Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs

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"The War Chiefs" redirects here. For other uses, see War chief (disambiguation).
Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
Mac OS X
ReleaseWindows:
macOS:
  • NA: June 13, 2007[2]
  • EU: June 25, 2007
Genre(s)Real-time strategy
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs is the first expansion pack for the

real-time strategy game Age of Empires III. It was released on October 17, 2006 in the United States.[1] The expansion pack was bundled with the full game of Age of Empires III, called Age of Empires III Gold Edition on October 23, 2007. The Mac version was ported over, developed and published by Destineer's MacSoft. The full game for Mac was released on June 12, 2007 in the United States. It was followed by a second expansion pack to the original game called Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
.

Gameplay changes

There are no major changes to the mechanics to Age of Empires III – players are still expected to gather resources, build armies and send them to attack opponents.[3] Instead, there are a number of new concepts introduced, whilst existing concepts have been expanded.

While the

Aztecs have a home city, the Iroquois and Sioux
have five members of the Tribal Council: the Chief, the War Leader, the Shaman, the Wise Woman, and the Messenger. They all offer different units, supports, and improvements. The tribal council is present in the game when a native civilization advances in age (replacing the politician system of the European civilizations); the player can select to promote a candidate to the Tribal Council and this confers a bonus on the player. The candidates offer higher bonuses at later ages. Typically the type of bonus remains the same (extra units, bonus resources) and new candidates become available at higher home city levels.

Other additions to the game include new minor native tribes: the expansion increases the original game's 12 tribes to 16. The

Navajo and the Mapuche
.

A Fire Pit is available to all Native civilizations. By tasking villagers to dance at the Pit, a range of up to ten dances per civilization are available.[4] The dances can be learned through Home City shipments are The Town Dance which improves building HP and attack, and the Water Dance which improves naval combat.

The Iroquois have the unique Founder Dance, which spawns new Travois, and the Earth Mother Dance, which increases maximum population. The Sioux have the Fire Dance, which increases unit damage to buildings and ships to mitigate their lack of siege weapons, and the War Song Dance, which produces free Dog Soldier cavalry. The Aztecs have the Healing Dance (all idle units automatically regenerate health) to compensate for the limit on Warrior Priests, and the Garland War Dance to spawn the free Skull Knights.

Additionally, each Native Civilization has its share of unique technologies. There is one unique technology per building except for the Sioux teepee, and the technologies' effects range from delivering shipments of resources or units to upgrading unit capabilities.

Revolutions

A sample revolution screen where the player (German civilization) decides whether to pick Simón Bolívar (Peru) or José de San Martín (Argentina), and their respective bonuses.

European colonies have a new option open to them in the Industrial age; instead of advancing to the Imperial age, they can revolt from the home nation and establish their own country. The initial cost of revolting is cheaper than advancing to the Imperial age, but the nation's economy will stagnate because all settlers will turn into militia and no new ones can be built (except Coureur des Bois from a Cree Village). Resources can continue to be delivered from pre-constructed ships, tributed resources, trading posts, factories and for the Dutch, banks. A new nation may not upgrade units to the Imperial Age.

Stealth

Another new feature is the use of stealth. This enables certain units to remain undetected by most enemy units and buildings. All native civilizations have a unit that can use stealth (this cannot be activated when enemy units are nearby). For the Europeans, there are spies that can be sent from the home city or recruited from the church. Spies are particularly effective against explorers and war chiefs due to their bonus attack. They all share the stealth ability, as do other miscellaneous units (ninja, native scouts, etc.). When certain enemy soldiers are near the invisible unit, the unit will be revealed and vulnerable to attack. Stealth units also become visible when they attack.

Plot

The campaign, which is 15 missions long, includes the Black family in a more historical setting. The first act, Fire, follows Nathaniel Black (John Black's son and Amelia Black's father) as he spends the family's entire fortune supporting the

Great Sioux War
(1876–1877). The home city for both acts is the Black Family Estate.

Act 1: Fire

Nathaniel Black (loosely based on

King's Mountain. As the tide begins to turn, the French join the war and help the revolutionaries gain a victory at Yorktown
, where Nathaniel is instrumental in capturing several redoubts. With the Revolution won, Nathaniel returns home a poor man, having spent his family fortune on the war effort, but is memorialized as a hero after his death in 1812. During the epilogue video of the campaign, the "Old Coot" (secretly Morgan Black) from Acts 1 and 3 in the original campaign can be seen watching his great-grandson's victory at Yorktown.

Act 2: Shadow

In 1866, Chayton Black, Amelia Black's half-

Little Bighorn. After the battle, Amelia Black narrates that she never saw her son again, but she has heard that Chayton was either killed at Wounded Knee
in 1890, taking a dozen cavalrymen with him, or lived out his days in the Black Hills with his wife and children.

In Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, Chayton's story is significantly revised, with he and Holme having fought alongside each other in the Civil War. Chayton's Sioux ancestry is also more focused on, his Lakota uncle "Frank" Warbonnet replaces both Amelia and Crazy Horse's roles, and all Native American enemies are replaced with outlaws.

Other versions

The WarChiefs expansion pack was bundled with Age of Empires III Complete Collection, featuring the full game of Age of Empires III, The WarChiefs, and the second released expansion The Asian Dynasties, released on September 15, 2009, in the United States.

Age of Empires III, The WarChiefs and The Asian Dynasties have been ported to Mac OS X by MacSoft.

Reception

The WarChiefs was a runner-up for Computer Games Magazine's 2006 "Expansion of the Year" award, which ultimately went to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade.[11] During the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, The WarChiefs received a nomination for "Computer Game of the Year", which was ultimately awarded to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Age of Empires III: The WarChiers". IGN. Archived from the original on January 13, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  2. ^ PREPARE FOR BATTLE! - MACSOFT'S “AGE OF EMPIRES III: THE WARCHIEFS” EXPANSION SHIPS TO STORES!
  3. ^ "Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs, Civilization Features". IGN. June 6, 2006. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  4. ^ "Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs – The Aztecs". IGN. August 9, 2006. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  5. ^ "Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs Critic Reviews for PC". Metacritic. October 17, 2006. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  6. ^ Chick, Tom (October 17, 2006). "AoE III: Warchiefs Review for PC". 1UP. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  7. ^ Butts, Steve (October 17, 2006). "Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs Review". IGN. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  8. CBS Interactive. Archived
    from the original on March 22, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  9. ^ Allen 'Delsyn' Rausch (October 20, 2006). "GameSpy: Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs – Page 1". GameSpy. Archived from the original on October 24, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  10. ^ Meer, Alec (November 9, 2006). "Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs Review – PC". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on December 31, 2008. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  11. ^ Staff (March 2007). "The Best (and Worst) of 2006; The 16th Annual Computer Games Awards". Computer Games Magazine (195): 46–51.
  12. ^ "2007 Awards Category Details Computer Game of the Year". interactive.org. Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 6 November 2023.

External links

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