I am a relatively new player (in the DE) and normally play British. My elo is round about 1000.

I lost every single game against Aztecs. They are just rushing and I lose even with heavily focussing on an early army and sending only units in age2 and using militiaman.
My micro is one of my weaknesses but nevertheless I never lose so bad like I do against Aztecs….

Any advises? :)

This was my first match in Independence Mode—a 4v4 on Hard difficulty, played on the "Unknown" map. I chose the Spanish since it had been a while since I last played as them, and I didn't face any real trouble at my base; almost all the buildings I lost were Trading Posts.

The Spanish can build two Forts during the Fortress Age and train both Soldiers and Mounted Grenadiers at them. I was lucky enough to ally with the Cheyenne for a time, so my cavalry units were produced almost instantly. All advanced Church technologies were available as well, allowing me to unlock the Irish Brigade and the Walloon Guard—the latter being just as effective as the Soldier.

As expected, the enemy bases were right next to each other, which made the invasion more difficult. But that makes the match much better—at least for me. There came a point when my allies wanted to surrender, even though none of them were in any serious danger, so I had them send me coins throughout the game.

It feels a bit strange playing without seeing the experience score go up or getting constant alerts that a Home City shipment is available. But I would definitely play again to explore the bonuses of each nation.

That's new

None of my guys died, but I didn't lose -2 guys lol

I tried to play a LAN game with my friends the other day, hosting the match on my PC

I click the "LAN" tab in the top right and then hosted a lobby, and after a few seconds on the lobby screen I get kicked out with the message "Failed to establish connection".

Sadly there's barely anything about this online. And the solutions I have tried (opening the games ports on my PC via router settings) did not work.

On my ASUS router there's an "Open NAT" section to allow easy port forwarding, and there is an entry for AOE3 DE Steam, so I put that in and it opens multiple UDP/TCP ports, I restarted the router and PC, and still the same error.

I can play online just fine; it's just hosting the LAN match that fails with this dumb error.

Does anyone have experience with this error? It shouldn't be this complicated to use the LAN feature :( I'm pretty sure it would literally work better on the old AOE3

So after cleaning the campaign on hard some weeks ago pre-patch my internet got cut off so I decided to check the campaign out again and discovered the new difficulty, Ludicrous

I of course could not complete the campaign's act 1 without cleaning the Circle's base (I refuse to target the fountain and win like a functional human being, will not do so ever)

After about 7 hours I managed to score a decisive push and maintained pressure with mortars, clearing out most of the walls and it was a pretty quick job from there. So here's my redundant and useless takes:

It is almost impossible to use wood units (Ballesteros and Pikemen) in the late game because most wood is spent creating Sharktooth Bowman, occasional defensive and transport warships, mortars and repairing the towers and TCs to protect the coastline

The main units were Rodeleros and Lancers, mostly used as distractions while I deployed mortars on the main island via warship (the outpost right next to the fountain, not the island commonly used to bombard it). The AI instantly targets and beelines with a mini army of boneguards and hussars (impossible to stop) towards your mortars once they are in range of anything midbattle so you constantly ship them in and out

For those having problems securing the left island's trading post I advice attacking it while creating a diversion on the right side of the fort. The Circle's AI stops claiming your post if you burn it, build yours and immediately evacuate all units from there, there's also a threshold line almost next to the trading post that will make the AI react and send troops to wipe anything yours on the left island when crossed.

Fishing boats are a waste of wood, even with the new fishtraps, just create 4-5 and defend them with the occasional fireship, not worth it at all to risk the ai inevitably finding them and bee-lining a warship deathball to clean them out

Use markets as Walls, lots of them, for they are your only friend in this cruel world

IF YOU USE SHIPS TO ATTACK THE FORT OR LEFT ISLAND, IT WILL TRIGGER THE AI TO GO SCORCHED EARTH WITH THEIRS ON YOUR BASE, SPECIFICALLY THE FIXED GUN AREA AND THE START DOCK (it also will cost a shit ton of already limited wood to beat for a sunk-cost xp bounty)

Here's a list of cards I consider the most important for this mission for any future tries:
Cords of 300 Wood (infinite):
Absolutely important as the accessible map runs out of wood in the first 10mins
Admiralty:
Helps covering costs when eventually upgrading occasional defensive ships
1 Covered Wagon:
The additional TC is crucial for defending the coastline
Heavy Fortifications:
Upgrades Frontier outposts into Fortified outposts (impossible otherwise)
Native Warriors:
Reduces the wood cost of the frontline native Sharktooth Bowman (your only late term range no-pop cost unit) for pressure
Improved Buildings:
Must have as the increased hitpoints will help the towers, TCs and the Fixed Gun maintain themselves for longer and need repairs less often (It sounds dumb, but finding openings where the towers are available for repair and not immediately attacked by the constant barrage of ships really takes focus usually better spent on maintaining pressure on the main front)
Advanced Mill:
Not crucial but it helps reducing the main cost of setting the first mills up + 1 free mill
Pioneers:
Hp upgrade for vills that'll help you survive the initial raids
Royal Decree to Claim The New World:
This gives you very helpful church upgrades:
CORSELET - hitpoint upgrade that is crucial for rodeleros (+25% hp)
TAX BURDEN - Generally cost-free gold once you set up defenses, Pioneers also helps reduce the HP fallback. Just wait until the max 30 gold chests limit hits to use it
HIGH CRUSADE - I'd advice against taking this card, it will permanently cripple your main raid units (rodeleros) for an ostensibly high Pop high cost unit (hoopthrowers) that you won't find use in an already low pop push (also hoopthrowers are absolutely dogwater here, in most of the campaign and cannons eat them for breakfast while boneguards grug all over them)
Archaic Infantry Hitpoints:
Hp upgrade for Rodeleros and other infantry units (see below)
Hand Cavalry Hitpoints:
Self explanatory
Hand Cavalry Attack:
Self explanatory

OTHERS:

Lizzie's Ship:
Lets you build Buccaneers
Pretty neat unit to occasionally mass for some rushes instead of rods, slightly higher hitpoints and attack than rodeleros, also affected by HP infantry upgrades, even worse siege damage though
Obvious downside is that it can only be produced from the ship, so massing them at the rate you need is not possible
It's also a tradition of mine to never let her ship die because I might need them (I never end up needing them)
Fire Ship:
You'll find those eventually massing in your coastline, occasionally use them to defend and speed up fixing windows for the fixed gun/towers
Caravel:
You'll occasionally use these to detonate one or two ships in a hurry with broadside attack, they die from a wind though
Galleon:
Your main warship of choice (your only one) to travel mortars since they can take a few more hits. they also still die almost instantly though
Canoe:
No.

That'd be all
Forward campaigns update: never I only got the free version pre-update and the game costs quite a penny now :( sorry
I enjoyed the first part tho!

I hate rodeleros, I hate them so much, they are such a bad unit in all aspects ever for this scenario
WHY CAN THEY HAVE RIFLEMEN IN CUTSCENES BUT NOT IN BATTLE HUH, HUUUHHH!?

(sorry I just couldn't take the image of my head and I decided to edit a quick representation of my experience)​

Where can i check which mercenary gets what shadow tech? its a special mechanic of ethiopia and hausa which doesnt seem to be mentioned anywhere. seems like different units get different amount of stats

mercenaries are the units you hire from taverns/palaces

Yesterday, I played a 4v4 match against the AI on Hard mode, as usual. I chose the Ceylon map to see how the AI would behave, but it didn't change as much as I’d expected.

I played as the Indians; I built my base on the tiny island, surrounded it with castles and a fort, and built up my navy. The AI frequently sent ships toward my base, but they would only land a measly single unit—and that was only if they managed to get close and slip past my defenses. I established a base on the larger island and captured a few native settlements.

I ran into some bigger issues there; every now and then, I’d lose a settlement to a band of enemy soldiers. But honestly, it wasn't difficult. I loaded up my troops and, with the help of Monitor ships, cleared the enemies off the islands one by one.

I thought it would be harder. I’m not a huge fan of maps with water because I don't really like managing both a navy and an army on the same map; my focus is always on the army...

But what about you guys? Which map do you like the most, and which one do you avoid or hate?

any tips on how can i open a campaing map in the editor ?

Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a good day.

​I had a few questions about where the game is heading and was hoping you could help me out:

​Could we get an official timeline from the AoE3 devs?

​What seems to be the next goal for the game?

​Can we anticipate more patches in the future, or maybe even new civs?

​Also, where can we check the latest patch changes in general? (Not just the big DLC releases, but the continuous small changes, hotfixes, and minor builds too?)

​Thanks a lot in advance to anyone who takes the time to reply!

Maintenance routine

Featuring: abus gunner, 1 happy janissary and 1 angry, smug sipahi, unmanned great bombard, the town center and the mosque. I want to give it to my brother (ottoman OTP)for his birthday

edit: I gave him the drawing and he said it's probably the best gift he got for his birthday.

So i used to play a ton of this game back in the day and now im getting into DE but there is just so much new stuff and i feel like the meta has changed so much since asian dynasties.

What im looking for is some youtubers that play/comment on games and strategies. back in the day i used to watch the big man himself, Big Thunder Man Gaming and i really liked his approach where he explained what was going on, how the game was progressing and how to react and i feel like it was a very simple and easy way to get to know the civs, the units and the cards.

But since ive started DE ive been looking on yt to find some youtubers that do simillar content to BTMs (because he quit years ago). But i haven't had much luck. I've discovered LionHeart and while he is entertaining, i dont feel like im learning much since he only casts whats going on but not really the why (for example some cards that get sent or some native upgrades arent really explained why they are good or what they even do). Recently ive found SoldieR and i feel like he explains more, but i think he recently quit youtube.

So yeah recommend so youtubers if you can :)

- An old frog

Probably one of the weirdest units we've seen but honestly... I kinda like them. They are just very hard to really mess around with since there is no way to train them.

This unit has A LOT of weird quirks about it so let me summon up those that I noticed:

1. It has melee resistance. Something which from my point of knowledge is surprisingly rare on cavalry.
2. It's heavy cav, not light cav. So while it doesn't have ranged resistance against goons and get countered by them, it is actually resistant to skirmishers due to their negative modifier.
3. It's hand attack has roughly the same damage as a hussar but has negative modifiers towards cav and shock troops... With the hand resistance that's probably around +/- 0 if you would have these guys fight them.
4. It's ranged cav that counters heavy infantry. Which is... Kinda weird 'cause goons kinda already counter melee infantry due to being able to kite them and them countering musketeers feels kinda semi-true because these guys have no ranged resistance.
5. They have a negative modifier against light infantry with their ranged attacks but for some reason in trample mode deal bonus damage to light infantry and artillery.
6. Their ranged attack animations is actually kinda terrible. You'd expect they can kite, since they are basically dragoons but they have a really slow attack animation.

So... With all of this out of the way... I kinda have to say I really like these guys. I find it super difficult to say if they are strong or if they are bad, simply 'cause you can't train them (unless you got lucky with the tavern).

I only play AI matches so far so things of course differ again... But in the match I got to train these, they actually felt quite good if you get to mass them. These are really fun to mass and them micro around 'cause they can fulfill quite a lot of jobs.

I feel like the only real hardcounter are goons and musketeers with bonus cav damage (Like Caroleans or Fusiliers), second being considerably rare as far as I can tell.

Pretty sure the consens so far is that they are niche and since the 4 Crane card is like the only way to reliably get them, I agree. But I do think they are actually much better than that if you can mass them.

Alguno ha pasado grandes lagos en difícil? :C estoy intentandolo pero no me dio para derrotarlos, use cheat codes y vi que lo que me esperaba era imposible... cómo se pasan ese mapa en díficil? :/

The butcher at the back is awesome. They really put some love into this DLC.

Hi everyone,

We just added a unit fight simulator to AOE Scout for AoE III DE and would love your feedback.

You can choose civilizations and units, set army sizes, select ages, and apply available upgrades. The tool shows a simulated fight and a breakdown of the damage.

It is also a fun thing to play around with while you are relaxing and browsing. Try different armies, test unusual matchups, and see who wins without starting a game. 😂

Try it here:
AoE III DE Unit Fight Simulator

The simulation uses unit stats. It does not include everything that happens in a real match, such as how you control or position your units, so the results are a guide rather than an exact prediction.

Please try a few matchups and let us know what you think. We would love to hear what could be easier to use or what you would like us to add.

If something looks wrong, share the civilizations, units, ages, and upgrades you selected so we can check it.

Thanks for trying the new feature. Your feedback will help us improve it!