History YMMV / AgeOfEmpiresIII

* TierInducedScrappy: The Aztecs. The more historically-minded players hate that they are a playable faction, even the ones that can accept Iroquois and Sioux (in that order). They are out of time, out of place, and their technologies, infantry and naval units are nonsensically powerful in order to make them stand a chance against industrial era powers, despite their main claim to fame being their quick fall to a small and archaic (by game's standards) army of Europeans. Even then, they are still hard to master because they can neither create their own cavalry or artillery. What seals the deal is that the Aztecs already had their time to shine as the stars of the ''The Conquerors'' expansion of ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'', and that unlike other civilizations carried over from the previous game (Spanish, British, French, Germans, Ottomans, Chinese, and Japanese) they are stuck with the same fighting style, so they feel like treaded water. The studio elevating them to playable faction instead of other cultures that did survive the first Spanish onslaught and fought back to some extent historically, like the Inca, Maya, and Mapuche, comes across as [[CreatorsPet pushing them down the player's throat]].

** German Landsknechts, while mostly associated with the Europeans Wars of Religion, really served in America in some cases, like Ulrich Schmidl and Hans Staden.

** The [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade Knights of St. John]] had a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auberge_d%27Angleterre#History Scottish]] commander at the Great Siege, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_and_coat_of_arms_of_the_Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta wore blue]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Siege_of_Malta#Gran_Soccorso fought the Spanish]], and were opposed to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Malta slavery and taking free stuff from non-Christians]]. And they actually did [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitaller_colonization_of_the_Americas set up shop]] in the Caribbean!

** Capybara in Caribbean maps. The only island with them in real life is Trinidad, which used to be connected to South America. However, nearly all islands in the Caribbean had some other kind of giant rodent when Europeans arrived, some of which were as large as dogs. And these were indeed hunted and eaten, [[EndangeredSpecies sometimes to extinction]].

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Made in the US and with an evident [[WeAllLiveInAmerica North American-centered]] vision of the European colonization of the Americas, yet the game is most popular in South America and central/northern Europe.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The audio clips recorded exclusively for "Definitive Edition" were criticized for being nearly inaudible that they sink into the background music, even in the highest volume settings. The Swedish voices, despite being intended to be loud, still lacks the energy of the original audio clips.

** In an AMA at the Age of Empires 3 Heaven forums, lead engineer Creator/SandyPetersen defended the game's focus on American colonization claiming that it would be ridiculous to play as Napoleon, start with a town center and build from there to fight the Battle of Austerlitz. Cue the first big game mod ''VideoGame/NapoleonicEra'', whose aim is pretty much that. Made funnier considering two of the civilizations in said mod, the Swedes and Incas, were PromotedToPlayable in ''Definitive Edition'', which also contains scenarios based on historical battles even though Napoleon isn't in any of them at release time. Moreover, recent updates have added not only Revolutionary France as a Revolution option for the French but also a special Imperial Age upgrade with its own set of powerful cards that's coincidentally ''called'' "Napoleonic Era".

** In an AMA at the Age of Empires 3 Heaven forums, lead engineer Creator/SandyPetersen defended the game's focus on American colonization claiming that it would be ridiculous to play as Napoleon, start with a town center and build from there to fight the Battle of Austerlitz. Cue the first big game mod ''VideoGame/NapoleonicEra'', whose aim is pretty much that. Made funnier considering two of the civilizations in said mod, the Swedes and Incas, were PromotedToPlayable in ''Definitive Edition'', which also contains scenarios based on historical battles... even though Napoleon isn't in any of them at release time.

** All the drama between Microsoft and Ensemble on the issue of including Crazy Horse (see Trivia), after knowing that ''the ''Definitive Edition'' writes him out completely''.