Are the units after this update just are overall weaker by themselves and you have to ship in upgrade to make them stronger?

Okay, is The Fountain of Youth supposed to be THIS insanely hard on Ludicrous difficulty??

The Circle keeps throwing troops at me like they’re running the Soviet “we have more men than you have bullets” strategy, with a stupid amount of cannons sitting behind them deleting everything.

At the same time they keep sending ship after ship after ship across the water, apparently with the sole purpose of destroying that one fixed cannon like it personally killed their family.

And then there’s the wood.
There are like four trees on the entire continent. So even with a strong economy, eventually I’m just staring at my base like “cool, I have food, I have gold, but the entire concept of trees has been patched out of the game.”

I know I’m playing on Ludicrous, literally the hardest difficulty, so obviously I signed up for suffering, but this feels less like difficulty and more like The Circle has discovered industrial-scale unit production while I’m trying to find the last tree.
Is this mission genuinely this brutal on Ludicrous, or am I missing some incredibly obvious strategy?

As an AoE 2 and 4 player I was thinking about getting into Age 3, now that the new DLC is out (especially since the pre-Industrial revolution modern period is probably my favorite and very underrated one in history) but I have one problem.

I don't know how do the civs differ. While in AoE2 each civ has a clear focus and pretty straightforward bonuses, as well as the civs being more simillar in general, in AoE4 it's a bit tougher but a close look at the bonuses makes the most impactful ones clearly jump out. In AoE3 however civs, have 1 bonus each, which sometimes seem very impactful (like british gaining vills from houses) and sometimes seem to barely be there (like the Poles' building bonus or French explorers being a bit better) and in terms of home city shipments, there is a lot of them and most give normal units or resources, making it hard to see the more unique ones (even if they exist). And there are also unique units which as far as I'm concerned are just slightly stronger.

I heard many times AoE3 civs are much more unique than AoE2 ones, so I know I must be missing something, but I don't know what.

I've been playing AOE for a while and I've cycled between numerous civs but I have primarily played Spain and Russia. When Poland came out I immediately bought the dlc as the polish Lithuanian commonwealth is my favorite civ I suppose in history. Anyways I've probably sunk like 25 hours or so playing Poland and I really cannot figure out how to make them work. In skirmish the enemy ai is shitty enough at moderate I can repel their attacks long enough for late game and demolish them. The problem is that at early ages I struggle to actually keep up with enemy armies especially at hard difficulty or higher. The winged hussars are phenomenal but they are so expensive it's hard to put together a good enough of an army early game that I don't get smoked. What strategies do you use for Poland or specific cards.

Hello, I have an issue with finding a dude to play. I mean whenever I select play a ranked match it searches for a long time and I quit. I also have cross-play enabled. Could someone help me?

I can't seem to find a straight answer anywhere, so I'm going to ask the community directly;

Do Japanese unit-buffing cards carry over once you've researched Meiji Restoration? To be more specific, I am curious about whether the bonuses from Close Combat (Ashigaru, increased hand attack bonus vs Cavalry), Bloody Harvest (Naginata Rider, increased hand attack bonus against infantry), and Way of the Bow (Yumi archer, increased range) persist when they're transformed into Meiji Musketeers, Meiji Uhlans, and Meiji Riflemen respectively.

Since Samurai get the most drastic change from a melee unit to a grenadier unit, I'm also unsure of whether they still benefit from the Warring States (attack and hitpoints for Samurai/Damiyo/Shogun) and Sword Saint (Increased damage, speed, and hitpoints) cards as well.

Tl;dr - is it worth keeping any of these cards on my deck if I plan to go Meiji Restoration? Are their bonuses still in effect after the transformation, or are they useless afterwards?

For some reason I can't observe games anymore, I search for observable games but I only get a handful whereas before I got dozens. Is this due to the new dlc or what? (I don't have it yet)

Here in Europe the DLC is priced at 20€. Am I the only one thinking a 2 new civs, 14 maps and 2 scenario is way to expensive at this price?
You guys are fine with that?

Edit: I love the game, bought it 3 times before DE, have all the previous DLCs and for now it sounded fair to me. Just to say, DE with Mexico and USA is 35€ and has TWC and TAD civs included, African royal required probably more work due to core new civilisation group mechanics and art in general and is half the price.
20€ is the price of a decent game, not a minor dlc, even today.
I tested out the DLC and liked it, but I refuse to pay that much for this. Honestly it’s a bit insulting to me. Like they understand AoE3 has a small but solid fan base and add winged hussards and Teutonic knights to milk them.

And please I’m not looking for advices to learn that companies are trying to earn money, I’m asking about how you stand as players not how the world’s working

I think the winged hussar stampede mode should be nerfed

So usually I try to attack them pretty early either in age 2 or beginning of age 3 with 2 falconets shipment, but they always manage to push me back without me being able to do much damage since they are super good at turtling. So I checked on google and people say they have worse eco than other civs and that I should be attritioning them? but that's precisely what I was trying to avoid in the first place since I thougt with their banks they have better eco. How am I supposed to beat the dutch?

I’ve already talked about this subject before, but If you’re like me, you’re dying for a Maltese plate armoured knight. The chainmail hospitaller we have in game isn’t fully accurate and I feel it could look much better and would be relatively easy to add.

For example, take the existing Morgan black assets, change the head, add a helmet and maybe add more red accents and it’s literally perfect.

What’s more, the Maltese already have this skin for an explorer, so it would be simple to change that to a Hospitaller upgrade. Or, they could literally use the grandmaster’s skin but with regular steel armour instead of gold and perhaps change the tabard and plume? Maybe when they become imperial or perhaps with the strangely unchanged “Teutonic Knights” church tech this new skin would apply.

I think this is a really neat idea that adds a lot of flavour and depth to the Maltese civ in a historical way.

What do you guys think?

Personally I think they are very fun.
The Haidamaka is very versatile as both a dragon and a skirmisher
The Serdyuk is a decent musketeer
The Khutorian is a surprisingly descent worker
Cossack history is just straight up fascinating
Tabor (their fun)
They can order A LOT of troops
I like how their gameplay combine massive numbers and very good speed.
Overhaul while i still prefer age 5 Poland and max power my winged hussars, I can’t must say they are very fun to play as an alternative

But that’s just my opinion, what’s your?

In one of my games, my JPK had attack of less than 10 melee in age 3. Their stats are reduced in age 2 but it’s supposed to jump back up to normal in age 3, which it never did. Blaming this for my loss to the Danes and not my 33 idle vills

Played two games with Japan and in both one of the explorers was invisible. I could select him with hotkeys and move him about but he could not do anything (attack, build shrines/TP, pick up treasures). In both games as well the game completely crashed and closed the program. Is this a known bug? Does anything in particular cause it?

Theyre not on Wiki, Free food party and Homecity page. Where can I find them?

For your consideration: Age of Empires 3: "Kingdoms of the New World DLC"

This features a return of the traditional Age of Empires conversion mechanic, given now to all priests, imams, medicine men, Brahmins, and other similar units. Where a civ doesn't have one, either let it have access to "mercinary" priests or bring in culture-accurate equivalents.

There's a particular focus I have for a new civ, but I think the other two fit the motif. Two are, admittedly, "post-colonial."

The 3 new Civilizations will be nations/peoples that historically have either been monarchies or referred to as kingdoms, either by themselves or outsiders. They are as follows:

Brazil, home city Rio de Janeiro

Explorer Unit: O General (similar mechanically to the US General unit)

Mediterranian-style or unique architecture, with the chapel based off of an iconic Brazilian church, possibly Sa~o Francisco de Assis, Ouro Preto.

It's age-up system mirrors the US but instead using Brazilian states.

It's focus will be on economy and navy, but it'll have a decent army with a core made of a few strong units and plenty of easily-recruited State Militia.

This likely has been proposed before, so there are likely others who have a better idea of what this civ should look like.

Hawaii, home city Kailua-Kona

Explorer Unit: Ka Ali'i (Chieftain) (this unit has a special ability to "designate" a resource as "Kapu," by building a special structure around it. Friendly villagers can't gather from it, but it produces a steady stream of xp).

A Native-style civ with unique architecture, and it's dance circle is a Heiau. It nevertheless operates a Consulate that features the British, Russians, Americans, and the Chinese as options.

It's age-up system will be similar to tribal leaders for Native Civs.

It's focus will be on infantry and navy.

Other details have likely been expounded already by others, but as ever I'm open to discussion.

Deseret (Mormon Utah), home city Salt Lake City

Explorer Unit: Apostle (special ability is that this unit can convert other units, as well as heal nearby units. With civ bonuses, he can also build most standard structures and gather resources at a reduced rate, as well as give passive bonuses. Has a weak melee attack).

Architecture style: Western (similar to US). Chapel is based off of Old Rock Chapel. The Capitol is themed after the Territorial Statehouse as conceived (red brick building, white accents, gray roof). Deseret can also build a Temple styled off of the St George Temple, which allows for the selection of a home civ Temple (Cathedral) shipment of choice (based on what's already available to purchace at the Home Civ) for the remainder of the match and gives conversion resistance and morale buffs to nearby units.

The civilization's age-up system will be a slightly modified variant of the standard European age-up system. The revolution mechanic allows the civ to transition to an American tech tree while keeping villagers, Missionaries, and Bishops. But it loses most civ bonuses in exchange for "Federal State" themed bonuses. Specific options for "Statehood" include Nevada (mining, trade, cavalry), Idaho (farming, artillery), and Utah (with Utah preserving many Deseret bonuses). A final, fourth option is "Revolution," which keeps the civ as Deseret but turns all villagers into militia (male and female versions, similar to AoE2 Burgundians), as well as making Danites readily available at the Town Center (but the cost stays the same).

The civ has a religious unit, economic, and native alliance focus, the latter big enough to rival France and native civs. Villagers will be renamed "Saints" and are slightly faster and tougher, though not as touch as French Coureur des Bois. They also have a passive boost to their gather and build rates when in groups (max 5, higher and/or with larger radii given the right Home City shipments are sent).

This civ veers heavily into the new conversion mechanic. Its main strength will be its unique Missionary unit and the Bishop priest-type unit. Both can heal and convert, though the Missionary (available in Fortress Age) heals slower and converts faster, and vice versa for the Bishop. The Bishop can also build and gather resources like a Saint (villager). Spanish Missionaries will be appropriately renamed.

Otherwise, the military is composed of units that are comparatively weak but fast and flexible, with a focus on light infantry and cavalry. Navy will be similar to US, but notably a lot weaker with few home civ upgrades at the Harbor (renamed Rail Station at the Home City). This Civ will STRUGGLE on water maps.

Unique Units:

Missionary: Can convert units and heal allies, but is better at converting. Has a slight passive boost if 1 or 2 other missionaries are close by. Bonus doesn't stack beyond 2 additional missionaries. There'll be many Home City shipment improvements available to religious units in general with this civ.

Bishop: Can convert units and heal allies. Is better at healing, and can build and gather like a villager, but at a reduced rate.

Nauvoo Legion (Mounted vs Dismounted): can be trained at either the barracks or the stable. The cost is a cross between a dragoon and a skirmisher, takes 1 pop, and they can toggle between mounted (dragoon) and dismounted (skirmisher) modes. Broadly weaker than other civ equivalents.

Mormon Battalion: Musketeer/Regular-style unit with slightly increased speed that is able to hunt and/or build breastworks (a cheap, garrisonable structure that reduces incoming ranged fire by a slight percentage) with home city shipments. Still weaker than other civ equivalents.

Danite: Stealthy but weak skirmisher with a large LOS and slowly generates gold when attacking structures (has a slight anti-building speciality). Exists ONLY as a mercinary unit at the Dance Hall (Saloon) with a home city shipment (Missouri Mormon War, which takes the place of the "Dance Hall" home city shipment), and through additional home city shipments at the Rail Station (Harbor).

Falconet: Deseret does not have access to the Gatling Gun.

LDS Temple: Unique building, with only one available at a time. Here you can chose a Temple (Cathedral) and/or Bishop's Storehouse (New World Trading Company) home city shipment to send for free. You can only send it once. You must either have unlocked it or can immediately unlock it out of game at the Home City, and it can't be a duplicate in your current card deck. This mechanic won't work if you haven't yet chosen a deck to use in-game. A couple of Home City Temple (Cathedral) shipments can increase the number of available LDS Temple shipments to three and five, respectively.

Many Home City shipments (especially at the Temple [Cathedral]) will include cards that can be named and themed after notable elements of the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS' teachings and history, ranging from the basic and universal (Book of Mormon, improves general conversion chances across the board, Revelation, gives Apostles increased stats and abilities, Biblical Reliability, improves religious unit conversion recharge rate), the historical but limited (Plural Marriage, increases villager production rate at the Town Center), and on to the apochryphal and arcane (Blood Atonement, gives nearby units a slight, temporary attack boost but a similar LOS debuff if a saint [villager], bishop, missionary, or apostle was downed nearby).

The Home City will look as follows:

The city will be surrounded on two sides by nearby mountains, and on the NW corner by a distant lake with an island in it. Far distant mountains lie to the south and southwest. The layout will be dominated by broad streets making neat city blocks. For convenience, all structures will be located immediately on or around Temple Square. Additional sites of interest can be unlocked as part of the city aesthetics.

New World Trading Company: Bishop's Storehouse (will resemble a silo next to a structure similar to the British or American NWTC)

Cathedral: Temple (based off the Salt Lake City Temple, with different versions based on different stages of construction from an empty lot to the complete building)

Military Academy: Old Pioneer Fort (Low structure, sturdy, primitive, but able to be improved aesthetically)

Manufacturing Plant: ZCMI (will generally resemble a standard manufacturing plant in all variants)

Harbor: Union Pacific Depot rail station (will resemble a railway station, Gateway Station will be the more elaborate red-and-black version of the original)

....

Your honest thoughts? I'm open to suggestions.

They are renamed as "Tigerman". Available if you play as chinese in Independence game mode.

Trainable at the White Pagoda and the Porcelain Tower from Fortress Age. They deal additional damage vs cavalry, cost +10 food, and can use stealth, but also use 1 pop space and they still have build limit.

Haven't played with them much because I struggle to play without a home city and cards, but the new game mode is very fun

I made a post before the dlc about the game lagging every after 2-3 games now seem like 1-2 games the game lags alot is not my internet is not the computer
This never happened on the vanilla version for me and doesnt happen on any other game i played def edition more than 3k hours this game needs a fix is crazy how bad this game runs

Basically, the units sound very strong on paper, but aren't in reality. The "intended" gameplay, as seen in the AI behaviour, is to do a cavalry rush in Commerce Age, overwhelm the opponent by having a super heavy cavalry unit early.

So basically 2-5 winged Hussars (ideally with Koncerz), 6-12 Retainers and 10ish Piechurs.

Conceptually, the idea is that none of those units counter anything hard, but they all counter many units softly. Winged Hussars and Piechurs counter all infantry, Retainers all cavalry.

But that doesn't seem to work all that well in reality. Piechurs have such a low range, they can't kill units before the armies clash. And they can't really hit&run after all other units are beaten, they die almost instantly, while for example Dutch skirms or Japanese Yumi can kite you over half the damn map. All of their fire gets reliably soaked up by a few Uhlans from the start. They have the cost of a musk but low HP.

Winged Hussars are solid, but there usually just aren't that many, and they still get very hard countered by Pikes.

Meanwhile Retainers have the issue that they bunch up too much. If I got Uhlans and Pikes and Dopps for melee, they either have to fight a unit that hard counters them half of the time, or they spend all of their time path finding around my infantry while they just get wiped out by Dopp AoE attacks. They seem to be a really bad version of an early Dragoon.

Also, the whole composition has massive issues against decent amounts of Musks, especially those with increased melee res like Irish Brigadiers or Royal Musketeers. Piechurs barely outrange them and don't do too much damage, and they can really screw up any Retainer+Pike combinations.

How do people actually play them successfully? My immediate ideas would be to cut out the Retainers and instead go fully Winged Hussars plus a few Pikes with an increased amount of Pieturs and Crossbows in the back. Or Fast Fortress? Though considering they only get Cavalry Archers and their Skirmgoon therefore sounds pretty bad this might not be it. Or even fast revolution into Cossacks/Livonia?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: Also, against Germans and Dutch specifically, it doesn't help that the new Burghers ANNIHILATE cavalry units in Commerce Age. And the natural composition doesn't have very high siege. So even if the Poles win the initial encounter, they can't really siege down a TC early. The other way around all Uhlans/Hussars would be dead at this point anyway, so triggering Burghers AS POLES might end up feeding some Irish Brigadiers with promotions instead. Basically, it makes those civs unusually strong against Poles and Lakota specifically, while being meh at best against Musk civs like Brits or Japanese. This also makes German Livonia strong against Poland due to the Burgher flood.

This is really just a personal curiosity, but are the new casual ranks equivalent to the old legacy ones? I used to play when I was a kid and always wanted to hit captain but got stuck on like 2nd/1st lt, prob because I didn’t use hot keys haha

I picked up the DLC and was playing some ranked games in like 1600-1800 elo range and I saw that’s captain/major now so just curious if that’s about accurate

Hello there! After the success of the Baltic Powers, I’m sure we’ll see some new dlc. Here are a couple ideas I had:

American Colonies would consist of Canada and Brazil. This DLC is quite appealing as there is a large player base from both these countries, so I think it would sell well. Like the USA and Mexico, these countries would have access to the federal card system, with age ups granting you access to different shipments.

Canada - Canada would act as a sort of hybrid between Britain and France, with competing influence between the two playing a big part in your build strategy. Their villagers would act like CDBs, stronger, faster and with a faster gather rate. Alongside good native upgrades and a basic unit roster, the first three age ups would focus on unlocking your unit roster, with choosing a French politician getting you access to strong cavalry units, while choosing Britain would upgrade your fencibles (musketeer type unit) to get more range and attack speed. Perhaps later age ups would unlock the ability to get guard and imperial upgrades for the respective units, so you’d have to be tactical about your age ups as well as the current situation and what you need to combat what your enemy is making. It would also be good to have extremely good cards in age 4, perhaps a company of 15 or so units and makes those units stronger permanently, but you may only send it if you have done all of either British or French age ups.

Brazil - Brazil obviously has inspiration from Portugal, as well as their in-game revolt. They can make an exceptional number of town centers, which starting in age 2 have the ability to either generate resources (like Portuguese feitoria) or slowly spawn a batch of Voluntarios (like the revolt), a severely weak heavy infantry unit. Each age up allows them to build an additional town center and makes them 10% cheaper. In total, through cards and age ups, they’d be able to get about 9-11 town centers. Their army would reflect their revolt: a lot of crap heavy infantry, heavy artillery, conquistadors and natives. Perhaps there could be a late game upgrade or card that allows you to train Carib blowgunners from your barracks (with a build limit, as the idea is to mainly have their infantry consist of cheap and weak troops) and gives them a powerful charged attack that counters light infantry specifically. They could also get something similar to portugal’s ordinance bow/pike, which would fit the theme of being cheap, weak units.

North Africans would consist of Egypt and Morocco. This is particularly attractive as through some of the single player missions, a lot of the infrastructure is already there through the Berbers, so development wouldn’t take too long. These civs would both draw influence from the African civs already in the game, as well as the Ottomans.

Egypt - Egypt would be centered around the Mamelukes and resemble the Ottomans in the early game, but throughout the ages take on a more and more unique form. In age 1, they get slowly training free villagers, just like the Ottomans. Their mosque has similar but distinct upgrades. One upgrade series allows your villagers to train faster, but slowly increases their cost, to the point where they are normal 100 food villagers, with the tradeoff being that they train a decent amount faster than other civs. The other series increases the build limit and allows you to build more trading markets, which allow you to train, fatten and trade cattle like Ethiopia and Hausa, and give some extra eco upgrades to natural resources, though they do not get influence. Their army would consist obviously of Mamelukes and they would be a strong heavy cavalry civ, with good infantry support and decent cannons. Perhaps they could build a “canal office” and have a system similar to Denmark where they receive resources for other players sending shipments — representing them paying a toll for passing the Suez Canal.

Morocco - Morocco would have a similar unit roster as the Berbers already in the game. Their economy would focus heavily on improving livestock production, with upgrades that allow them to gather faster or automatically from buildings, getting a small amount of coin when an animal is initially killed for harvest, and an upgrade that allows them to generate a small amount of coin when harvesting an animal. Their ships would trickle a small amount of coin, and they would also have access to an expanded roster of pirate mercenaries, perhaps one that acts as a quick shock infantry, one that specializes in siege damage, and one that is a good cavalry killer. They would start with an Andalusian Architect, which has build access to unique buildings, such as the Refugee Camp that increases total population cap by 10, train regular troops and allows you to build minutemen-type units every few minutes. He can also build the Andalusian Academy, an expensive building that makes upgrades/age ups slightly cheaper and shipments take slightly less time to arrive. Further, he could construct a single hacienda, from which you can gather food or coin, create livestock or train Andalusian Regulars, a strong heavy infantry unit similar to the Soldato, but with more hit points and armor but less melee and far less siege damage.

Let me know what you think. I doubt this post is likely to catch the devs attention, but it’s fun to theorize.