Rather than willy-nilly create new topics, I thought I'd try this promising thread to ask a few questions regarding creating a custom campaign in AOE3. Thus far, I've just played the Demo, so have not even opened the scenario editor in the full game to this point (I'm hoping my local Costco is stocked for an after-work game purchase run).
My questions are regarding creating a campaign in which the natives are either proponents or opponents. In AOK I had done a HRE campaign, and was hoping that AOE3 would be conducive to a Euro-centric campaign. However, in looking at the buildings and "home city" concept, it appears that this wouldn't work terribly well. So I've thought about either an American campaign (fighting off those pesky colonizing Europeans, tackling barbary pirates (Ottoman stands in), and especially the Indian wars (after seeing all of those wonderful native units). Is the latter possible, i.e., a standalone "Native" opponent? Or is PC going too far, and the natives can't be set up as opponents without a proxy Euro power behind them?
My other idea is even more outlandish - as I like the look of the native units even more than the Euro units, is it possible to have an "indian" culture as your own, such that you are the Comanches or Aztecs in a scenario? I'm fairly sure this can be done with a "fixed force" scenario (although do you still have to pick a proxy Euro culture and home city? - that would destroy the effect), but can it be done with the ability to create new units? Your "settlers" may be a bit problematic, as would the buildings other than eye candy buildings ...
Just a thought, hopefully someone who has the game or was involved in testing would have some idea. I have a bad feeling I know the answer already though.