Age of Empires III: Difference between revisions

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''.

 

 

 

The single-player campaign this time was set in three different historical events: the unification of Japan, the Chinese landing in the Americas and the Sepoy revolution in India.

{{tropelist|Age of Empires III, The Warchiefs and The Asian Dynasties give examples of:}}

* [[Anachronism Stew]]: Given how Ages work (and the chance to pit out pikemen against Napoleonic musketeers), this is inevitable. But the languages used can also serve as an example, especially in the campaigns. It can be jarring, for instance, to hear Anglo-American heroes speak (more or less) Modern English while your British units still talk as though stuck in the 16th Century.

* [[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.

* [[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."]]}}

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The "Big Buttons" in ''Warchiefs'', with various powerful abilities for the Native civilizations. For the Aztecs, these buttons would each send a shipment of units, the number of which depending on how long the game has been running. If the game has been running for at least 30 minutes, you could splurge and instantly produce an army over a hundred men strong... Though the likelihood of someone having that many resources to blow on a normal game are quite slim.

** Banner armies, not only are they [[Anachronism Stew]] (banner armies are strictly Manchu organizations which are only available during Qing dynasty and yet most of the campaigns are set in Ming), they mean that you need a relatively larger amount of resources to restock casualties, and that for every types of units you want, there probably will be more other types that you don't and unavoidably built anyways.

** The fourth mission of ''Ice'' has the player fighting in the [[Seven Years War]] for the French.

** ''Fire'' takes place during [[The American Revolution]].

** 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.

* [[Genre Shift]]: To a degree; the introduction of storylines revolving around [[Fountain of Youth|fountains of youth]] and secret societies was a pretty noteworthy one for a series whose campaigns had previously been focused upon the relatively accurate retelling of actual historical events.

* [[Gentleman Adventurer]] / [[Great White Hunter]]: The explorer.

* [[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 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.

* [[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.

* [[Glass Cannon]]: Artillery and Skirmishers. (Archers and Riflemen) The Uhlans are a mix of this and [[Fragile Speedster]].

{{quote|''"SI?!"''

''"ALLA BATAGLIA!!"'' }}

* [[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 Britains and the Frenches. They choose to side with the french in this mission. Later missions have them sided with the Britains, but out of the war.

* [[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.

* [[Mighty Glacier]]: India's War Elephants.

* [[Mighty Whitey]]: This seems to be among the main tropes emphasized by these series. The campaign scenarios feature Native Americans seeking military and economic help from the story's European-descended heroes, and even introduces Kanyenke, a Tonto-like character, in ''Ice''. You cannot play as any of the game's Native American civilizations and all of the Native American military units are either yours or your enemy's willing pawns.

** For Artillery, the Falconet is better against infantry than they are against buildings, the Culverin is good against other artillery and ships, the Mortar can only target buildings and annihilates those with ease.

** Civilization specific units can also be effective against units that their unit archetype is not effective against.

* [[Technology Levels]]: The Discovery Age, Colonial Age, Fortress Age, Industrial Age, and Imperial Age.

* [[Theme Park Version]]: Of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th century. ''At the same time'', no less. But they even it out by providing tons of detailed background information for ''every'' type of soldier, animal, and plant in the game's world!