Equipment

Most units can be equipped with tools, horses, muskets, or a bible. This equipment grants them certain abilities, which they do not possess without that equipment. Certain units are particularly skilled with that equipment, but without it they have no special abilities:

• Only a unit equipped with tools is able to build roads, plow fields and cut down forests. Even the Hardy Pioneer is unable to do so without suitable equipment.

• Only a unit equipped with horses is able to scout Indian settlements and foreign colonies. Even the Seasoned Scout can't do that without being mounted.

• Only a unit equipped with muskets is a soldier. Veteran Soldiers are more effective than other units when equipped with muskets, but without muskets they have no advantage.

• Only a unit equipped with a bible is commissioned as a missionary and able to establish a mission in an Indian settlement. Even the Jesuit Missionary is unable to do so without a bible. If a Jesuit Missionary is equipped with tools, muskets or horses, he loses his bible. If that happens, the Jesuit Missionary carries his hat, rather than his bible in his hand.

Of course, units that do not represent people, such as ships, wagon trains and treasure trains, can not be equipped. The Indian Convert is another unit that can not be equipped.