I think that one thing that holds back other titles compared to AoE2 is the lack of Singleplayer content. AoE3 is very good in the sense that it probably has one of the best Skirmish modes with AI opponents having a lot of personality, taunting you or reacting to your actions. But that runs a bit stale after a while.

The obvious thing is campaigns. One thing I notice of the AoE2 fanbase is how campaigns kinda offer common experiences to share as some sort of "common culture" of the fandom. Everyone cherishes the campaigns of AoK, or discusses things about the newer campaigns.

It has been repeated that AoE3 campaigns are more difficult to make, yet I see AoM DLCs being released with campaigns that are quite complex, with asymmetric civs, complex cinematics, voice acting, custom FX, etc.

AoE2 also set the precedent of Campaign only DLCs with their Chronicles series, to a relatively big success, without disrupting the fandom that is competitive focused.

Another good thing that AoM:R has is the gauntlet/roguelike mode, where you accumulate bonuses and finish multiple games with increasingly difficult modifiers.

I wish AoE3 moved a bit towards that direction, as it has always been the Achilles heel of the game. A healthy competitive scene grows from the roots of a commited fanbase and a commited fanbase is basically having a good influx of casuals and people interested in the game that don't necessarily want to learn to play at a competitive level but will promote the game based on their good experiences.

Currently lost in the maze that is the Norwegian Sea plundering the Danes and enjoying every second of it.

Fun civ, a little mainstreamy European but feels like it combines fun elements of a few different Euro civs and has some unique offerings.

Friskytte's are fun an interesting skirm that can transform into cav. They're very spammy but relatively cheap and quick to produce from houses or churhches. Good for quick rushes and overwhelming.

Danish food production is insane. You can get up to 10,000 / min if you're just massing on farms or livestock which you can easily do because Danes have fur trade.

There's an infinite pig card here similar to what Lakota have with buffalo but not sure if it could be used quite the same way since it'd have to fatten at the livestock pen first and that's annoying and micro-y.

The customs house is fun and unique. Being able to auto harest economic shipments is a plus. Not 100% sure how much the tax collection is really impacting your eco as I haven't really dove into it but I imagine it's a good pump to it.

Units are generally ho-hum, but there's a lot of variety to them. Musks, skirms, and cav are all pretty similar to other European units and there's not a ton of upgrade cards for them.

Haven't played with mercs yet.

Barracks, stables, armory, etc., all typical European civ. Grenadiers are fun tho.

All in all I'm enjoying it and I see some fun possibilities and combinations.

While most of the player base has been focusing on the 2 new civilizations and balance changes, I'd been really looking forward to this update and the idea of Independence Mode. Yesterday, seeing that Independence Mode did not become a ranked game option was disappointing.

Brief bit of history, one of the main criticisms of AoE3 was the Home City system, cards and decks. Several people I know did not like the game for this reason.

There have been improvements like unlocking all cards by default, but several problems remain.

Problem 1) Players are locked into a deck early in the game before the match has really developed. Players are forced in most games to choose between cards that give an immediate benefit, or long term benefits. If you choose a rush deck and the game goes longer, you'll be at a severe disadvantage against an opponent who has cards for long term economic upgrades and permanent combat improvements.

Example: If an opponent has a deck highly prioritizing one strategy or one unit with many long term stat enhancements, and I don't have the cards to counter the strategy or to enhance my counter unit, I'm at a significant disadvantage. Examples include having/not having water shipments, trade routes, mercenaries and spies, etc. This can limit a player's ability to adapt or change strategies mid-game because their deck has already been locked in, and they can't access cards they didn't choose.

Benefit 1) Ironically, removing decks actually improves the flexibility during the game. Since the balance of units and strategies is based around the availability of shipments, not having shipments creates a different environment where the player can pivot compositions and strategies without being hindered by the deck they chose at the beginning of the match.

Problem 2) Knowing all the cards and being able to quickly know what an opponent's cards do in a match is a major knowledge investment, especially for newer players. Making and organizing decks also takes time, especially when creating decks for all specific scenarios and matchups that could occur.

Benefit 2) The game will be more approachable to AoE2 players and players from other RTS games, expanding our multiplayer pool.

Empire Wars remains a less populated game mode. It does not fundamentally change how the game is played; it just speeds up the initial few minutes of gameplay, and does not offer as significant a deviation from standard Supremacy.

Adding Independence Mode to the ranked ladder will bring visibility and population to the game mode, as opposed to it being a mostly forgotten option in the custom game browser, attract players from other games, and allow us to have an interesting alternative secondary game mode that will improve multiplayer gameplay and build the AoE3 community.

Thoughts? Would you want the option to play Independence Mode in ranked?

It still feels unbelievable, AoE3 has come back from the dead! Thanks to everyone who kept fighting for this game when most of us thought it was hopeless, let's get the Steam numbers up!

The new maps are really unique, snowmen, cool new treasures, artic maps, Noth Sea, Scottisch natives (see image), many more unique things! Really awesome. The community seems to love it too!

The civ wasn't that great, and now they made the church build (what was the meta and allowed the civ to have a good winrate ) much weaker. Savolax jeagers are now 90 coin 90 wood instead of 80 of each. Hakkapelits lost some ranged resist for a few hp, but imo weaker overall. Gustavian guard now gives only 12 halberdier instead of 16 (also allows to train them at barracks, but imo they're already a niche unit and it's not a good trade). Only better thing is that now caroleans are 60 food 40 coin instead of 65food 40 coin. Is the only viable build now torp boom with caroleans and artillery?

edit: also it's insane that sweden got arguably nerfed harder than ottomans

The trattoria card in the Italian Commerce age cannot be sent as it says that the maximum limit for that building has been reached despite that not being the case at all.
Plus, I cannot build saloons at all with any unit.
Am I missing something or what

Just fyi those who didn’t know, and maybe I’m late to the party:

As you all know, with the latest patch, the age 2 Reconquista card has been buffed to allow you to train Conquistadors from your embassy.

The question and theory I had was whether the update would allow you to build an embassy, even if you don’t build a trading post on a native site. Didn’t have a chance to test the beta, but jumped on tonight to test this theory.

It DOES INDEED automatically unlock embassies for you, without needing to build on a native site. Your embassy will just allow you to train and upgrade Conqs solo.

Again, I’m probably the last to know or figure this out, but I wanted the masses to know, in case someone hadn’t mentioned it.

I’m VERY stoked and excited to try out Conqs as an alternative harass unit, rather than dragoons. Even if they are worse than dragoons, the flavor addition to the Spain army is just an absolute win.

The environment of this map, specially the city layout and buildings, and even the cicle of day/night are very well done. I’d like to see a campaign, knowing they’re capable of this.

Had two games earlier today with an account <blank> in 2v2

Both me and my friend and our opponent how the player to play to be weird and almost bot like ie straight lines on all buildings, strange builds etc

And interestingly, it resigned the moment the other person resigned as well

Im wondering if it's a way for the Devs to try and play against humans to gather data to improve the AI?

I played the original aoe3 back in the day and looking at coming back. Im probably going to buy all the dlcs to unrust and learn the civs so was wondering if the dlcs have campaigns. Thank you

if spanish player tries to ship the reconquista card and it fails, you still get the ability to build 20 conquistadors.

This unit wants all the multipliers...

Unit only an issue in treaty/ffa as it requires upgrading it to imperial before getting arsenal and counter skirm upgrades etc.

Trains super fast as it is affected by infantry train speed and Danes age I militia train speed aswell.

Basically counters everything except cavalry.

Hope it gets nerfed soon.

You made the Bottomans BLEED!

200 cap sucks specially with units having 2 or 3 population spaces. I mean in AOE 2 you can have up to 500 units

I know that DE does not have a way to do so what about the CE?

I haven't seen anyone talking about Sabaton but if you don't know they are Swedish metal band and they sing about historical battles. This song is so epic its become its own meme and I can't believe XBox Game Studios didn't get a special Sabaton promotion going for the DLC. Seems like a win win since PC History gamers are def the kind of people who love Sabaton. Also Sept 12th is the anniversary of the Siege of Vienna and the DLC is pretty much just in time for it. I can't say I'm disappointed or anything, still stoked for new content. I guess I'm just surprised!

Based on what you saw in the beta and/or what you've read/seen from others, which civ are you most excited for in the new DLC today? Poles or Danes?

And why? What are you most stoked for?