Age of Empires III

Developer(s): Ensemble Studios
Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s): Bruce Shelley
Release date(s): October 18, 2005 (NA) November 4, 2005 (EU)
Genre Real-time strategy
Mode(s): Single player, MP over IPX, TCP/IP, Modem or Ensemble Studios Online 2 (ESO2).
Rating(s): ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows XP (workaround available for Windows 2000)
Media: CD (3), DVD (1)
System requirements: Windows XP, 1.4 GHz Processor, 256 MB RAM, 64MB video card capable of Hardware TnL
Input: Keyboard, mouse

Age of Empires III (AoE III) is the sequel to Age of Empires II and the third title of the history-based real-time strategy Age of Empires series of computer games. The game was developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, and was officially released on October 18, 2005. The game is set entirely in the New World and Malta, covering the European colonization of the Americas between AD 1500 and 1850. The game allows the user to play one of the following historical empires: the Spanish, British, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Germans, Ottomans, and Russians. Twelve different tribes of Native Americans are in the game as well: the Aztec, the Carib, the Cherokee, the Comanche, the Cree, the Incas, the Iroquois, the Mayans, the Nootka, the Seminole, the Sioux, and the Tupi. These are not playable factions, but players can ally with them to gain access to trade and unique units.

The game was announced by Ensemble Studios on January 4, 2005. A demo version was released on September 7, 2005 and the game "went gold" (entered mass production) on September 22, 2005.

Contents[hide]· 1 System requirements· 2 Technical features· 3 Gameplay· 4 Scenery· 5 Explorers· 6 Civilizations· 7 The Home City Concept o 7.1 Game Cards· 8 Units o 8.1 Infantryo 8.2 Cavalryo 8.3 Artilleryo 8.4 Navy· 9 Demo· 10 Known Issues· 11 External links

System requirements

Age of Empires III requires the use of the Windows XP Operating System. 256 Megabytes of RAM are required, along with a hard drive with more than two (2) gigabytes of free space available. A 64 MB Video card with support for Hardware Transformation and Lighting is recommended, along with a sound card. For multiplayer gaming, a 56K dial-up modem or a LAN connection is required.

It is worth noting that you do not have to meet the above requirements (except for using Windows XP). The game will still run with a slower processor, or an inferior graphics card, albeit at reduced performance.

Although Age of Empires III runs on Windows 2000, it will not install using the normal procedure. Users have developed workarounds to allow the game to be installed on Windows 2000.

Technical features
Age of Empires III builds upon and introduces new features to the Age of Mythology engine. One new feature is the inclusion of the Havok physics simulation middleware engine, the physics package included in other recent popular games, including Half-Life 2 and Halo 2. This means that many events such as building destruction and tree falls will not be pre-created animations, but rather will be calculated according to the physics engine. Other graphical features of the game include HDR lighting and support for pixel shader 3.0.

Gameplay
AoE III is the first Age of Empires game to introduce gunpowder weapons on a large scale (there were gunpowder weapons in AoE II, but they appeared late in the game and were not widely used). Also, later in a game of AoE III, railroads appear. However, cavalry with melee weapons, samurai mercenaries, and other non-gunpowder units appear in the game as well.

AoE III's combat will place greater emphasis on the use of formations than in previous Age of Empires games. Depending on the formation that a group of units is put in, they may gain bonuses to melee or ranged attack, or be less vulnerable to enemy fire.

One of the new features in AoE III is the home city system, which gives players a persistent character. Home cities provide both military and economic support to colonies, though they are separate from combat, and can be improved by earning experience points (XP). Players can spend XP on acquiring cards for their nation, and customizing the appearance of the home city. These can then be subsequently used to obtain special shipments during a game. These shipments may be units, special technologies, or resources. Up to 20 different cards may be used in one game; however, these must be preselected in groups custom-built decks. (See The Home City Concept (Section 7))

There are five different ages in the game, Discovery, Colonial, Fortress, Industrial, and Imperial. While the first four ages are modeled much like they were in the previous three titles, the Imperial Age is a somewhat different concept. Age of Mythology: The Titans featured a Titan Age which allowed players to summon a powerful Titan unit, and AoE III's Imperial Age is similarly very expensive and difficult to reach, but features powerful technologies that could lend one player the advantage in an extended game. Borrowing from Age of Mythology, AoE III also has a toned-down "politicians" feature, which provides different units or resources upon advancing an age in the game.

AoE III incorporates a new trade route system, where players have to build and upgrade pre-existing outposts in order to receive trade income. This differs from the previous system, where players could establish routes anywhere on the map. Trading posts begin with travois on a dirt path, upgrade to a stagecoach, and, by the end of the game, to a network of railroads.

Unlike the first two Age of Empires games, AoE III will have only three types of resources for players to gather—food, wood and coin, which replaces gold. Stone has been removed from the series. Also, drop-off points have been removed, so villagers will no longer need to carry the resources they gather to a building. The controversial auto-queue feature from Ensemble Studio's Age of Mythology: The Titans game, which allows training of units indefinitely, as long as resources are available, does not appear in AoE III.

AoE III features a single-player campaign, as did all previous Age of Empires games. The campaign follows the descendants of an immigrant named Morgan Black and their struggle with a fictional organization named the Circle of Ossus, and is divided into 3 "acts". It provides about 16 hours of gameplay in 24 scenarios, though the length of time which it takes to complete each scenario can vary greatly. Several prominent historical figures (such as a certain Colonel Washington) are encountered throughout the campaign, and it touches on many other historical details.

Scenery

In-game screenshot from Ensemble Studios.
Battles are fought on various maps, which are semi-randomly created. Each map has several features which are always present (such as trade routes or a particular number of islands), as well as several characteristics such as a paucity of trees. A large number of potential treasures are scattered about the map, which can be claimed for various prizes: a certain amount of resources, a bonus to explorer hitpoints, units (either villagers or natives warriors), or an XP reward. The resources which are available include trees which can be used for Wood, silver/gold mines which can be used for Coin, and herds of animals which can be hunted for Food. Grazing animals (such as cows, llamas and sheep) fatten up over time, and can also be tamed or slaughtered for food. The oceans contain patches of fish which fishing boats can collect for Food, and occasionally whales, which can be harpooned for Coin.

Explorers

Every home city which a player starts features a different "explorer" unit, which is present in every game played with that home city. The explorer is used to explore surrounding territory and to claim treasures. It is also capable of building Trade Posts or Town Centers, as well as killing treasure guardians in one shot with a special attack. This explorer unit is immortal, and can never be killed, although it can be rendered useless if it takes enough damage. At this point, it must await rescue by a friendly unit (when one of your soldiers approaches within a certain proximity, the explorer will revive). Alternatively, a small sum of Coin may be paid to retrieve the explorer instantly. Cards are available to be placed in your deck which will increase the power of your explorer in various ways: increased hitpoints, increased attack, special attacks which damage multiple units, or the ability to launch hot-air balloons to scout unknown areas. Different upgrades are available to different units; for example, the explorer character Amelia Black in Act 3 of the single-player campaign can gain the card upgrade "Fisticuffs," which increases her attack.

Civilizations
Age of Empires III allow you to play as 8 different civilizations. Each of the eight civilizations have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Each civilization also has a varying amount of unique units available only to that civilization.

Civilizations

Civilization Home City Bonus Unique Units Leader
Spanish Seville Faster Home City shipments Rodelero, Lancer, Missionary Queen Isabella
British London Builds special "Manor Houses" that spawns free settlers when built Longbowman, Congreve Rocket Queen Elizabeth I
French Paris More expensive settlers that work faster and double as light infantry Coureur de Bois Napoleon
Portuguese Lisbon Recieves Covered Wagons every time a new age is reached Organ Gun Henry the Navigator
Dutch Amsterdam Builds special Bank buildings that generate coin and Settlers cost coin Envoy, Fluyt Maurice of Nassau
Russians St.Petersburg Trains Infantry Units cheaply and in groups Strelet, Oprichnik, Cossack Ivan the Terrible
Germans Berlin Recieves Uhlans with almost every Home City shipment Doppelsoldner, Uhlan, War Wagon Fredrick the Great
Ottomans Istanbul Constantly spawns settlers at the Town Center Janissary, Abus Gun, Great Bombard, Galley, Spahi, Cavalry Archers Suleiman the Magnificent

The Home City Concept
Age of Empires III is the first game in the Age of Empires series to introduce the Home City.

The Home City functions as a second city, a powerhouse that is separated from the active game. It cannot be attacked or destroyed, although an Imperial Age upgrade called "Blockade" stops your opponents from receiving Home City shipments. Its selling feature is its persistence between games, meaning that upgrades gained through many games can be applied and stay applied for as long as that particular city exists (Cities only cease to exist when they are deleted by the user from the game menu).
Players access the Home City between games, and can customize their city, choose new cards, and organize their card deck. Customizations to the Home City change the visual aspects of the city, but do not affect gameplay whatsoever. In customizing the home city, players can add unique people to the city (for example, a fruit vendor, or a musician), change and upgrade the colour schemes of buildings, or place objects/decorations throughout the city.

Players can also access the Home City within a game (or battle) by clicking on the "Home City" button represented on the HUD as the nation's flag. The home city functions differently inside of a game. Instead of customizing a home city or choosing cards, a player can apply cards chosen before the game (and added to a deck). See below.
Multiple Home Cities can be created and maintained, although each Home City supports only one civilization.

Game Cards
Between games, players keep a portfolio of cards that can be used throughout the game. A card can be a grouping of units (13 Longbowmen, 1 Caravel), technologies (Faster woodcutting, Increase to Musketeer/Grenadier Attack), buildings (1 Covered Wagon, or 1 Factory Wagon), or resources (300 Food, or 600 Wood)
During the course of a game, players gain experience through actions done, such as: Exploring unknown territory, building buildings, training units, killing enemy units, collecting treasures, and many more. Every time 2000 experience points are gathered, players can enter the Home City menu and use a card (With the exception of the Spanish, who need less than 2000 points). In a sense, you could be an explorer calling on the home city, arranging reinforcements or resources to be sent, to aid in your conquest of the New World. When cards are used in a game, the delivery takes approximately a minute before the object arrives in the New World, simulating a "shipment" from the Old World.

Every time a game is finished, experience points gathered throughout the game add to a value dictated as "Total Experience". Once a certain number of experience points are collected (through multiple games), a new "level" is reached, and players are allowed to choose a new unique card to add to their deck. Players start off at level 1, and have 14 cards in their deck to begin with.
It is worth noting that a deck may contain only 20 cards, and there are approximately 120 cards that can be obtained. Players can gear their cards for different play

strategies, for example:
· Economy (The use of many resource cards)
· Military (The use of many unit cards in order to obtain a vast army relatively quickly)
· Booming (A strategy of reaching new ages quickly through a combination of technology cards and resource cards).
Each civilization has a different stock of cards that can be chosen. For example, only the French can receive two forts, whereas every other race can only receive one.

Units
A listing of military units available to be trained:

Infantry

· Pikeman - a cheap, slow counter-cavalry hand infantry.
· Halberdier - an expensive, slow, powerful counter-cavalry hand infantry.
· Rodelero - a fast lightly armored hand infantry, available only to the Spanish.
· Doppelsoldner - an expensive hand infantry that can counter other hand infantry or cavalry. Available only to the Germans.
· Janissary - an expensive, highly trained unit. It is similar to, but more powerful than a musketeer. This unit is only available to the Ottomans.
· Musketeer - the standard ranged infantry unit. Good against cavalry.
· Minuteman - a light infantry one-use unit that is only hired for a short time. The HP of this unit decreases slowly over time.
· Crossbowman - a cheap, light infantry good against heavy infantry.
· Longbowman - an expensive light infantry with exceptional range. Good against other infantry. Available only to the British.
· Strelet - a weak, cheap infantry unit that can only be trained in large groups. Good against heavy infantry and can beat most other infantry and some cavalry if used en masse. Available only to the Russians.
· Skirmisher - a standard light infantry with good range and accuracy. Good against infantry.
· Cassador - a highly trained Portuguese equivalent of the Skirmisher.
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Cavalry
· Hussar - a standard light cavalry unit, good against light infantry and artillery.
· Cuirassier - an expensive heavy cavalry available only to the French. The Cuirassier is considered one of the best cavalry units in the game, but have an unusually high cost.
· Cossack - a highly trained Russian version of the Hussar.
· Uhlan - a hussar equivalent available only to the Germans.
· Lancer - a fast cavalry unit that is good at mowing down all types of infantry. Available only to the Spanish.
· Oprichnik - a fast raiding cavalry unit exceptional at killing Villagers or destroying buildings. Available only to the Russians.
· Spahi - an elite heavy cavalry available to the Ottomans. Can only be sent from the Home City.
· Cavalry Archer - a cheap, light ranged counter cavalry unit.
· Dragoon - a fast, ranged counter cavalry unit. More expensive but more powerful than the standard cavalry archer.
· Ruyter - a Dutch equivalent of the Dragoon
· War Wagon - a slow, powerful cannon, mounted in a wagon. Good against cavalry. Available only to the Germans.

Artillery

· Grenadier - an infantry/light artillery unit that throws grenades, dealing large area of effect damage. Effective against large groups of units.
· Falconet - a light cannon effective against infantry
· Abus Gun - an Ottoman infantry/light artillery unit that is very effective against infantry, cavalry, and artillery
· Organ Gun - a Portuguese light artillery unit that fires multiple projectiles into a large area. Good against large groups.
· Mortar/Howitzer - A heavy artillery unit with an extremely long range. Useful for bombarding enemy towns. Can only be targeted at buildings.
· Culverin - a medium artillery unit effective against artillery and ships. Less effective against buildings than Falconets.
· Heavy Cannon - A heavy artillery unit dealing heavy damage over long range. This unit can only be obtained through the factory, home city cards, or through age advancements.
· Great Bombard - an Ottoman artillery unit equivalent to the Heavy Cannon. This unit deals heavier damage and has more hitpoints, it also has a large Blast Radius, which injures units around where the shell landed.
· Congreve Rocket - a British Heavy Cannon equivalent that fires large projectiles towards enemy units with splash damage.

Navy
All ships are given a randomly selected culturally appropriate name such as the "HMS Endeavour" for Britain.

· Fishing Boat - A small, lightly armoured and defenceless boat that can catch fish for food or whales for gold.
· Canoe - A small, lightly armoured vessel that performs multiple functions, including transport and attack. Available from the dock only after an alliance with a native tribe has taken place.
· Caravel - a light warship with few cannons that can carry a small number of units. As with the Fishing Boat, it can catch fish for food and whales for gold. It also has a powerful broadside attack ability. It can be treated strategically as merely a more powerful fishing boat that is capable of defending itself, especially in large groups.
· Galley - A unique Ottoman Ship that is maneuverable and fast, have more cannons than the caravel with broadside fire ability and also has oars and sails.
· Galleon - A powerful and well armed ship which is very effective against caravels and fishing boats. It can also transport units and train units when beached (excluding artillery and settlers, although it can train light artillery such as Abus Guns, Grenadiers). However, it cannot upgrade units such as musketeers to veteran musketeers. It also has a powerful broadside attack ability.
· Frigate - A very heavy warship, that can destroy all other naval units with ease. It has a powerful attack, high unit capacity and a powerful broadside attack ability.
· Monitor - A long-range artillery vessel that is most effective against buildings. It has the longest range of all ships and excels at long range shore bombardments. It also has a long-range attack ability which recharges every minute. Only two monitors can be supported by any single player and often relies on other warships such as Galleons and Frigates for protection against naval threats.

Demo
Age of Empires III's Demo was released on September 7, 2005, quickly being criticized due to the fact that it was designed to only install on Windows XP. However, it has been discovered that the installed folder can be copied over to a Windows 2000 computer and it will still work.

It was discovered that the demo version works on some old graphics cards with 32 MB of installed memory.

The demo version contains two scenarios from the campaign, two random maps (New England & Texas), two playable civilizations (British & Spanish) and the ability to upgrade your homecity up to level 9. All ages, buildings and units are available. There are also many user created modifications which change some aspect of the trial version.
An updated demo version 1.1 was made available with the game's release on October 18, 2005.

Known Issues

· There have been reports of game disconnections after 15 to 30 minutes of otherwise flawless game play. In a few cases, it has caused a disconnection from the internet altogether.

· There are reports of people unable to join games on ESO with the "Failed to join" error. It was found that the problem originated from the ESO server and not the game itself, namely bad port configurations. The complete list of port numbers used by the server was not updated in each individual game. If manually configured. the problem can be improved, but not fixed.

o The new patch 1.02 does not appear to solve this problem.

· ESO only supports one account per CD key, thus forcing every player to share one account given a single copy of the game. This can become a serious issue in ladder games when a weaker player can severely damage the ratings of a stronger player. In addition, Ensemble does not "officially" support used games. To this effect, once an online account has been created, it can not be deleted or altered. This makes reselling the game difficult because the buyer would not be able to play online with the used game unless the seller also provides the account user name and password.

External links

Official:
· Age of Empires III Official Website
· Age of Empires III Demo
· Age of Empires III Community site
· Ensemble Studios website