Age of Empires III (Campaigns)

Sup!

It's rarely been an occurrence for me to create a simple blogs for games. But anyways, here's my take on Age of Empires III which falls under Microsoft.

Filipino's usually don't spend time working out on this games, like real strategy games and you will only come across few ones. This type of games comes off as boring to some but I have played Age of Empires II before and stopped, but came back again to rediscover it's series, Age of Empires III.

Age of Empires III in PC version was released in 2005 and it's Mac version was on 2006. Age of Empires is a real-time strategy game by Microsoft Corporation. AoE III has 2 expansions packs: AoE III: The Warchiefs and AoE III: Asian Dynasties.

AGE OF EMPIRES III

The Age of Empires III is narrated through out it's campaign story in Amelia Black's point of view. 

The First Act is titled Blood and tells the story of Morgan Black wayback 16th century who was a commander under The Knights of St. John who is defending Malta against Sahin from the Ottoman Empire. As Sahin's armies flee, Morgan and his friend Alain discovered this library with scripts and stories pointing out to the Fountain of Youth and a society called The Circle of Ossus. During the campaign, you will encounter Elisabet Ramsey (a.k.a. Lizzie of the Pirates) but will defeat her. The story is a little bit tricky as it will have mix of traitorous acts and foes becoming friends but that's how the world goes. 

The Second Act, Ice, then proceeds to the story of Morgan's grandosn named John Black. John has a Mohawk friend named Kanyenke, and this two will be attacked by General Warwick of Britain while they are in Brunswick. The duo will liberate Brunswick but at the expense of John uncle, named Stuart. John finally admits to Kanyenke that he is inlove with his sister, Nonahkee. They will then join the French Army in the Seven Years' War and with Colonel George Washington, tracks down Warwick who will ally himself with the Russians. John's last stand will be bombing the snowy mountain, killing himself and Warwick along with the Russians and the Circle of Ossus' troops in an avalanche. Kanyenke then returns to find Nonahkee giving birth to John's son, Nathaniel.

The last Act titled Steel takes place in the narrator's timeline who is Nathaniel's daughter and heiress named Amelia Black. Amelia black owns the Falcon Company, a railroad company that will expand their interests. Amelia then meets French prospector Pierre Beaumont, who leads her along with Commander Cooper to a Colorado mine where old Kanyenke lives. Kanyenke warns Amelia that Beaumont leads the Circle of Ossus. One of Beaumont's wolf kills Cooper while they search at the Lake which has now turned into a swamp. Amelia and Kanyenke chases Beaumont to an Incan city meeting Simon Bolivar along the way. Eventually they attack the last stronghold in Cuba called the Ossuary and the riches they acquired was used to expand the business. The end scene is where an old man congratulates Amelia Black for breaking the Circle. It would be righteous to assume that it was Morgan Black, whose life was extended when he drank a small portion of the water's lake in the ending of the first act.

NOTE:

The original Age of Empires III was a cool story with twists and turns in it's plot that makes it beautiful. They also introduced the concept of Home Cities and the level-up of an Era. So when you notice in it's game play, you can customize the Home City and as you gain experiences and buildings, your army will also improve and you end up from Discovery Age to Imperial Age. Fortresses are present too for special types of soldiers.

AGE OF EMPIRES: THE WARCHIEFS

The additional concept to this expansion is the use of stealth. So The Warchiefs takes more focus on the tribal part of the story. Still in the Black's family point of view, and their home city is the Black Family Estate.

The First Act titled Fire starts from Nathaniel Black (father of Amelia Black from the original campaign and child of the late John Black with Nonahkee as the mother and his uncle, Kanyenke). The story starts with Nathaniel and Kanyenke conversing with the Mohawks and Seneca an discouraging them to fight in the American Revolutionary War. The Hessian mercenery Col. Sven Kuechler took Nonahkee and raided their village. Col. George Washington then enters the scene and took commands, leading to a string of victories. This campaign shows how Nathaniel Black wasted the whole family's fortune in helping in the American Revolution, with him returning as a poor man in Yorktown.

The Second Act titled Shadow tells the story of Chayton Black, the son of Amelia Black who is half-Lakota and is expanding the Falcon Railroad Company. He winds up in the middle of Red Cloud's war where he helps defend against the Sioux and became friends with Fort Laramie's William Billy Holme. Ten years later, he revisits Holme and finds he is now sheriff and informs him of a gold rush in the Black Hills of Dakota. Chayton looks for Crazy Horse, the Sioux chief but Holme's ambushes them leaving Crazy Horse dead and wrecking up negotiations. Once the fort is completed, Holme's forces Chayton to eradicate a Sioux village without mercy and this is where Chayton chose to side with the Sioux. General Custer arrives and Chayton recounts his tale of how Holme's was the cause of all the unrest. Chayton eventually shoots Holme when they meet in the end. Chayton then asks Custer not to kill the Sioux but Custer made him decide to side whether with them or against them. Chayton left and battled with Custer where Amelia narrates she never saw her son again, recounting either he died along with his cavalrymen or living a life with his wife in the Black Hills.

NOTE: 

The Warchief Expansion takes into keen detail the different tribal characteristics so you will notice that in the gameplay, Trading Posts always gives an advantage much like in the Second and Last Act of the original campaign story. Always try to build Trading Posts, they can generate soldiers and different clans introduces different kinds of warriors so be diverse and do all the secondary objective, map discovery can be quite fun.

AGE OF EMPIRES III: ASIAN DYNASTIES

    This Age of Empire's storyline is now focused on the Asian countries namely Japan, India and China. Unlike the rest of the series in AoE III, this is the only expansion that does not revolve along the Black Family story.

The Japanese Campaign is based on the Unification of Japan and on the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The young general named Sakuma Kichiro meets up with Daimyo Mototada at the Siege of Osaka which they stormed the castle. They then moved to eliminate villages that may support Tokugawa's enemy who is Daimyo Uesugi Kagekatsu. Later then on, another enemy of Tokugawa named Ishida Mitsunari threatened Mototada's estate and Mototada had to leave Kichiro. Kichiro evetually learns from an Oda clan samurai that he is not an adopted orphan but was orphaned when Tokugawa razed an entire village killing Kichiro's parents. Mototada confirmed them when they eventually met but reminds Kichiro of the Samurai Code and his loyalty. Kichiro decided to help Mototada with Mototada forcing him to leave along with his villagers. Mototada then committed seppuku leaving Kichiro and Tokugawa eventually battling together and winning, making Tokugawa the Shogun of Japan. Kichiro leaves Tokugawa in the final scene, riding his horse with the voiceover of Mototada about loyalty to one's own mastter.

The Chinese campaign tells the story of a Ming Captain named Jian Huang who dreams of the outside world along with Lao Chen, a large and crude sailor. The Treasure Ship was attacked by pirates and under the orders of the spoiled and selfish Admiral Jinhai, who us the nephew of the Emperor, the duo saved the fleet and traveled west. They evetually landed in India, battling Indian Zamorin to save Jinhai. They continue to travel west even when other ships turned back where they eventually landeed on Yucatan where crews where imprisoned by Aztec warriors. The story became sour when they discovered that it was Admiral Jinhai who manipulated the Aztecs thinking he was a God and siding with the Indian Zamorin to eliminate the crew. They killed Jinhai in the end and removed any trace of their presence, sailing back to China.

The Indian Campaign is about the Rebellion of a Sepoy member serving the British East India Company. The character, Nanib, was a member of the Sepoy regiments who became disillusioned with the cruel and abusive ways the Company was treating his fellow Indians. His superior, Colonel Edwardson, regained control of saltpeter in Punjab and defeated arsonists in Calcutta. While Nanib tried to reason with the arsoninst, Edwardson ambushed them leaving Nanib confused and visibly shaken. The nail was driven finally when Edwardson ordered Nanib to use a rifle greased with pork fat that is a taboo to them. He took the rifle and shot one of his soldiers. The Rebellion then started with Nanib and Pravar Patel leading a regiment of sepoy to free Bahadur Shah II. Battle after battle eventually ensues that led to Edwardson's death.

Note:

        Unlike the original campaign and The Warchief Expansion, the Asian Dynasties introduces another way of leveling called Wonders. The villagers needed to build Wonders so that a civilization may advance, this makes advancement very unique from the other two campaign storylines. Another thing I've noticed was the limited number of houses one can build. Unlike the two, Asian Dynasties only allows a villager to build specific number of houses that still equates to 10 people per house, making population generation faster but more prone to population loss when a house is destroyed. Aside from that, buildings are also limited such that there are minimum numbers of building that can be built unlike previously where you can place any building, anytime and  anywhere so build wisely. China also has this Treasure Ship where it generates supplies regardless of the location.

        And most of all, the best concept they added are the pre-organized soldiers in the War Academy. The first two would require that each soldier will be generated based on how many you want and what type of soldier, in Asian Dynasties example India or China, you can click on a Soldier Set and then a single training can generate 4 specified soldiers that specialize in different forms of combat. Like 2 horsemen with 2 pikers etc, which is like a Soldier Combo. You cannot customize but it saves a great deal of time specially when there's a surprise ambush going on whilst you are raiding or destroying other settlements.

    Make note also of cross soldiers from other races when you ally up in the Consulate. You can have different types of soldiers regardless of campaign AND YOU WILL LOVE SIEGE EQUIPMENTS ESP in Japanese Campaign where every splint of wood goes kaboom (sighs in satisfaction). This Expansion also had me racking up MORE WOOD AND COINS than the first two campaign stories.

I'm not really a pro player but this is my take on the AoE III. Hope you had something to gain!