But cannons cost a lot, require an entire line of high-end buildings to be set, take ages to reload and, worst of all, they are pushed by their crew by hand, so they move like a snail with heavy bags. True, even a single cannon can stop a small army of infantry trying to get to it, by gruesomely killing many soldiers or by inciting panic in the ranks, and it can take pot-shots at fortified buildings from afar with complete impunity.
A fire that is incredibly hard to put down quickly during peace, not to mention in the middle of an assault. Sure, natives don't have any artillery, but they don't really need it - they can just set your fortress on fire.
The small arms fire comes for free, so you're not spending unreasonable amounts of resources while defending. Anti-Frustration Features: Fortifications and garrisoned buildings only use coal and iron for their artillery fire.The higher you go up the tech tree, the more your units are liable to get massacred by archers, since steel armour is gradually removed with each tech tier. Arrows are incredibly lethal, don't use up any resources, bows don't take time to reload like the muzzle-loaded guns and there is only a handful of units with any sort of protection against arrows. Annoying Arrows: Nuked from the orbit and stomped upon.Ironically, out of all infantry units, the pikemen and helberdiers have the highest levels of natural fear against cavalry, making them subpar options initially - just like in real life, they need first training and formation to be effective. Anti-Cavalry: Just about any unit that maintains formation can qualify.Part of the reason why the European campaigns are so incredibly difficult is that you never get anything better than early 16th century troops, which don't offer that much of an edge over the natives.
It also applies to bows - unupgraded archers can go as far as miss smaller buildings at their maximum range. It's perfectly possible to end up with two musketeers standing against each other and missing their shots repeatedly. The more primitive the gun, the more likely the unit is to simply miss their target, making volley fire a necessity. A-Team Firing: Justified, since almost all guns present in the game are smooth-bore muzzle loaders.