World's Edge, Forgotten Empires and Tantalus Media relaunched Age of Empires III on 15 October 2020 with 4K art, reworked multiplayer and two fresh civilisations, the Incas and the Swedes. The base game carries 16 civilisations and four paid packs take the roster to 22, adding the United States, Mexicans, Ethiopians, Hausa, Italians and Maltese. Steam sits at 84 percent positive across roughly 18,900 reviews, and a Baltic Powers pack is listed on the store as coming soon.
Starting Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is a strategy game built around Home City shipment decks and Five age advancement. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| British | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| French | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Ottomans | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Japanese | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Swedes | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with French. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Swedes as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Home City shipment decks
You assemble a deck of up to 25 cards before the match, and experience earned from fighting, gathering and building pays for shipments. A Colonial card like 3 Settlers lands instantly at your Town Center, which is why deck order decides more games than unit micro does.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Home City shipment decks works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Great Plains
Wide open North American grassland with heavy bison herds and very little forest, crossed by a Trade Route. Nothing blocks a cavalry charge here, so raids land far more often than on wooded maps.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Skirmisher: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Light ranged infantry with longer range than Musketeers and a damage bonus against heavy infantry. It tears through Musketeer blocks and evaporates the moment cavalry reaches it.
Step 4: Understand Five age advancement
Matches run through Discovery, Colonial, Fortress, Industrial and Imperial. Every advance makes you choose a Politician, and that choice hands over a one off bonus such as extra Settlers, a resource crate or free military units.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Deccan
A large flat Asian map with generous resources spread across it, which is why it turns up constantly in Treaty games where both sides need forty minutes of uninterrupted income before anyone fires a shot.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Home City shipment decks
You assemble a deck of up to 25 cards before the match, and experience earned from fighting, gathering and building pays for shipments. A Colonial card like 3 Settlers lands instantly at your Town Center, which is why deck order decides more games than unit micro does.
Five age advancement
Matches run through Discovery, Colonial, Fortress, Industrial and Imperial. Every advance makes you choose a Politician, and that choice hands over a one off bonus such as extra Settlers, a resource crate or free military units.
Treasures and Explorer scouting
Treasure crates sit around the map behind Guardian animals or bandits, and only your Explorer or a hero unit can claim them. A 100 coin crate taken at the two minute mark is worth far more than the same coin mined by hand later.
Trade Routes and native alliances
Trading Posts built on a Trade Route produce a steady drip of experience or resources every time a convoy passes. Posts built at native settlements unlock that tribe's warriors and technologies, giving you units your own civilisation cannot train.
Civilisation specific economies
Economies are not interchangeable between civilisations. British Manor Houses arrive with a free Settler attached, Ottoman Town Centers train Settlers on their own without you queueing them, and Swedish Torps pull from nearby trees, mines and hunts with nobody standing there.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Leaving Settlers on food when you already have 400 banked and no plan to spend it, instead of moving them to the wood or coin your next shipment requires
2. Building a single deck and reusing it for every civilisation, which wastes card slots on shipments your current civilisation cannot benefit from
3. Massing one unit type
A pile of Musketeers with nothing else in it loses to half its number of Skirmishers backed by a single Falconet.
4. Ignoring the Trade Route for the first ten minutes and then wondering why the opponent has two more shipments than you do
5. Walling in on an open map like Great Plains
Walls cost wood you need for Manor Houses or Torps and they do not stop a Hussar raid on an outer gold mine.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Home City shipment decks and Five age advancement
- Choose French as starting build
- Clear Great Plains main content
- Acquire Skirmisher or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Deccan
- Deck construction beats micro at every level below expert. Build one deck per civilisation with a clear plan: economy cards for a boom, unit shipments for a rush, and never carry cards for an age you do not intend to reach.
- Your Explorer should be moving from the first second of the match. Treasures near your base pay for the first Settler batch, and the Explorer can pull Guardian animals away from a crate and circle back to claim it without dying.
Tips for New Players
- Deck construction beats micro at every level below expert. Build one deck per civilisation with a clear plan: economy cards for a boom, unit shipments for a rush, and never carry cards for an age you do not intend to reach.
- Your Explorer should be moving from the first second of the match. Treasures near your base pay for the first Settler batch, and the Explorer can pull Guardian animals away from a crate and circle back to claim it without dying.
- Town Center idle time is the single biggest gap between a 1200 rated player and a 1600 rated one. Bind the Town Center to a hotkey and check it every time you finish an action, not every time you remember.
- Age up with the Politician that matches your plan rather than the one with the biggest number. A Politician that ships Settlers is worth more in a boom than one that ships soldiers you will not use for four minutes.
- Trading Posts pay back their wood in about three convoys, so build them the moment you can spare 100 wood rather than saving for military. Experience from the Trade Route is what funds your Fortress age shipments.
- Falconets die to anything that touches them. Keep two Musketeers per cannon inside the cannon's own footprint, and pull artillery back the instant enemy cavalry appears on the minimap rather than after they arrive.
- Native settlements are not decoration. Allying with one gives you units and technologies your civilisation cannot access, and some native technologies improve your villagers rather than the native warriors.
- Read the counter triangle before you mass units: Musketeers beat cavalry in melee, cavalry beats ranged infantry, ranged infantry beats Musketeers, and artillery beats everything that stands still. A pure army of any one type loses to a mixed one.
- Treaty games run on a completely different clock. On maps like Deccan you have forty minutes to build economy and walls, so the early aggression instincts from 1v1 supremacy are actively harmful.
- The Definitive Edition ships historical battles and the original three campaigns, Blood, Ice and Steel, so there is a long single player run before you touch the ladder. Play the Act I campaign first if you want the mechanics introduced in order.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many civilisations does Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition have?
The base game ships 16, including the Incas and Swedes added by the remaster. Four paid packs take that to 22: United States, Mexicans, Ethiopians and Hausa from The African Royals, and Italians and Maltese from Knights of the Mediterranean.
Which civilisation should a new player start with?
British. Manor Houses hand you a free Settler on completion, so the economy grows even when your build order is sloppy, and Longbowmen and Musketeers cover most situations without needing unique unit knowledge.
What is the Home City and why does it matter?
It is your deck of up to 25 shipment cards. Experience earned during the match unlocks shipments of resources, Settlers, units and upgrades, and a well ordered deck delivers a boost at exactly the moment the game turns.
What is a Treaty game?
A game mode with a no attack timer, usually forty minutes, during which both sides build economy and defences. Maps with heavy resources such as Deccan are the standard picks, and the whole opening game plan is different from supremacy.
Is the Definitive Edition still getting updates?
Yes. Content has arrived steadily since 2020 across four civilisation packs, and the Steam store currently lists a further pack, The Baltic Powers, as coming soon.
More Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Guides
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Overview
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Best Builds
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Tier List
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Walkthrough
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Tips & Tricks
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Weapons Guide
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Combat Guide
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Boss Guide
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Maps & Locations
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Crafting Guide
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Classes & Characters
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