Age of Empires III

Title: Age of Empires III
Platform: Pc
Developer(s): Microsoft
Release Date: 18 october 2005
Genre(s): RTS
Online/Single player: Online/Offline
Rating: 5/5


Info
Age of Empires 3 takes place between the Discovery age and the Imperial age. In this game, you can play in the New World and Asia, and there are plenty of maps that waits to be conquered. In the game, you can play as many different leaders from many of the european nations such as Frederick the great or Napoleon. In the expansion packs,(the Asian Dynasties and the Warchiefs) you can also play as american/african natives or asians, such as aztecs or Japanese.

Gameplay and tips

Homes and Decks
Before you head into battle you first need to create a home city and build a deck. With this, you can call in enhancements or reinforcements, if you have enough levels. Any kind of shipment from the
home city will cost one level, and levels are gained throughout the game through killing, collecting resources, building or hunting for treasures. You can have many decks, but you can only use one deck each game so you best choose the one with the most benefits. For example, if I play in a resourceful map, I choose village builder. Its a deck I provided with lots of settlers and cartridges, so I can collect faster. If I play in a open area, I choose army, which provides me with soldiers. If I play on a map filled with waters and islands, I choose Navy, which gives me boats and cheaper docks, and also upgrades for my naval army.
Some deck cards can't be obtained until your city has reached a high enough level.

Resources
In this game, the most important parts is to always keep stock on resources. There are three kinds of resources in this game. Wood, which is used for building, food, which is used to train soldiers or builders, and coin, which is used to build or train stronger buildings or soldiers, such as artillery. You also need a lot of food and coin in order to Age Up
Asians have a fourth resource element, which is export. With a large enough export, asians can form alliances with european nations. For example, if you become allied with Britain, then you can buy musketeers and field guns from them. This will be very useful.

Aging up
In the game, you begin at the Discovery age. At this age, you can't build many buildings, and you can't train soldiers at all, until you reach the Colonial Age. From here you can unlock more traits, and the more you evolve, the more you get. Evolve quick, or your pikemen will be gunned down by cannons. However, evolving too fast will also leave you with little resources, and your base will most likely be left wide open.
can't train any type of soldiers at all. In order to get into the game, you need to collect resources so you can evolve and reach age II, the
Of course, if you don't feel like it, you can also begin at any age you'd like from the menu. The enemy will also begin at the chosen age though, so be fast in building or you will be overrun pretty fast.
The max age is the fifth age, the Imperial Age. When you have reached this age, you can build a Capital, which gives you lots of powerful upgrades, such as Spies, which enables you to see anything your opponent can see. These upgrades are fairly expensive though. I've built capital many times, but only a few of those times have I actually afforded an upgrade.

Trading Posts
Trading Posts are probably one of the most crucial parts in the game. By building trading posts near stations you can receive resources much faster than earlier. You can also build trading posts near villages, which gives you alliances with the nation associated with that village. For example, if I build a trading post near a Zen temple, I can buy Naginata warriors.
If a player builds a certain amount of trading posts (it differs from map to map) and reaches the fourth age (Industrial Age) Then they can start a Trading Monopoly. When a Trading Monopoly has begun, you have but five minutes to destroy their trading posts or the opposing team will automatically win. This is why its important to hold trading posts.

Armies
In order to train soldiers, you must first build the right buildings. There are many different names for these buildings so I'm just going to go with the british setting. In order to train infantry, you need barracks. In order to build cavalry, you need stables. In order to build artillery, you need artillery foundries. In order to build ships, you need docks.
There are some nations that don't need this. The Chinese for example has a War Academy, which can train both infantry and cavalry on the same time.
You can upgrade your army with either shipments, or purchase them from buildings such as Blacksmiths or Churches.

When you age up, you can improve your soldiers by aging them as well. Musketeers can for example be upgraded to Imperial Redcoats, and Frigates to Man O' Wars. This is expensive, but its necessary


Some useful strategies

Naval maps
If you play on a map with islands, its a good idea to build colonies. When you reach age 2 or 3, send a ship with at least five villagers and some infantry men to an island nearby and begin constructing a colony. Build outposts(defensive buildings) near the coast. That will keep enemy ships at distance. Well, for a while anyway.
Also, if you brought the explorer, you can build a second Town Center. Town centers are the hearts of your bases, so if you lose your first base, the colony can become a backup base. Some nations can have their builders do it.
The purpose of a colony is to provide the home base with resources, because your home island will most likely run out of resources pretty fast.



Taking down forts
I've seen many people trying to bring down forts with armies. This is not wise as the fort is the strongest of all the defensive buildings. Instead, you should build mortars. They can destroy the fort from distance, out of their range. Remember to always guard the mortars with other soldiers. The fort can train soldiers and quickly bring down the mortars if you don't.






Also, some good tips involving infantry, cavalry and artillery. With infantry, always target cavalry. They deal a lot of damage to them, and can take down entire squads in the matter of seconds. With cavalry, always target artillery. Cavalry are fast, and deals bonus damage to artillery. Artillery deals the most damage, and are often hiding behind infantry, so cavalry can reach them faster and neutralize them before they deal the most damage. With artillery, always aim for the most crowded areas. Their cannonballs deal areal damage, and can kill two or three people with one shot, and in addition damage the surrounding soldiers. They can also destroy buildings quicker.

Try this game out for yourself if you're a strategy fan. You won't be disappointed. Of course, if you prefer the medieval age, I recommend AoEII, which is set between the dark ages and the renaissance.