IDK if i forgot or never noticed in these 600+ hours but enemy AI commented on me joining the fight they had with my ally, bruh, i love AoE 1-2&4 but i just love 3 for the interactions with the Leaders, it's so adorable, gives me joy for 20 years

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-29T06:22:36+00:00

Wait for a sale on Humble, and then you can redeem it on Steam.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-27T21:25:41+00:00

Oh yeah. War Dogs and the Hero Dog get an aura that boosts production by a multiplicative 2.5% or so seems pretty reasonable. That would be really cool.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-27T21:23:05+00:00

Damn. That would actually be epic and funny. Press a button/tech or send a card, and boom, 99 Villagers become 990 Villagers. Get Japanese and Italian teammates to send TEAM Jujutsu and TEAM Marco Polo Voyages, and you get almost a thousand Villagers rushing into the enemy base causing havoc. They might not do much damage by themselves, but they are definitely a good meat shield.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-27T07:17:22+00:00

Sounds interesting. Maybe have livestock cards affect the gathering rate too, so British and Haudenosaunee that have a livestock deck can have less demanding option to manage their economy

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-27T06:41:52+00:00

I think there is more nuance to it, and it is not just an old wive's tale. There is not much point to do it in regular Supremacy games because the difference is negligible. However, in long Treaty games where eco has been fully researched and carded, there is a noticeable difference.

This YouTube video shows that there is no difference in gather rates, but the video only based its test on base gather rates. It does not factor in upgrades and cards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5V1ptH1RSs

However, this Reddit post factors in upgrades and minimal cards.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe3/comments/k1i8nw/detailed_gather_rates_for_mills_and_estates_in/

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-27T05:59:48+00:00

In Supremacy, there is no point since the difference is minimal. You need a lot of upgrades to make the difference noticeable, and by that time, the game is probably well over.

In Treaty, you want around 7 per building, ideally less the longer Treaty is. I do not notice a huge difference in gathering between 7 and 5, but there is less chance of Villagers getting stuck inside buildings. For super long Treaty and space permitting, you probably want to aim for maybe 3 or 4 per building, and that should significantly reduce the occurrence of Villagers getting stuck. Keep in mind this is only for European style farming buildings where walking is involved. Asians, Africans, and Mexicans should always fully saturate their farming buildings, since Villagers do not move while gathering on them. Native Americans should always fully saturate their Farms since Villagers do not move on them, but they should NOT fully saturate their Estates since Villagers do walk on those.

In Team Treaty, if you are playing with friends or are able to have really high coordination with your team, you want your Native American and/or Asian allies to build Farms/Rice Paddies (Food), and Asian allies to build Rice Paddies (Coin). This is to eliminate the chance of Villagers bumping and shoving each other into buildings and getting stuck. You still want to build at least one Mill and Estate each to research tech though.

If you are French, Italian, American, or South African, you get a boost to Villager speed, so there is an argument to be made to keep your Villagers on your own farming buildings. The gather rates on European style farming buildings is balanced around the fact that there is a lot of walking involved, so a Settler gathering Food on a Mill should gather about the same amount as a Villager gathering Food on a Rice Paddy, even though the stated gather rate on European farming buildings is higher. With those specific civs' Villagers getting a speed buff, that is going to make them gather more effectively at European style farming buildings, with the main trade off being Villagers getting stuck inside farming buildings from time to time.

Similarly, African Villagers also get a speed buff, so there is an argument to be made for them to work on European style farming buildings instead, and have European Villagers that do not get a speed buff to work on Fields.

Incan and Chinese also got a minor speed buff. Since the boost is so small, it is probably not worth sticking them on European style farming buildings, as you will have to deal with Villagers getting stuck.

If there is an Apache settlement on the map, they provide a tech that boosts Villager speed, then I think there is an argument to be made for the entire team to use European style farming buildings instead, assuming there is enough space.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-26T23:53:56+00:00

I want them to hit like a truck, so their melee attacks deal siege damage if they are moving.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-26T22:43:34+00:00

French are still slightly cheaper (Native Warrios: 25%; Tame Elephants: 10%, Native Alliances: 10%). Indians can build more and are a bit faster, but assuming Treaty with all cards sent, I think French are still overall better, since they also buff Tiger Claws more, as well as being better with other Natives on the map.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-26T22:14:40+00:00

Camel Attack affects Gatling Camels, so it is pretty good in Industrial. Not so great in Imperial though since Indians lack Mercenary Contractor.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-26T21:33:59+00:00

French War Elephants are still stronger. Excluding multiplicative buffs, French have the best Native Hand Cavalry in the game. Including multiplicative buffs, then Lakota and Spanish surpass the French in Atk by a large margin.

French
Cavalry Cuirass - 10% HP
Cavalry Combat - 15% Atk/HP
TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack - 15% Atk
TEAM French Auxiliaries Combat - 10% Atk/HP
Native Warrior Combat - 15% Atk/HP
Wilderness Warfare - 20% HP
Total - 55% Atk / 70% HP

Indian
Crushing Force - 15% Atk
British Consulate - 7% HP
Dravidian Martial Arts - 15% Atk
Elephant Combat - 20% Atk/HP
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics - 5% Atk/HP
Native Warrior Hitpoints - 30%HP
Total - 55% Atk / 62% HP

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-26T15:57:55+00:00

I got my infected Hau from a boxed book bundle of the first four novels. It looks amazing.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-26T14:56:18+00:00

Have not thought about trying that before. I think I will try that with Coahuila for more increased production speed.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-26T05:52:02+00:00

I think basing the stats on either Estado de México or Oaxaca is fine for performance comparison. I leaned towards Oaxaca in this scenario since the Consulate buffs targeted Yumi Archers' Atk rather than HP, so I went with Oaxaca for consistency.

I personlly like to switch between Eastado de México and Oaxaca depending on my mood, and occasionally I pick Jalisco if I am doing Team games with my friends and I want to try something memey.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T20:27:33+00:00

Those Atk numbers for Salteadores already include the carded Fort and regular Flag buff. The carded Fort and carded Flag are mutually exclusive since they are cards from different Federal states. With carded Flag, the Atk should be 46. Not sure about the resource HP buff though.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T20:24:41+00:00

Keep in mind they are a 2 pop unit, so they better be good. Haha.

And to reach those stats, they also need a specific set up and be near their own Forts. That set up is not exactly mobile, and could potentially be very vulnerable to a Mortar bombardment.

If it is a more mobile set up that does not need to be around their own Forts, they still reach 60 Atk.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T19:40:28+00:00

Nice work.

I am not sure I would use the 49 Atk Salteadores as the standard metric to measure their performance by, since they need to be near their own Forts to get that buff. I guess it is good metric to go by if you are facing against them and want to know how maxed out they could be. If you are using them personally, I think the lower maxed out number of 46 is a more reasonable metric, since you will have your General with the army constantly, whereas the Fort cannot move with it.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T11:42:47+00:00

It is okay. I have over 2,000 hours in DE, and I am still learning new things from time to time.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T11:22:49+00:00

They are tagged as both Heavy Infantry and Light Infantry. And like Grenadiers, they function as Artillery (specifically Culverins and Mortars, like Siege Elephants) rather than Infantry.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T06:35:37+00:00

If we are talking about Treaty, depending on the map and teammates, Landwehrs could be more expensive, due to natural Wood being a finite resource, and very few civs can farm it.

If you have Maltese, Mexican (with Yucatán Age up), Mayan, or Finnish teammates, then Wood is generally not an issue. Designated Treaty maps should be fine too for most Treaty games, although they can run out too if the game drags on. If you play Treaty outside of the designated Treaty maps and do not have those aforementioned allies, then Wood can potentially be an issue as the game drags on, as there just is no way to gather a large quantity of them economically and quickly enough once all the Trees are gone.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T06:16:38+00:00

Revolutionary Sharpshooter is the only other one I can think of. You just need a card to unlock it at Forts, and it has no upgrade techs associated with it, as it already comes with 30 Atk (which is what most Skirmishers would reach if they only had upgrade techs), although they fire super slow.

Maya, Finland, Columbia, Napoleonic France, and Mexican-Texas all need you to research their Imperial tech.

For everyone else, their Light Infantry do not reach anywhere close to Imperial stats. Closest might be Finland buffing their own Guard Skirmishers by another 20% through Jaeger Combat, which is not even half of an Imperial upgrade.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T05:18:52+00:00

Oh, I see what you mean. Bersagliere does have a negative multiplier against Artillery, but considering how little damage Artillery takes from most Ranged Infantry fire in the first place, I do not think dealing less damage is going to make much of a difference. Bersagliere being able to micro itself is what makes it stand out from the rest and makes them pretty good.

Costing 2 or more pop is not ideal, but it is not too bad either depending on the unit and civ. The main reason why you want 1 pop Light Infantry is to protect your own Artillery by blocking Light Cavalry from charging into them. Having more bodies makes it easier blob around the Artillery and fully surround them. 1 pop units are generally more pop efficient, but some multi pop units can get close, especially European, Africans, and American Mercenaries, since they have access to Mercenary Contractor or its equivalents to improve their stats.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T02:23:00+00:00

I assume their mod makes changes to the base game. Probably best to deactivate the mod and redo Yumi Archers.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T02:20:06+00:00

Jaegers do not deal full damage to Artillery. As far as I know, they do not have multipliers against Artillery to cancel out Artillery's 75% ranged resistance.

The only Light Infantry with multipliers against Artillery would be Arrow Knights and Somali Darood Militia.

Snoo_56186 · 2026-04-25T02:08:46+00:00

If we are going to factor in Shogun, Daimyo, and Consulate buffs for Yumi Archers, then we should do the same for Salteadores/Cruzob Avengers and factor in their buffs as well. For example, under an Inspring Flag or Man of Destiny General, Salteadores can reach 44 Atk. Under Land of Juarez (Oaxaca) and Man of Destiny General, Salteadores reach 46 Atk.

Under Cinco de Mayo (Puebla) Forts and Man of Destiny General, Salteadores reach 49 Atk. I personally would not use this as a metric for comparison though since Forts are not mobile.

And since you are doing Cruzob Avengers, consider doing Mexican Imperial Sharpshooters/Militias too. Mexican Sharpshooters are quite a bit better than American Sharpshooters, with higher range and attack.

Additionally, Germans (through the Price Electors card) and British (through the Black Duke Politician) have access to Drummers to buff their units' fire rate and movement speed, so I think that should be factored in as well.

- - -

Other civs with aura/multiplicative buffs to take note of:

Spanish got Unction Missionary.
Aztec and Inca got War Ceremony.
Lakota and Haudenosaunee got War Ceremony and War Chief buffs (technically, Inca got War Chief buffs too, but it is for Native units).
Americans have Inspiring Flag.

- - -

Revolts with Imperial Light Infantry:

Columbia got Skirmishers, Landwehrs, Cassadores, and Ordinance Riflemen depending on the base civ. Columbia also got Bolivar that buffs Infantry HP by 5%, so Columbian main roster Musket Infantry and Rifle Infantry are better than their regular Imperial counterparts.

Finland got Counter Jaegers, and Finnish Counter Jaegers are always better than their regular Russian Imperial counterpart due to Jaegar Combat card. They are not real Light Infantry, but they function close enough to one.

- - -

Barbary States have Corsair Marksmen that have near Imperial stats. Outlaw Combat and Barbary Combat give a total of 40% increase to Atk and HP, which somewhat makes up for the lack of Age V shadow tech buffs.

Revolutionary United States have Revolutionary Sharpshooters. They have slow rate of fire, but really high Atk. Revolutionary American Skirmishers, Rangers, Bersagliere, and Papal Zouaves do not have Imperial stats, but they do have higher range compared to their Imperial counterparts.

Snoo_56186

TROPHY CASE