Broadly speaking, Age of Empires III doesn’t differ much from other real-time strategy games of the same era. Left click to select units, right click to move or attack, mini map and command buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Home town
The main novelty introduced in Age of Empires III are hometowns. These are off-map locations from which the player can request a limited number of supplies and reinforcements. Cities of origin are persistent across all games. Players can spend experience points on cosmetic upgrades or unlock new and better expeditions to send to their colonies.
It’s an interesting mechanic that creates a sense of continuity from one skirmish match or multiplayer match to another. However, its actual gameplay impact is minimal. Some offer substantial benefits. But most expeditions are things like a few hundred commodity units or an infantry squad. They’re nice to have, but not something I’d miss if they weren’t there anymore. This is an issue with the new feature that should set Age of Empires III apart from its predecessors.
Civilization
There are far fewer civilizations than in the previous game. However, more effort was made to make each one feel distinct. For example, Russia has a higher population limit than most other empires. Also, train infantry and cavalry in teams rather than individually. It focuses more on quantity than quality when it comes to individual units. Meanwhile, Spain has a wider range of gunpowder-free units. French workers are more expensive but gather resources faster and have higher attack and defense. For the most part, Ensemble did a great job. However, some empires, such as the Ottomans, suffer from over-specialization to the point of being difficult to interpret.
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