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The first act of Age of Empires III's The WarChiefs Expansion Pack takes place some time after the defeat of the Circle of Ossus at the hands of John Black. It follows Nathaniel Black, John's son with Nonakhee, as he was raised by his mother and his uncle Kanyenke/Ká:nien. While originally learning how to deal with Iroquois/Haudenosaunee internal affairs, Nathaniel is eventually involved with the American Revolution, at the orders of General George Washington. All of this happens while the Hesse Mercenaries, led by Col. Sven Kuechler, tries to off Black and his family and the Revolutionaries.The campaign comprises the maps "War Dance"/"War Ceremony", "The Rescue", "Breed's Hill", "Crossing the Delaware", "Saratoga", "Valley Forge", "The Battle of Morristown" and "The Battle of Yorktown". Your Home City is the Black Family Estate, a shared Home City with Act II. The civilization features many changes from its original incarnation to its Definitive Edition incarnation. While in the original incarnation you could build Fire Pits and train Villagers at practically any stage, in Definitive Edition you could only build the Community Plaza in the early levels of Fire and the last levels of Shadow. And secondly, while the Home City shipments didn't change in the original incarnation (leading to the ability to send Iroquois units and technologies in the Sioux-based original version of Shadow), in Definitive Edition the Home City shipments change once Nathaniel sides with the Revolutionaries, with the native units becoming Revolutionary units (i.e. you can only send Colonial Militia and instead of Villagers you train Settlers).
Followed chronologically by Act III: Steel in the main game, and Act II: Shadow.
This campaign shows examples of:
- Anti-Grinding: Due to the amount of pressure you'll be in both "Hold the Line", "Saratoga" and "The Battle of Morristown", you don't get to grind a lot of XP.
- Baseless Mission:
- "The Rescue" doesn't allow you to train Villagers, so you must rescue prisoners in order to bolster your army.
- "Crossing the Delaware" has Nathaniel and Washington leading a small army of Revolutionaries, destroying Hesse's tents and lighting two fires before being able to get their own base.
- "Valley Forge" requires you to build 6 Huts and gather 3000 food as you protect your Militians before being able to build a base.
- Boring, but Practical: "Breed's Hill" in the original version (as the canoe becomes unavailable in the Definitive Edition version of the map). Cut lots of wood. Build tons of canoes. Surround the lakes with canoes. Witness as the mighty ships of the enemy are swarmed by thousands of canoes. Especially if, priorhand, you researched "Carronade"note and/or "River Raids"note .
- Bowdlerisation: "War Dance" in the original version of the campaign was renamed as "War Ceremony" for the Definitive Edition.
- Braving the Blizzard: The "Valley Forge" mission has the Revolutionary army settling on Valley Forge during the winter after suffering defeats on Brandywine and Germantown. Problem is, the area is under a hailstorm, and the initial Colonial Militia units (as well as Nathaniel and General Washington themselves) cannot stray far from the camp for too long or they die. That is, until they gather enough food and build enough huts to survive the winter. The worst of the winter subsides after that.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In "Saratoga", Nathaniel Black mentions advancing to the Fortress Age before being able to train Fort wagons.
- Chickification: In Ice, Nonahkee is an archer with healing abilities who accompanies John to the Great Lakes despite his opposition because "she does what she wants to". She also appears to be the leader of her tribe, at least while Kanyenke/Ká:nien is away. Here, she's a Neutral Female that Nathaniel and Kanyenke/Ká:nien must rescue her from the Hessians holding her prisoner. Nonakhee doesn't have a playable role in this campaign, unlike in Ice, where she was a support healer for a grand total of two missions.
- Composite Character: Sven Kuechler takes the place of several Hessian commanders in the American Revolutionary War, appearing in a commanding position in Trenton, Saratoga and Morristown.
- Easy Level Trick:
- In "Crossing the Delaware", instead of going straight to the objective, take your time to explore the map, free the prisoners you can free (forget about the savage Musketeers) including the one stranded Coureur des Bois. Use the CDB to gather all the resource crates located across the map. Build an army of Huron mantlets and stranded/captured prisoners, with the addition of the two artillery units. Go for the first mission. Cleanse the Hessian regiment before destroying the tents. When the British army is marching to the city, avoid them and reach the village. Start booming and amassing a big army. Steamroll your opponent and destroy their Capitol. The end.
- "Valley Forge" has a stranded Settler that can be rescued at the early stage of the game, you just need to take care of the wolves that surround them. Unlike your Colonial Militia and your Hero Units, this Settler isn't affected by the Geo Effects. Start gathering food from all available resources while your Colonial Militia builds the 6 tents. Use the 3000 food you previously gathered to complete the second phase. Start booming and building your base. Steamroll your opponent. The end.
- Edutainment Game: This campaign takes place during The American Revolution.
- Geo Effects: In "Valley Forge", the early stages require you to keep your units safe at almost all times, lest they fall because of the cold winter.
- Hold the Line: "Breed's Hill" requires you to defend a fort for 15 minutes.
- Hostile Weather: In "Valley Forge", the militians as well as Nathaniel and Washington need to revisit the fireplaces in order to recover HP. The militians also need to build houses to resist the winter. That is temporary, though, as once the houses are built the cold stops affecting the units.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: After being a pain in the ass for most of the campaign, Sven Kuechler bites the dust at the end of "The Battle of Morristown".
- Lensman Arms Race: "Saratoga" is a race between the Revolutionaries and the British, where the objective is to build three forts before the other faction does.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Nathaniel Black is one to historical American Revolutionary officer Nathanael Greene (wink), from Warwick, Rhode Island (wink, wink). He leaves his family and community due to their pro-neutrality stance, forms a militia, joins the revolutionaries in Boston, becomes Washington's right hand man, fights in the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia campaigns, and becomes a celebrated revolutionary hero, but dies young not long after the war.
- Not the Intended Use: In "Crossing the Delaware". The game expects you to play a hit and run game, dodging Hessian patrols and British towers while taking out the tents one by one. However, the patrols are made entirely of Grenadiers, who have a pitiful melee attack. If you have advanced formations activated, you can set your Colonial Militia to melee, bayonet the Grenadiers, and then take out all the tents at once while being (mostly) undisturbed. Furthermore, you can actually amass a small but powerful army if, instead of going straight to the objective, you take your time to carefully explore the map. You'll find several treasures, some of them granting units, a Native Village granting you Hurons, and even a stranded Coureur des Bois (the French version of the Settler) for resource recollection. And there's tons of resource boxes scattered across the map. You can even get a pair of artillery pieces provided you know how to play your cards. By the time the mission begins, you don't even need to play stealth, you can face directly Hesse's regiment and easily come on top before taking care of the tents. The British army, on the other hand...
- Protection Mission: In "The Battle of Morristown", the player must not let the Hessian mercenaries reach and destroy the capitol. To add a sense of urgency to the mission, the player's base is disconnected from the capitol, with their only path to it is obstructed by the Hessian base.
- Resource-Gathering Mission: "Valley Forge"'s second main mission has Nathaniel and Washington collect 3000 food units before they're able to build a base.
