 Mercenaries may aid the player in their campaigns in the New World . Mercenaries are not trained like standard units ; instead they can be shipped from the Home City or hired from saloons for much coin , so that only economically powerful players can employ them . Most are powerful , but hiring them does not provide experience points , so mercenaries cannot effectively replace the player 's standard army , and can negatively affect a player 's economy if used excessively . Incidentally , along with hero / explorer units , Mercenaries were vulnerable to assassin units such as spies , agents and ninjas . In most cases , a selection of Native American tribes populate game maps , and support their own brand of military units that can be trained once an alliance has been formed . Some Native American military units use mêlée weapons , a few use indigenous ranged weapons , such as bows and arrows or atl @-@ <unk> , while still others adopt ranged European gunpowder weapons . These units usually pertain to the infantry or cavalry classes , but , on maps with water , canoes are also available to the player through the dock . 
