Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so in all these pages all spoilers are unmarked. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
"After the Revolutionary War, Americans pushed westward into the wilderness. It was a time of great change and technical progress - the dawn of the Industrial Age - and nothing would ever be the same."
— Amelia Black
The third act of the base game of Age of Empires III, Steel, takes place several decades after John Black's decimation of the combined Russian Empire and Circle of Ossus' army and Nathaniel Black's role in George Washington's campaign for the Independence. Nathaniel, now a recognized patriot among the colonies, depleted the fortune of his family helping the Revolutionary army. So it's now the turn of Nathaniel's daughter, Amelia Black, also the narrator of both the base game and the campaigns of The WarChiefs, to rebuild the Falcon Company from scratch. She's offered a deal by a shady fur trader, Pierre Beaumont, who helped her in the defense of the Fort from the Mexican army. However, while inspecting the mine she's been offered, an old acquaintance from her past appears: Kanyenke/Ká:nien! Turns out Beaumont is the latest leader of the Circle of Ossus and his intention was to murder Amelia and get the water of the Fountain of Youth for himself.
The levels that comprise the campaign are "Race for the Rails", "Hold the Fort", "The Boneguard's Lair", "The Lost Spanish Gold", "Bolivar's Revolt", "Journey Through the Andes", "Last City of the Inca" and "Last Stand of the Boneguard".
Followed chronologically by Act II: Shadow of The WarChiefs.
This campaign shows examples of:
- Anachronism Stew: The beginning of the campaign is set five years after Nathaniel's death, firmly backdated to 1817 by Fire stating that he died in 1812. However, Amelia is in charge of a railroad company that is building railways for the US government in what appears to be Texas, with plans to expand all over the West Coast, and at one point they have to defend a fort from the Mexican Army (which is played by Spanish fielding swordsmen and armored lancers and still waving the colonial Cross of Burgundy flag, unlike how Amelia's company flies the American flag despite being based on the British faction). Mexico became independent in 1821, the first locomotive in the US arrived in 1830, Texas joined the Union in 1846, the US took the West Coast in 1849, and no railroads were built west of the Mississippi before 1850. Amelia's railroad builders also threw dynamite.
- Anyone Can Die: Major Cooper and Pierre Beaumont eat the dust halfway and at the very end of the campaign.
- Baseless Mission: "The Boneguard's Lair" and "Journey Through the Andes" are classic examples, as you can't train new units in either map and have to find stranded units (or, in the case of "The Boneguard's Lair", send them stranded resource wagons) in order to build up your army.
- Beast of Battle: Beaumont kills Cooper by siccing a pair of wolves on him.
- The Beast Master: Beaumont can order his white wolves to attack. This ends badly for Cooper.
- Braving the Blizzard: In the mission "Journey Through The Andes", after Amelia and Kanyenke/Ká:nien helped Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish army, Bolivar helps Amelia by lending some soldiers to her. In the next level, they have to cross the Andes mountains until they reach Pacamayo. Problem is, there's a hailstorm on the area, and if they stay too much time on the cold, they start losing hitpoints and eventually die.
- The Constant: The Moon shape of the lake remains when Amelia visits it 250 years later, but now it's been drained and became a muddy swamp. The giant fixed gun is still in the same spot and can be made operative again.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the campaign, Amelia finally defeats the Circle of Ossus for good and gets the money to empower her company. As revealed in Shadow, she later lived in a loving marriage with a Sioux man.
- Geo Effects: The cold in "Journey Through the Andes" depletes your units' HP.
- Hidden Elf Village: Pacasmayo, the last city of the Inca.
- Hold the Line: The mission "Hold the Fort" requires you to withstand attacks from two flanks on a fort you're defending for 15 minutes. This requires you to keep spawning units and protect the Organ Guns.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Amelia accepts a job offer from Beaumont, who has been a complete creep since they met, and also to go alone in a dark mine in Colorado with him.
- Hostile Weather: In "Journey Through the Andes", after Amelia and Kanyenke/Ká:nien help Bolívar against the Spanish, Bolívar tells them to be careful in the mountains while sending them some guides to Pacasmayo. The stage consists in arriving to Pacamayo before the Circle does, but there is too much cold, so Amelia, Kanyenke/Ká:nien and company must take refuge in fireplaces.
- Immortality Seeker: The Circle of Ossus is devoted to finding the Fountain of Youth, whose water is said to give eternal life to those who drink it. This plot was revisited in this campaign. Morgan has found that the "Immortality" granted by the Fountain of Youth is no myth, as we find out in the closing cutscene of III.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Not only Beaumont bites the dust, the Circle is finally brought down for good after three generations tormenting the Blacks.
- Mayincatec: Aztecs appear as a Native Village in Venezuela in "Bolívar's Revolt", and Aztec Jaguar and Eagle Warriors are part of the Inca army in "Last City of the Inca."
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Ryan Cooper is a blonde, mustached American cavalry commander in the Old West and the scene of his death is titled "Cooper's Stand."
- Old Soldier: Kanyenke/Ká:nien accompanies Amelia in her own adventure even though he must be over 85. His bow shooting and axe hitting remain unaffected.
- President Evil: Beaumont, Amelia's employer, is eventually revealed to be the newest leader of the Circle of Ossus.
- Private Military Contractors: Several Home City cards ship different mercenary unit compositions:
- "Hire Holy Roman Army" ships 7 Jaeger, 5 Black Rider and 4 Landsknecht at the cost of 2000 coin from Fortress Age onwards (requires Home City level 10).
- "Hire Highland Mercenary Army" ships 6 Highlanders, 8 Swiss Pikemen and 4 Hackapelit at the cost of 2000 coin from Fortress Age onwards (requires Home City level 10).
- Settling the Frontier: Discussed in the early levels of the campaign between Amelia and Cooper.
- Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: The Fixed Gun in "The Lost Spanish Gold" is controlled by the faction with the highest amount of units around it.
- The Stinger: It shows Amelia speaking with an old man about the Falcon Company getting their part of the share, even though they weren't the first. Then the old man mentions that she broke the Circle, and in one lifetime. The old man is Morgan, who drunk from the water of the Fountain of Youth becoming a very old man.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The weapon caches located around the Ossary can be blown up, causing a lot of damage.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Simón Bolívar is the leader of a national army that teams opportunistically with the Falcon Company, and he is a powerful infantry unit with a pistol for ranged attacks and a sabre for hand to hand combat. He appears in the scenario following the last appearance of Cooper, who is basically the same in a different skin.
- Temporary Party Member to Villain: In the second level, we meet Pierre Beaumont, a french skin trader who makes an offer to Amelia Black about some mines with gold after a Hold the Line mission where he assists as an ally; he needed her men so he can extract the gold from said mine. However it turns out the mine was a lie, and Beaumont was actually the newest member of the reformed Circle of Ossus, and she would have fell to a trap weren't it for her uncle Kanyenke/Ká:nien. Amelia, with the help of her uncle and other allies such as Major Cooper and Simón Bolívar, tracked down Beaumont until they reached the Circle's base at the Florida. There, Amelia's forces fought against the Circle, with Beaumont dying via Boom, Headshot! in the final cutscene.
- Wham Line: Right in The Stinger.Morgan: You broke the Circle... and in just one lifetime, too.
