Dutch Musketman

[Battle Master]

I am playing the Netherlands in C3C and I have saltpeter in my inventory box and yet I cannot produce musketman. I am now in the C19th and I still cannnot. I have had a trade link for centuries and have all of the technologies including navigation and magnetism. Strangely, the special Dutch unit "Swiss Mercenary" says it upgrades to rifleman and yet it replaces pikeman. There is no musketman.
Does anyone know why I cannot build musketman? Is there a bug in the game relating to the Netherlands?

 

[Bartleby]

The Swiss Merc has the same stats as a Musketman, so you don't need to build muskets.

If you really, really want to, you can disconnect Iron and keep Saltpetre connected, and then will be able to build muskets.

 

[megistatos]

The cheap swiss mercenaries are really good. Build a stack of them, land them on a hill, and let your enemy impale himself on their pikes.
Can they still be built when natioalism is discovered? 3 swiss mercenaries might be preferable to 1 rifleman.
Maybe a good strategy for the Netherlands is to skip nationalism, and keep building swiss mercenaries until replaceable parts is researched.

 

[Bartleby]

If you have had your golden age, you can't build mercs once you research Nationalsm.
So don't research Nationalism, it's useless anyway.

 

[Battle Master]

Thanks for the replies.
However, Swiss Merc don't have the same stats as musketmen as the former have attack 1 and the latter attack 2, for obvious reasons, that a musket is more offensive than the pike which is a defensive weapon.
I am therefore waiting to develop nationalism which will give me riflemen and therefore some offensive capacity. Nationalism is therefore not useless.
It just seems odd that I am left with no musketmen (firearms) upto the (19th while I wait for riflemen, once developing nationalism. So the Dutch have no firearms until the (19th which is completely unrealistic.

 

[Aabraxan]

. . . . I am therefore waiting to develop nationalism which will give me riflemen and therefore some offensive capacity. Nationalism is therefore not useless. . . . .

If you can build Swiss Mercs, you've got Feudalism. If you're concerned about offensive capacity, why not build some Medieval Infantry? They've got a 4 attack, just like Rifles. Musketmen, on the other hand, only have an attack of 2. Combined arms using MDI (attack 4) and Swiss Mercs (defense 4) might be an option. Also, how's the outlook on Military Tradition (cavalry = attack 6 & move 3)?

 

[Battle Master]

Yep, got medieval infantry and even got crusaders automatically being built every 5 turns in my capital. Their attack is 5 so is excellent. But for history's sake I just wanted to build musketeers in the late renaissance upto the
(19th. It just doesn't feel right building medieval infantry in the (19th.
It seems from the replies though that is just the way it is for the Dutch!!!

 

[Marsden]

Thanks for the replies.
However, Swiss Merc don't have the same stats as musketmen as the former have attack 1 and the latter attack 2, for obvious reasons, that a musket is more offensive than the pike which is a defensive weapon.
I am therefore waiting to develop nationalism which will give me riflemen and therefore some offensive capacity. Nationalism is therefore not useless.
It just seems odd that I am left with no musketmen (firearms) upto the (19th while I wait for riflemen, once developing nationalism. So the Dutch have no firearms until the (19th which is completely unrealistic.

Research military tradition, and get cavalry and that's all the firearms you will need.