Similar to the Age of Mythology's Minor Gods, Age of Empires III utilizes a Politician System as a method of granting bonuses on a successful advancement to another age. They are: the Discovery Age, which represents the discovery and exploration of the Americas by Europeans and allows the player to explore and develop their economy the Colonial Age, which represents the European Expansion into the "New World" and unlocks early military units the Fortress Age, which represents the fortification of the European colonies, unlocks forts, and allows the player to have a more complete military the Industrial Age, which triggers a strong economy, due in part to factories-advanced buildings that produce resources or artillery-and unlocks all units and cards and the Imperial Age, which unlocks all buildings and upgrades.
Before advancing, the player must choose a politician and each can provide free units or crates of resources. In Age of Empires III, these phases are called "Ages", and represent historical time periods. Then as your economy and military improves you can destroy their colonies or the enemy may offer to resign (if allowed).Īs in most RTS games, the player can advance through technological phases, which provide access to greater improvements, units, or buildings. When the experience points reach a certain threshold the players earn shipment cards that can be shipped from the Home City to the player. The actions such as training units, constructing buildings, and killing enemy units can give the player experience points.
Players must explore the map and begin gathering the natural resources, food, coin, or wood which are used to train more units, create more buildings, and upgrade your technology.
If you have teammates they and the land they visit are visible. When the game starts the exact terrain of the map which includes, the position of the enemy, native tribes, and trade post sites are blacked out. Unlike the other Age of Empires games, this one includes much prominent gunpowder warfare, including artillery and rifle companies. The player starts the game with a Town Center, an Explorer, and several Settlers or merely a Covered Wagon and an Explorer depending on the type of game selected. The loading screen of Age of Empires III.