Hey Reddit, fairly beginner player here. My friends and I recently got back into AOE3 and we’ve been spending the majority of the time playing in-house 2v2s. Everyone is roughly in the 900-1000 rating range.

By far the dominant “meta” that has emerged is whoever has the stronger age 2 play will win. Within the various age 2 comps the most dominant one is heavy hand infantry (such as dopplesoldners) and archaic light infantry. Nobody has been able to play a mirror game or definitively beat the comp in fights.

What’s the answer? Dopplesoldners especially have proven to be the most effective unit in these games, as even with sub-optimal micro the fight can be a strategic victory for the Dopp player by just trading out with their AOE attack. Nobody seems to be able to get a critical mass of either cavalry or light infantry to deal with such an army. Is it micro? Is it unit comp? Is it tech? Engage conditions? I’m open to opinions, thank you for reading!

Inspired by the recent thread "worst cards in my opinion" and because I love the deckbuilding aspect of the game, I thought I'd spark some discussion in here. Post yours, judge others'.

Ethiopians:

Indian Spice Trade (+60% yields from trading posts): If you really commit to fighting hard in Age 2 and get map control, you can absolutely feel the value of this card, especially on maps with very big lines of TPs. The problem is that the card is completely wasted if your opponent also fights in Age 2, possibly with a superior civ, which you can't really predict since most civs with a strong age 2 also have the option to do a greedy FF/FI.

Heywat Philosophy (All Mountain Monastery techs -30% cost and research time): It's really annoying sending a card just for that, but if you're going to go age 3/4 somewhat quickly with Alliances that give great techs in the Monastery (Portuguese, Sudanese mostly), you save a LOT of resources with it, especially for a card that goes into the Age 1 slot. The problem is that you'll have absolutely no tempo until those techs are researched.

Sefari (ships 10 infantry units and greatly reduces the cost of their upgrades): I feel like everytime I include it in my builds I lose more often than if I don't, but the raw maths of this card are fine. Even if you don't go age 4, the card pays for itself if you research the Veteran upgrade for infantry. The problem is that you have to gather 1000 influence to send the card, and that influence could also have been spent on mercenaries or another form of high-tempo unit.

22 Somali Allies (Darood Militias): If you do reach age 4, chances are your opponent also will soon enough, so in most matchup you'll be facing lots of artillery, which the Daroods counter. Also if you've aged up with the Portuguese at some point (you probably should), you'll have an Arsenal, which means you can give them Counter-Infantry Rifling which also turns them into acceptable Skirms (x2 against heavy inf). The downside of this card is that it's not extremely high value for an Age 4 card and will fail miserably if your opponent ships something else than artillery/factories set to heavy cannons.

Hausa:

Charity (Converts your food stockpile into Influence at a 0.75 ratio): Not a good opportunity cost, but a decent card to fight like a madman in age 2 for a long while, since Hausa can generate a lot of food (they have access to Spice Trade, plus Pulaaku Code which is another +20% food from herds).

Massina Madrasahs (Villagers gather wood and coin +20% faster near universities): This is like Malta's Wignacourt Fortifications, right? Well, not really, because universities are not defensive buildings that can garrison villagers and because they're more expensive than a quick outpost.

Counter Cavalry Tactics (Javelin Riders HP and modifier vs Heavy Cav increased): a very solid upgrade card to a decent unit, but unfortunately the Hausa have access to the Kanuri Guard mercs (one shipment in age 3 and another shipment in age 4 which unlocks them to be built), which are REALLY good. It's a bit like the Chinese having a hard time to make Keshiks shine because their Manchu shipment is so good.

Indians:

Desert Terror (Camel units gain increased multipliers against units they counter): A really solid card but which struggles to shine compared to the Elephants you unlock in age 3 onwards. It's honestly fine and I've used it a lot, but very often I find myself wondering if I really should send it (Is my enemy actually building units that my camels counter? Shouldn't I just send resource crates to age up instead?). India also has a LOT of good age 2 cards that compete for having enough space in the age 2 row.

Sowar Regiment (Ships 8 Sowars and 1 Mansabdar Sowar): If you've committed your deck to bringing the 2 upgrade cards to Camel units (+1 card for Sowars but not Zamburaks), you kinda want to bring this... But it's an Age 4 card and you could instead be sending infinite Urumi, Infinite Rockets, or +5% HP/Attack to all units. Yeah.

Swedes:

7 Wittelsbach Allies: Infinite Card and not too bad value in spite of being infinite. These can singlehandedly hold a Botto spamming Jannissaries. The problem is, Sweden already has a lot of nearly-mandatory cards to send in Age 2, and you're toast if your opponent clicks on the button to ship/produce cavalry.

9/8 Caroleans: In Age 3 you have access to 2 upgrade cards for the Caroleans. Surely it wouldn't hurt to also include a shipment of them... But you'd be better off shipping resources or mercenaries.

Allotment System (Ships 1 Carolean per Torp): In theory this is a 20 Carolean card, which is good value. In practice you're probably going to be shipping Factories/Heavy Cannons and other upgrade cards before this.

What’s better when using akan ankobias with Hausa? Sending the card that adds them to the barrack or leveling with their alliance but staying as a native unit and not a proper part of your army? I know that the maigadi exist being the strongest “musket” unit and being 1 pop and all that but sometimes is hard massing the and I need a musket equivalent or at least fill the roll

Got this when I was 10. Still have it, relatively untouched and sitting on my shelf in my new house. Incredible stuff.

it's gonna seem cliche, but I am pretty low elo (around 1100) and idk really how to face ottomans. When I try to rush them with gustavian guard it doesn't work cause they send cavalry raiding my villagers 2 mins before I can afford the guard or have 10 janissaries in their base. When I try to boom, they do a FI and get the 5 bombards and 30 nizam. At this point I feel like there's no counter to them, at least as sweden. It probably doesn't help that my last game was vs a 1300 elo ottoman player that has played 1200 games of ranked while I played 60 myself...

Edit: ok his best elo was 1600, which is quite the unfaire difference...

I feel like it’s high time there was a dedicated discussion about the collosseum, or Collo (aka Wollo) scenario. I see it hosted often and I join and I think it’s on like “version 72” now or something. I’ve quite enjoyed playing it and trying to figure out the optimal way to win but I havent seen any real discussion of it online.

questions:

1. who makes and regularly updates this scenario? Specifically, the one I see being hosted frequently these days, called “Budoka collo”. in this you get wood and food for killing enemy units which you can spend on upgrades, and everyone basically gets a random assortment of units. Every 800 kills you get access to a few new units. Is there a community of modders who makes and updates this scenario? Where / how does this occur?

2. what the optimal starting option? I’ve been choosing 1500w trickle over 20 minutes but there’s a variety of starting options

3. what’s the best way to upgrade units? HP and attack upgrades are cheaper than “combat” upgrades, but combat upgrades seem more impactful in the long run. What about different armor types, rate of fire, range, etc?

4. collo winners always seem to be players who specialize into a skirm unit and spam that all game. Is there any way to win with cav or artillery? Or is that just not possible with how good massed skirms are?

THE HYPE TRAIN DOESN'T STOP IT KEEPS GOING I'M PREORDERING RIGHT NOW LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It is that time of the year again, I proudly present the 11th season of the German League and invite all German speaking players to take part, be it as a participant or in the audience. All infos are in this video:

https://youtu.be/psGJcXyIdi0

Will we get more substantial patch notes than those revealed with the baltic powers dlc?

I've seen there are many of them now but I'm sceptical.

I'm trying to get rid of this art-book. Any AoE3 lovers that are interested? pm for details

[UPDATE] It's still available, please PM. If I have not replied, it's because I f-ed up the message requests, please send again

1. Kola nut(hausa):sounds crazy when you read it, but in reality is worse than distributism
2. Draft oxen(africans):the cattle is super slow to work in the fields, is more efficient to collect the meat or to trade them
3. Trickle cards that are not for India:they are all worse than 3 villagers card
4. Cent-suisses(france):who the F uses halbadiers whit France? Most people don't even know that france has access to halbadiers
5. Ranching(Argentina):the biggest waste of space ever, gauchos can already train cows in mass, you don't need this card at all

6)Oromo migrations(ethiopia):you have to lose 6 vills in age 2 to make this card usefull. Is better to just ship military units or the palace to stop the raids than sending this trash.

7) 1 sebastopol Age IV(ethiopia):my hatred for africans civs aggain, why is this shipment not infinite? It wouldn't be OP, brits have an infinite 2 rockets, and ethiopia lacks good infinite shipments

8) carrack(portuguese):+15%hp for caravels, whatever

9) advanced market(all):I have never seen anyone using this card before, it basicaly gives you the sarracen bonus from age 2,and is irrelevant.

10) new ways(had and lakota):this card is not bad, but I just hate the fact that I need a card for basic upgrades

11) rangers(british):rangers should be part of the base british unit roster, at least make them unlocked in industrial, but having to send an age 4 card or paying a gazillion resources in the church for a basic skirm is criminal

12) salitrera(chile):this is suposed to be chile's eco comeback mechanic, but is super expensive to make it work unless you had sent cards to prepare the revolt, but if you are preparing to go Chile you are doing it to end quickly

13)suez canal(egypt):you get +10% collection, and your enemies get imperial upgrades

14)all of haiti's cards😭:this is the most fun revolt but at the same time it has the worst deck

15) Team whale oil(british):whales are a slow and very limited source of coin, your team is getting half a fishing ship for each whale they are collecting. If you have enough whales to make this card do anything, you probably won the game already, is the only card of the game that I will call a "win more" card

And now the best part, India's horrendous cards🧐

1)mughal armor:OMG the cost of this card is crazy, but the worst part is that is a must have for India

2)rocketeers:"we have granade lounchers at home"

3)the raj:wasting 1 card to lose a civ bonus🤔

4)foreing trading companies:this is just an insult to india on top of being terrible 😅

5)bazaar:is india's own advanced market card

6)infinite 2 mysore rockets:by far the worst card in the game, 1000 food for a shipment that the british get for free, another insult to India

Note on grazing: you can get colbertism whit 30 camels, distributism whit 10 elephants, and 20 cows gives you capitalism, units you are going to create anyways. Is like shiping 3 bad cards in one. Still not that good, but is enough to not make the cut

Civ, Map, does anything matter?

Video is purely illustrative. That said, I would like to get the Gatling Camel more often. Relying purely on RNG is not fun.

Specifically +15% HP and attack, downgraded from 20% a while ago. Wouldn't it make much more sense to SCALE it to get a similar outcome as the "Folk Heroes" tech for outlaws?

For example, Commerce Age mercs get A TOTAL of 35%, Fortress Age mercs 20% and Industrial Age mercs 15%? Or 30/15/10. Optionally it can also be delayed, so if the card was sent in Fortress, the Commerce mercs get 15% of their 35 only when reaching Industrial.

This would make Commerce mercs like Cannoneers or Irish Brigadiers viable in Industrial and (with Mercenary contractor) in Imperial, without making Industrial mercs completely OP. And for already rock solid Fortress Age mercs like Giant Grenadiers or Fussiliers it wouldn't change too much.

So I just made a tiny mod to turn Crossbow men off for the French in the Commerce Age. Apparently the AI's responce is just to try and crush you with a tight little formation of Musketeers and Pikemen, Be intrested to know if anyone else see's a similar change if they want to try it.

Edit, tried it a second time on moderate (the first was on easy) and the AI's seemed to calm down a little, maybe they just found each others town centers really fast the first time. Even so, I'm still seeing a bit of classic pike and shot action going on, which was the point.

<tech name="ColonializeFrench" type="Normal">

<effect mergeMode="add" type="TextOutput">69792</effect>

<effect mergeMode="add" type="TransformUnit"

toprotoid="Skirmisher"

fromprotoid="Crossbowman"></effect>

<!-- Disable Crossbowman -->

<effect mergeMode="add" type="Data"

amount="0.00"

subtype="Enable"

relativity="Absolute">

<target type="ProtoUnit">Crossbowman</target>

</effect>

<!-- Remove Crossbowman from production buildings -->

<effect mergeMode="add" type="CommandRemove" proto="Crossbowman">

<target type="ProtoUnit">Barracks</target>

</effect>

<effect mergeMode="add" type="CommandRemove" proto="Crossbowman">

<target type="ProtoUnit">FortFrontier</target>

</effect>

<effect mergeMode="add" type="CommandRemove" proto="Crossbowman">

<target type="ProtoUnit">Galleon</target>

</effect>

<!-- Disable Crossbowman upgrade technologies -->

<effect mergeMode="add" type="Data"

amount="0.00"

subtype="Enable"

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<target type="Tech">VeteranCrossbowmen</target>

</effect>

<effect mergeMode="add" type="Data"

amount="0.00"

subtype="Enable"

relativity="Absolute">

<target type="Tech">GuardCrossbowmen</target>

</effect>

<effect mergeMode="add" type="Data"

amount="0.00"

subtype="Enable"

relativity="Absolute">

<target type="Tech">ImperialCrossbowmen</target>

</effect>

<!-- Remove Crossbowman upgrades from Barracks -->

<effect mergeMode="add" type="CommandRemove"

tech="VeteranCrossbowmen">

<target type="ProtoUnit">Barracks</target>

</effect>

<effect mergeMode="add" type="CommandRemove"

tech="GuardCrossbowmen">

<target type="ProtoUnit">Barracks</target>

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<effect mergeMode="add" type="CommandRemove"

tech="ImperialCrossbowmen">

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<effect mergeMode="add" type="TechStatus"

status="active">HCRoyalDecreeFrench</effect>

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We seriously need an option in lobby that disables walls from being built tbh, killing all fun in long games

The opposite of the best merc civs, these are;

- Can only rely on what RNG gave them in Tavern at the start of the game.

- Don't have ways to unlock good mercs they want later, either from HC or Church techs.

- Don't have economy to pay for them.

- Lack upgrade cards that cover mercs they are using, so mercs they hired would be weaker with the same prices.

Which civs fall into this category?

Hello i Own Age of empires 3 definitive edition and my friend has the exact same version. but when i load up im limited to the 3 countries of the day to play with, cant use ANY other countries to level up. it just tells me to buy the DLC, then takes my to the version of the game i already have, it says the game comes with 16 factions, but i cant use any of them. HELP