Age of Empires III is the Third sequel of the famous ‘Age Of Empire’ series. Just as in AoE I & II, the goal is destroying your enemy’s by building an army. Funds for your army are provided by your economy. Aging is still a part of the game. How quicker your age, how faster you can train and upgrade your army – just like in the good old fashioned AoE I & II.
Ofcourse Age of Empires III wouldn’t be age of empires III without new things. Almost everything is new; units, buildings, civilizations, graphics etc. AoE III main subject is ‘the colonists’. In stead of building up a huge civilisation, your goal is to build op a colony for a civilization. In AoE III, there are 8 civilizations to choose from; the British, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the German, the Ottoman and the Russian. Every civilization has it own advantages & disadvantages. (Russians are great for Rushing for example)
Something completely new is the ‘Home city’. While playing a match, you’ll get XP for almost everything you do. When you have enough XP, you can get a bonus from your Home City. You can get 25 different bonuses, divided over every age. You can Edit your home city and choose in that way your bonus. Note that you’ll more XP when your fighting, every unit you kill gives you XP.
Another new feature is the ‘Trading Post’. This is a building you can only build on 1 places; one a trade route building site and on a native village building site. In the first case, you’ll get free recourses. In the second case, you’ll be able to do special research and to train native warriors, which are very useful because they don’t cost population and are quite strong.
Also in Economy some things changed. There are only 3 recourses in AoE III; Food, wood and gold. – Stone has disappeared. Another new thing is that you can build a ‘Plantation’. You can compare this building with a mill, only it produces gold in stead of food. Fishing ships and caravels (stronger fishing ships, loaded with some cannons for protection) can also be tasked to gather coin by catching Wales. Very useful when you need gold. A new building, only available by using a home city shipment, is the factory. This building generates 1 recourse type for free. Some civilizations have unique villagers, like the French (coureurs de bois – strong, fast gathering villagers) and the German. (Villager wagon – very fast gathering unit) Upgrades for your economy can be found at Mills, Plantations, Markets, Trading posts or by Home city shipments.
The biggest change in the Military is ofcourse the gun. Yes, in AoE III guns (mostly rifles or muskets) have an important role, all though almost every civilization can build archaïc melee infantry like Pikemen, Halberdiers, longbowmen (British only), Rodelero’s (Spanish only), doppelsoldners (German only), etc. There are two kinds of gun-using infantry. The first kind is a heavy infantry type which has a short range, but a good melee attack as well. (Musketeers, Janissaries) You should see this type of infantry more as a pikemen with a ranged attack then an archer. The second kind of gun-using infantry are longranged, but they haven’t got many hitpoints and their melee attack is poor. We’re talking about units like Skirmishers, cassadors… Be careful with them and protect them form Cavalery at all cost. Note that there is also gun-ranged Cavalry. Siege equipment is almost completely formed by cannons, all though there are other sorts of artillery as well. Native warriors are a nice addition to the standard infantry. Every Civilization has special upgrades for certain units. (Spanish are the only one with Imperial pikemen, British have the strongest musketeers …)
Don’t forget that the real fun begins when you play this game on the multiplayer-mode!