Our AOE III Tutorials:

1. Age of Empires III Tutorial 1
2. Age of Empires III Tutorial 2
3. Age of Empires III Tutorial 3

Swizchese here.

Obviously you have heard of this game before. It is an amazing RTS game and arguably  the most successful AOE game, barring Age of Mythology which is its only rival.

Here is a list of all that wonderful AOE stuff, starting from the first, just to show you how good this game is:

Age of Empires
Age of Empires: Rise of Rome
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Age of Empires II: Conqueror’s Expansion
Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology II: Titan’s Expansion
Age of Empires III
Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties

These have all been successful games with Age of Kings and after available for both Mac and Windows. The Age of Kings and the Age of Mythology are now hand-held console games (in Turn-based strategy mode) for the Nintendo Dual Screen (or Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi). In the world of RTS, not many games can actually beat this series, save for possibly Starcraft or Warcraft. The other RTS games that could match AOE are also made by Big Huge Games and Ensemble Studios.

I will skip all that basic stuff, as I am pretty sure you know them (if you don’t, comment and I will answer your question). However, I will briefly tell you several: You always start out with resources (usually 3 or more types). You strive to get a lot of these resources so you can build buildings, research improvements, advance in Age and create armies.

Here are the unique features of Age of Empires III (covering only a few):

Home City – City of your civilization, you may name it any name that is not offensive.
Explorer – A guy who gets treasure. You may name him any name that is not offensive (I tried to name mine Hitler and it didn’t let me)
Shipments – Cards you get as you gain levels in your Home City. Benefits that you can ship in-game once you fill your Shipment bar up once.
Treasure – “X” mark on the in-game map, if your explorer goes there, he can benefit from the treasure. Usually must kill a treasure guardian in order to obtain this.
Civilizations – Many civilizations that are unique in their own way.

As I am lazy and I don’t want to go on writing about this, please comment if you are confused about something and don’t just flame.

Here are the civilizations:

Spanish – They begin with good exploration and fast shipments, so they are a force to be reckoned with. The easiest civilization to use and not a bad one either. Usually their home shipments benefit a unit’s power or a building’s defense.
Portuguese – The Portuguese are naturally adept explorers and good allies, making them have an extreme amount of town centers and a spyglass feature to temporarily see a specific dark area. They benefit in light military and naval units, having the well-known Organ Gun (a machine gun type of thing) and the best Dragoons in the game. The Portuguese are my second-favorite civilization.
Russian – Starting with extra supplies and little settlers, the Russians can easily wipe out an opponent with an all-out raid. All of their units are significantly weaker, but they are trainer in blocks of 10, 5, etc. which makes them easily outnumber an army (it burns buildings a lot faster too). All in all, if you want early raids, the Russians are for you.
Ottoman – Personally my all-time favorite (even in the expansions), the Ottoman are easily the most unique civilization. Their settlers are produced for free every 1-2 minutes, which makes it easy to take a bathroom break and not lose too much progress. They focus heavily on artillery shipments and the such.
Dutch – Gold basically describes the Dutch. If you have gold, you can control the market, invest in the Banks, and create Settlers. The Dutch also have incredible pistol-wielding cavalry (forgot name currently) units and their naval units aren’t bad either.
British – The British – according to Queen Elizabeth – absolutely TEEM with settlers. This gives them one of the most powerful economic advantages in the game. Their shipments involve buildings, technology and naval units.
French – The French start with little economy, but their settlers are harder to kill, making them the absolute counter to early game raids. Native Americans also easily ally with the French and they are given benefits. The French also have the most powerful cavalry in the game – the Cuirassier – which gives them one of the most powerful military in the game.
German – The Germans face similar limitations to the French, with their settlers limited in early game. However, they have access to mercenaries – extremely potent and powerful units – early on in the game. They also get free Uhlans (German unique cavalry) every shipment. It would be wise to collect a lot of mercenary cards and team up with the Dutch.

Warchiefs Expansion Civilizations:

These three civilizations are the first to introduce the new Warchief explorer, a super unit that can benefit units nearby with charms, collect treasure, and actually fight in battle. Another new introduction is the Native American Council, which is the new way to Age up. There are 5 council members, each having their own benefits. If you pick one, you get their benefits and Age up, but you cannot pick them again. Each council member’s benefits increase by each Age, so pick carefully. They also introduce the Native American Embassy, a military camp that you can use to train Native American units if you are allied with them.

Aztecs – Similar to the Russians, the Aztecs have only military at their disposal. All of their units can mass in extremely large numbers and each individual one is powerful on its own. Its only drawback is that their only units are infantry, making cavalry units advantageous over them.
Sioux – Good cavalry. This is one of the most strategic civilizations in the game. Fast units, little buildings, all that good stuff. They are able to nomad without too much hesitation. A very nice civilization; my third-favorite.
Iroquois – Their technology is superb compared to the other tribes. They have many bonus technologies, and most importantly, siege weapons that are almost as powerful as the Ottoman artillery. Expect an Iroquois to launch a slow-paced, long game.

Asian Dynasties Expansion Civilizations:

These have the introduction of the Consulate, more than one explorer, and the Wonder upgrade. The Consulate is the like the Native American Embassy except you come across a new resource: Export. The more Export you have, the more benefits you can get. Once you collect enough Export you can ally with a European civilization and begin benefiting from them. The introduction to more than one explorer is just that – more than one explorer. This is very useful as it doubles exploration speed. Lastly, the Wonder is the new way to Age for the Asian empire. Your villagers build a Wonder when you have enough resources (the normal amount of resouces to upgrade). Then you can pick 1 out of 5 wonders to build, each (like the council members) with benefits. The wonder acts like a building with a super bonus to your civilization. Once you build your wonder, you cannot build it again, even if it is destroyed. The wonder’s benefits increase by each Age.

Chinese – Banner armies are the most unique feature of the Chinese. These are similar to the Russian’s block unit creation, but instead you get to create several different units at the same time. This is particularily useful when you want faster production rates.
Japanese – The Japanese are one of the few civilizations to have so many unique units. With the Daimayo, who act like generals, they can easily wipe out a smaller army. The shrine is another feature, allowing them to get trickles of resources depending on the animals by it. The Japanese and the Indians are the only civilizations that cannot kill animals for food.
Indian – As said earlier, Indians cannot kill animals for food. Instead, they lure them into Sacred Fields to get a slow trickle of experience points. Indians also depend on wood a lot more than any other civilization – even their villagers cost wood (villagers made of wood?). Even better, all cards usually give you free villagers, giving them a very stable and fast economy.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. Until then, I guess I’ll back out. See ya guys.

P.S: I might make another AOE III guide later.

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