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[[File:Aoeiii-cover_2550.jpg|frame]]
'''''Age
The game of the series, simply called
Among the features of the series' gameplay, there's the Hometown, which sends shippings such as troops, technology or resources, and the addition of 12 native tribes and trade routes. In order to be able to send shipments, the player must gain [[RPG Elements|experience points]] which are obtained during normal gameplay. Also, unlike the previous games, all the civilizations are completely different, and have more twists than in previous games. And, like ''Age of Mythology'' and their Gods, in order to advance to another age, the player must choose a Politician.
The game features a single-player campaign made of three acts, (''Blood'', ''Ice'' and ''Steel'') which follows the story of the Black family on their travels against their antagonists, the Ossus Circle, and with [[Public Domain Artifact|the Fountain of Youth]] as a key plot point across the three acts. The acts are narrated by Amelia Black, the protagonist of ''Steel''.
The first expansion pack, '''Age of Empires III: The
It also had many other twists such as new buildings, (the Saloon and the Native Embassy) units, (gunpowder cavalry, petards and spies) and the chance to go to an alternative fifth era for the European civilizations; and unique twists to the three new civilizations such as the firepit (where the villagers can dance in order to obtain a bonus such as creating healing priests, gaining more experience and raising the population's limit) and unique big buttons for many buildings.
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The Single-Player campaign, this time composed of two acts, (''Fire'' and ''Shadow'') which extended the Black family's lore by focusing on Amelia's father and son respectively, with Amelia starring as the narrator, as well as doing a cameo appearance in ''Shadow''.
'''Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties''', the second [[Expansion Pack]], was developed this time by Big Huge Games<ref>The developers behind ''[[Rise of Nations]]''.</ref> and Ensemble Studios, and it was released in 2007, just a year after
This [[Expansion Pack]] added
The single-player campaign this time was set in three different historical
There's also a version of the original game for the N-Gage phone, made by Giu Mobile in 2009.
After the demise of Ensemble Studios, Robot Entertainment (a development house made of former Ensemble employees) is developing the updates and maintaining the ESO service. The ''Complete Edition'', which includes all the expansions, [http://store.steampowered.com/app/105450 was released] on [[Steam]] in 2009 and continues to receive support.
These games have a [[Age of Empires III/Characters|character sheet]] in
{{tropelist|''Age of Empires III'', ''The
* [[America Saves the Day]]: The final part of ''Steel'' has the Americans openly coming into the aid of the Black family as they track down the Circle of Ossus' stronghold in Cuba. Averted however in ''Shadow'', where the US Army forces under Custer's command are the antagonists.▼
* [[Anachronism Stew]]:
▲{{tropelist|Age of Empires III, The Warchiefs and The Asian Dynasties give examples of:}}
*
** The languages used, especially in the campaigns. It can be jarring, for instance, to hear the campaign Anglo-American heroes speak (more or less) Modern English while standard British/American units still talk as though stuck in the 16th Century.
▲* [[America Saves the Day]]: The final part of ''Steel'' has the Americans openly coming into the aid of the Black family as they track down the Circle of Ossus' stronghold in Cuba.
** Among the playable civilizations, this is more pronounced for the Aztecs (largely pre-Columbian), Chinese (a melange of the Ming and early-Qing Dynasties), Japanese (whose general aesthetic and unit roster is based on the Sengoku/Edo periods) and Indians (predominantly 19th Century).
* [[And Now for Something Completely Different]]: After a fashion. The campaigns for ''The Asian Dynasties'' don't involve the Black family at all and are instead historically-based ones very reminiscent of ''Age of Empires II''.
* [[Anti-Grinding]]: The introduction of an RPG-like system into the battles in the form of the Metropoli and the cards also brought the expected problems, solved in the following ways:
** The multi-player cap of experience gained by match in both Skirmish and Deathmatch is about 30.000 [[Experience Points]] per match.
** Some campaign maps have a cap on the amount of experience you can [[Level Grinding|gather]], such as "Respect" the sixth mission in ''Ice'', where {{spoiler|Kanyenke and John tries to gain the favor of the Lakota Tribe Chiefs}}. Other campaign missions, by way of being [[Timed Mission|timed missions]], don't let the player to level up a lot, such as the first and sixth mission of ''Blood'' ("Breakout" and "A Pirate's Help") and the first and seventh mission of ''Ice''
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Armies aside, a fair amount of main and supporting characters bite the dust across the campaigns. The countdown includes {{spoiler|Francisco Delgado and Alain Magnan}} in ''Blood''; {{spoiler|Stuart Black, John Black and Warwick}} in ''Ice''; {{spoiler|Major Cooper and Pierre Beaumont}} in ''Steel''; {{spoiler|Sven Kuechler}} in ''Fire''; {{spoiler|William Holme and George Armstrong Custer}} in ''Shadows''; {{spoiler|Daimyoes Mototada and Ishida (among many others)}} in ''Japan''; {{spoiler|Admiral Jinhai}} in ''China''; and {{spoiler|Colonel Edwardson}} in ''India''.
* [[Arrows on Fire]]: Archers attacking a building.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: The Aztecs, the Sioux and the Iroquois were just native tribes in the original game. In ''
* [[Ascended Meme]]: One of the prerecorded taunts players can send each other is a hilariously British-accented "I'm in your base, killing your d00dz
* [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever]]: The "George Crushington" cheat unit. It's a giant, hopping bust of Washington that headbutts enemies to death with a BIFF! or a ZOINK! and shoots fireballs from its eyes.
{{quote|'''George Crushington:''' [[Large Ham|"CHECK IN YOUR WALLET. THAT'S ME ON THE DOLLAR BILL."]]}}
* [[Author Appeal]]
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The "Big Buttons" in ''
** Banner armies
* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]: Chinese flamethrowers. The continuous stream of damage adds up pretty fast, and the splash radius and damage multipliers against infantry means that half a dozen flamethrowers can sweep away a large infantry force far faster than any other field artillery unit type. They also are pretty effective against buildings.
* [[Bandito]]: Some are available as mercenaries.
* [[The Beast Master]]: Explorers can get a canine companion to fight at their side. The Spanish Explorer can train more War Dogs. The Warchiefs can train animals and convert treasure guardians, so they often end up with a menagerie of wolves, jaguars
* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]]:
** Anything dealing with the very existence of the Circle of Ossus in ''Age of Empires III'':<br />The main reason for the Great Siege of Malta, as seen in ''Blood'', was
** The Ming Chinese in the ''China'' campaign
** And then, there are more "mundane" things like Turkish outposts in South America, the knocking off of an entire Spanish Treasure Fleet, the course of the [[Seven Years' War]] and Custer's Last Stand, and how many historical characters or organizations get involved in the plot.
* [[BFG]]: The Monitor, and the Ottoman Great Bombard and the mercenary Lil' Bombard. Guaranteed to ruin ''someone's'' day when they start firing. Ottoman [[wikipedia:Abus gun|Abus guns]] are portable cannons and the only infantry to deal siege-type damage.
* [[BFS]]:
*
** Honorable mentions go to the Doppelsoldner, Landsknecht and Boneguard's two-handed-swords, the several Japanese units using katanas, and the pirate and corsair's [[Sinister Scimitar]].
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]:
** In "Breakout", from ''Blood'', Alain Magnan comes with his cavalry to ban the Ottoman forces from Malta.
** In "Temple of the Aztecs", also from ''Blood'', the Aztec forces come to ban the Spanish from their lands.
** In "Defend the Colony", from ''Ice'', John's Mercenaries come to defend the colony after the time is out.
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: A peculiar subversion. Native speakers of French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch and Turkish will have little trouble understanding the phrases used by these civilizations, as they use the modern variant of their respective language. <ref>For instance, some Japanese units even respond in the regional dialect associated with Hiroshima.</ref> Native English speakers, on the other hand, are stuck with the British speaking in 16th century Early Modern English for the most part, which can make certain campaign-specific units and heroes somewhat jarring in comparison due to them speaking in more contemporary English.
* [[Bling of War]]
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Technically, the units clearly reload their projectile weapons in between firing them. But they never run out of ammunition, or for attacking buildings, torches.
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: The [[Player Characters]] often ''explicitly refers to the fact'' [[Post Modernism|that they are part]] [[Medium Awareness|of a computer game]].
** One specific example from the campaigns: in the Saratoga mission of the Fire campaign, Nathaniel Black mentions advancing to the Fortress Age.
* [[Call That a Formation]]: Generally averted, as the different formations available all have their uses in certain situations.
* [[Classic Cheat Code]]:
* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Averted, for both RTS and
* [[Crippling Overspecialization]]: There are a lot of units with a low base attack damage but high multipliers against certain unit types, meaning that they're pretty rubbish against anything but those specific types. Culverins, for example, are nearly useless against anything but ships or other artillery.
* [[Damage Is Fire]]: Justified: historically, professional armies (before the invention of electricity or reliable lighting) carried various unlit wooden torches with them into battle tucked into various places that they could light up and use in night fighting or when they had to burn something. The number a given soldier will use in short succession is still ludicrous
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: The first two games have one and two-button interfaces. This series, only one.
▲* [[Damage Is Fire]]: Justified: historically, professional armies (before the invention of electricity or reliable lighting) carried various unlit wooden torches with them into battle tucked into various places that they could light up and use in night fighting or when they had to burn something. The number a given soldier will use in short succession is still ludicrous, through.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Several [[Player Characters]] as the AI.
* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: The British army John and Kanyenke defeat in the [[Seven Years' War|the fourth level]] of ''Ice''. But there's also another British army which subverts this: the one led by {{spoiler|Warwick, a member of the Circle, who is also a renegade from the British army}}.
* [[Easy Communication]]: The formation buttons.
* [[Easy Logistics]]: Home-city shipments can't get lost at sea, or delayed due to bad weather, and paying for a blockade is a one-time investment. The Asian civilizations in ''The Asian Dynasties'' can get support from other civilizations, even if that civilization is an enemy, which can lead to Redcoats fighting Redcoats. Units never run out of ammunition (or while attacking buildings, ''torches'').
* [[Edutainment Game]]: The first purpose of the game is entertainment, but there's plenty of historical information available, with the multi-player interface having a sidebar displaying random historical factoids. Other examples include:
** The first few missions of ''Blood'' happening during the Siege of Malta.
** The fourth mission of ''Ice'' has the player fighting in the [[Seven Years' War]] for the French.
** ''Fire'' takes place during [[The American Revolution]].
** ''Shadow'' is set in the context of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Also known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn Custer's Last Stand].
** The ''Japan'' campaign takes place during the unification of Japan and ends with the battle of Sekigahara.
** The ''India'' campaign takes place during the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.
* [[Enemy Exchange Program]]: In ''
* [[Final Death]]: As per RTS standards, averted, thanks to the [[Gameplay Ally Immortality]]: this means that the campaign heroes, explorers, Warchiefs, and monks getting KOed does not mean [[Game Over]]. Other mission-critical units such as {{spoiler|Bahadur Sah}}... not so much.
* [[Firewood Resources]]: Averted as per both RTS and
* [[Framing Device]]: Much of campaign's story concerning the Black family is told through Amelia's narrations. Until ''Steel'', which involves her role in the plot.
* [[Friendly Fireproof]]: Artillery won't damage friendly units even at point-blank range.
* [[Game Mod]]: Quite a few have come out for the game. Some of the notable ones are:
** ''The War of the Triple Alliance'', also known as ''[[Wars of Liberty]]''. A massive overhaul which, among other things, introduces independent New World nations (like Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the USA), and with plans to even add an additional (if expensive) end-game Age extending into [[World War I]].
**
** ''Hundred Days'', a Total Conversion Mod that creates a more realistic Napoleonic War game, but loses the time dept and non-European civilizations.
* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: [[Shown Their Work|The info on the units show the developers know the game's representation of them aren't really like that]], but nonetheless, there are many breaks from reality - for example, muskets can fire around every three seconds where in real life they took significantly longer to reload (The unit info itself stating that a competent musketeer could fire four times a minute)▼
** ''Knights and Barbarians'', another Total Conversion Mod that uses the game's engine to fight wars set in the Middle Ages, with special attention to the Crusades.
** ''The King's Return'', which works as an unofficial expansion in that it doesn't change the original game's maps and factions, but adds new African maps, natives, and new playable factions like the Safavid, Korean, Kongo and Oyo empires.
* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]:
▲*
** The ''Japan'' campaign allows the player to advance to the Industrial Age, which gives you access to your main anti-building artillery..... and allows you to upgrade your Trade Routes to ''railroads''. In ''1600''.
** The manual says that Napoleon grew up speaking Italian and that he spoke French with a heavy Corsican accent. His in-game persona speaks with a French accent.
** The cutscenes show the Circle flying German flags and Stuart's colony flying the Pirate jolly roger. In-game, the Circle and the Blacks mercenary company fly their own flags.
** Coyotes, Wolves and White Wolves look all like Gray Wolves despite their name.
* [[Gender Is No Object]]: Women villagers and women explorers.
* [[Generational Saga]]: The campaigns of ''Age of Empires III'' and ''
* [[Genre Shift]]: To a degree
* [[Gentleman Adventurer]]
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: There's an unlockable visual customization for your home city's harbor called 'A nice lady', further described as 'a soiled dove'. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Soiled+dove Guess what it means
* [[Giant Squid]]: Appears in ''The Asian Dynasties'', but in a completely different manner to most media portrayals. Rather than as grossly over-sized monsters from the deep, the squids are harmless creatures, actually portrayed with the same size as in [[Real Life]], being around 5 meters with the tentacles, rather than over 20. Other than that, they never attack you, but are actually acting like any fish in the game, such as salmon and cod, and only exists to be caught by you. Also, they only appear in the Honshu map, where real [[Giant Squid]] actually lives.▼
▲* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: There's an unlockable visual customization for your home city's harbor called 'A nice lady', further described as 'a soiled dove'. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Soiled+dove Guess what it means.]
* [[Glass Cannon]]:
▲* [[Giant Squid]]: Appears in Asian Dynasties, but in a completely different manner to most media portrayals. Rather than as grossly over-sized monsters from the deep, the squids are harmless creatures, actually portrayed with the same size as in [[Real Life]], being around 5 meters with the tentacles, rather than over 20. Other than that, they never attack you, but are actually acting like any fish in the game, such as salmon and cod, and only exists to be caught by you. Also, they only appear in the Honshu map, where real [[Giant Squid]] actually lives.
** In general, Artillery, Skirmishers, Archers and Riflemen. They are powerful, but when an enemy unit approaches them, they are often in serious danger.
** Russian
** The Portuguese' unique version of the Skirmisher, the Cassador, amplifies this with even more ranged damage and even less HP and melee damage compared to the basic version.
* [[Going Native]]: A recurring motif for the Black family, with Morgan's Scottish lineage being infused with Iroquois, American and finally Sioux blood. Tellingly, Chayton Black in ''Shadow'' is nigh indistinguishable from the Sioux tribesmen {{spoiler|he ultimately sides with}}.
* [[Gondor Calls for Aid]]: In the first mission of ''Blood'', the Knights of St. John are near defeat when the bombards show, so they send some settlers to light a signal fire to call for reinforcements from Alain.
* [[Guide Dang It]]: Fun fact
* [[Hidden Elf Village]]: One mission in ''Steel'' involves finding a hidden Incan settlement while eluding the Circle of Ossus' mercenaries.
▲** Russian Oprnichiks are fragile and have relatively low base damage, but have a very strong anti-building attack and a huge damage multiplier against settlers. A dozen of them can cripple an enemy's economy within a minute.
▲* [[Guide Dang It]]: Fun fact - most ranged attacks from infantry are twice as slow as melee attacks in attack rate. Notably, that means musketeers will generally do more damage if attacking in melee rather than ranged. Unfortunately, this isn't written anywhere in the game, even with the advanced stats option on.
* [[Hit and Run Tactics]]: All ranged cavalry can fire on the move. Averted by the other ranged units, who must [[Do Not Run with a Gun|stop to fire]].
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Petards and Demolition Ships. The point of the units are to die, but do lots of damage in that death.
* [[Hold the Line]]: Several missions in the Single-Player campaigns: the ones which end after the line is held are "Breakout" in ''Blood'', "Defend The Colony" in ''Ice'' and "Breed's Hill" in ''Fire''; the ones where it doesn't, and you have to defeat the enemy to win, are "Temples of the Aztec" in ''Blood'' and "Hold the fort" in ''Steel''.
* [[Horse Archer]]: The Ottomans, Russians, Sioux, Chinese
* [[Immortality Seeker]]: The Circle of Ossus is devoted to finding the Fountain of Youth in ''Blood'', whose water is said to give eternal life to those who drink it. This plot was revisited in ''Steel''. {{spoiler|Morgan has found that the "Immortality" granted by the [[Fountain of Youth]] is no myth, as we find out in the closing cutscene of ''Age of Empires III''
* [[Implausible Fencing Powers]]: The British variation on the explorer unit may be upgraded from the home city to give him a special melee attack that allows him to [[Everything's Better with Spinning|spin around]], [[Spin Attack|causing damage around him]]. Tends to [[One-Hit Kill]] skirmishers. Several characters in the main campaigns also have a similar ability.
* [[In Name Only]]: Even Ensemble Studios [http://kotaku.com/#!5759801/developer-age-of-empires-3-was-a-huge-mistake didn't think] it was an ''Age of Empires'' game and tried to have Microsoft change the name.
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* [[Katanas Are Just Better]]: The [[Implausible Fencing Powers|Implausible Kendo techniques]] of the Ronin, who have one of the strongest infantry attacks in the game, as well as the Samurai heavy infantry of the Japanese.
* [[Large Ham]]:
** Almost all of the AI "players" except for Queen Elizabeth and Hiawatha have traces of this, but the Aztec's Cuauhtemoc stands out. A [[Third Person Person]] with a raspy voice and a lot of ego, he has such gems as:
{{quote|'''(When losing a Trading Post):''' "Cuauhtemoc did not ''need'' that trading post!"
'''(Entering a large battle):''' "Blood! [[Evil Laugh|Ha ha ha ha!]] MORE BLOOD!"
'''(Resigning):''' "No! Cuauhtemoc will NEVER surrender! ...Unless ... you '''let''' him?"
** The Elmeti, who speaks Italian in a very over the top manner:
{{quote|''"SI?!"''
''"ALLA BATAGLIA!!"''
* [[Les Collaborateurs]]: The Consulate building introduced in ''The Asian Dynasties'' makes it possible for Asian nations to establish ties with certain Western powers like the British and Russians. This in turn allows them to call in various bonuses, special buildings and European reinforcements, but at the cost of ever growing tribute. They can also opt out of said ties at any point in a game.
* [[Lesser of Two Evils]]: In ''Ice'', after Stuart Black is kidnapped, John Black, Kanyenke and Nonakhee are involved in the [[Seven Years' War]]. They have to choose between the
* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: French Curaissers, Spanish Lancers, Sioux Dog Soldiers, and mercenary Elmeti and Hackapells are all fast cavalry capable of both absorbing a lot of damage and dishing out absurd amounts.
* [[Mayincatec]]: Averted, with the Aztecs in particular becoming their own playable, distinct faction.
* [[Mighty Glacier]]: India's War Elephants.
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** The final nail in the coffin, there are three Asian civilizations in the second expansion.
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]: A few slip-ups appear in ''The Asian Dynasties'', if only regarding treasure guardians. Black panthers, tigers and giant pandas in Japan, snow monkeys outside Japan, any monitor lizards dangerous to humans in any of the levels, none of which are on the Komodo islands where the actual dangerous ones live, as well as snow leopards outside the Himalayas.
* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Isabella, the Spanish [[Player Character]], while she doesn't dress [[Stripperiffic]], she does have a [[Everything Sounds Sexier in French|sultry Spanish]] voice. She tells you to "[[Orgasmic Combat|Quit]] playing [[Combat Sadomasochist|so]] [[Sex Is Violence|rough]]" when you're in the middle of kicking her ass and that she "[[Double Entendre|can't handle all these men]]" when she requests your help in battle. She likes to call you [[Dominatrix|"pet"]] as an ally. In addition, [
* [[The Musketeer]]: It has a ranged attack to use against melee units with his muskets, but provides a better damage per second in total with their melee attacks as well as only doing bonus damage to cavalry while using melee. Light cavalry units also fire with pistols against heavy infantry, but will likely do more damage against artillery in melee since artillery takes much less damage from ranged attacks.
* [[Mythology Gag]]:
*
** The Armor of [[Age of Mythology|Arkantos]] increases hero and explorer hitpoints when claimed.
** The Germans have a shipment card, "Teutonic Town Center", which improves the defensive capability of town centers. ''[[Age of Empires II]]'' players may recall a certain [[Game Breaker]] when they see the name.
** The Jesuit mission in ''The Asian Dynasties'' allows you to recruit Conquistadors identical to the ones in the previous game (mounted arquebusiers with ''Morrión'' and breastplate).
** The lost daughter of the Sioux chief in ''Ice'' is implausibly named Greta, like the lost daughter of the Norse chief in ''Age of Mythology'', Greta Forkbeard. She has the same icon except with brown hair instead of blonde.
* [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]: The French [[Player Character]] in Skirmish and Multi-player.
* [[Ninja]]: Available as mercenaries from ''
* [[Occupiers Out of Our Country!]]: The basic premise of the ''India'' campaign, as it's set around the Sepoy Rebellion against the British East India Company.
* [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]: About all that we know about the Circle of Ossus for sure is that they are the enemy, their elite units are called 'Boneguards' and they want to obtain
* [[One-Hit Kill]]: The European explorers have the Sharpshooter and, later on, the Crack Shot abilities: the first one allows you to kill a Treasure Guardian instantly, the second one allows you to kill any unit (except villagers and ships) instantly.
* [[Pirate]]: Lizzie's pirates, and The Woukou pirates in the ''China'' campaign and many scenarios. ''The
* [[Private Military Contractors]]: The player can recruit teams of specialized mercenaries from the home city at a price in gold and a shipment card. ''Warchiefs'' allows them to be trained normally at a saloon, depending on the map, but at increased price.
* [[Protection Mission]]:
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* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: The Japanese.
* [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]]: A town center told to produce a villager will randomly make either a male or a female. Males and females do exactly the same work.
* [[Reality Ensues]]: {{spoiler|The Circle of Ossus, already reduced to a shell of its old power, ultimately finds out in ''Steel'' that antagonizing a burgeoning United States is a bad idea}}.
* [[RPG Elements]]: You're required to level up to use most shipments from your home city, [[Cosmetic Award|as well as customization for your home city's appearance]]. And in every match, you are required to get some XP to receive a shipment.
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: A recurring theme in the campaigns.
* [[Sarcasm Mode]]: The Lil' Bombard, capable of sending its victims flying across ''several dozens'' of tiles and smash them into buildings.
* [[Secret War]]: Much of the campaign is ultimately one waged between the Black family and their allies on the one hand, and the Circle of Ossus on the other. {{spoiler|The Circle is ultimately broken, however, once they've brought the ire of the United States down on themselves}}.
* [[Separate but Identical]]: [[Running Gag|Once again]], averted: every civilization has it's unique quirks, especially the ones in the expansions. For example, the Indians use wood instead of food to train villagers, British houses spawn a bonus villager when built and cost more, and the Dutch use gold instead of food. This also applies to the Home Cities shipment cards. While some are identical across civilizations, (extra villagers, resources...) others are unique to that civilization. Also, all the civilizations of the game, except for the ones in the expansions, have more powerful unique upgrades for their "guard" units that replace the generic third-tier upgrade. For example, the British having Redcoat Musketeers instead of Guard Musketeers and Lifeguard Hussars instead of Guard Hussars.
* [[Seven Years' War]]: The player fights in it for one mission in ''Ice''.
* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: "Ambushed!" in ''Shadow''. This is a long, rough, labyrinthine map crammed full of War Huts stationed around the cliffsides. The player needs to get powder wagons to clear paths through trees, which can halt your progress until you get them to the areas. And after all of your work in getting up the player is taken to a cutscene showing up {{spoiler|Holme}} screwing up the entire plan, thus making the whole trip pointless.
* [[Shoot the Medic First]]: Subverted. Priests, missionaries and surgeons heal units automatically, but they tend to be very slow while at it and outright incapable of it if there are enemies in sight.
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** The cheat code "sooo good" causes a little [[Teen Girl Squad]]-style message to appear whenever a unit is killed, such as "musketeer'd!" or "imperial howitzer'd!" All with a badass bugle sound included.
*** When "killed", some explorers will yell (roughly) "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" in their native language.
* [[Shown Their Work]]: Similarly to ''[[Age of Mythology]]'', the developers had done their research, but nonetheless discarded the results wherever necessary for gameplay.
* [[Siege Engines]]: Artillery units.
* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: As mentioned above, the "killin' your doods" taunt, and this gem from the same voice actor as the Queen Elizabeth AI;
{{quote|"''Really''... such a ''noob''."}}
* [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]]: Inverted. The first three [[Big Bads]] are technically equal in threat, since they all run the same organization, but there's still a big disconnect in their day jobs, which regress from {{spoiler|the Grandmaster of the Knights of St. John}} to a lowly fur trapper. As for
* [[Speaking Simlish]]: Averted. Units speak in the language of their
* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]:
** Mortars, Monitors and Heavy Artillery.
** No matter what graphics level you have the game at, damaging weapons caches in the Campaign will cause them to blow up.
* [[Symbology Research Failure]]: The Chinese "Confucian Academy" Wonder can ''automatically produce heavy siege weapons''. Riiight.
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** Civilization specific units can also be effective against units that their unit archetype is not effective against.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: The Japanese can opt to go isolationist as their Consulate option.<ref>Which is [[Truth in Television]], as it's based on the Tokugawa Shogunate's centuries-long isolation policies; the option to choose another path is even called the Meiji Restoration.</ref> In which case it grants them access to unique bonuses as well as units like ninja.
* [[Technology Levels]]: The Discovery Age, Colonial Age, Fortress Age, Industrial Age
* [[Theme Park Version]]: Of the 16th, 17th, 18th
* [[They Killed Kenny]]: Your explorer. Technically "captured"/"fallen" rather than "killed" when his hit points drop to zero, and can be brought back either by being ransomed by the player or by having units sent to recover him. You can expect this to happen at least once per game.
* [[Timed Mission]]: The next-to-last mission of "Ice" requires you to destroy Warwick's Town Center in 15 minutes while stealing resource carts and having some settlers to collect these resources.
* [[Units Not to Scale]]: when putting people inside ships and ''canoes''. The in-game database entry about the canoes [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this.
* [[You Require More Vespene Gas]]: Gold, Wood, Food
* [[Zerg Rush]]:
** The Russians produce batch armies, which are cheaper per soldier.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Real-Time Strategy]]▼
[[Category:Age of Empires III]]▼
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[[Category:Age of Empires]]
[[Category:Microsoft Windows]]
[[Category:Mobile Phone Game]]
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