Explorer cards used to be significant in AOE3, treasuses were bigger, maps had more treasures overall, sniper shots took longer to cool down. sending this card could easily grant you extra 300+ res and 100 more kill XP compared to your opponent, in almsot every map.
TWC you are lucky if you get 200 more treasures than your european opponent, and that the chance of him able to steal your treasure is much higher, as he is more likely to have a sniper shot. and against native opponent, this card is a complete waste, because you will not be getting any more treasures than him no matter what you do.
what also gets me is that if british explorer can only get the sword attack in age2, why should Iro WC start with a powerful gun attack without a card?
should ES boost euro explorer card by hp/att+ 100% and grants them crack shots?
discuss
Strategy by Ultimitsu
Guns and Biers
British Anti-FF explosion
For TWC only Ottoman FF on non-water non-TP maps
For Vanilla only Dutch Fast Colonial Uber Bank