 gold, 15,900 iron
English savings: 6,000 food, 600 gold, 1,600 iron

Normal Hussar defense: 71,260 food, 52,900 gold
English Hussar defense: 88,300 food, 50,450 gold
English savings: -17,040 food, 2,450 gold

Normal Hussar total: 192,660 food, 58,500 gold, 17,500 iron
English Hussar total: 203,700 food, 55,450 gold, 15,900 iron
Total English savings: -11,040 food, 3,050 gold, 1,600 iron

So England saves 3,050 gold and 1,600 iron total on their Hussar upgrades, which is nice. (They also pay 11,040 more food, but that’s basically nothing in the late game.) Also of note is when England gets their discounts: In particular, the first English attack upgrade is a lot cheaper, allowing them to breeze through the first two attack techs to quickly reach the cheaper iron-and-food-costing ones later on. There’s potential here for England to reach higher upgrade tiers well before its competition, giving their Hussars an early edge over their foreign counterparts.

The downside is that once both sides have reached full upgrades, English Hussars end up slightly less resilient than everyone else’s. They stay the same up until the very last defense upgrade (tier VII), where English Hussars gain +2 melee/arrow defense while everyone else gains +3. This means English Hussars cap out at 9 protection instead of 10, with obvious implications for their performance in battle.


What a 1-protection difference can do: 72 fully-upgraded English Hussars vs 72 normal (in this case Spanish) ones.

This mock fight against normal Hussars made me curious if the English Hussars' lower defense opened the door for other, normally weaker fast cavalry to challenge them, namely the 17th century fast cavalry plus Swiss Mounted Jaegers.


An uncertain victory: 72 fully-upgraded English Hussars vs. 69 Austrian Croats, reflecting the difference in training time between the two units. In repeated tests with the Croats, English Hussars won 8 out of 10 times.

Fortunately for England, the answer is no, it does not. Although English Hussars don’t dominate weaker fast cavalry as much as their normal counterparts, they still win comfortably against most of them with equal training time. The only ones who gave them trouble were Austria’s Croats, and even then the English still won the majority of the time. Every other fast cavalry from Polish Winged Hussars to Swedish Hakkapeliitta lost convincingly.

With all that said, are English Hussars better or worse than normal ones? It really depends: In fast-paced games that end before you could fully upgrade your Hussars - common in higher-skill matches - English ones are definitely superior due to the resource savings and potential tech advantage they offer. Being weaker when fully upgraded doesn't matter if the game never reaches that point. On the flip side, they're worse in slower games where battles are fewer and players can save up for their expensive upgrades before the fighting starts, something more common in lower-level matches. In those situations, you should perhaps forgo English Hussars in favor of your discounted 18c. Dragoons or even, if you really want to, your more-expensive Cuirassiers (not that I recommend the latter).

So that's the English Hussar, a unit whose worth increases with the overall pace of the match. They're definitely a unit more fit for experienced players, but that's part of their charm. And if none of that appeals to you of the game doesn't suit them, England's other 18th century cavalry units are still perfectly serviceable. (Okay, maybe not their Cuirassiers, but still.)


“Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do or die…” English Hussars counterattack a victorious Ukrainian force trying to sneak around the main battle line and get into the English rear.

Gameplay

NOTE: This section assumes you’re only playing with English units and buildings. That means it largely ignores capturing, although the advice given can easily be applied to games that allow it.

Early Game (early 17th century)

Emerging from the Civil War: An early-game English base.

England’s early game is mostly average on land maps, although they can get a little more use out of their cavalry thanks to their Stable bonus and discounts. This makes them a bit better in games with 15+ minute peacetimes, which give you more time to build up before the fighting starts, but that’s about the only advantage they have. Watch out for strong rushing nations like Scotland and Spain.

Switching to water maps, England does better thanks since the tech to raise Fishing Boat efficiency is cheaper. This puts them ahead of most nations economically, though they need to watch out for Turkey and Algeria’s faster-building navies.


Drive them back! A force of Turkish Archers wandered through a hole in the wall I built (because there’s always a bloody hole) and started torching my base while my army was away. Fortunately, thanks to England’s cheaper early Stables and cavalry recruit speed tech, I had a large force of 17c. Dragoons that could quickly respond and contain the invasion while newly-produced units were rerouted to wipe the Turks out before too much damage was done.

Mid Game (late 17th/early 18th century)

Glorious Revolution: A mid-game English base.

England’s performance on land is better in this era. Your cavalry discounts can help you build up a large force a little more quickly and cheaply than most other nations; if you’re fast enough, you could even gain a tech advantage over opposing horsemen.

In terms of which cavalry to go for, pretty much any of them are viable and you should choose them based on the needs of the match. I’d try to avoid the Cuirassier since that’s the only unit that’ll cost you more than a generic European nation, but 18c. Dragoons, Hussars, or even continuing to make Reiters if you went with them earlier are all fine choices.

On water maps, England is still above average. Your discounted Battleship construction tech means you can start adding them to your fleet before other nations while your cheaper repair-all-ships tech at the Shipyard will help you keep your navy fighting fit.


Shoreside salute: A platoon of 17c. Musketeers and an allied Yacht stand at attention as a newly commissioned Frigate sails past. Other warships are currently on the stocks as fishermen ply the local waters.

Late Game (late 18th century)

Rule Britannia: A late-game English base producing Battleships and Galleys.

This is when England arguably levels out as once all the upgrades are researched, their cavalry and navy become the same as everyone else’s (or even worse in the Hussar’s case). Furthermore, the increased cost of later English Stables can actually result in England producing fewer cavalry than their opponents, which isn’t great.

On the flip side, England is still a European nation with the same strong generic 18th century units as the others, allowing them to go toe-to-toe with the majority of the game's factions. Even better, if they manage to amass a large force of Highlanders, England can become a genuinely good late-game nation, outlasting opposing armies with hundreds of beefy lads in kilts.

Even so, bear in mind that Highlanders at their best are good, not great, and aren’t quite at the same level as the top-tier late game shooters out there like Prussian and Danish Musketeers or French Chasseurs. Danish Musketeers are especially dangerous to you as they can three-shot your Highlanders while training a full second faster, so tread carefully around a good Danish player.


The Crimean War a century early: A late-game English army engages Russia. The Hussars and Roundshiers are out front to tank incoming fire while the Musketeers do most of the killing.

Map Preferences

“Enemy to starboard, sir!” A pair of very brave Battleships plus a frigate make a stand against a vast English armada. (Note my poor ship micro leading to a lot of them blocking each other from firing.)

Being a balanced nation, England does fine on most map settings. They’re a top-tier naval power, naturally, while on land maps their mix of features give them something interesting to play with at every stage of the game without being a top-tier power in any era. Their Stable bonuses and Hussars are best in the early-to-mid game while the Highlander provides a decent tool for longer, slower matches, meaning England will rarely be left in a position where they have nothing going for them. This does mean they can be outperformed by more specialized nations in various eras, but that's the price you pay for being reasonably good at everything.


The thick red line: With hot lead and cold steel, English Musketeers and melee infantry beat down the foe.

In team games, England is one of those flexible, jack-of-all-trades nations that’s good for players who want to be reasonably good in every era without overcommitting to any of them. While England will rarely dazzle save maybe in a mid-game cavalry fight, they will usually be solid, dependable, and a valuable addition to their side’s roster. This of course only applies to land maps: On water maps, England is still one of the best nations you could pick.


Send the sellswords packing: English Highlanders and 17c. Musketeers engage in fierce yet scattered street fighting as they slowly push into a Swiss town. In these smaller skirmishes where both sides have lost most of their blocking troops yet don't have the musketeers left to outright annihilate each other, the Scotsmen's tankiness can be a deciding factor. (Unseen: I've switched to making 18c. Pikemen to get my force rebuilt as soon as possible.)

Tutorials & Example Games

A collection of great England games and tutorials showing how to skillfully play the nation. If you have any video recommendations, send me a link through Steam or YouTube (username 1Korlash) or Reddit (Effective_Can72)!

1. The first of two classic guides from top player colorfit. A must-watch for people looking to dive into multiplayer or just get better at the game.
https://youtu.be/XP19ocvOIg0

2. The second colorfit guide, this time covering how to micro your armies in battle. Again, a must-watch.
https://youtu.be/t6JE59Gnesk?list=PL9MM6y8GRIFcfOaVMvUGSZ7s3HANGpEPd

3. Short 1v1, 0-peacetime English mirror match by colorfit. This is a pretty standard match and provides a good generic European build order for these kinds of games.
https://youtu.be/9xSkIeUOPyQ

4. An old colorfit replay featuring Highlanders and English Hussars stomping on some French faces.
https://youtu.be/6dgrOZ4K8OI

5. Another old colorfit game with crazy capturing, base-swapping, Highlanders, badass pike battles, and silly shenanigans all the way to the end.
https://youtu.be/ylR_l6jLlHE

6. Fast-paced 4v4 England mirror match by colourfit. Features a lot of the top Cossacks players duking it out in a back-and-forth, 0-peacetime slugfest that shows how deadly even generic units can be when used well.
https://youtu.be/k6cpj4fbtGw

7. Yet more colorfit, this time with 17th century warfare. Shows off some excellent micro as he uses the stand ground command and formations to overcome Swiss Pikemen and Polish Musketeers with his generic units.
https://youtu.be/Ml3MSFauEu0

Closing Remarks

Modern Union Jack, adopted in 1801. The design adds the red “x” cross of St. Patrick to represent Britain’s then-ownership of Ireland (and current ownership of Northern Ireland). Interestingly, this is the 2:1 version of the flag: There’s also a version with a 5:3 ratio which is more commonly flown on land.

That’s it for England/Britain! I must say, I didn’t expect to have this much to say about them. I think I wrote them off as another balanced civilization with a few unique traits and not much else, but there was a lot more going on under the hood than I first realized. The result is a nation that can be as complex as you want it to be, and it works well whether played as a generic European nation or with a mind to exploit those cavalry bonuses for some mid-game shenanigans.

The choice to make England a cavalry nation surprised me since I expected them to emphasize infantry, maybe with a Redcoat Musketeer or something (though that could just be the American in me talking). I’m also a bit surprised that England and Portugal are the only European countries with strong naval bonuses. Water combat is definitely not the focus of Cossacks, and the overwhelming majority of games don’t involve ships of any kind, but it would’ve been nice to have a few more viable factions on those maps for those who like them. (Venice used to be good on the water back when they had their Galleass, so I guess it was three nations.)

Also, here's hoping the Highlanders get buffed one day. Even dropping the training time to 6 or 5.5 seconds would make them a lot better. Those kilts deserve justice, darn it!

But what do you think about England? Let me know your thoughts!

Other nation guides:

Algeria
Austria
Bavaria
Denmark
France
Netherlands
Piedmont
Poland
Portugal
Prussia
Russia
Saxony
Scotland
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Venice