History YMMV / AgeOfEmpiresIII

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: It was originally planned to have Sweden be one of the vanilla factions with Gustavus Adolphus as its AI leader, but they were discarded in favor of Gemrany. Many fans were disappointrd, especially since [[AluminumChristmasTrees Sweden actually had New World colonies,]] unlike Germany or the Ottomans. Swedish Fusiliers and horse artillery do appear in the first expansion though.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Using entirely fictional stories backdropped to historical events instead of entirely historical campaigns like the previous games. Especially glaring is the ample material in North American history from the time period used in the game. This does not apply to the second expansion although it does take a few liberties with things (i.e. the Chinese being the first to discover America and erasing proof of their presence.)

** The first expansion had Nathaniel Black, son of John Black, as the main character of the "Fire" Campaign (which revolved around the Iroquois), and Chayton Black, the son of Amelia Black, as the main character of the "Shadow" Campaign (where you played as the Sioux). Considering the expansion pack introduces 3 new civilizations, as well as the fact that we didn't learn anything about John Black's father in the first game, you'd think they'd have John Black's father be the main character of a campaign where you played as the Aztecs (the third civilization introduced) to complete the trifecta, but nope.

* ThatOneLevel: "Strange Alliances" in the first game's campaign. You start out with a small force and go out to destroy a few minor enemy settlements, only to find a ''massive'' British force has come in and taken over your original base while you were away. You're forced to establish a new one from scratch and defeat an enemy who's already well build-up and sending constant raids. They advance in age quickly and will build a ''fort'' right near you if you let them, as well as spamming huge amounts of Longbowmen. And by the way, this is only the ''second'' mission of "Ice", and the rest is considerably easier!
** The first expansion has the mission "Turning Point" is incredibly hard because of only 1 reason; [[spoiler: Sherrif Holmes]] attacking you with a ''real army'', a lot of army that you could hardly recover from. Even if you repel an attack, he just brings in another even bigger army until your base gets wiped by his forces ''unless'' you prepare in advance.

** The first expansion has the mission "Turning Point" is incredibly hard because of only 1 reason; [[spoiler: Sherrif Holmes]] attacking you with a ''real army'', a lot of army that you could hardly recover from. Even if you repel an attack, he just brings in another even bigger army until your base gets wiped by his forces.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Using entirely fictional stories backdropped to historical events instead of entirely historical campaigns like the previous games. Especially glaring is the ample material in North American history from the time period used in the game.

* BreatherLevel: The Delaware mission in ''The Warchiefs''. You don't even need to go straight away to the first mission, you might even be more interested in exploring the map and getting the treasures, because you're going to need them later. Not to mention that at some point of the exploration, you'll get a Courier Des Bois (a french settler) who can get the supplies scattered across the map for you. And later you'll find a native settlement where you can build a trading post so you can get even more soldiers, which will also come in handy for destroying the ships which hold even more units. You can even get some decent artillery units before doing the first mission. By the time you're finished, an otherwise difficult mission becomes piece of cake, and you can get a big army with just a few resources.

* {{Complete Monster}}s: George Edwardson, Nanib's superior in ''India''. After Nanib convinces some rebels to stop fighting and go home, Edwardson ambushes them and then happily praises Nanib for sending them into his trap. His callous disregard for the Indian people makes it clear from the beginning that he's a bad guy.

* {{Complete Monster}}s:
** Each and every single one of the Circle's leaders.
** George Edwardson, Nanib's superior in ''India''. After Nanib convinces some rebels to stop fighting and go home, Edwardson ambushes them and then happily praises Nanib for sending them into his trap. His callous disregard for the Indian people makes it clear from the beginning that he's a bad guy.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The model of the Mediterranean Home City Cathedral is based on Florence's, despite that none of the Home Cities available are called "Florence". (Or any other Italian city for that matter)

---> Wood? [[WallBanger What can you do with that?]]

* CrazyAwesome: Some of the cheat units are this, like George Crushington, the giant titan-bust thing that spits torches at buildings and attacks with comic book noises and flashes, or the ''Monster Truck'' you can use to flatten entire armies and colonies in seconds.

** George Edwardson, Nanib's superior in ''India''. After he convinces some rebels to stop fighting and go home, Edwardson ambushes them and then happily praises Nanib for sending them into his trap. His callous disregard for the Indian people makes it clear from the beginning that he's a bad guy.

* GameBreaker: The Sioux Rifle Rider.

* MoralEventHorizon: In ''Shadow'', [[spoiler:Chayton was tracking down Crazy Horse in an attempt to negotiate peace between the Sioux and the settlers. Holme trails him and attempts to assassinate Crazy Horse, completely wrecking any chance for peace between the settlers and the Sioux, so he could take the gold from the Sioux]].

* ScrappyLevel[=/=]ScrappyMechanic: Most players avoid naval-oriented maps altogether due to {{Arbitrary Headcount Limit}}s on each ship type and the incredible strain watching a naval battle puts on most low-to-middle-end computers.
** The latest patch fixes the performance issues with naval units, but the mortar/monitor/rocket shell explosions will still put a strain on low-end [=PCs=].
** "Ambushed!" in ''Shadow''. This is a long, rough, labyrinthine map crammed full of War Huts stationed around the cliffsides. What's worse, you need 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 you get treated to [[spoiler: Holme screwing up the entire plan, thus making the whole trip pointless.]]

** Good luck trying to find a catholic cathedral resembling St. Paul's in ''Amsterdam''.

** Also, Ieyasu Tokugawa
* MoralEventHorizon: In ''Shadows'', [[spoiler:Chayton was tracking down Crazy Horse in an attempt to negotiate peace between the Sioux and the settlers. Holme trails him and attempts to assassinate Crazy Horse, completely wrecking any chance for peace between the settlers and the Sioux, so he could take the gold from the Sioux]].

** The latest patch fixes the performance issues with naval units, but the mortar/monitor/rocket shell explosions will still put a strain in low-end [=PCs=].
** "Ambushed!" in the Warchiefs Campaign. This is a long, rough, labyrinthine map crammed full of Enemy War Huts stationed around the cliffsides. What's worse, you need 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 you get treated to [[spoiler: Holme screwing up the entire plan, thus making the trip pointless]]

** Good luck trying to find a *Catholic* cathedral resembling St. Paul's in ''Amsterdam''.

* CharacterAlignment:
** Alain Magnan: LawfulGood [[spoiler:-> NeutralEvil]]
** Sven Kuechler: LawfulEvil