General FAQ
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties is the second expansion to the award-winning Age of Empires III™ Real-Time Strategy game. The newest expansion adds three new Asian civilizations, and includes new campaigns and gameplay content. Also added are new gameplay modes and features, including an exciting new features such as ‘Relic Victory’ and ‘King of the Hill’.
Q. When will the expansion pack be released?
A. The Asian Dynasties will be released this Autumn. Most likely around October 23rd.
Q. What are the main new features in the expansion pack?
A. There will be three new playable Asian civilizations, new content for the existing civilizations and new gameplay modes. There will be a ‘Relic’ mode in which whichever teams collects all the relics, a countdown to victory will begin, and there will be a new campaign featuring the three new civs.
Q. How many new civilizations are there going to be? Which ones are they?
A. There will be three playable Asian civilizations; the Chinese, the Japanese and the Indians.
Q. Will I need to have The WarChiefs as well if I want to play The Asian Dynasties?
A. No! The Asian Dynasties can be played if you only have Age of Empires 3! However, you will not be able to access The WarChiefs features and civilizations without it. You will still be able to play people with The WarChiefs and The Asian Dynasties.
Q. Will there be new maps to play on?
A. Yes; this game will stray from the New World and focus on maps from Asia. So far a ‘Silk Road’ map has been announced that will feature a long trading route containing many Trading Posts that players will have to capture or control from guardians as opposed to building on. Other maps include Himalayas, Ceylon, Mongolia, Yellow River, Deccan, Honshu and Indochina.
Q. What new units or buildings have been announced?
A. A complete new unit and building set is prepared for each of the new civs. The most anticipated unit is the elephant; it has been confirmed that there will be 6 different kinds of elephants! Also, the Consulate building will let the Asian civs ally with Europeans civs to gain certain benefits.
Q. Do the new Asian civilizations start with Explorer units or Warchiefs?
A. Neither! Each Asian civilization will begin the game with a Monk unit – Japan and India will begin with two. Monks will be able to stun treasure guardians and have powerful martial arts attacks. India will have a monk mounted on an elephant that will be able to heal allied units.
Q. What about new home city cards?
A. There will be a whole new group of cards. The largest difference is villager cards the civs can send. Japan will have a 2 villager card that they will be able to send twice and that China will be able to send special Migration cards which has each Town Center and Chinese House spawn a villager. It is also known that India will have no villager cards, instead most of their cards ship one villager with it.
Q. Will there be new minor native civilizations that I will be able to ally with?
A. Yes! Announced so far are Sufi, Shaolin and Jesuit civilizations.