WMG / Age of Empires III

The original plan was three historical campaigns

Campaign 1: Learn to set up a colony with the Knights of Saint John. Campaign 2: Learn to fight with forts, cannons and musket lines in the Seven Years' War. Campaign 3: Learn all the other industrial stuff you didn't get in previous Age games with a campaign revolving about Manifest Destiny / American expansion. But then someone said, "you know, there aren't that many years between 1651, 1756 and 1846. What if we move the dates a bit, make them more vague, and we tell the events through the eyes of three-to-five generations of the same family? And also add Ottomans, Pirates, Aztecs, the Fountain of Youth, Russians, Bolivar, Incas and a conspiracy to Take Over the World?"

Predictions of the Historical Battles

In Gamescom 2020, it was announced that there will be historical battles that covers the Age of Empires 3 time period (from circa 1400 to the late 1800s). Considering that the original campaigns already covered the American Revolution, the French and Indian Wars, the Indian Rebellion, the hypothetical theory of Chinese explorers reaching the Americas, Sengoku Period, the American Wild West, and the early exploration of North America, here are some reasonable predictions on which time periods the battles will take place:

• The Napoleonic Wars
• The American Civil War
• The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and the Incan Empire (considering Age of Empires 2 puts into the perspective of the Aztecs, Age of Empires 3 will be reversed where it will be placed into the perspective of the Spanish instead)
• Christopher Columbus's discovery of America
• The Opium Wars
• The Meiji Restoration.
• The Great Siege of Malta.
• The Great siege of Gibraltar.
• Either of the two sieges of Vienna.
• The Siege of Cartagena de Indias.
• The Imjin War.
• The Spanish Armada.
• The Battle of Poltava.
• The Tatar-Ottoman attack on Moscow.
• The Russian conquest of Siberia or the Qing-Russian border clashes in the Russian Far East.
• The Battle of Plassey.
• The Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
• The Battle of Pavia.
• The Battle of Lepanto.
• The siege of Antwerp/Ostend/Breda.
• The Dutch invasion of Brazil.
• The British conquest of New Amsterdam.
• The British invasions of Argentina.
• The Ottoman conquest of Tunis or the defense of Algiers from Charles V (the latter could also feature an aging Hernan Cortes, if he was featured in a battle of the conquest of Mexico)
  • Almost: The second historical battle confirmed is the preceding conquest of Algiers by the Barbarossa brothers.
  • The historical battles are Algiers 1516 as the Barbary Pirates (an Ottoman Revolution), Ethiopia 1542 as the Portuguese, Chuvash Cape 1582 as the Russians, Santo Domingo 1586 as the British (English?), Fort Duquesne 1754 as the French, and New Orleans 1815 (likely as the Americans).

The developers will plan to implement nearly every aspects of the Napoleonic Era mod into Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

There is a popular fan mod called Napoleonic Era that was developed by modders. Considering one of the original directors of the mod, Alexander Fleger, was eventually hired by Forgotten Empires (where the developers themselves were once modders for Age of Empires II). Unlike Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the developers will be more open to adding new civilizations after the initial release of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (mainly because Age of Empires II is the most popular Age of Empires installment, and the fact that subsequent expansions for Age of Empires II were already saturated with 35 civilizations as opposed to 16 for Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition). Not to mention, the civilizations in Age of Empires III are unique enough to open room for more civilizations to add and the developers want to make the Napoleonic Era mod a reality as an official expansion (seeing that the Swedes and Incas are the official civilizations in the game).

• Largely confirmed for the Swedes at this point, who have all the unique units they had in NE (Carolean, Drabant, Hackapell, and Leather Cannon), plus the unique building Torp (though it's purely economic in DE rather than mixed economic/military like in NE). The DE also has maps set in the Old World (though only as campaigns for the time being) and non-American revolutions (Finland, Barbary States, Indonesia), like NE.

The Aztecs, Iroquois, Sioux, and Incas in the remade first campaign will be represented by their full civilizations, instead of minor natives as in the original

In fact, the minor natives version of the four and their original units won't exist at all in the Definitive Edition, not even in the Editor.

• Somewhat confirmed, the developers confirmed that a Lakota cultural consultant rewrote the Act II: Shadow storyline from the War Chiefs campaign to be more respectful to the Lakota culture (for example, Crazy Horse in the storyline will be replaced with a new character, Uncle Warbonnet, a Lakota chief; to establish Chayton having a more personal connection with the Lakota people).
  • This troper misunderstands what the original WMG is talking about. The original WMG post is talking about the fact that the appearances of the the minor native civs (Lakota, Haudenosaunee, Aztec, and Inca) in the campaigns will be replaced by the major civs of the same name, with the possibility they do not appear at all the in DE.
    
    As for those points, Zig-zagged for the base point, Jossed for the additional possiblity. Some of the campaigns still retain the default Native American and minor civilizations for use in the scenario, but with the notably exceptions of the native defenders in Respect being changed to Lakota and more notably, the Last City of the Inca Native American defenders upgrading to the Inca major civilization. Also, all code and units from the minor civilizations are retained, with the Inca minor civ even receiving a rebranding to the Quechua.

Related to the above, the player's civilization will change in some of the scenarios to the allied civilization, instead of being Knights of Malta/Black Family all along

Instead of building a TP to ally with the Aztecs and fight the Spanish with Aztec units, the player will take over an Aztec town and play with the Aztec civilization. Same later on with the Spanish, Iroquois, Sioux, French, and Inca civilizations. As almost none of these civs will get one of the Historical Battles, this will at least mean that they are playable in campaign mode some other way.

The Editor will allow users to change a civilization's flag while remaining the same civilization

And this feature will be used in the campaigns and Historical Battles. For example, having Francis Drake (confirmed to appear) flying the English flag instead of an anachronistic British flag.

The minor Inca will be replaced by a minor native providing only one unit

And the unit will throw bolas, because it is the more distinctive of the two. Thus there will be no more native settlements that provide two different warrior units, echoing The WarChiefs when they changed the minor Iroquois (Tomahawk and Mantlet) to Huron (only Mantlet); Lakota (Axe Rider and Dog Soldier) to Cheyenne (Cheyenne Rider); and Aztec (Jaguar Warrior and Eagle Warrior) to Zapotec (Lightning Warrior).

• Jossed: the civilization was renamed to Quechua (along with all references to the Incans replaced with Quechuan)

Some maps in The Asian Dynasties were altered to avoid being Banned in China

Himalayas - Upper was originally Tibet, Indochina was Huanan/South China, Borneo was Formosa/Taiwan.

For the Africa-themed expansion

In the April 10, 2021 fan preview, there is an African expansion in the works. Possible major civilizations:

• Ethiopians (already touched upon in one of the historical battle scenarios, so they should be a shoo-in; also one of the civilizations Sandy Peterson wanted in)
  • Confirmed! They are one of two new civilizations introduced in the African Royals DLC, along with...
• Hausa
  • Confirmed! They are the other of two new civilizations introduced in the African Royals DLC, along with the aforementioned Ethiopians.
• Kongo (one of the civilizations Sandy Peterson wanted in)
• Songhai (one of the civilizations Sandy Peterson wanted in)
• Zulus

And possible minor civilizations (which may include any of the above):

• Ashantis
• Dahomeys (would provide Dahomey Amazon units that function similarly to AOE2's Malian Gbetos, which are inspired by the unit in question)
• Khoikhoi
• Shona
• Somalis (touched upon in one of the historical battle scenarios, but probably not as major as Ethiopia)
  • Confirmed.
• Swahili
• Tuaregs
  • Zigzagged; they are represented by the more general Berber minor civilization.

Germany will be split into Prussia and Austria

Considering that Mexico is a separate civ from Spain and America is a separate civ from Britain, it's no longer out of the question for Prussia to be a separate civ from the HRE. The current German faction will be renamed into Austria or the Habsburg Empire, while Prussia will be added as a new civ. Among many other things, Prussia will differ from Austria in that it has a musketeer unit, reflecting the famously disciplined Prussian line infantry. Also, rather than being an Age 5 upgrade for skirmishers, needle gunners will be an Age 5 upgrade for musketeers instead, granting them increased fire rates in addition to the normal stat increase.

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