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.


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 3,500 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.

+ Very high HP and melee/arrow protection
+ Low cost
+ High damage
+ Can be decent in slow-paced games or on water maps
- Very slow training time
- No melee attack
- Subpar range and reload speed
- Performs way worse than 18c. Musketeers in fast-paced games

The Highlander takes the usual skirmisher archetype and turns it on its head: Instead of a slow-training, squishy, long-range musketeer like most other skirmishers, he’s a slow-training, tanky, short-range musketeer. Sadly, his uniqueness doesn’t make him very good and although he fulfills the usual skirmisher role of an 18c. Musketeer substitute that does better in slower games, he’s one of the worst of his type.

Stat-wise, the most notable thing about Highlanders is their 130 HP. That’s 10 more than Grenadier and allows the Highlander to take 6 shots from a normal musketeer before dying.

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

They’re also cheap, deal 35 damage per shot, and have a very impressive 15 melee/arrow armor (though this is undermined by their lack of a melee attack).

That’s all well and good, but the tradeoffs are steep: Highlanders have subpar range (15.94 vs 16.88) and reloading (2.45 vs 2.3) as well as a very long 6.5-second training time. To put that in perspective, for every 74 Highlanders an English player produces, they could’ve made 108 18c. Musketeers, and 108 18c. Musketeers are far more powerful than 74 Highlanders.


74 fully-upgraded Highlanders vs 108 18c. Musketeers, reflecting the difference in training time between the two units.

In fact, during tests with training time factored in, Highlanders were one of the worst-performing ranged units of the 18th century, both in straight shootouts and in battles with blocking troops on both sides, only beating Swiss Jaegers and losing to everyone else. Even when the tests were changed to remove production speed as a factor, Highlanders still only performed on par with units that train much faster (namely Bavarian Musketeers which train in only 5 seconds), which isn’t what you want to see from a supposedly elite unit.

This carried over to actual games, where I noticed that it took me far longer to build a worthwhile army using Highlanders than 18c. Musketeers. This makes them practically unusable outside of very slow games—those with long peacetimes or passive enemies. In those cases Highlanders can do better than your 18c. Musketeers, though other skirmishers and 18c. Musketeer variants will still outperform them. If the game is faster in pace or highly attritional, don’t even bother with them.


Redcoat advance: With bayonets ready, a late-game English army with 18c. Musketeers pushes forward. This is what your military should usually look like on land maps.

That’s only on land maps, though. On water maps, Highlanders become not just viable but the preferred choice over 18c. Musketeers. Since space to build on your island is usually finite, Highlanders can make more efficient use of your limited population space than their normal counterparts. Their short range also isn’t as big a deal given the close-up nature of most infantry battles in naval games. Just make sure to screen them with other units so the enemy can’t charge in and take advantage of their lack of a melee attack.


An 18th century D-Day: With the Royal Navy in firm control of the sea, a force of Highlanders is put ashore to finish off the last enemy base.

As a final aside, I ran Highlanders through the tests again only this time I treated them as if they trained in 6 seconds instead of 6.5. The results still weren’t amazing, but they were a heck of a lot better than previously and more in-line with how other skirmishers like Austrian Pandurs and Hungarian Szekely performed. This just goes to show that the Highlander’s base concept and current stats aren’t the problem; it’s their overly long training time that’s holding them back.


A more respectable showing: 80 fully-upgraded Highlanders (what they would have with a 6-second training time) vs. 108 18c. Musketeers, with 160 Mercenary Roundshiers to simulate blocking troops. The Highlanders still lost, but that’s pretty normal for slow-training skirmishers and they did much better than with their actual training time.

So those are Highlanders—an interesting idea held back by their too-long training time. On water maps and in very slow games, they can put in decent work, but they fall flat in any situation where production speed matters. At least you can rely on your trusty 18c. Musketeers in those cases.

(Actually, I realized while writing this that Highlanders are very similar to the Clansmen units that came later in the Guardians of the Highlands DLC–all three are beefy, kilt-wearing infantry with high attack values and strong defenses. Was the Highlander part of the inspiration for making Scotland its own faction? If so, that’s an awesome legacy.)


Alpine warfare: An English army battles Piedmontese troops in the snowy streets of a mountain town. Highlanders might not be very good, but they look cool and sometimes that’s more respectable than optimal army building.

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.

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.

In battle, English Hussars fulfill all the same roles as regular Hussars–raiding enemy supply lines, flanking opposing gunlines, dancing in front of their side’s infantry to tank bullets for the Musketeers, and so on. They can perform pretty well in the mid game if you achieve an early upgrade advantage, though later on they’ll be slightly weaker than opposing Hussars. This makes English Hussars more of a tradeoff than a straight upgrade, and you shouldn’t feel obligated to pick them if you think another cavalry unit would better suit your needs in a given match.


“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. Even so, 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 levels out as once all the upgrades are researched, their cavalry and navy becomes 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.

Still, England is a European nation with the same strong generic units as everyone else. They also have the Highlander for those games with a more leisurely pace, which can definitely help their army stand above the rest.


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 nation on the water, naturally, and their Highlander does best in games that make land battles less frequent (which is also mostly water maps, but can include large land maps with roundabout paths to the enemy base like Mediterranean).

On the other hand, there’s also an argument for using them on mid-sized maps. Such settings put enough distance between players to make rushing more difficult, but not so much that it prevents England from utilizing their cavalry advantages to their full potential before everyone else catches up in tech.

In team games, England is one of those flexible, jack-of-all-trades nations that’s good for players who want to be good in the early and late game without overcommitting to either. 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.


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

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 bonuses and units 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.)

But what do you think? 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